ESCHATOLOGY
A Critical Analysis Of Traditional Eschatological Theory
by Edwin Walhout
Published by Edwin Walhout
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2011 Edwin Walhout
Cover design by Amy Cole (amy.cole@comcast.net)
See Smashwords.com for additional titles by this author,
including two volumes on the Bible book of Revelation.
All Biblical quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 OVERVIEW: THE NATIONS IN GOD’S PLAN
7 PAROUSIA AND THE DAY OF THE LORD
I have, during my active professional career as a teacher, minister, and editor, returned to the book of Revelation from time to time, trying patiently to understand it. Each time I would learn some more, gain new insights, but never did I feel I had an adequate grasp of it. Until once more I looked seriously into it after retirement, and then everything seemed to fall into place in an easily understood outline. I committed those insights into print, and in time (2000) Eerdmans Publishing Company made it into a book entitled, Revelation Down To Earth.
One of the surprising, and at the time mildly disturbing, conclusions I derived from this study of the Apocalypse of John was that there simply is no traditional eschatology in it. We seem to be brought up with the belief that the book of Revelation is all about the future, all about eschatology. What a surprise it was to me that that common assumption is not true. There is no second coming of Jesus, no rapture, no future resurrection of the dead, no millennial reign of Jesus on earth, no final judgment – few if any of the standard components of either premillennial or amillennial theology.
Furthermore I noted that there is no implication in the Apocalypse of any kind of supernatural disconnect in the process of history, no suggestion that history will come to an end and some other kind of human existence in some other dimension of human life will take place thereafter. You will readily understand what a profound disturbance this caused in my hitherto very orthodox mentality. I had to rethink everything I had ever learned about theology. I had to return again and again to examine the various Bible texts that were relied on for traditional eschatological exegesis. And I had to do that honestly, believingly, as a steadfast and committed Christian following where the Spirit was leading. I had to do that without abandoning or even weakening my faith in Jesus and my confidence in the Bible.
So, as I write this (2010), that breakthrough took place about fifteen years ago, and I have been at the task ever since. What I present here in this book is to show that the traditional eschatological interpretations of the Bible are simply missing the mark. They are teaching the churches to look for Jesus to do something in the future that he simply is not going to do, for it is the task that he has assigned to us: the overcoming of evil, the discipling of the nations. Sadly, when we look for Jesus to come back to do what he commissioned us to do we are shirking our duty and weakening the gospel’s effect in our world; we are functioning with a false concept of the purpose of Christianity.
One additional item. Statistical gurus have been pointing out for years that the mainline churches are steadily losing members. One such lecture I heard suggested also that the so-called Evangelical churches are also beginning to lose members. Churches in the third world countries, and those of Pentecostal bent seem to be growing most. Why? we ask.
One of the reasons for this decline of membership is a theological disconnect. Our theologies have developed an unhealthy, unrealistic, other-worldly outlook and orientation. We preach the gospel to make sure people go to heaven when they die. We have little use for the Cultural Mandate which lies at the very base of our human existence, thus separating our life in this world from our ultimate aim of faith.
Theology ought to be the dynamic vision of our posture as Christians working diligently at the task the Lord has assigned us. It should be our flag, a vibrant expression of who we are and where we are going. It should be so relevant that we become excited and energized when we examine it. It should be the drumroll that summons us to fight the good fight of faith. Sadly our theology is no longer doing the job, and we ought to be honest enough to admit it. Theology today is shunned, bypassed, overlooked, ignored, honored perhaps as it lies on the shelf, but it is no longer doing its job of guiding and motivating us on the divine pathway.
What we need is to get our theology back on track, and the place to begin is to see that the Cultural Mandate of Genesis 1 is not only still valid but that it has the same goal as the Great Commission. The purpose of the gospel is to enable the human race to be the kind of image-bearers of God that we were intended to be from the beginning of creation. We need to undertake a major overhaul of our theology to bring it back into alignment with the fundamental Hebrew-Christian mindset of the Biblical authors. This book is dedicated to that task, including this scathing critique of our traditional eschatological expectations.
OVERVIEW: THE NATIONS IN GOD’S PLAN
Old Testament history is built upon the separation of one nation from all other nations: Israel separated as a covenant people from all others (Gentiles in New Testament terminology). The divine intention was to work intensely with Israel so that in time the progress made with them could be shared with the rest of the world. That moment came when God sent his Son in the fullness of time. (Galatians 4:4,) Accordingly Jesus, in Paul’s words, has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. (Ephesians 2:14) God’s ultimate goal, seen in this context, is that the entire human race shall live the way God intended when he created us. The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is the means God employs to achieve this purpose. That is the Biblical eschatology in a nutshell, the Biblical philosophy of history, embracing past, present, and future.
The actual termination of the Old Testament period of hostility, however, did not come easily. Early Jewish Christians, contending with centuries of separatist tradition in the Jewish bosom, found it very difficult to embrace Gentile believers on an equal basis. There was difficulty from both sides, often concerning the question of whether or not it was necessary for all Christian believers to obey the ritual customs of the old covenant, the Torah. Jewish believers insisted it was necessary: this is God’s will for his people, and all people must obey. Gentile believers disputed the need: if we live by the Spirit of Jesus, what value is there in external ceremonial ritual?
It is not as if there was no preparation for the inclusion of Gentiles into the covenant community in the Old Testament literature. Jesus quoted Isaiah, one of many similar references, I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles . . . and in his name the Gentiles will hope. (Matthew 12:18) Paul does the same, And again Isaiah says, ‘The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles shall hope.’ (Romans 15:12) In fact, the author of Genesis understood this expansion reaches as far back as the call of Abraham, where God says to Abraham, In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (Genesis 12:3). Accordingly, the expectation that sometime in the future Gentiles would be recipients of the blessing of God should have become an integral part of traditional Jewish faith.
There are a few references to Jesus interacting with non-Jewish persons, eg the Samaritan woman, the Roman centurion, Pontius Pilate, but for the most part during his ministry he was concerned with his disciples and his Jewish compatriots. However, Jesus is very emphatic about how the gospel will spread beyond the boundaries of Judaism after he is gone. He says, for example, And the good news must first be proclaimed to all nations. (Mark 13:10) Or, as Matthew puts it, And this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to the nations. (Matthew 24:14)
Matthew concludes his presentation of the life of Jesus with the same emphasis, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. (Matthew 28:19) Earlier Jesus had prayed to his Father in heaven, As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. (John 17:17) The duty of the disciples, and the entire church thereafter, is to proclaim the gospel to all nations with the ultimate expectation of discipling them. However, the disciples (and we) must not be too sanguine about the process, for opposition, severe opposition, will come, Then they will hand you over to be tortured and will put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of my name. (Matthew 24:9)
Luke quotes Jesus as saying to his disciples, the Messiah is to suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. (Luke 24:47) Luke, of course, was not himself a Jew, so he could write his Gospel from a Gentile perspective. Hence he stresses here that the gospel of the Messiah focuses on repentance and forgiveness of sins, not on keeping the stringent requirements of the Torah.
Luke explains that in all the historical turbulence that will certainly come in future years, Jesus will be coming in glory via the gospel, drawing all people to himself. There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. (Luke 21:25) We have seen this coming of the gospel of Jesus Christ now for two thousand years, precisely within the vicissitudes of human culture and history.
Luke quotes Paul as explaining to a Gentile audience in Lystra, In past generations he allowed all the nations to follow their own ways; yet he has not left himself without a witness in doing good – giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, and filling you with food and your hearts with joy. (Acts 14:16-17) Even though the Gentiles did not have the advantage of God’s special guidance in past centuries, they did have his constant blessing in the form of steady daily provision of food and happiness. Paul wants them to build on that blessing and see its culmination in the person of Jesus Christ, the messiah sent by God as the light of the world. He goes so far as to affirm that all people, Jews as well as Greeks, are able to see the eternal power and divine nature through the things God has made. (Romans 1:20) What all nations have in common, namely being humans created by God in his image, is of basic importance. It is to achieve the excellence of that common humanity under God that the temporary separation of Israel has been implemented.
Consequently Jesus makes provision that the work he began will continue throughout the generations to come. Even after his ascension into the clouds, some persons will come to faith even though others do not, When the Son of Man comes into his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. (Matthew 25:31-32) Jesus has come into his glory at the ascension, and now all the nations of the world gather before him. That is the way we must view the process of the evangelizing of the world: Jesus from heaven bringing his sheep into the fold, with the ultimate goal that every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:10-11)
Paul makes a very insightful summary of the gospel in the way he concludes his letter to the church in Rome. Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was being kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith – to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 16:25-27) Paul speaks of a mystery that had been a secret for centuries. He means the secret that Gentiles will eventually be added to the covenant community. This secret, Paul affirms, has now been revealed. The gospel is to be extended to all nations, so that the entire world may come into the obedience of faith, and by doing so become the kind of people that God created us all to be in the beginning. All this historical development is due, Paul insists, to the only wise God, who knows what he is doing with the world he made, and that is why we come to Jesus Christ, to become the people of God.
The ultimate end and goal of the gospel, that is, the intention of the Creator, is depicted for us in symbolic form in the last book of the Bible, the Apocalypse of John. Although, beginning with Adam and Eve, all the nations have drunk of the wine of her fornication … (Revelation 18:3) and all nations were deceived by your sorcery (Revelation 18:23), nevertheless there has been an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth – to every nation and tribe and language and people, (Revelation 14:6), so that eventually, the nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. . . . People will bring into it (the holy city) the glory and honor of the nations. (Revelation 21:24-26)
This is the philosophy of history that the Bible as a whole wishes us to see and accept. What God intended in Genesis 1 is achieved in Revelation 21, a human race living in such a way that glorifies God and provides perfect shalom for all nations. It is achieved by means of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the power of his Spirit.
The Nations in the Book of Revelation
In the book of Revelation John is doing his best to rise above the distressing particulars of life in an antagonistic Roman Empire. He wants to see things not merely from his own individual perspective, and not even from the perspective of the seven churches to whom he sends this missive. He wants to see things the way God sees them, the way God wants us Christians to see them. That is what he sees in his visions: God at work.
John is functioning, thinking, writing, from within the traditional Jewish frame of thought, the Hebrew-Christian mindset. This involves at its very core the insight that the Creator of the world is at the same time the Power in charge of the way earth and earth’s people develop. God is the sovereign controller and lord of history. This is what John now sees in his visions: how this Creator God is directing affairs on earth by means of his Son Jesus and the gospel that goes forth in his name.
1) Taking this large perspective, John sees the nations as coming under the control of, not God, but the beast. The beast … was given authority over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all the inhabitants of the earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slaughtered. (Revelation 13:7-8) John is looking at the world of his time and space, the nations of earth as they exist and function in the world we call the first century. All these nations, Gentiles as the term is sometimes translated, are under the delusion of Satan, outside of the parameters of human life as God intended it to be lived.
In related visions John describes the nations as having drunk of the wine of her fornication … (Revelation 18:3) and as having been deceived by your sorcery. (Revelation 18:23) The intent is the same, pointing out in symbolic terminology that the nations of the world, including the Roman Empire, were functioning “out of sync” with the will of the Creator and therefore pursuing a national course of deception and drunkenness. Christian people in Ephesus and Laodicea and Smyrna will understand, accordingly, that what the Roman authorities are doing to them by way of discrimination, hatred, injustice, persecution is wrong and that God is doing something about it through his Son Jesus.
2) Into this kind of world, under the demonic domination of the beast of evil, John sees that the plan of God is to send his Son into that world, a Son whose purpose is to take away the domination of the beast and to exercise that dominion himself. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. (Revelation 12:5)
In vision John sees how that Son of God accomplishes his task, He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and locked and sealed it over him, so that he would deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were ended. (Revelation 20:2-3) John teaches us that this vision summarizes the entire period of Jesus’ ministry on earth, as well as a lengthy period of time during which Satan’s authority is bound, limited, diminished. John wishes his churches, and us, to see that this is what the gospel of Jesus Christ does: it binds Satan in such a way that he no longer deceives us.
John employs military and political metaphors to describe what he sees Jesus doing in his visions. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. (Revelation 19:15) It is not the nations themselves that Jesus destroys, but the deceptive control of Satan over them. Instead of the authority of Satan controlling them, there will be the steady and invincible authority of Jesus and God.
In this way John pictures the net result of the gospel, the work of God’s Son, in time and in history. Jesus destroys the destroyer. The wrath of God is finally revealed, as Jesus receives his power from God and begins to push back the powers of deception. This is the judgment of God against the powers of Satan and evil, and it is being displayed daily in the relentless progress being gained over the power of the devil. John sees Christian people rejoicing when they see and understand just how the gospel is working. We give thanks, Lord God Almighty, who are and who were, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath has come, and the time for judging the dead, for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints and all who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying those who destroy the earth. (Revelation 11:17-18)
3) The information about what God is doing by means of his Son needs to be disseminated, needs to be brought to the attention of everyone, to all the nations on earth. In one of his visions John sees this happening, Then I saw another angel flying in midheaven, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth – to every nation and tribe and language and people. (Revelation 14:6)
John also sees what the gospel is intended to achieve: people, nations, coming to worship, to obey God, to live as the Creator intended. Lord, who will not fear and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your judgments have been revealed. (Revelation 15:4)
John sees the people and the nations who benefit from that work of the Son: people who believe and are delivered from the control of Satan and sin. Interestingly, John sees these people as somehow sharing the same rule over the devil that Jesus himself exercises. He uses the same descriptive terminology, a rod of iron. To everyone who conquers and continues to do my works to the end, I will give authority over the nations; to rule them with an iron rod, as when clay pots are shattered – even as I also received authority from my Father. (Revelation 2:26-28) Jesus draws believers into the same victory over Satan that he himself, as God’s only-begotten Son, has achieved. By faith Christians are victorious over Satan just as Jesus was.
4) John provides in his visions some insight into the future, what we may expect to happen as the gospel moves farther along into time and civilization. John sees the end result, the ultimate goal of God for us human beings. He pictures a new Jerusalem, a city of God in which there is no sin or evil.
But before he gets to that final vision of utopia, however, John sees a roadblock in the way, namely the release of Satan from his prison. When the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, God and Magog, in order to gather them for battle. (Revelation 20:7-8) John sees that the road to ultimate success for the gospel is not uniformly smooth. It’s a constant battle such that it is not always clear to us who is winning. In fact John is visualizing one great climactic battle in which the Word of God, riding a powerful white stallion, leads his army of believers, clothed only in white robes, against the hordes of evil and sin. John sees Satan defeated, bound and imprisoned, only to escape and try once more to persuade the nations to abandon God and embrace sin. John sees Satan temporarily successful, but then once and for all thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, there to writhe forever in frustration and powerlessness.
So, in John’s final vision of the glorious success of the gospel in restoring God’s authority and bringing the nations to their beneficent life under God, we see the nations in ecstasy and prosperity and bliss: the new city of God established by the gospel of Jesus Christ. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. . . . People will bring into it the glory and honor of the nations. (Revelation 21:24-26) On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. (Revelation 22:2)
In sum, then, let it be seen that the purpose of the gospel is not to take people out of this world but to take them out of the devil’s control. Furthermore, let it be seen that it is not merely individuals that the gospel has in mind, but nations, all the peoples of the earth. Still more, let it be seen that it is these nations in their cultural life, their social, political, economic, educational, scientific life together, that the gospel is seeking to bring under God’s discipline. Far from being a gospel to get people out of this world, it is a gospel to send people into this world to bring all nations into the city of God. That is the purport of the book of Revelation.
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:18-20)
This is a perpetual command. It has no termination date. Jesus is giving all his followers this instruction, and it applies today in the twenty-first century just as much as it did then in the first century. And because it is a perpetual command it is an teleological command, that is, it reaches into the far future and defines the goal of the entire historical process. The goal is that all nations shall be disciplined by the gospel, controlled by the Creator, inspired by the Redeemer, impelled by the Spirit of Holiness. The entire human race taken as a whole, in all its parts and differences, is to be discipled, disciplined in this way.
Disciple the Nations
In the Greek language Jesus is saying, Disciple the nations, not Make some disciples from each nation. The verb is make disciples. The object of the verb is nations, Gentiles. Make nations into disciples. Disciple the entire nation, all of it.
It may well be necessary to disciple individual persons one at a time, or a few at a time, in order to achieve the goal that Jesus sets, that is, discipling the nations. But that should not obscure his intent that the entire nation be disciplined. The point is that Jesus wants the truth of the gospel to penetrate into the total communal life of the nation, making its politics, economics, education, justice systems, health care, businesses, social life, home life, entertainment, into areas of goodness and truth and trustworthiness and integrity. Jesus wants the nations of the world to be disciplined by virtue and holiness in all its forms and applications. That is the goal of the gospel, of the Great Commission, and it is nothing more nor less than the original Cultural Mandate given to the human race in Genesis 1.
Jesus gives his disciples, and us, further clarification regarding methodology. How do we go about discipling the nations? This way: two procedures, one following the other. 1) Baptizing them into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and 2) Teaching them to observe everything Jesus has taught. The first relates to initial conversion, the second relates to growing in sanctification. First, baptize people as converts to Jesus; second, continue to guide them in how to obey God. While this does apply, of course, to individual persons, Jesus also has in mind that an entire nation be so converted and instructed. So do not limit this instruction to individual people, but see it in its universal dimension, calling the entire human race to faith in Jesus and to obedience to the Spirit. That’s the task Jesus has assigned to us as Christians, work toward the conversion and sanctification of the entire human race.
Is that really what God calls us to do? Make everyone Christian? What does that say about pious Jews, Moslems, Buddhists, Hindus, and even secular people who want to live right? Does a person have to be a Christian to be a good human being? Do whole countries have to be Christian in order to develop a wholesome and genuinely good society? For that matter, has the record of Christianity been such as to even suggest that this is what Christian faith is really about? Can’t you find in Christian history as much evil and chicanery as in any other religion? Do we really believe that a person, a nation, needs to be converted to Jesus in order to find a good human existence? Isn’t that rather conceited, even unrealistic?
Well, yes, that is what Jesus is implying, is it not? This is how you disciple nations: convert them so as to be baptized in the name of the holy trinity, and then continue to teach and work so as to mature in goodness. That’s how it’s done.
That’s the only way it is done. It isn’t being done in the Islamic world. It isn’t being done in the Buddhist world, or Confucian world, or Taoist world, or Hindu world. Certainly it isn’t being done in the primitive religion areas of the world. It is being done, slowly but surely, in the Christian world. That is where progress in all areas of human communal life is being made, and it is being made precisely because that is where the Christian gospel has been working for the past two thousand years. Compare and analyze the respective civilizations created by these various religions. Western civilization stands out as the clear winner. And western civilization is essentially the product of the Christian commitment of the nations involved.
It is important for us to see the effect of Jesus’ Great Commission in the concrete terms of actual human society. Jesus did not pray to have God take his disciples out of the world, but he prayed to have them kept from the evil one. He does not prepare them for getting out of this world but for going into it with a message of hope and confidence for the future.
The Cultural Mandate
It will be helpful to connect the Great Commission to the Cultural Mandate of Genesis 1. We need to see that both of these commands, coming from the same God, the same sovereign Lord of history, have exactly the same purpose, the same intended outcome: the production of a human race functioning as the image of God in the good creation of God.
So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. (Genesis 1:27-28)
Note particularly in this quotation that no sooner has God created humans in his image than he defines the functioning of that image. To be in the image of God carries with it the mandate to subdue the earth and have dominion over it. We need to understand, accordingly, that the term image implies much more than a status, it implies a function, a task, a duty, a responsibility, an action. In that sense the term image should convey the force of a verb, not only of a noun. Humans are not only created to be images of God (noun) but also to image God (verb). We image God when we live and act in such a way as to reflect the character of God: his goodness, righteousness, justice, truthfulness, holiness, virtue, excellence, and whatever other divine virtues can be specified.
This imaging of God is comprehensive, that is, it includes everything we do: the way we think, the attitudes we take, the way we work and play, the things we create and want to create, our imaginations, our hopes, our relationships – everything. In sum, taking it all together as a human race, our civilization. Our civilization must incorporate the image of God; its institutions must be honest, trustworthy, the product of godly people functioning as genuine images of the Creator. That is the intent of the term subdue the earth.
Critics sometimes aver that the term subdue the earth carries the connotation of reckless and harmful human exploitation of earth’s resources. It means the opposite. It means exploiting earth’s resources, that is, making use of them, in such a way as to produce a godly culture. Persons who are intimately concerned with the integrity of nature are properly engaged in such efforts, but at the same time ought not think that the development and usage of those natural resources is in itself a bad thing. They are correct in calling us to respect nature but should not imply that Christianity is callous in that respect.
So then, properly understood, the Cultural Mandate of Genesis 1 is intended to define the human function as the image of God in developing a godly civilization. It is within that basic view of history and culture that the Great Commission of Jesus is also to be understood. God’s purpose is to have a human race on planet Earth function in such a way as to produce from earth’s resources a growing and developing civilization that is simultaneously for the glory of God and for the well-being of humans. That is the purpose of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, to achieve what God intended by creating the human race in the beginning.
That purpose is achieved, to recap, by first securing a conscious commitment to God and to Jesus and to the Holy Spirit, that is, baptism into that decision, producing intentional obedience to God as our creator, to Jesus as our Savior, and to the Holy Spirit as our inner power. But it should be obvious that conversion by itself is but the beginning of a lifelong process of learning and development that is involved in living for God. And on the universal level it is also but the beginning of a continuous historical process of making our civilization better.
That is why Jesus follows up the command to baptize with the second command to teach. Christian individuals and also Christian nations are constantly in a process of learning how to implement the divine mandate to grow in sanctification and righteousness, how to make a better life in a better world.
All Authority
It is also worth noting that this Great Commission to disciple the nations is bracketed, in Jesus’ comments, by references to himself. Just prior to the commission Jesus says, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. And just afterward, he says, And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. The message that the church must bring to the nations is not about itself or its own interests, it is about the implications of Jesus’ ministry while on earth. The gospel is bracketed by Jesus, not by the church.
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus. How so? Jesus means to say that the power, authority, of God himself is being exercised through himself. God is working out his will for the human race through the human person, his Son Jesus. It is God’s will that sin and evil shall not corrupt the human race forever, though it has done so temporarily. Jesus, as a man subject to the same temptations that all other humans are subject to, illustrated in the story of the fall of Adam and Eve, resisted those temptations and remained faithful to his Father in heaven. Jesus lived out his entire life on earth in that victorious pattern of obeying God rather than Satan. Jesus is saying that he holds the secret of victory over Satan, that he himself has accomplished it. Now Jesus wants that same victory to be extended to all human beings on earth. The authority, that is, the power, to achieve this has been given to Jesus, and Jesus has exercised it perfectly in his own life. Jesus wants the good news of this power, of this secret, to be extended universally, and that is the setting of the command to disciple the nations.
Jesus promises his disciples that he will be with them to the end of the age. He means always. So long as they are engaged in the process of discipling the nations Jesus will be with them. Not, of course, simply watching to see what happens, but present in the power and authority that has been given to him by God, the power to achieve God’s purpose, the power to make constant progress in the task of discipling the nations. Jesus is promising success to the church in the mission endeavor. There may well be setbacks and disappointments but over the constant passage of time the gospel will slowly but surely prevail and bring the human race closer to the goal of a godly civilization. That is what Jesus is promising when he assures us that he will be with us always.
We do well, therefore, not to become overly church-centered in our evangelism and missions. We need to be Christ-centered, or better yet, God-centered, since it is God who is at work in Christ. The test is not how well the church is doing, or Christianity considered as one religion among many, but how well is Christ doing in discipling the nations? How effective is the gospel in terms of what is happening to the civilized life of the nations in which the gospel is taking root? Are our political and economic and social structures showing the effects of truth and honesty and godliness in the way they are being conducted and implemented? How well is the gospel doing in terms of concretizing the Cultural Mandate? That is the test. To achieve that is the function of Christianity, its only reason for being.
Barbarian invasions of the Roman Empire, successful from 410 on, produced the collapse of Roman authority in Europe within a hundred years. Moslem invasions soon provided the coup de grace to what was left of Roman authority in northern Africa and Spain. The result of these invasions was the rapid deterioration of most institutions of Roman culture in Europe, replaced by the societal forms of a variety of primitive barbarian tribes. Accordingly, historians have sometimes referred to this period of time as the Dark Ages. The term does not necessarily imply that nothing important happened during these centuries (roughly AD 500-1000) but that in comparison with the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome, European life in general during this time period was rough and uncultured.
It is interesting to note time lines. Christianity began, ostensibly, in the year One with the birth of Jesus. In spite of intense and sustained persecution by various Roman emperors, Christianity prevailed over the might of Rome, was legitimatized by 313, and by 385 or so was declared to be the only official religion of the empire. But, no sooner had this happened than the empire fell, unable to withstand the pesky onslaughts of avaricious barbarian tribes who wanted to share the wealth of the empire. Unconverted philosophers blamed the catastrophe on the fact that the empire had abandoned its traditional gods, that the new Christian god was powerless to preserve the empire.
Perhaps a true insight, of course. How could Christianity sanctify the empire without destroying the violent suppresson and compulsion on which it was founded? In fact, what happened in subsequent centuries suggests that this is precisely what God wanted to have happen. For out of the ruins of the Roman civilization, Christianity picked up the pieces and slowly fashioned a new civilization built upon the recognition of God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
That is what the gospel does, what it is intended to do: disciple the nations. Christianity took hold of the remnants of past culture, brought all the nations of Europe to Christian faith by the year 1000, and disciplined them in such an effective way that what we see in the dynamic western civilization today is the product. Often when we study church history of the Middle Ages we miss this insight. We concentrate on the glaring evils of the church and the growing movement for reform, but we ought also to see how God was using that same flawed church to accomplish his mission. Western civilization as we have it today simply would not exist were it not for the stringent disciplinary measures enforced for centuries by the Roman Catholic Church in medieval times.
What needs also to be highlighted is the contrast between how Islam has expanded and how Christianity has grown and perseveres. It was by the use of violence and military force that the Arabian armies swept across North Africa, invaded Spain and France, and were eventually defeated at the climactic battle of Tours in AD 732. Christianity, on the contrary, conquered the Roman Empire and the European nations not by military might but by conversion and faith, by the gospel. Moslems are incensed when they think of the Crusades of the Middle Ages, but their anger seems more than a bit hollow in the light of their own history of military conquest.
It is true, to be sure, that at times in the medieval period there was resort to military means to enforce the church’s authority – not good – but for the most part the church’s control was administered chiefly by the sacramental system, not by external force. That sacramental system was indeed a very forceful and powerful tool of discipline, and it was exercised very relentlessly. Still, the basic commitment of faith on the part of the people was the pre-requisite for the sacramental system to work at all. One might consider how the barbarian peoples could have been brought to such a glorious destiny by any other means than the sacramental system.
What we see, accordingly, in the formative centuries of western civilization is precisely the application of the two Great Commission strategies: baptism into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them how to obey the Lord. The first phase, baptism, was accomplished by various missionaries pretty well by the year 1000, and the second phase, teaching, is seen in the Renaissance and has been continuing ever since. It is Christianity that is constantly challenging the nations to come to a more just and honest and good society. This process will have to continue forever.
That, in turn, provides us with what can be called the eschatological perspective. That’s what will happen in the future: a continual movement of progress toward a more stable, just, progressive, godly civilization in which God is glorified and humans can find their genuine peace and happiness – shalom, the second phase of the Great Commission.
The preceding chapters have demonstrated that what we should expect to happen in the future is defined for us in the Great Commission. There are nations in the world that are still in dire need of the gospel, nations that are floundering in the grasp of sin and evil, with leaders who are more intent on self-aggrandizement than on the welfare of their people. They need missionaries and they need to come to the Lord Jesus. In terms of the Great Commission they need to be baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, that is, they need to come to a national commitment to become the kind of people God intends them to be.
But there are also many nations in the world that have had the gospel, and have embraced it, and are in continual need of pressure to do better with it. More adequate systems of justice, more equitable economic systems, more patriotic political systems, more effective educational systems, more available health care systems, and the like in all areas of national life. This is the second phase of the Great Commission, teach the nations how to obey what God commands, and it is a never-ending process.
Our traditional eschatology knows nothing of this.
Traditional eschatology is oriented, not to improve human life within the ongoing process of human history, but to escape from that process, to make sure that you get to heaven after you die and thus become a participant in a reconstituted existence in some other dimension. Traditional eschatology is built upon the supposition that there will be a radical disconnect between this life and the life to come, a disconnect between history as we have known it and life as it will become after certain events of divine intervention. Our history will end and a new history will begin. You have to be rescued out of this world in order to be translated into another world, out of this dimension into another dimension of existence. Most traditional forms of eschatology presuppose this kind of disconnect.
And it is wrong to do so. There is nothing in the Cultural Mandate or in the Great Commission that requires the kind of supernatural intervention that traditional eschatology proposes. There is nothing in the gospel that does so either. Our traditional eschatology requires us to look forward to an indefinite time when Jesus will return and set things straight on earth, taking personal charge of the progress of all human life and work on earth. This is far from the perspective that Jesus himself gave us.
Jesus left earth, appointing the Paraclete to be his replacement in guiding the disciples, and he gave them the task of continuing his work. Jesus’ work on earth is finished, completed. Now, from heaven and by his Spirit, he is directing us, his church, to continue the process of baptizing the nations and then following up with teaching them how to make a godly civilization. That is our job, our responsibility, which we shirk if we rely only upon some unspecified divine intervention in the future.
Rather than looking at current life and culture with jaundiced eyes, seeing only the depravity and wickedness of people, we need to refocus on what Jesus has been doing from heaven here on earth by means of the gospel. He has destroyed the Roman Empire, he has baptized the barbarian nations of Europe, he has engineered a beautiful rebirth of civilization, and he is spearheading the constant progress of that civilization, while at the same time drawing people of other continents and backgrounds, challenging other religions and spirits and overcoming them. We are in the middle of that developing Christian civilization, with the unique and specific tasks of confronting the evils and demons of our age. What a glorious task we have, with the assurance that Jesus is leading us to victory every day and every century.
Rather than being depressed by what we see we should be overjoyed by the power and grace and magnificence of our ascended Lord who is indeed King of kings and Lord of lords, into whose hands the governance of human life on earth has been entrusted. Then, with that insight and that confidence we may continue to do our best to make this world a place that images God while it subdues the earth. Rather than retiring in despondence and surrender we need to move onward as Christian soldiers fighting the courageous and victorious battle that Christ himself began. Unfortunately, our current eschatology not only obscures that vision, it destroys it.
We should be, for that reason, supportive, and enthusiastically so, of such institutions as Calvin College and Hope College and all other dedicated Christian institutions which seek to implement both phases of Christ’s Great Commission. They take the Christian commitment of their students seriously, that is, their baptism, and they spend their time and energy in preparing these young men and women to take their place in society and the workplace as Christians seeking to make their contribution in obedience to the commands of Jesus. They want to show how Christian faith and commitment make for honesty and integrity and trustworthiness in their life’s calling and vocation. That is precisely what the Lord commands us in his commission, subdue the earth as images of God, learn daily how to obey all the commands of God. These colleges are in the frontline of the battle for truth and righteousness, and thus of the Great Commission.
We will now go on to examine in more detail some of the major items in traditional eschatology, beginning with the concept of the Second Coming of Jesus.
As they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going up and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. (Acts 1:9-11)
There are many permutations of the concept that Jesus will some day come back from heaven down to earth. I will not attempt to address them all, but just in general the basic thought that Jesus is now bodily in some other place called heaven and that he is waiting until just the right time to come back to earth to set things right down here.
The basic prooftext for the second coming of Jesus is the passage quoted above, which is commonly understood to mean that Jesus, in the same body that ascended into the cloud into heaven, will bodily, physically, come back at some future date.
The angels here do not give any indication about when this will take place, nor do they make any suggestion as to what purpose Jesus may have in mind in doing so.
Of great importance is the phrase, in the same way. Traditionally it is understood to mean in the same body, that is, physically. The disciples watched him ascend bodily, and so it is thought that the angels are saying he will return bodily also.
But what if the angels did not mean that? What if the angels were informing the disciples that, in the same way they were now watching him go into heaven, they would see him return from there? Just as surely as you are now watching Jesus ascend into the cloud, so surely you will see him come back. What if that was the angels’ intent, to assure them that Jesus had not abandoned them but that he would be with them still? After all, Jesus had said, had he not, I will not leave you or forsake you? Not only that, but Jesus had indeed promised to be with them always, to the end of the age.
The phrase would then mean that the disciples, in the same way they were now seeing Jesus depart, would see him come back. That is a whole different story, and I am proposing that this is indeed what the angels intended to convey. And it would then require us to ask, Did it happen? Did the disciples see Jesus come back, even as they saw him go away?
Certainly they did not see him bodily, physically, again. But how does Jesus keep his promise to be with us always, never to leave us or forsake us? By being present as Spirit. The Spirit of Jesus is with us always, never leaving us when we come to him in repentant and loving faith.
If this is indeed the meaning of the angels’ words, then the fulfillment of that promise is what happened the next Pentecost celebration, which Luke goes on to describe in the very next chapter of Acts: the coming of the Holy Spirit upon them.
It will be of benefit to review the relationship of Jesus and his disciples at this point, for Jesus had been preparing them as strongly as he could for this transition away from his bodily presence to his continued presence as Paraclete. Recall Jesus’ words recorded in John 16:7, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate [Paraclete] will not come to you, but if I go away I will send him to you.
Why would it be beneficial to the disciples (and to us) that Jesus go away and send a substitute? For the reason that, attentive as they were to Jesus, and appreciative as they were of him, and as expecting as they were from him, the disciples never did really understand Jesus or figure out what he was planning to do. They came to him as followers, not because they understood Jesus’ mission, but because they thought he would accomplish theirs. Their mission, buttressed by centuries of rabbinical instruction, was that the hated presence of the Roman occupation be ended, and they were completely confident that Jesus was able to do this. Jesus could feed a multitude with one boy’s box lunch, so he would have no difficulty feeding an army. He could walk on water, so he could easily escape Roman soldiers if they were chasing him. He could heal the sick, so he could heal the soldiers who would be wounded in battle. He could even raise the dead, and how magnificent that would be after a serious battle with Roman soldiers. So the disciples were perfectly convinced Jesus could drive out the Roman occupation force, and they were also convinced that is what God’s messiah was destined to do. That is why they followed Jesus so faithfully.
And that is also why Judas Iscariot finally gave up on Jesus and betrayed him to his enemies. Judas, after what looked like Jesus’ failure of nerve on the previous Sunday’s triumphal entry, and after Jesus’ refusal to declare himself as a revolutionary leader, was convinced he and the others had made a mistake, that Jesus would not under any circumstances do what they wanted him to do. The other disciples were nonplussed by all the events leading up to and including the crucifixion, but they did not absolutely give up on Jesus as had Judas. Still, even after the resurrection they did not understand what it was all about. They kept asking, Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel? Even after the resurrection. Just moments before his ascension. They simply had no notion whatever of the nature of Jesus’ mission and ministry.
That is what Jesus had to correct. And he had to do it without totally alienating the disciples, as he had alienated Judas. These eleven would have to be retained, but they would also have to be brought out of their misapprehension and into the light of the Lord. Somehow Jesus would have to get inside their brains and make them realize what God’s intention was all about. Nothing he had said or done hitherto, try as he would, had gotten through to them. But now he was about to make it happen.
How could Jesus bring the disciples out of their delusion and into the understanding of what he was trying to do? How could he do this without disillusioning them to the extent that they would, as Judas, repudiate him? How could Jesus tell his disciples that he had no intention of doing what they had been expecting him to do all these years – and still retain their loyalty?
There was only one way to do it.
He simply had to leave them.
If he was not around any longer he could not possibly lead them into battle against Rome. So – the answer to the dilemma was simple and clear: go away and don’t come back. So Jesus said it in so many words, I am going to him who sent me. I am going to the Father. Where I am going you cannot come.