People will oppress each other—man against man, neighbor against neighbor. The young will rise up against the old, the nobody against the honored. – Isaiah 3:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 26, 2020): Isaiah 3

I have never been a fan of “End Times Theology.” It is not that I do not believe that the world is going to end. Even secular theorists believe that this planet has a “best before date.” At some point, we will run out of resources, or our sun will collapse, or the Big Bang will reverse itself, and all that is will collapse back into the original cosmic filament, ready to explode once again. Or maybe the aliens who have been visiting our earth will finally get the better of us.

Or Jesus will return and bring to an end the grand experiment which began in the Garden of Eden. Everyone agrees that this world has an expiration date. The primary question is when, and the answer to that question ranges from tomorrow to billions of years from now. Some religions even believe that it has already happened, and what is left is some sort of a cosmic aftertaste or divine joke. But, at some point, all of this will come to an end.

But, at least to me, “End Times Theology” seems to be concerned with two main things. First, that the world will end in a prescribed way, and that way is as they believe that it will end. The idea of a heavenly rapture is a dominant view in Christendom. So dominant that few understand that the removal of Christians from the earth is a reasonably new theology. The belief of a heavenly removal of people from the world seemed to find its traction with the ministry of John Darby in the mid-1800s. But the theory isn’t well attested to in scripture. There are passages which, when combined in a certain way, lead us to believe that a rapture will take place. But passages, arranged in a specific way, can argue for almost any belief that you might want to put forward. The second “End Times” belief is when the world will end. And if not a specific date, the view can be summed up with the word “soon.”

The problem is that we don’t know. There are clues to when this story will expire, but they are only clues. And every generation since the time of Jesus has believed that their generation would be the last. I have known and still know many, who believe that they will not die because Jesus's return is imminent. Many have been wrong. The reality is that Jesus might come back tomorrow, or he might come back a thousand years or more from now. The point is that the date is in the hands of God. And Peter seems to indicate that the time for his return is not set but in constant flux. (Peter wrote, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).)

For those who believe that the world is coming to an end and Jesus’s return is near, they often quote the big items like “there will be wars and rumors of wars” and “earthquakes and famines” (Matthew 24:6-8). But might I suggest some of the smaller items might have more impact.

For instance, Isaiah says that in the last days that people will oppress each other, the young will rise up against the old, and the unimportant will go against the greatly honored. For Isaiah, the situation was upside- down. Neighbors were supposed to care for each other, the old and those with experience were valued in the culture, and the honored were revered for what they had done. As I look around me, I see the upside-down prophecy come true. Neighbors who feud with each other.  Young who believe that they know more than their elders, and nobodies who choose to dishonor gold star families. What was unbelievable for Isaiah has become our reality.

Maybe the time for the end is drawing near. Psychic Jeanne Dixon believed that the world would end in 2020. American Pastor Kenton Beshore (Mariners Church) argues that the end of the world will take place within a generation, which he defines as seventy to eighty years of the re-establishment of Israel. For Beshore, that means that the world will end by 2028, placing the absolute last date for the rapture in 2021. I guess now we just have to wait to find out if either of them was right.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 4