One of the things about getting a little older is that patterns begin to emerge. They were always there, but the older I get, the harder it is to ignore them. One of them is the pattern of the a-little-too-wide-eyed take on Bible prophecy anytime a global crisis looms, or a war starts, or whatever. It’s the sort of thing where it’s easy to get drunk on your own passions.
There’s always a fresh supply of 20-somethings (and, embarrassingly, some older folks) who are just fit to burst with the way Things Are Lining Up Like Never Before. I remind them that people said the same thing in the 1980s…and they say things like, “Of course they did, but I’m sure we can all see things far more clearly lining up now than they did in the 80s.” Right, kid…but they said the same thing in the 80s, about the 1940s. And in the 40s, about the turn of the century. And at the turn of the century, too—although back then the postmillennial version was more popular, until WWI ruined everybody’s optimism.
“Sure,” they’ll say. “I’m not saying we should be dogmatic about it” while at the same time heavily implying that anybody who doesn’t think the rapture will happen within the year is just not taking things seriously. For my entire life, popular authors and conference speakers have been incredibly dogmatic about how we are “living in the last days.” (We are, too. Have been—if you’ll pardon a note of philistine biblicism—since the resurrection of Jesus, but that’s not what they mean, and we all know it).
Every generation of prophecy enthusiasts thinks they see something nobody’s ever seen before. And they’re right; every year’s a new year. But that doesn’t mean what they think it does. Every generation of prophecy enthusiasts thinks they invented not-quite-setting-the-date while managing to imply (nod, nod, wink, wink) that we’ll all be watching next year’s Super Bowl from the heavenly grandstands. Someday, somebody’s gonna be right about that, sho’ nuff.
But let’s be honest: this is like buying a Pick Six ticket. Can’t win if you don’t play, but how many times can you say “This is it! This is the one!” with total conviction? The answer to that question has a lot more to do with personality (and immaturity) than it has to do with the likelihood of winning, doesn’t it? Somebody will be right, sure enough; odds of it being you are not great. Live long enough, and unless you’re exceptionally credulous, at some point you grow sober-minded about it. There are a LOT more people saying “This is the one!” than there are winners—and the suckers are the ones so manically high on their own point of view that they can’t imagine they might be wrong.
In biblical prophecy, there have been plenty of people who pointed out all the things that were coming together and said “I’m not saying today’s the day—no man knows the day or the hour—I’m just saying that if you’re paying attention, things are coming together like never before, and I’d be very surprised if we’re all here in a year.” Or five, or thirty, whatever – pick your horizon. Or be cannier than that and never say a number while you imply to the youth group kids that they’d better win their friends to Christ now, because there’s no way they’re gonna graduate. To date, they’ve all been wrong; every last one of them.
And the sad part is, they’ve caused their hearers to become jaded and cynical about biblical prophecy, which is the real cost of the whole madness. Biblical prophecy is edifying and beautiful, and helps us to see our own times clearly even when our time is not the primary referent (as, say in Habakkuk’s case). The task before us is to read the text and the world, and be sober-minded about the whole thing.
Sober-minded people actually study the history, and learn that we thought Things Were Coming Together about the Ottoman Conquest, and the turn of the first millennium, and the Black Death and the Protestant Reformation and the Cold War and the turn of the second millennium—we didn’t learn our lesson the first time, apparently—and heaven knows what else. It’s not all bad; it’s good exercise to look around and think, “If it kicks off today, what might that look like?” (I know, if you’re postmillennial, you think it can’t happen today…but you could be wrong about that; somebody is.)
It’s good to feed your sanctified imagination on the thought that you might be wrong. If you’re the sort of premil that made Hal Lindsey and Tim Lahaye rich, consider what the world would look like if the postmil guys are right, and seven thousand years hence, seminary students will be struggling to remember whether Athanasius relied on C. S. Lewis’ thought, or the other way ’round, because all those early church fathers just run together in your head after a while. If you’re postmil, consider that if Jesus returns today, then the premil guys were right about a lot, and what might it look like for God to bring all things together in Christ in that way? (Do you think He can’t?) If you’re amil, maybe consider that even if you’ve read the mythic/symbolic dimensions of the text correctly from a literary point of view, what if God also realizes it all literally? Wouldn’t be the first time He’s ever done that—His Son did come up out of Egypt, after all.
Speaking of: go back and look at the prophecies of the first advent, especially the ones highlighted in the New Testament. Get a lesson in how to read prophecy from the ones that are already fulfilled. Reflect on the literalness, on the symbology, on God’s twisty way of doing exactly what He promised in a way nobody quite anticipated. Then think to yourself: “If I’d had a mastery of Old Testament messianic prophecy, how much of Jesus’ life could I have predicted before the fact?” Some things, like being born in Bethlehem, sure. But how much?
Right. So a little humility is in order.
As to the second advent, then: no man knows the day or the hour. Some morning, the sun will come up, and Jesus will return before suppertime. That day surely is coming. If in God’s good providence, it’s today, what might that look like? Imagining that is a good exercise; keeps you limber. But there’s a big difference between keeping limber and thinking that you’re seeing your interpretation of Revelation coming to pass in the headlines of the Washington Post. Those guys….
Lemme put it this way: in history, there are very few trends that hold even for a century, let alone across millennia. Death. Taxes. Prophecy wonks being wrong about the Second Coming. It’s that level of consistency. Those guys have been wrong, every single one of them, every single time, without fail, for two solid millennia. That takes skill. And they will continue to be wrong, until one day, finally, they aren’t.
Today really might be the day—be sober, be vigilant, and share the gospel—or ten thousand years from now, so be sober, be vigilant, and pay your bills on time. If it could be any day, then there’s nothing special about today except that it’s the day I happen to be living in, and the only one I can have an effect on. Faithfulness tomorrow is a dream; faithfulness yesterday (if there was any) is a memory; faithfulness today is what actually matters. A grasp of prophecy that encourages daily faithfulness is a great thing! Sensationalism and hucksterism and overblown nonsense of the type that’s never yet been right…that doesn’t build faithfulness.
Biblical prophecy is edifying and glorious when read soberly, but foolish and unstable people twist it to their own destruction, “as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.” If you’re cynical and blase about Scripture, you’re doing it wrong; if you’re drunk on your own passions, you’re doing it wrong; if you’re whipping up people’s emotions about it to sell your book, you’re definitely doing it wrong, and Jesus would flip over your table at the booksellers’ convention.
Two guys can both say “It could be any day,” but one of them means it could be today or tomorrow, or a thousand years from now, and the other one means it could be today, or tomorrow, but there’s no way we’re still around in five years. The former is honest and sober-minded; the latter is a grifter—or a mark.
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