What the Bible Says About the End-Time-Jon Paulien

AS SPECULATION BUILDS, LET'S KEEP OUR EYES FOCUSED ON

il REVIEW AND HERALD® PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION HAGERSTOWN,

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Copyright© 1994 by Review and Herald® Publishing Association The author assumes full responsibility for the accuracy of all facts and quotations as cited in this book. Unless otherwise noted, Bible texts in this book are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. Texts credited to KJV are from the King James Version. Texts credited to NKJV are from The New King James Version. Copyright© 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers. Texts credited to REB are from The Revised English Bible. Copyright © Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press, 1989. Reprinted by permission. This book was Edited by Richard W. Coffen Cover art by Helcio Deslandes Typeset: 10I12 Clearface PRINTED IN U.S.A.

99 98 97 96 95 94

54321

R&H Cataloging Service Paulien, Jon, 1949What the Bible says about the end-time. 1. End of the world. 2. Eschatology. 3. Second Advent. I. Title.

ISBN 0-8280-0843-4

DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this book to my parents, Kurt and Gertrude Paulien, who raised me in the fervent expectation of the Blessed Hope of ·Christ's return. May they live to see Him come.

Acknowledgments As is always the case, a book like this one does not arise out of a vacuum. Through the years many individuals have influenced my thinking about the end and deserve acknowledgment, beyond the acknowledgments that appear in the endnotes of each chapter. Although he receives little explicit mention in this book, no one has done more to shape my understanding of the biblical view of the end than my beloved teacher, Hans LaRondelle. His enthusiasm for the Word of God and the beauty of the patterns he has detected there will always stimulate me to further learning. Although he has now retired from the seminary, he is not forgotten. A number of concepts in this book have been sharpened by vigorous discussion with my dear friend and teaching colleague (now at Union College) Roger Lucas, whose deep study of Jewish Apocalyptic and the New Testament will soon bear much fruit for the church. Many individuals took time to read a draft of the book manuscript and provide candid observations that immensely strengthened the final product. These include Al Coley, Susan Cunic, Ed Dickerson, Jacques Doukhan, George Knight, Randy Neall, and Harold Sheffield. Harold Sheffield, in particular, distinguished himself in the quantity and weight of his observations on the book. A special word of thanks also needs to go to Susan Cunic, who transcribed a number of sermons onto computer, thereby lightening greatly the burden of producing the book. And finally, a word of thanks to Penny Estes Wheeler of the Review and Herald Publishing Association, who suggested the basic outline of this book, and to Richard Coffen, also of the Review, who resisted the editorial temptation to overmanage the text, and instead touched it only to make it better. I thank God for all of you.

Contents Introduction Part One

How to Lose Your Mind

11 17

Chapter 1

The "When" of the End

19

Chapter 2

Decoding the Future

31

Part Two

The Old Testament, Early Judaism, and the End

Chapter 3

The Long Ago and the End

Chapter 4

The Old Testament Prophets and the End

Chapter 5 Part Three

The End Between the Testaments The New Testament and the End

41 43 55 65 73

Chapter 6

The End Is at Hand

75

Chapter 7

The Purpose of Prophecy

85

Chapter 8

Paul and the End

. 95

The Apocalypse and the End

103

Part Four Chapter 9

Introduction to Revelation 12 to 22

Chapter 10

Things Are Not Always What They Seem

105 109

Chapter 11

The Issue in the Final Crisis

121

Chapter 12

The Last Battle of Earth's History

131

Chapter 13

The End and Today's World

139

Conclusion

151

Introduction WARNING: THINKING ABOUT THE END OF THE WORLD CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH Dateline: February 28, 1993 Place: Waco, Texas ''War broke out today between agents of the federal government of the United States of America and a heavily armed religious cult, followers of a man whose interpretation of the Bible leads him to think that he is Christ and that the end of the world is at hand. The cult leader, who calls himself David Koresh, believes that he is the lamb of the seven seals of Revelation. According to him, the book of Revelation teaches that he alone has the power to 'open the seals,' thereby unleashing the catastrophic events that will bring the whole world to an end. And nearly 100 adults seem willing to stake their lives on his interpretations." Such news accounts startled people around the world in early 1993. The standoff with federal agents at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco eventually ended in a fiery apocalypse. The Waco tragedy underlined the accuracy of the title of this introduction, which, ironically, I wrote just a few days before: Thinking about the end of the world can be hazardous to your health! And the hazards multiply when people who think about the end do so in a group setting where twisted methods of biblical interpretation give nearly limitless authority to a fallible human being. In light of the above, it might seem the wisest course of action to ignore both the Bible and its teachings about the end of the world. But in actual fact, more and more people today are thinking about the end, without any encouragement from biblical study. 1 And if the Bible, rightly understood, contains true information about the end, it is as hazardous to ignore its teachings as it is to distort them the way Koresh did. I believe that the Bible, rightly understood, can teach us how to think about the end of the world without losing our minds. As we approach the year 2000,

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT THE END-TIME 12 there will probably be many more people like the late David Koresh, but a correct understanding of the. biblical teachings can help others avoid being sucked into the cultic web of misinterpretation.

Some Unhealthy Options Adventists and other Christians today hold three main attitudes toward the end. Although these attitudes are widespread, none of them are spiritually healthy. People who would prefer not to hear sermons or read books about the end express the first of these attitudes. Some are sickened by events like those that happened in Waco. Others are simply tired of the seemingly endless wait for the end. I remember the head elder of a New York City church I pastored nearly 20 years ago. He was three times my age and had been the lay leader of the church for more than 25 years. One day he said to me, "Sonny boy [I always hated it when he called me "sonny boy"], I never thought that I would grow old." After 50 years of anticipation, he was getting tired of waiting. You see, living under the conviction that the end is at hand is like running a 100-yard dash. Running full tilt is no problem if there's an immediate end to the dash! But if the dash you're running turns out to be a marathon, you're in big trouble! Similarly, Christians who have derived energy from a constant anticipation of the end eventually grow weary. They don't want to hear about the end anymore. The excitement is gone. They are burned out on the end. This holds true even for pastors. In reaction to the obvious signs of end-time burnout in the church, a second group of Christians tries to whip up fresh excitement based on the timing of the end. Calculations of just when the end will come can be arrived at through a creative use of the biblical material, a focus on natural disasters and other calamities, or computations through logarithms based on the pyramids! Whether or not the reasoning is sound, it is virtually impossible to refute predictions about the future. And the predictors can point to the great spiritual interest that such prognostications arouse. The problem is that when the latest attempt to date the end passes, the spiritual burnout is even worse than before. The third type of attitude focuses on th~ issue of who might be to blame for the delay in Christ's return to the earth. Blame may be placed on "mixed-up" young people and "theological liberals" who delay the Advent by not living appropriately in the end-time. Fingers are pointed at people who don't keep the Sabbath properly or who have a different view of Christ's human nature or who bring contemporary music into the church worship service. The reason that the

INTRODUCTION

13 end has not yet come is because "apostasy" pervades the churches. Whereas the date-setters seek to excite people back to a fervent expectation of the end, the blame-throwers seek to scold them back.

The Approach of This Book There is a healthier way to think about the end. It is the way taught in Scripture, particularly in the New Testament. I believe that the New Testament

view of the end provides the antidote not only to lack of interest but also to false excitement and blame-throwing. When we fully grasp the New Testament view of the end, we'll find the way to anticipate the Advent without burning out, to run the marathon without collapsing in despair. The task of this book is to clarify the

teachings of the Bible in such a way that people in the secular nineties can think about the end of the world without losing their minds. Because of the size of this book, it is subject to a number of serious limitations. I have really not tried to canvass the multitude of nonbiblical [not unbiblical] writings on the end, including the works of Ellen White, who has influenced millions with her pertinent observations. Those interested in Ellen White's view of the end would enjoy Crisis of the End Time, by Marvin Moore. Although I refer in this present book to significant events in our recent past, it does not contain an exhaustive outline of the relationship between current events and the testimony of Scripture. An interesting recent perspective on the current political, religious, and economic scene is, however, offered in Dwight Nelson's book Countdown to the Showdown. My purpose in this book is to highlight the text of the Bible rather than comment on the conflicting swirl of current events. A firm foundation in what the Bible says about the end can help us think about the end of the world without losing our minds. Ellen White also encourages us to give more attention to the Word and less to current events and finger-pointing. "Be guarded. In bearing the message, make no personal thrusts at other churches, not even the Roman Catholic Church. Angels of God see in the different denominations many who can be reached only by the greatest caution. Therefore let us be careful of our words. Let not our ministers follow their own impulses in denouncing and exposing the 'mysteries of iniquity.' Upon these themes silence is eloquence. Many are deceived. Speak the truth in tones and words of love. Let Christ Jesus be exalted. Keep to the affirmative of truth. Never leave the straight path God has marked out, for the purpose of giving someone a thrust. That thrust may do much harm and no good. It may quench conviction in many minds. Let

the Word of God, which is the truth, tell the story of the inconsistency of those

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT THE END-TIME

14

in error" (Evangelism, p. 576; italics supplied). "There is need of a much closer study of the Word of God; especially should Daniel and the Revelation have attention as never before in the history of our work. We may have less to say in some lines, in regard to the Roman power and

the papacy; but we should call attention to what the prophets and apostles have written under the inspiration · of the Holy Spirit of God" (Testimonies for Ministers, p. 112; italics supplied). As a biblical study, however, this book is also subject to space limitations. Much, much more could be said regarding the Adventist understanding of the Bible and the end. At the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary I have the privilege of teaching at least four classes that relate directly to the biblical view of the end. This book covers only about 20 percent of that material, so my observations on many other features of the end must await later publication. This present book has a specific threefold focus. First, there is a focus on the big picture of the biblical view of the end, thereby trying to avoid getting bogged down in details that might distract from the heart of the scriptural text. What is included here is intended as a primer that will give the reader a basic biblical foundation in the subject. Second, there is a special focus on the impact that the scriptural texts had on readers at each stage of the production of the Bible. This approach clarifies many "problem texts" and sheds fresh light on how to think about the end today. Third, the direct focus of this book is on the end, the very last events of this earth's history. As a result, it says relatively little about many parts of Scripture that would normally be examined in a study of biblical eschatology (what the Bible says about the end). The time prophecies of Daniel and the first half of Revelation, for example, focus on the broad sweep of human history leading up to the end more than they do on the end itself. 2 Although the Old Testament and Jewish apocalyptic views of the end are described in some detail in this book, special attention is given to the New Testament, which presents the end in relation to · Jesus Christ. It is the author's prayer that this book will give readers confidence to face the future without fear. That kind of copfidence can be based only on a living relationship with Him who is in control of the future. The joyous reality is that the One who controls the future has also shared with us in the Bible everything we need to know about the future.

INTRODUCTION

15 1

See chapter 2. Many Christians and some Seventh-day Adventists interpret the seals and the trumpets as dealing entirely with end-time events. I do not share that view. lnter~sted readers can find many of my reasons in chapters 10 and 11 of Symposium on Revelation, Book 1. 2

Part One How to Lose Your Mind

CHAPTER 1

The "When" of the End

I

'LL NEVER forget the first time that I was told when the world would come to an end. It was back in the 1950s, and I was around 8 or 9 years old. Someone reminded me of the Bible text: "As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be when the Son of Man comes" (Matt. 24:37, REB). Since the church I belonged to taught that the year 1844 ushered in the end-time, it was suggested that if the end-time was as long as the days of Noah (who preached for 120 years), Jesus would come in 1964, and history as we know it would come to an end. How could I argue the point? The date 1964 was based on a logical analogy and a Bible text. It seemed reasonable. So I made plans to start getting ready for Christ's return ... sometime around 1962! Well, 1962 came and went, and 1964 came and went, and I wasn't sure what to make of it all. Around the year 1967 I first heard the story of some young people who stopped for a hitchhiker, letting him into the back seat of their car. As they were driving along the hitchhiker said, "Boy, you guys are really fooled. Jesus is coming sooner than any of you think." According to the story, when the young people turned to look, the hitchhiker was gone. The usual conclusion of those who spread such stories was that the hitchhiker must have been an angel from heaven, warning believers on earth that the end was at hand. I have heard the story several times since, usually updated in terms of the details. Frankly, in 1967 I wouldn't have dreamed that Jesus was going to wait 10 more years. But 25 years have gone by. Was Jesus coming sooner than I had thought? No. The angel, whoever it was, and the hitchhiker, whoever he was, were wrong. Or was it just a pious fiction? 1 Whatever, I feel confident that Jesus' second coming and the end of the world will not be hastened by spreading rumors, even angelic rumors. Economic and political crises in the world have often sparked interest in the end. The Wall Street Journal, for example, is a healthy source of news and information. The trouble is, if you talk to 12 economists about where the stock

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT THE END-TIME 20 market is heading, you're going to get 13 opinions! And if a preacher wants you to believe that the great end-time crash is at hand, it isn't hard for him or her to quote the Wall Street Journal for support. I remember a man who came in 1982 to the community where I live and preached from the Wall Street Journal. He packed the major church in town to the rafters. He made it very clear from the Journal and from many other sources that a great economic crash was going to take place around March 1983, likely leading to the final events of earth's history. Ironically, March of 1983 was the beginning not of a crash, but of an economic boom that lasted the rest of the decade. Five years later I received a letter in which the writer asserted that President Reagan was the antichrist because he had six letters in each of his three names: Ronald Wilson Reagan. Unfortunately for this theory, the "antichrist" has now ridd"en off into the sunset of retirement. Just three years ago some fine and sincere Seventh-day Adventists with whom I am personally acquainted came to the conclusion from their study of the Bible that the government of the United States would pass a national Sunday law in March of 1991. To my knowledge, nothing of the sort happened. Even in Rome you can find people trying to figure out when the world will end. In a cathedral there called St. Paul Outside the Walls, there are canvas circles all around the upper level of the church, with paintings of various popes going all the way back to a fellow named Peter. Twenty-five years ago I counted 15 empty spots. The guide who was taking us on a tour of the church pointed to those and said, "We believe that when we have had 15 more popes, the Lord will come." I thought that was interesting until I went to St. Peter's Cathedral. Near the altar at St. Peter's was a big marble stone with all the names of the popes chiseled on it, and there was space for about six more names. You guessed it. The guide said, "We believe that when this entire stone is filled with the names of popes, the Lord is going to come."

The Lesson of Adventist History As a Seventh-day Adventist I must confess that many of my fellow believers have had a long fascination with calculating.when Jesus will come. With the help of my good friend at the seminary, Dr. C. Mervyn Maxwell, I've gathered evidence for more than 20 attempts in Adventist history to set dates for the Second Coming. Of course, the first such attempt involved the day of atonement in 1844. No Jesus came! Our pioneers wept and wept until October 23 dawned. One of those pioneers, Joseph Bates, did a lot of thinking when October 22, 1844, came and went. And he thought, Perhaps the day of atonement is really the

THE "WHEN" OF THE END

21 year of atonement. If so, then Jesus would come on the day of atonement in 1845. This was certainly very logical from Bates's perspective. It even seemed to be based on biblical grounds. If I had l)een there in 1844, I'm pretty sure I would have found it convincing. In fact, at that time there was a young woman named Ellen Harmon, who also found it convincing until she had a vision in which the Lord informed her that He wasn't coming in 1845. The seven last plagues hadn't begun to fall. She then repudiated the date 1845, and to my knowledge she never again set or supported any date for the Second Advent. That didn't stop Joseph Bates, though. It occurred to him that when the high priest went into the Most Holy Place on the day of atonement, he sprinkled the blood seven times before the ark. Bates suspected that the expression "seven times" was meant to represent seven years. If so, the Lord would come on the day of atonement in 1851! It made a lot of sense. It seemed to be based on Scripture and biblical calculations. Nevertheless, sometime before the passing of the date, when Ellen White and Joseph Bates met on a railway platform, she quietly warned him that no good would come from his attempts to calculate the end. And to his credit, he never again set a time for Christ's return. Early Seventh-day Adventists thought of themselves as modern Israel making their way through the wilderness of this earth into the heavenly Promised Land. It was natural that some might suggest that the 40 years of Israel's wandering in the desert would be duplicated spiritually in their experience. Thus attention focused on the year 1884. Again it appeared logical and biblical. But in 1884 Ellen White's book The Great Controversy came out. In that book she wrote that the reason the Lord has delayed His coming is that the people didn't adequately take hold of the message. Now, if the delay in the Lord's coming was on account of the people's behavior, how much good was there in the calculation that Christ would come in 1884? Or in any calculation up to that time? So even though the 1884 calculation was apparently based on the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy, it was worthless. In the years after 1888 there was a great revival of the gospel among Seventh-day Adventists. This revival came at the same time that a senator named Blair introduced into the legislative process of the United States a bill that would establish a national Sunday law. The existence of a major revival combined with the specter of a national Sunday law convinced many Adventists that the end was at hand. But in September of 1891, Ellen White responded to this development. "We are not to live upon time excitement. ... No one will be able to predict just when that time will come .... You will not be able to say that He will come in

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT THE END-TIME 22

one, two, or five years, neither are you to put off His coming by stating that it may not be for ten or twenty years" (Selected Messages, book 1, p. 189; italics supplied). Notice the balance in this statement. No one will be able to say it's right here-just two or three years away. But neither should anyone put off the Lord's coming to another generation. Expectation is appropriate and necessary, but there should be no fixation on a specific period of time. Around that time an esteemed minister developed elaborate calculations which led him to believe that Jesus was coming in 1894. Ellen White commented on his proposal. "He had a chart ... and reasoned from the Scriptures to show that the Lord would come at a certain date, in 1894, I think. To many, his reasoning seemed to be without a flaw" (ibid., book 2, p. 113). Quite often end-time calculations seem to be without a flaw. The reasoning is so coherent that it must be right. And before the time passes, it is virtually impossible to demonstrate that it cannot be. But Ellen White continued: "The word of the Lord to me was, 'This is not truth, but will lead into strange paths, and some will become confused over this representation, and will give up the faith'" (ibid.). Given the miserable track record of date-setting, it is reasonable to ask why anyone would be tempted to calculate the nearness of the Advent. Why? Because it is a very effective way to get people moving. If you were to believe that Jesus will come next Tuesday, would it change the way you live today? Of course it would! But what would happen when Tuesday passed? According to Ellen White, two things happen - people become confused and they become cynical (ibid.). They begin to say, "I guess you can prove anything you want from the Bible. Maybe everything that we believe is false." Confusion and cynicism are a heavy price to pay for a small period of excitement and revival. When the excitement is over, people are in a worse condition than they were before. World War I came around. In 1918 the Turks and the British fought a battle in the valley of Megiddo. And many, including some fine evangelists, preached that this battle must be related to the battle of Armageddon. The Lord was about to come. But as the battle of Megiddo passed and time went on, people began to wonder. And because Ellen White had died in 1915, there was no longer an authoritative voice to caution, "Let's not live upon time excitement." In 1928 a leading figure in the General Conference hinted during a Week of Prayer at Emmanuel Missionary College that the Lord would come in that year.

THE "WHEN" OF THE END - 23 Why? Because 40 years had passed since 1888! The times had changed, but the method had not. In the 1930s attention focused on the text: "This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled" (Matt. 24:34, KJV). There were reports that in Hunza and parts of Yugoslavia people were still living who had been alive during the meteor shower of 1833. Since these people were extremely old, some Adventists were thinking that time was about up. 2 Just before and during World War II the Japanese were seen by some Adventists as the "kings of the east" (Rev. 16:12), and their flag even had a rising sun on it. This led some Adventists to suspect that the battle of Armageddon was just around the corner. Shortly after the war, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (begun in 1945) pictured Big Ben on the cover of their journal. The little hand was on the 12 and the big hand was approaching midnight- "Minutes till Midnight." I remember as a child seeing that cover on all kinds of church literature. 3 Surely during the nuclear age time could not last long. But time did pass, and with the passing of the year 1964, no more calculations could be made based on the year 1844. But that didn't deter anyone from setting dates. If biblical time periods could no longer be invoked, other methods could be employed. One of the most popular alternatives has always been a focus on current events. In the late sixties the American space efforts were moving close to landing on the moon. Many Adventists believed that God would never allow sinners to land on the moon or any planet. Jesus would come to prevent their doing so. But Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, ... and still Jesus did not come. Another method of stirring up interest in the soon return of Chi ist is one that I call "charismatic." Stories are told of experiences that lead people to believe that the time is at hand. An excellent example is the hitchhiker story I shared earlier. The story reappears again and again in a variety of forms. Another method that is increasingly popular at the present time is one I call "recycling the clock." People are recycling the biblical prophecies. Taking the 1,260 days and the 2,300 days of Daniel and Revelation, they try to fit them into the present and/or the near future. Recalculating the prophetic clock provides a fresh basis for setting (or at least suggesting) dates all over again. A common form of this approach is related to the Old Testament year of jubilee. At one point it was suggested that the end-time (and antitypical) jubilee would occur in October of 1987. Recalculating the jubilee has led to further dates: 1991, 1994, 1996-1998. These stories have convinced me of one thing: setting dates for the Lord's coming is about as natural as breathing for people who long for His return. And

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT THE END-TIME 24 I doubt that the practice will stop anytime soon. Part of the problem is that it is a lot harder to refute a date (ahead of time, anyway) than it is to invent one. Setting dates gives interpreters of the Bible a certain power over the experts. But history has not been kind to date-setters. Perhaps someday someone will be right-and probably for the wrong reason. But history tells us that the process of date-setting is flawed. When a new scheme comes along, no matter how convincing, we must never forget that those who do not learn from the mistakes of the past are forced to repeat them. As a Seventh-day Adventist, however, I find two things about this history very encouraging. For one thing, it shows that Adventists care about Christ's coming. It matters to us how long we must wait. The second encouraging point is this: The

Seventh-day Adventist Church, as a corporate religious body, has never set or endorsed a date for the Second Coming. It is interesting that many of the people who are now setting dates feel that the General Conference is in apostasy. But on this particular issue, history shows us that the leadership of the church has always been on the right side, and the dissidents have always been on the wrong side.

The New Testament and Date-setting Well, so much for history. Does the Bible address the issue of the timing of the end? In Acts 1 we find the disciples approaching Jesus on that very issue: "So when they met together, they asked him, 'Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?' " (verse 6). They were asking Him, "Is this the time when the end-time kingdom is going to appear?" Notice how Jesus responded: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority" (verse 7). Who knows when Jesus is going to come? The Father knows. It's not for you and me to know "the times or dates." Why? Because it wouldn't be good for us to know. Do you remember that I anticipated that Jesus would come in 1964? I decided to start getting ready a little before 1964. Setting a date caused me to put off my preparation. It's not good for us to know. And if a date we have believed in comes and passes, it's not good for us to have believed in a false date either. It's easy to become confused and cynical about the whole matter of faith in God and in His Word. So Jesus says that the times and the seasons of His coming are best left under the control of His Father. ' Ellen White offers an interesting comment on Acts 1:7: "It [truth] will never develop in any line that will lead us to imagine that we may know the times and the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power. Again and again have I been warned in regard to time setting. There will never again be a message for the people of God that will be based on time. We are not to know the definite time

THE "WHEN" OF THE END 25 either for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit or for the coming of Christ" (Selected

Messages, book 1, p. 188; italics supplied). But that's hard to take, isn't it? We're such curious creatures, aren't we? We want so badly to know the future! Perhaps it is related to Eve's temptation to become like God, to know what only God is supposed to know. The story is told of a curious little girl who asked question after question after question. Finally her mother lost her patience and said to her, "Don't you know that curiosity killed the cat?" That stopped her right in her tracks ... for a few seconds! Than she said, "Mommy, what did the cat want to know?" Now, I don't know about you, but I'm just like that girl. I'm curious too. I would like to know when the Lord will come. But Jesus says it's not good for me to know. The temptation to calculate the future is so strong that it can overcome even the very best among God's people. A. G. Daniells, a future president of the General Conference, slipped on this point in the 1880s. "I understand that Brother [A. G.] Daniells has, as it were, set time, stating that the Lord will come within five years. Now I hope the impression will not go abroad that we are time-setters. Let no such remarks be made. They do no good. Seek not to obtain a revival upon any such grounds, but let due caution be used in every word uttered, that fanatical ones will not seize anything they can get to create an excitement and the Spirit of the Lord be grieved" (Ellen G. White, Last Day Events, pp. 34, 35). People who set dates are not necessarily bad people. While confronting the teaching, we need to be kind to the teacher (see 2 Tim. 2:24-26). Again and again, however, Ellen White was forced to confront situations in which people sought to make an issue of the timing of the end. She was consistent in her support of the biblical counsel. "I plainly stated at the Jackson camp meeting to these fanatical parties that they were doing the work of the adversary of souls; they were in darkness. They claimed to have great light that probation would close in October 1884. I there stated in public that the Lord had been pleased to show me that there would be no definite time in the message given of God since 1844" (ibid., pp. 35, 36). "There will always be false and fanatical movements made by persons in the church who claim to be led of God-those who will run before they are sent, and will give day and date for the occurrence of unfulfilled prophecy. The enemy is pleased to have them do this, for their successive failures and leading into false lines cause confusion and unbelief' (Selected Messages, book 2, p. 84; italics supplied).

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT THE END-TIME

26 "We are not to live upon time excitement. ... No one will be able to predict just when that time will come .... You will not be able to say that He will come in one, two, or five years, neither are you to put off His coming by stating that it may not be for ten or twenty years" (ibid., book l, p. 189; italics supplied). I believe that Ellen White's counsel emphasizes three things. First, live a balanced, consistent life. A life of date-setting and disappointment is like a roller-coaster ride. Roller coasters can be exciting, but they wear you out. Better is that steady, ongoing Christian experience that avoids the ups and downs of unnecessary excitement. Second, don't put the Lord's coming too soon. If you do that, you'll be disappointed. Third, at the same time, don't put it off too far. If you put off the Lord's coming to some other generation, you'll get spiritually lazy and lose your anticipation of His coming. These three points highlight the tension between occupying until He comes qnd anticipating that He will come soon. This is where we live. We want the Lord to come, we believe He's coming soon, yet we need to fill each day with the responsibilities that God has given to us. We dare not cast everything aside to chase after anyone's calculations, no matter how impressive. How can we maintain the balance between "occupying" and expectation? A text in one of Paul's letters points the way. It is found in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3, one of the letters sent by the apostle Paul to early Christian churches: "Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you" (verse 1). In using the phrase "times and dates" Paul recalls Jesus' words recorded in Acts 1:6, 7. Evidently people in the Thessalonian church were asking, "Paul, when is Jesus going to come?" But why does Paul say that he doesn't need to write to them about this? "Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night" (1 Thess. 5:1, 2). Paul warns the Thessalonian Christians not to be obsessed with the timing of Jesus' coming. His coming will be like a thief. The exact timing will be a total surprise. How did Paul know that? Because Jesus had said it already (see Matt. 24:43, 44). "The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, 'Peace and safety,' destruction. will come on them suddenly as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape" (1 Thess. 5:2, 3). Paul uses two things in life as analogies for the Second Coming. He likens it to the coming of a thief and to the onset-of contractions in a pregnant woman. Can any of you predict when a thief will break into your house? Of course not. But you don't have to know when the thief will come to be ready. I'm ready. I have an

THE "WHEN" OF THE END 27 aluminum baseball bat under my bed. It will bend, but it won't break. I'm ready for the thief! "But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness" (verses 4, 5). Paul says that although the time of Jesus' coming is a surprise, His people won't be surprised because they'll be ready for it. You don't know when Jesus is going to come, but you can be ready. You don't know when the thief will come, but you can be ready.

An Illustration From Life Paul's second illustration about the timing of the end has to do with pregnancy. A "due date" is a very general approximation of when a baby is going to arrive. At times due dates can even be based on false assumptions. For example, one woman visited her doctor and was informed that she was two months pregnant. The baby arrived 11 months later! (I think I know why!) And obviously the onset of contractions cannot be predicted with exact precision. You can know that the time for the baby to arrive is near, but you can't say exactly when the moment of arrival will come (see also Matt. 24:32-42). The good news is that you don't have to know when in order to be ready. I'll never forget when we had our first, baby! We went to those tiresome childbirth classes. I was walking around hospital parking lots with pillows under my arm. We lay on the floor panting and doing all kinds of seemingly useless things. It just didn't make a lot of sense to me. Five months of training for just a few hours of childbirth didn't seem to be worth the effort. Then the day came. It was like no day before or since, and I hope I never live another one like it. Things got to the place where this former quarterback of a high school football team had to leave the room and cry for a half hour, and no nurse could stop me. I just couldn't bear to see my wife suffer like that! And then came "transition." Transition is that period a half hour or so before the baby is actually born when the mother goes into a special condition. Transition is signaled by such things as swearing, a gravel-like voice, and a sense of insecurity during which she says, "I've decided not to have the baby today. Let's go home!" When transition came, my wife had me in a full nelson headlock for 45 minutes. I couldn't move and could barely breathe. When the whole experience was over, she said to me, "I'm never going to have another baby as long as I live." To which I replied, "If you have another one, you're having it by yourself." Well, we have three children now. Time passes, memories fade, and you think it would be nice to have another child. The next time, we took the classes a little

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT THE END-TIME

28 more seriously. We said, "We don't know when the baby is coming, but we're going to be ready this time." My wife was magnificent. She mastered what few people have done, I believe-the art of total relaxation, allowing the body to do its work without unnecessary wear and tear. I was busy studying the books. I was going to be ready this time too. I studied all the stages of labor so that I could recognize what was going on and help out. There are three basic stages of labor. In the first stage, a mother may crack jokes, even in the middle of a contraction. Things aren't serious yet; it will take a while. Then there's the stage when things get serious. No more jokes; no more fun; just hard work. The last stage before birth is transition, with all or most of the aforementioned consequences. With our third child, for example, it was about noon when my wife said, "I'm beginning to feel some contractions." But she was cracking jokes, so I knew that the situation wasn't serious quite yet. Labor was still in its first stage. Pam said, "I have an appointment with the doctor at 1:30, and after that we can go to the mall for a while." (The mall is 25 miles from the hospital!) She went to see the doctor and then told me, "Changed my mind. We're not going to the mall." And I noticed that things were beginning to get serious during the contractions. So I thought, Well, it'll be sometime between 5:00 and 10:00 tonight. We'd better get on with things. So we ate out locally and called the birthing instructor to get ready to join us at the hospital. We got to the hospital about 5:10 p.m. My wife was magnificent. Between contractions she was still cracking jokes, still having a great time. Why? Because she had mastered the art of working with the process; she was ready. And I was ready too. The only thing was that the people at the hospital were not accustomed to seeing a mother under control. They heard her cracking jokes and said, "Nothing's going to happen here until tomorrow morning sometime." They wouldn't let her into a birthing room! So I said, "Time to go for a hike." (Walking can speed up things a little.) We had to show them we were serious. By 7 p.m. they were finally convinced, and allowed us into the birthing apartment. My wife continued her fantastic performance! Contractions would come, and she'd just put up one finger and say, "Excuse me." Then she'd relax and work through the contraction with an occasional word of encouragement from me. The doctor was out in the hall with her feet up on the counter. She was twiddling her thumbs and thinking, I'm gonna be here all night with this one. At a quarter to nine I decided that I'd leave my perch next to my wife and get

THE "WHEN" OF THE END

29 something to drink. She grabbed my arm and with a pleading look said, "Don't go. I need you to stay right here with me!" This touch of insecurity caused me to raise my eyebrows to the birthing instructor, but she just shrugged her shoulders. Could my wife be in such control that this would be the only sign of transition? No swearing, no gravel-like voice, no headlocks? Just a touch of insecurity. I kept my thoughts to myself. A few minutes later my wife mentioned that during the previous contraction, she had felt as if the baby might be moving down. I asked if she wanted me to call the doctor. "Yes." At five minutes to 9:00, I went out to find the doctor. She was still sitting on a low stool and still had her feet up on the counter at the nurses' station. I said, "I think if you'll check my wife, you'll be interested in what you find." She entered the room and was stunned to see the baby crowning. (The stage in which the baby's head is visible for the first time.) My wife had been so relaxed that if I hadn't called the doctor, she would have had the baby without a doctor and without pushing! I don't know what button the doctor pushed, but about a dozen nurses appeared from out of nowhere. They were bearing all kinds of instruments, and at 8:58 p.m. Kimberly was born. What a wonderful experience (my wife says it was almost wonderful-when it was over)! We didn't need to know when the contractions were coming; we needed to be ready. Am I glad we were ready! This is the kind of message that Paul was trying to get across in 1 Thessalonians. We don't know just when Jesus is going to come. All the setting of dates is at best an approximation and at worst a spiritual nightmare. But the good news

is that you don't need to know just when Jesus is going to come to be ready for His coming. Those who desperately seek to calculate the end are not aids to Christian living. Indeed, they may even distract us from the central issue. Readiness does not depend on a knowledge of when Jesus is going to come. You can be ready today. If you're not sure that you're ready, you can tell the Lord right now in the quietness of your heart that you're willing to be made ready, no matter what the cost. The Lord will never refuse such a prayer as long as probation lasts. A student once approached a rabbi and asked, "When should I get right with God?" The rabbi answered, "The day before you die." The student responded, "But when am I going to die?" The rabbi replied, "No one knows. Therefore the Scriptures say, 'Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.'"

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT THE END-TIME 30

1 In 1981 Jan Brunvand's book The Vanishing Hitchhiker appeared in print. In it he discusses what he calls "urban legends," and among them is the story of a hitchhiker who proclaims that Jesus is returning soon and then disappears. Variations on this story (many without reference to Jesus' coming) can be traced all the way back to the late 1800s. Those with religious messages have been popular among Mormons. Researcher Lydia M. Fish of the State University College of New York at Buffalo has cataloged some 60 stories about a disappearing hitchhiker who announced an imminent Second Advent (pp. 24-40). 2 Additional investigations have seemed to indicate that these people were not nearly as old as originally claimed. ' 3 The setting on the clock has not always been the same but has been adjusted to reflect events in the political world. For example, in 1953 the time on the bulletin was 11:58. In 1990 it was reset to 11:50, but then on November 26, 1991, the editors of the bulletin portrayed a clock with the time set at 11:43.

CHAPTER 2

Decoding the Future

T

HE COVER of the November 23, 1992, issue of Newsweek depicted a cometlike fireball approaching the earth from outer space. It was accompanied by the caption "Doomsday Science: New Theories About Comets, Asteroids and How the World Might End." Around the same time, TV Guide reported that Ted Turner, owner of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., and the world-renowned CNN, has ordered a special videotape to be shown on his stations during the last moments of earth's history. It reportedly includes musical numbers such as "God Bless America" and "Stars and Stripes Forever" and concludes with "Nearer, My God, to Thee." TV Guide asserted that the tape is locked up in the executive offices of TBS along with handwritten instructions from Mr. Turner himself. These reports in major secular journals demonstrate that speculation about the end is no longer the exclusive domain of religious fanatics and the emotionally impaired- if it ever was. Discussions about the end of the world are increasingly prevalent in the mainline scientific and political communities of our day. Back in the 1970s the Club of Rome (a group of scientists) predicted that within 30 years civilization would collapse under the weight of increasing population and the lack of food. Since that time a multitude of survivalthreatening problems have come to our attention. In 1973-1974 and 1979 major energy shortages raised world consciousness of the fact that natural resources are limited. The "greenhouse effect" (the supposed warming of the earth as a result of the effects of pollution) would threaten to melt the polar ice caps and inundate coastal areas. The destruction of the world's last sizable rain forest in Brazil raises questions about the earth's ability to maintain the supply of oxygen in its atmosphere at levels necessary to sustain animal and human life. We now live in a "new world order" where people in Somalia or BosniaHerzegovina starve, not because of the shortage of food, but because the competing interests of rival "gangs" prevent its distribution to the starving. In addition to these threats, the potential of germ and chemical warfare, toxic waste

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT THE END-TIME

32 dumps, terrorism, such new diseases as AIDS, and the destruction of the earth's ozone layer have made everyone well aware of the frailty of human existence on this planet. Now science has forcefully brought to our attention a new threat to our existence, and it seems to be totally out of our control. The article that accompanied the Newsweek cover of November 23, 1992, described the recent realization within the scientific community that "space is filled with objects that threaten Earth." In actual fact, "on March 23, 1989, an asteroid a half mile across missed Earth by just 700,000 miles. No one saw it coming; if it had arrived a mere six hours later it might have wiped out civilization" (p. 56). The writer of the article joked ominously: "So much for friendly skies" (p. 58). How many asteroids big enough to destroy life on earth actually intersect earth's orbit? Somewhere between one and 4,000! And that number does not include an unknown number of comets that also intersect the orbit of our planet. The apocalyptic threat that has posed the most terror for modern civilization, however, is the awesome horror of nuclear war. During the 1980s nuclear apocalypse became a recurring theme in both the sciences and the arts. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, for example, has maintained a constant warning of the end with its famous "minutes to midnight" clock, recently scaled back considerably because of the decline and fall of the Soviet empire. Movies such as The Day After, Testament (based on the work of Review and Herald author the late Carol Amen), and The Road Warrior not only depicted the horror of nuclear destruction but also explored the nature of life thereafter, if such can be imagined. The philosophical trend that is sometimes called "post-apocalypticism" virtually considered nuclear destruction inevitable and sought to understand what kind of future humanity might have in the light of such an event. Since the failure of the 1991 coup attempt in the now-defunct Soviet Union, the perception of nuclear threat has receded somewhat from our consciousness. People in North America feel secure enough to turn their attention away from concerns about foreign policy and nuclear disarmament to a renewed focus on the economy and its implications for their personal futures. But such renewed confidence may be premature. The nuclear arsenals in the former Soviet Union remain largely intact, and the systems controlling them are increasingly unstable. The chances of Soviet weapons getting into terrorist hands or of some "uncontrollable" nation developing its own arsenal seem less a matter of "if' than of "when." "Mutually assured destruction" may be a thing of the past, but no place on earth is safe from the kind of threat posed by small-scale nuclear weapons in the "wrong" hands.

DECODING THE FUTURE 33 Readers of the Bible know that this generation is not the first to perceive that it could be the last. The difference is that this is the first generation that has perceived that the end could come iritlependent from the action of God. Somehow the idea that God could bring about the end allows for the possibility that He could save humanity as well. But the secular apocalypse faced by this generation could be the result of an accident of history, an asteroid from outer space, or even the random madness of a terrorist with a "Doomsday Machine." Thus contemporary society faces the end as potentially an "abyss of meaninglessness." As if all the preceding were not more than enough, the mystical specter of the year 2000 hangs over our times. Though the number itself is an accident of history, it has come to take on apocalyptic significance in popular thinking. It appears with increasing frequency in both popular and serious literature. As a result of all these harbingers of doom, there is no question that the biblical view of the end embodied in the book of Revelation and other biblical books will assume increasing importance as the year 2000 approaches.

Biblical Confusion The trouble is, if you ask a number of students of the Bible about its picture of the end, you'll get a wide variety of opinions. Those who pick up Bibles for the first time quickly discover that understanding in matters of the end is not for the superficial reader. Because of this difficulty, many bizarre interpretations of the Apocalypse and similar biblical books have abounded throughout the years. During the Middle Ages, for example, a number of groups in Western Europe, particularly in France, saw in the concept of the millennium a prediction that the end of the world would come around the year 1000. 1 Considerably more bizarre was the movement in 1534 which declared that the city of Munster, Germany, was the New Jerusalem, the future golden city of biblical fame. The proponents of this view sought to establish their earthly utopia by force of arms. Antichrist has been identified with various emperors and popes of the Middle Ages, Napoleon III of France, Hitler, Mussolini, and, as mentioned in the previous chapter, even former President Reagan. Armageddon has been associated with World Wars I and II as well as the infamous but hypothetical World War III. Babylon the Great has been identified with the Common Market, the Roman Catholic Church, and Communism. The mark of the beast has been associated with the new bar coding system used in supermarkets and with credit cards utilizing the number 666. Jehovah's Witnesses were widely encouraged to believe WTBSATE-2

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT THE END-TIME 34 that the end would come in the year 1975. But such speculations are not limited to the fringes of Christianity. The best-selling author of the 1970s was not Truman Capote. Nor was it Gore Vidal. Nor even Isaac Asimov. According to the New York Times, it was Hal Lindsey, a conservative Christian student of the Bible. His book The Late Great Planet Earth sold more than 15 million copies in the United States alone. Based on his study of the Apocalypse and other biblical books, Lindsey's best-seller suggested that the world would come to an end by the year 1988 (within 40 years of the founding of the state of Israel; see page 43 of Lindsey's book). Lindsey's views affected millions, and in some circles they still do. 2 There seems, therefore, to be no end to the creativity that human beings are able to apply to the Bible's picture of the end. But what does Scripture really say about the end? How can we know when we are on the right track toward finding out? The biggest problem, it. seems to me, is that students of the Bible often start out with the following assumptions: (a) since there seems to be evidence that we are approaching the end of the world and (b) since the Bible talks about the end, therefore (c) the Bible speaks directly to our current situation. Such Bible students then look for parallels between biblical expressions and current situations. Such an approach inevitably leads to the kind of speculations about the end that I described in chapter 1.

Clearing Up the Confusion

The safest course is to understand the Bible's view of the end on its own terms, rather than expecting direct answers to the kinds of questions that only people in our day could have asked. Our Bible is the product of God speaking to people in another time and place. As we see what the end actually looked like through the eyes of those who wrote these things under God's guidance, there is just a chance that we might begin to understand the timeless perspective on the end that only God could have. Years of biblical study in the original languages have convinced me that God always speaks to people in terms appropriate to their own time, place, and circumstances. There is no way that a residen.t of ancient Babylon or Egypt could possibly relate to a vision of tanks, planes, helicopters, and computers. The Bible teaches that God knows the end from the beginning (Isa. 46:9, 10), but in the

passages in which God reveals His knowledge about the end, there is no evidence that He ever bypasses the culture, literary style, or ways of thinking of those to whom He reveals Himself. It is true that the biblical writers did not always understand God's revelations

DECODING THE FUTURE

35 to them. This is particularly true in the case of Daniel (Dan. 8:26, 27; 12:13). Where biblical discussions of the future are concerned, those who witness the fulfillment may understand the meaning of certain texts more fully than did those who wrote them (Dan. 12:4). But this reality must never blind the reader to the fact that the content of biblical revelations about the end always comes dressed in language appropriate to the writer's time, place, culture, and circumstances. God meets people where they are. Let me give you an example from the biblical book of Daniel itself. In Daniel 2 the king of Babylon has a frightful dream about a statue made of several different materials, most of them metallic. The statue is eventually destroyed by a stone that grows into a great mountain. The story describes how the king, Nebuchadnezzar, totally forgot his dream but was so agitated about it that he demanded that his advisers not only interpret the dream but also tell him what he had dreamed! In walked Daniel, the Hebrew prophet. Daniel not only told the king what he had dreamed, but he also explained that God chose, by means of the dream, to inform the king about a succession of world empires leading up to the end. The point that interests me here is that Daniel received a dream on the same topic, described in the seventh chapter of Daniel. But in Daniel's dream, the succession of world empires was described in terms of grotesque and vicious animals instead of a statue. Why the difference? To the pagan king, the nations were portrayed in the form of an idol. This is natural, since he understood the nations of the world to be glorious, shining representations of the gods they served. To the Hebrew prophet Daniel, on the other hand, the empires of the world were portrayed as he saw them: vicious, ravenous beasts that were enslaving and destroying his people. God respected the language and cultural setting of each of these men in order to communicate a message about His plans for the future. Could it really be any other way? The words that people use and the meanings that those words carry are the product of their own past experience. Even when they talk about the future, people draw on the language of their past to describe what they think will happen. The Bible testifies that when God seeks to communicate something about the future, He draws on the language, culture, and experience of the people He speaks through to communicate His message effectively. When the Old Testament writers described the exodus of Israel from Egypt, therefore, the language they used reminds readers of the Creation and Flood stories in Genesis. Both Noah and Moses were delivered by an "ark" coated with tar (Ex. 2:3; Gen. 6:14). In the Exodus, as at Creation, the divine presence brought

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT THE END-TIME 36 light into darkness (Ex. 13:21; Gen. 1:3-5) and.a dividing of the waters (Ex. 14:21; Gen 1:6-8). Common to all three descriptions are the use of "dry land" (Joshua 4:18 and Ex. 14:21, 29; Gen. 8:11, 13 and 1:9, 10) and the command to "be fruitful and multiply" (Ex. 1:7; Gen. 9:7; 1:28). Just as the portrayal of the Exodus makes use of the descriptions of God's previous actions, so the exile to Babylon is described by the biblical prophets in the language of Creation and the Exodus. Creation, for example, is the pattern for Isaiah 65:17-19 and Daniel 7:1-14. The Exodus provides the pattern for Hosea 2:8-15, Micah 7:15-20, and Isaiah 4:2-6; 11:15, 16; 43:16-19, among others. In like manner the prophecies concerning the Messiah were voiced in terms of a prophet like Moses, a son of David, and a priest after the order of Melchizedek. God in each case used the language of the past as a tool to communicate His present will and/or His plan for the future. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that the visions described in the book of Revelation are not filled with helicopters, spaceships, computers, and nuclear bombs. Instead, they are filled with images of the New Testament church's past-the Old Testament. Though originating from God's throne, the visions of Revelation were communicated in a form appropriate to the time, place, and circumstances of the writer, John. The language of the church's previous experience provided the language with which to describe the future. The Bible, therefore, was written in the language of a time and place other than our own. But in an age which is conscious that the end could be near, it is far easier to see our own situation in Bible texts about the end than the situation within which God originally spoke. It is hard to avoid seeing in the text whatever we want to see. The best safeguard against our natural tendency to remake the

biblical text into our own image is to learn how to discover the original meaning of the text. · This does not mean, as mentioned earlier, that the original author or the original audience fully understood God's purpose in sharing the future with them. But what God would say to us about the end will not contradict what He said to them. When we come to understand the end as it was pictured by those who originally wrote the Bible, we will have a mllch clearer picture of how God wants us to view the end. To read these texts as though they were written exclusively for us is to launch ourselves into a bizarre journey that may appear biblical, but will in fact lead us far from the truth.

Safeguards for Bible Study One of the best ways to discover the actual meaning of a text is to read it in

DECODING THE FUTURE

37 the original language; for the Bible, that means mostly Hebrew and Greek. Reading a text in the original language helps one break away from the familiar associations that the English words have with the modern context. Every word in my personal English vocabulary is associated with experiences in my past. Therefore, when I read the Bible in English the words unknowingly trigger associations with my own past experience. As a result, it becomes almost impossible to avoid importing contemporary and personal meanings into my reading of the text. Such personal insights may be devotionally meaningful to me, but they do not result in my understanding better the biblical text. When studying the Bible in the original languages, however, the interpreter is forced to deal with the meaning that the biblical words had in their original context. Thus, the scholarly disciplines can help one be more sensitive to the original intentions of the text. The chapters to come are the product of many years of such study. But I don't want to leave the impression that the Bible's picture of the end can be understood only by specialists. There are other safeguards to Bible study beyond a knowledge of the Hebrew or Greek. With appropriate care and a dose of humility all can understand the Bible better than they do now. For those nonspecialists who earnestly wish to avoid remaking the Bible into their own image, I suggest the following strategies. 1. Pray earnestly for a learning attitude and an openness to the leading of the Holy Spirit whenever you pick up the Bible for deep study. Without prayer and the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, the work of even the finest scholar may go subtly astray. God's ideas are not naturally mastered by secular minds. I have found the following prayer helpful: "Lord, help me find the truth on this subject, no matter what the cost." Knowing the truth will cost you something, but it is well worth the sacrifice to understand God's mind. 2. Use a variety of translations in your study. This will help you overcome the tendency to read your own past experience and ideas into the text. There are study tools available that place several translations side by side or cull interesting readings from as many as 26 different versions. An analytical concordance, such as Strong's or Young's, can also help you better understand the original wording without the need to learn an unfamiliar alphabet. Computer buffs will find a variety of similar tools available in electronic format. The use of printed and electronic concordances needs, however, to be balanced carefully with the next two items in this list. 3. Spend the majority of your Bible study time in the sections of Scripture that are reasonably clear, such as the Gospels. It is through the clear passages of

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT THE END-TIME

38 Scripture that unclear passages such as the seals and trumpets of Revelation can be more accurately understood. Excessive fascination with problematic texts concerning the end almost inevitably leads to a distortion of understanding and bizarre views. Ellen White warns about the dangers in a mentality that neglects the central messages of Scripture to find "advanced knowledge" in that which God has not chosen to make plain: "It is a masterpiece of Satan's deceptions to keep the minds of men searching and conjecturing in regard to that which God has not made known and which He does not intend that we shall understand" (The Great Controversy, p. 523). Let me be frank. If you spend the majority of your Bible study time in passages like Daniel 11 or the seals and trumpets of Revelation, do not trust the results of your study! Unless you are continually fortified by the clear texts of Scripture, you'll tend to see what you want to see in texts that are more difficult. The following chapters of this book· are an attempt to outline such a clear and basic overview of the Bible and the end. 4. Compare the results ofdetailed study, such as concordance searches, with much general reading of Scripture. When stringing texts together out of context, it is easy to imagine patterns where there are none. It becomes possible to prove almost anything with a concordance. In the process, the central point of each passage will generally be missed. I am reminded of the fellow who didn't know his Bible very well but wanted some counsel from the Lord. So he decided to let his Bible fall open on its own, put his finger on the page, and see if God could somehow communicate to him directly in that way. But when he did so, the text said, "Judas went out and hanged himself." That didn't sound too promising, so he thought, Let me get a little further counsel. He repeated the process, put his finger on a text, and it said, "Go and do thou likewise." Now things were starting to get serious, so he thought he'd better get a little more information from the Lord. Once more his Bible fell open, and he fingered a text. This time it said, "What thou doest, do quickly." Clearly, it is possible to put Bible texts together in such a way as to prove anything you want to prove. Certainly David Koresh is a case in point. The danger of biblical misuse is minirr).ized, however, when each passage is understood in the light of much general reading of the Scriptures in context, preferably in a clear and up-to-date translation in which the broad context is easily seen. Broad reading provides a sense of the big picture of the Bible. In time the accumulated fund of scriptural knowledge prevents the interpreter from drawing strange conclusions out of concordance-based study. 5. It is wise for anyone studying the Bible to be continually open to the

DECODING THE FUTURE 39

counsel of his or her peers, particularly when those peers disagree. Those who disagree with me can often point rne to realities in the text that I have missed because my cultural and/or religious background disposes me to ignore that type of evidence. Even peers who hold erroneous views of Scripture or religion as a whole may help me discover an aspect of the text that I would never have noticed on my own. Our study is placed on solid ground when we allow ourselves to become accountable to other students of Scripture. Genuine accountability is never easy. We all prefer to consult people who will tell us what we want to hear, but a truly faithful friend is one who is strong enough and independent enough to tell us what we need to hear. 3 The challenges of our peers are particularly valuable when they come from those who know the ancient text and the world in which it appeared. They can fill the gaps in areas in which our knowledge and background for biblical study may be weak. For Seventh-day Adventists who accept the special authority of the writings of Ellen White, a further principle is of critical importance. 6. Sound methods need to be applied to the passages in which Ellen White

comments on biblical texts, particularly when those texts are of vexing difficulty.

4

Much harm can be done when her authority is misused to support interpretations that distort the Scripture writer's intention. Rightly understood, inspiration harmonizes with itself. Principles 3 and 4 above are particularly valuable when applied to the understanding of the Spirit of Prophecy writings. The consistent application of these six principles could have saved David Koresh's life. At the center of his prophetic fantasies he saw himself as the Lamb of Revelation 5, who is joined to God on the throne and therefore has the power to unleash the events of the end on an unsuspecting world. Had he consistently applied these six principles, he might have learned that in the New Testament the end was already unleashed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ back in the first century (see chapter 6). Had he read Revelation 3:21 (compared with Revelation 5:5, 6, 9-12) in the light of the entire New Testament, he might have learned that the Lamb's taking of the scroll was already a past event when John wrote the book of Revelation, so it could not apply to a very flawed human being in Waco, Texas, some 2,000 years later. 5 It is necessary, therefore, to modify the statement with which this book began. Thinking about the end, as such, need not be hazardous to one's health. It is the way one thinks about the end that determines the hazard. A consistent and humble application of sound principles of biblical study can produce a safe, healthy, and scriptural perspective on the end.

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT THE END-TIME 40 With these basic principles of interpretation in mind, the next chapter begins a journey through the Bible, seeking to understand the view of the end that God presented to a variety of people at different stages of biblical history. While some of these views may seem strange at first, we will soon gain a clearer understanding of how to think about the end of the world without losing our minds! 1 Although the 'excitement surrounding 1000 AD was not as great or as widespread as is generally believed in the popular culture, it is now recognized to have taken place in parts of Europe at least, contrary to earlier scholarly opinion expressed in Jacques Barzun and Henry F. Graaf, The Modem Researcher (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1957), 104-106, See Henri Focillon, The Year 1000 (New York: Unger Publishing Co,, 1970), and Richard Erdoes, A.D. 1000: Living on the Brink of Apocalypse (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988), 2 For a thorough survey of Lindsey's views and the impatt that they have had on contemporary thought in America, see Paul Boyer, W'hen Time Shall Be No More (Cambridge, Mass,: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1992), 3 For a much more thorough discussion of accountability in Christian life, see my book Present Truth in the Real World (Boise, Idaho: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1993), pp, 191-200. 4 For an outline of what I mean by sound methods, see "The Interpreter's Use of the Writings of Ellen G. White," Symposium on Revelation, book 1, edited by Frank Holbrook (Silver Spring, Maryland: Biblical Research Institute, 1992), pp. 163-172. 5 For a fairly detailed look at the exegesis of Revelation 5, see "The Seven Seals," in Symposium, pp. 200-221. To understand the particular point about Revelation 3:21, see pp, 201-204.

Part Two The Old Testament, Early Judaism, and the End

CHAPTER 3

The Long Ago and the End

N

OAH surveyed the huge artifact in front of him, watching as lions and bears, giraffes and zebras, prairie dogs and hedgehogs, snakes and snails moved through the great opening into what looked for all the world like a small wooden city. Suddenly it hit him with full force. The world was about to end. Everything Noah could see-except the boat itself and its precious cargowas about to be forever altered. Everyone who failed to join him in the ark would soon be swept away, never to be seen again. Everything for which people had spent their lives-their homes, their businesses, their hopes and dreams, their families, their memories, their history, even their familiar landscapes-was about to be terminated, forgotten without end. What would become of him? What would the new world be like? Would anything look like it was before? With questions such as these on his heart, Noah closed his last suitcase and prepared to enter the ark. A good starting point for studying what the Bible says about the end is to realize that it spoke directly to the experience of real people long ago. The end of the world to which we look forward is not the first time that there was an end. Biblical eschatology (the study of the end) begins with the story of Noah and the Flood. That end was as real to Noah as the approaching end of our world is to us. As we see how the Bible addressed the end of Noah :S- world, we can gain clearer

insight into the end of our own world. Our journey together through the Bible, therefore, will approach the text with the questions of the original actors in the drama, rather than with those from our own time. What kind of end did Noah expect and experience? What kind of end did Abraham, Moses, and the prophets look forward to? What was God's role in that end? To ask such questions breaks us away from our contemporary expectations and helps us see things that we hadn't seen before. Since God meets people where they are, we will understand Him best in the context of the world

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT THE END-TIME 44 in which He met the writers of the Bible.

Noah and the End In the first book of the Bible, Genesis, chapters 6 through 9, we find the story of the Flood- the first time in human history that the world came to an end. This story sets the pattern for all other biblical descriptions of the end. Four main elements characterize the pattern: decline, proclamation, judgment, and result. Decline-Noah's view of the end sharpened when God underlined for him the serious decline in the moral and behavioral condition of the human race in his day. "The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time .... Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence" (Gen. 6:5-11; cf. verse 12). Things back then were falling apart physically, spiritually, morally. Sound familiar? By this standard there is no question that the stage is set for the end today as well. But before we get too excited, we must remember that most generations have been able to see themselves reflected in descriptions like that. The description of Genesis 6:6 is particularly moving: "The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain." The end according to the Bible is never a lonely end, as in some of the scientific speculations we noted in the previous chapter. God feels all the pain that human beings experience. God always makes provision for something better. Proclamation- It was time for a change. And God had some decisive plans for change to share with Noah. He first shared His plan to destroy the earth and to wipe out the human race: "So God said to Noah, 'I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth' " (Gen. 6:13; cf. verse 7). No doubt Noah was terrified at the thought that he, his family, his neighbors, and all that he had lived for was about to be destroyed forever. But the plan that God proclaimed to him had two parts, not just one. Since Noah had found grace in the Lord's eyes (verse 8), God invited Noah to build a huge boat, big enough to save his family and any friends and neighbors. who might care to come along, big enough to save a decisive minimum of the' species necessary to reestablish the world's ecosystem (verses 14-21). A significant portion of the world and of the human race was to be rescued from the planned destruction. Most interesting is the language used to-describe Noah's part in God's plan. After describing the destruction of life from the earth, Genesis 7:23 says: "Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark." The word translated "left" here is

THE LONG AGO AND THE END 45 the same root as the Hebrew word usually translated "remnant." It was God's plan that Noah would be the "remnant" of the first end-time. Lest you suspect that I just succumbed to a flight of the imagination, I need to point out that Sirach 44: 17, a Jewish book written about 200 years before the time of Christ, 1 makes this connection as well. Noah and his family were the remnant of the Flood. Hebrew readers of the Old Testament would have drawn their basic understanding of the remnant concept from the Flood story. Judgment-As with the proclamation, there were two parts to the judgment action of God-the destruction of the wicked majority and the salvation of the righteous remnant. God first declared the condition of the human race, then acted in accordance with what He had declared. In using the word "judgment" to describe the Flood, I am not thinking of judicial investigation; that was already complete by the time God approached Noah with His plans. Judgment is used here in the sense of execution. The interesting thing about this judgment is that when the text is read in Hebrew, it becomes clear that the Flood story is intimately related to the story of Creation in the first two chapters of Genesis. Creation began when the Spirit (same word as "wind" in Hebrew-note the words of Jesus in John 3:8) moved over an earth completely covered by unruly, chaotic water (Gen. 1:2). In Creation there was a process of separation and distinction. God differentiated light from darkness (verse 4), night from day (verses 5, 14), and separated the waters that are above the earth from the waters stored below (verses 6, 7), and the sea from the dry land (verses 9, 10). In the Flood story, however, the separations of Creation were reversed. The waters came down from the sky to meet the waters gushing up from below (Gen. 7:11). The dry land and the sea were no longer distinct (verse 20). The Flood returned the earth to the condition it was in before Creation (verses 7-20; cf. 1:2)! For Noah, then, the Flood was more than just another event in the course of his lifetime. It was the undoing of Creation. In the Hebrew the language of the Flood story is the language of Creation-the same basic words are used at crucial points. The Flood is described as the reversal of Creation, as God removed the distinctions that made life on earth possible. Through the ark, of course, God acted to save the remnant from the destruction of its environment. Noah, his family, and representatives of the animal kingdom were safe in the ark (Gen. 7:7, 16). God kept control of the destruction of His creation so that no harm would come to the remnant (Gen. 8:1, 2). God's judgments in Scripture are always twofold. In the Garden of Eden, God

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT THE END-TIME 46 judged Adam and Eve with thorns, pain during childbirth, and exile (Gen. 3:16-19, 23, 24). But He also protected them from the deteriorating environment by clothing them with animal skins (verse 21), and He then promised to restore them through the Messiah (verse 15). Judgment in the garden was twofold, positive and negative. Cain also was cursed on the one hand, but on the other was marked to preserve his life (Gen. 4:1-16). Likewise in the Flood story, God acted both to save and to destroy. Result-What was the result of God's saving work in behalf of those huddled in the ark? Again there is the language of a new earth and a new creation. God sent a "wind" to calm the waters and cause them to recede (Gen. 8:1, 2; cf. 1:2). Soon the waters dried up and the ground became dry (Gen. 8:13). This is the specific language used to describe the third day of Creation Week (Gen. 1:9, 10). God dried the land and separated it from the sea. God restored the full function of day and night and of the seasons (Gen. 8:22), a recollection of the fourth day of Creation (Gen. 1:14, 15). In Genesis 9:1-3 God repeated the language of Genesis 1:26-31 as He restored His covenant with Noah and his sons: "Be fruitful and increase in number." Again a dietary program was prescribed: "Everything that lives and moves will be food for you" (Gen. 9:3). The distinctions of the new creation are guaranteed against another flood (verse 11). How, then, did Noah understand the end? For him, the end was made necessary by the decline in morality and behavior in his day. God used the Flood to disassemble His physical creation and start all over with a righteous remnant in a new creation. The end in the Flood story was the physical destruction of the planet and its subsequent physical restoration. Through the Flood the old world had given way to a new one. After the Flood the ecosystem was functioning again. God's covenant with the human race was restored. Noah became a second Adam to that new creation. Tragically, just as the first Adam failed in relation to the fruit of a tree (Gen. 3) so the new Adam failed in relation to the fruit of a vine (Gen. 9:20-27). Through the sins of Noah and Ham, the human race was once more plunged into decline. The only command of God that the descendants of Noah obeyed was the command to "be fruitful and increase" (verse 1). Genesis 10 confirms that Noah had many descendants. These descendants, however, chose not to scatter and fill the earth as God had commanded (Gen. 9:1). So although the end had come in the days ofNoah, it was not the final end. Another end would have to come. Nevertheless, in the story of the Flood, we have detected the first seeds of the Bible's understanding of that end.

THE LONG AGO AND THE END

47 Abraham and the End Decline-It is clear from Genesis 11:4 that the descendants of Noah were in rebellion against God's command to.scatter and fill the earth (9:1). Through their tower they sought the means to defy successfully God's command. Their advances in technology made their rebellion particularly threatening (Gen. 11:5, 6). Proclamation-God responded by proclaiming their plans null and void. Through the confusion of their languages He would cause them to scatter across the earth (verses 5-7). Judgment-God then acted in judgment to confuse their languages and scatter them across the face of the whole earth (verses 8, 9). But there was a missing element here. In His previous judgments God always acted in a twofold manner, both positive and negative. While He cursed Adam and Eve with thorns, pain, and exile, He also blessed them with clothing and a promise (Gen. 3). While He cursed Cain with exile, He also blessed him with protection (Gen. 4:1-16). While He cursed humanity with the Flood, He also blessed it with Noah and an ark. But where is the blessing in the story of Babel? The blessing is obscured by our Western awareness of chronology. Western readers know that according to the chronology in the latter part of Genesis 11, Abram lived at least 400 to 600 years after Babel. But in the book of Genesis the immediate context for the Babel story of chapter 11 is found in chapters 10 and 12. In Genesis 10 the nations of the world are listed according to their origins in Noah's family tree. In Genesis 11 those nations are gathered in rebellion against God. Though scattered by the confusion of their languages, they remain in rebellion against God. Thus, Genesis 11 closes with the picture of a world in need of blessing. Into that cursed world came a man named Abram (later Abraham). In that context God spoke to Abram: "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you" (Gen. 12:1-3). Notice that God made three promises to Abram. He would receive a land, become a great nation, and become a blessing. God would bless not only Abram's immediate descendants but also "all peoples on earth." In context, the "all peoples" clearly refers to the table of nations in Genesis 10 and to those cursed and scattered in the story of the Tower of Babel. In Genesis 17: 1-8 the three promises are repeated and expanded. The promise of the land is repeated and is focused on the territory called Canaan (verse 8). The

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT THE END-TIME

48 promise of nationhood is expanded to include a multitude of descendants (verses 2, 4-6), like the stars of the sky (Gen. 15:5). Abram's name is, therefore, changed to Abraham (Gen. 17:5). The promise of blessing is clarified as a covenant of relationship. Abraham and his descendants would have a special relationship with God (verses 2, 7, 8). Thus it is clear that Abraham becomes the means by which

God plans to restore His relationship and covenant with all the peoples of the earth. Abraham is called in behalf of the world! The worldwide nature of the promises to Abraham becomes even clearer when we realize that the three promises to Abraham are specifically designed to undo the damage of the Fall in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve were cursed in three ways, and the corresponding promises came to Abraham in three ways. The land was cursed for Adam's sake-it produced thorns and resisted cultivation (verses 17-19). Through Abraham and his descendants in Canaan God would begin to restore the land. Childbirth was cursed with pain in Genesis 3:16, but through Abraham childbirth was to become a blessing. Adam and Eve were exiled from the garden and separated from God (verse 23). Through Abraham that relationship was to be restored again. The following chart illustrates the parallelism.

Genesis 12:1-3

Genesis3