Apocalyptophobic No More!
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 2 Peter 3:3-10
Who
is the best selling American author ever?
Tom Clancy? John Steinbeck? Robert Ludlum? Mark Twain? Danielle Steele?
None of the above. If you
answered Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye, you were correct. Jenkins and LaHaye are the authors of the
popular Left Behind novels, which
purport to depict a fictionalized account of what Scripture allegedly teaches
about the end of history: the world encounters a catastrophe of historic proportions
when millions of Christians are suddenly “raptured,” simply disappeared from
the face of the planet. Political
crises throughout the globe lead to the establishment of a single “one world
government” led, unbeknownst to the citizens who were left behind, by the
antichrist, Satan’s emissary on earth.
Led by the antichrist, Israel is attacked for its refusal to participate
in this government of the nations. Only
God’s miraculous intervention saves Israel from the surrounding military
hordes. Finally, in the climax of
history, Jesus returns to establish a 1,000 year reign here on earth where
peace, justice and the evangelical way will be the rule. These books, by the millions, have been read
by Christian and non-Christian alike in an attempt to understand what God has
in store for us. The books are
creative, colorful, compelling and wrong.
Wrong? Aren’t the Left Behind books based on Scripture? The Creed says Jesus “will
come again to judge the quick and the dead.”
How can I say Jesus is not coming again? Well, I’m not saying
Jesus will not return. One of the earliest creeds was “Maranatha,” which means
“Come, Lord Jesus,” or “Come, O Lord.” What I’m saying is that the depictions
of a rapture, one world government, and literal, 1,000 year reign of Jesus are
not likely to be how the world ends.
*****
Let
me confess my bias: I don’t put much stock in end of the world scenarios and
outright reject Jenkins and LaHaye’s understanding of Scripture. It was not always so in my life. When I became a Christian at 17, the first
book of the Bible I read was the Book of Revelation. I was fascinated by it; I didn’t understand any of it, but I was
fascinated. So I went to a Christian
bookstore in California and bought a book to help me understand the Revelation. I cannot for the life of me remember the
title of that book, but I remember well the look of the cover: white with red
lettering, a certain type font, bold headlines promoting its content, promising
to reveal the secret identity of the antichrist. Would you like to know who the antichrist will be? I’ve read the book. I know.
I can tell you if you want. (For
those of you who don’t want the secret spoiled by knowing an actual name, cover
your ears!) The antichrist is Anwar
Sadat!
For
those of you of the younger generation, Anwar Sadat was the former President of
Egypt. I say “was” and “former” because
Mr. Sadat was assassinated 25 years ago, when I was 17, about two months after
I read that book. I remember thinking
when I heard the news of Sadat’s assassination, but it wasn’t about how sad his
loss would be for his family, nor about how disruptive his absence would be to
Middle East geo-politics. No, with all
the savvy and maturity of 17 hard years behind me, I thought, “Whoa. There go that book’s sales.”
For the next 15
years, I gave up on the Revelation. I was, like most mainline pastors,
“apocalyptophobic,” which means afraid of apocalyptic writings. The apocalyptic writings are those books in
the Bible, such as Revelation, Ezekiel or Daniel, that use imagery, often
violent but always intense imagery, to convey their message about God. I was apocalyptophobic and wanted nothing to
do with these books. I didn’t want to
discuss them. I didn’t want to teach
them. I certainly didn’t want to preach them.
Think about it: how many sermons on the Revelation, Ezekiel or Daniel
have your heard in a mainline church?
Some, perhaps, but not many.
Many of you have never heard such a sermon preached in a mainline
church.
But something
happened that made me change my mind, that made me say, “It’s time I get all
this apocalyptic stuff figured out.”
The defining moment for change occurred as I perused a Christian
bookstore in Texas. I was looking for help on whatever sermon series I was
planning, browsing the stacks, when I saw it. I recognized it immediately: the
same white cover with red lettering; the same type font; the same bold
headlines promoting its content; the same promise to reveal the secret identity
of the antichrist. I thought to myself,
“How could that book still be in print?”
I grabbed it from the shelves, looked inside to read a few pages, and
there was the answer to my question: it was the exact same book except with a
different antichrist being named. Un-be-lieve-able! I vowed then that I would be apocalyptophobic no more.
*****
The
apocalyptic writings of the Revelation, Ezekiel and Daniel have not always been
as popular as they are today; they are especially popular among the so-called
“Bible churches.” The popularity of apocalyptic
writings was ignited in this country in the early 20th century with
a new teaching called “dispensationalism.”
Dispensationalism is the product of C. I. Scofield and, later, C. C.
Ryrie. Among the beliefs of Scofield
and Ryrie is an understanding of Scripture that teaches the Revelation predicts
what will happen in the future, down to details, if one only knows how to read
the tea leaves correctly. Each of the
metaphorical images of the Revelation has a meaning embedded in today’s world.
So it is that Jenkins and LaHaye can write the ten volumes of the Left Behind series.
The
way classical Christianity has understood the Revelation and other such books
is quite different. Classical
Christianity has taught that the Revelation teaches us “theology through
metaphor”; that is, the Revelation uses images to convey meaning. It doesn’t so
much precisely predict the future as much as it assures us that the future
belongs to God. For instance, the image
of the “Lamb that was slain” refers to Jesus. When the Revelation says the Lamb that was slain has authority to
open the “Book of Life,” we are to understand it to mean that Jesus,
ultimately, is in charge of history and therefore, we are to be comforted. Indeed, it is the dispensationalists misuse and
misunderstanding of metaphor that has led to so much mischief. Let me illustrate with two, brief examples
taken from dispensationalist teaching: the rapture and the antichrist.
The
“rapture” refers to the teaching that when Jesus returns all believers will be
disappeared into the air. Thus you may
have read the bumper sticker, “In case of rapture, this car will be
unoccupied,” or the counter to that bumper sticker, “In case of rapture, I get
your car.” The dispensationalists get
their teaching on the rapture from 1 Thessalonians 4:17, which says, “we…will
be caught up…in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” Unfortunately, what you see is not exactly
what you get. Scofield and Ryrie took
these verses at face value, literally, without an understanding of Jewish and
Greek culture.
In the ancient
cultures, when a great person entered a city, a Caesar or a general or Jesus on
Palm Sunday, the people would go outside the city to escort them back into
town. What Paul is saying here is that
when Jesus returns we will greet him “in the air” (which may be literal or
poetic) and then accompany him back to earth where his rule will be
established. The destination is earth,
not heaven, for this verse. We will not be disappeared! By neglecting the culture and the sense of
the poetic literary style Paul is using, the dispensationalists have created a
completely false idea.
Or
again, we might question the dispensationalists’ obsession with naming a
particular “antichrist” from today’s world.
I actually can tell you the antichrist’s name. Would you like me to tell you the name of the antichrist? It’s actually fairly easy. You see, the
Greek and Hebrew alphabets served both as letters and numbers. We’ve all heard of “Roman numerals,” like
those used to denote Super Bowls; well, those “numerals” are letters, aren’t
they? So someone’s name could be added up to form a number. In fact, people “add up” someone’s name all
the time. Evidently Anwar Sadat’s name
adds up to the number of the antichrist.
But what is the number of the antichrist? Come on, someone tell me what it is? Yes, it’s 666, isn’t it?
Or is it?
If
we look in our Bibles, they all say the number of the beast is 666 because most
ancient Greek manuscripts use this number.
However, some ancient manuscripts use the number 616, depending on the
geographic location in which the manuscript was found. Here’s the deal: Caesar Nero, who ruled
about 30 years before the Revelation was written, was a bad guy. Nero was the first emperor to persecute
Christians: he lied about them, falsely accused them of arson when Rome burned,
and made an example of them by using them as human torches to light Rome at
night or as slaughter in the Coliseum games.
In Christian circles, Nero was notorious, a symbol of the evil in the
world that fights against the people of God.
Now Nero’s name could be spelled two ways, with or without a final “n,”
as Nero or Neron. In those areas where
it was common to spell his name with a final “n,” the number of the antichrist is
666. In those areas where it was common
to spell his name without the final “n,” the number of the beast is 616.
What
does all this mean? It means the
Revelation is saying the antichrist is Caesar Nero, a dead guy, who died 30
years before the Revelation was written!
But of course we know John is saying more than that. We see here what I mean by the message is
in the metaphor. For the Revelation,
Nero is the perfect symbol for how Satan is at work in the world: persecuting
the faithful, making war on those who keep the commandments of God and hold the
word of Jesus.
So,
let’s get specific: is Osama bin Laden the antichrist? Well of course he is! But so were Hitler and Stalin. Probably not Anwar Sadat; but possibly Ken
Lay. Indeed, anyone and everyone who seeks to persecute the faithful and
suppress the Word of God’s love and mercy, the Word of God’s holiness and
justice, is the antichrist, for the metaphor is a mirror to the many.
*****
What
then shall we say about all this? If
the Revelation and Ezekiel and Daniel don’t predict our precise future, what
use are they? Well, I grant you they
are difficult to understand, but I would argue they are also important. They are important because of the Word they
speak.
Ø
They speak a Word that
describes the presence of evil all around us, of “wars and rumors of wars” both
between countries and between neighbors and spouses and, at times, one’s own
head and one’s own heart.
Ø
They speak a Word that
describes the persistence of evil but the greater persistence of God. Yes, there is brokenness all around us but
through the Holy Spirit God is always and forever confronting sin with his
grace, confronting lies with his truth, confronting poverty with his justice,
confronting war with his ever present call to peace.
Ø
They speak a Word that
says, “Not only is God present in the here and now and always through the Holy
Spirit, there will come a time when the fulfillment of the ages arrives, a time
when history reaches its climax, a time when God says, ‘Enough,’ a time when
God will say, ‘Let there be peace on earth,’ and it will be so. And there will be evening and morning, the
eighth day.”
And Jesus will come to judge the living
and the dead.
Ultimately,
the message of the apocalyptic writings such as the Revelation, and of today’s
phrase from the Apostle’s Creed, can be summarized in two words: God wins.
Ø
God wins: the victory
belongs to him.
Ø
God wins: evil shall not
have the final word.
Ø
God wins: love will
triumph over hate.
Ø
God wins: light will
shine in the darkness.
Ø
God wins: the broken
world will be transformed by grace back into a new creation.
Ø
God wins: even the
greatest foe, death, will be swallowed up by Life.
Ø
God wins: therefore we
need not fear, nor obsess over, the future.
Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!
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