The End is Not Near

"Never forget that we are all still 'the early Christians'. The present wicked and wasteful divisions between us are, let us hope, a disease of infancy: we are still teething. The outer world, no doubt, thinks just the opposite. It thinks we are dying of old age. But it has thought that very often before."

- CS Lewis

It's not uncommon these days to find news stories posted on Facebook or Twitter with the simple caption, "Come, Lord Jesus" or some words about how we're living in the last days. For these people, I have what may be some unsettling words: Jesus isn't coming back any time soon.

Now put down your pitchforks and hear me out. Why should we think this? The main reason is that Jesus still has lots left to do before He comes back.

The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. (Psalm 110:1)

In this verse, David says that the Lord--the Father--said to David's Lord--the Son--to sit at His right hand until He makes the Son's enemies his footstool. So where is Jesus right now? He's at the right hand of the Father. And how long will he be there before he comes back? He'll be there until the Father makes all His enemies His footstool.

The apostle Paul quotes this verse and expands on it in 1 Corinthians 15:

Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

Christ must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet and the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. So all of Christ's enemies, except death itself, will be defeated in history. Then, when He comes, Jesus will finally destroy death. Think about what this means for the future. Everything that sets itself up against Christ will be destroyed, not at the end of time, but within world history.

But isn't this starry-eyed, head-in-the-clouds optimism? Don't you watch the news, man?

Go with me here. Think about the political environment that the apostle Paul lived in when he wrote 1 Corinthians. Christians were living under a Roman emperor named Nero. Nero was a wicked man. For one, he would crucify Christians and then light their bodies on fire to illumine his dinner parties. He would dress up as a beast and rape both male and female prisoners. In these surroundings, the only thing Paul had to cling to were the promises of God. And within just six generations, the Roman empire became officially Christian. The Great Roman Empire was taken over by a polis whose only weapons were water, wine, and bread. Rome was under the feet of Christ.

The Kingdom is like a mustard seed. Though it starts small, it grows into a mighty tree. And the birds of the air come and nest in its branches. The Kingdom is like a bit of leaven that a woman puts in a lump of dough and it leavens the whole lump. The Kingdom is like a stone that becomes a mountain and fills the whole earth. The Kingdom is here. And it's growing. We have the same promise Paul had--the same promise Abraham had. Let's dare to believe it.