CHAPTER 1

Understanding God’s Time

Does what one believes concerning the Biblical “end times” really matter? Many will say it does not and are not even interested in hearing or studying about it. But it does matter. Why? First and foremost, it matters because Jesus taught about it in great detail. He linked his “second coming” to the end of the old law and the establishment of the new covenant of grace, to the fulfillment of all Old Testament prophesies, to his atonement for sin as our High Priest, to the work of the Holy Spirit in revealing God’s will to the writers of the New Testament, and to the establishment of the kingdom of heaven. It mattered a great deal to Jesus.

It matters because it is a major theme throughout the writings of the apostles and other New Testament authors. The “soon coming of the Lord” was taught to all first century Christians to warn them of the trials they were facing in their very near future and to assure them that God was always faithful to his promises and would see them through this time. If it was important enough to be a topic in virtually every New Testament book, it should matter to us.

It matters because it has a significant impact on how the world views God, the Bible, and the church. Christians should present a positive, hopeful message to the world. The word “gospel” means good news. That the world is bad and only going to get worse and we are facing “terrible times in the last days” and are soon going to see a time of horrible “tribulation” until God finally destroys the universe and everything in it does not sound like good news! Forgiveness and redemption is the message of the Bible from beginning to end…not gloom, doom and destruction.

It also matters because people in the world can easily see that the multitude of prophesies about the “second coming” and the “end of the world” over the past two centuries have all proven to be false. How many times can Christians shout “the sky is falling” before everyone begins to see this “chicken little” message for exactly what it is?  Modern interpretations of Jesus’ statements that he is “coming soon,” whether in the form of false prophesies about the end of the world or attempts to explain why Jesus did not mean what he said, serve only to undermine the faithfulness of God and his word.

Instead of some cataclysmic destruction of the universe, consider for a moment, if the “end times” passages in Scripture refer to the end of a physical kingdom so that the spiritual kingdom of heaven could come to fruition; the end of the Law of Moses so the grace of God through Jesus Christ could be the basis of his judgement; the end of animal sacrifices because our atonement was finally complete with the blood of a sinless Savior…would that not truly be good news? God’s concern and plan for the world is, always has been, and always will be, its salvation, not its destruction. Understanding what Jesus and his apostles taught concerning the “end times” does really matter.

In order to comprehend what the Scriptures teach about the “end times” one must understand that from the time Adam and Eve first sinned in the Garden of Eden, God set in motion his plan for atonement so mankind could be forgiven and redeemed. This plan unfolded over several centuries and is the underlying subject of every book of the Bible. Beginning in Genesis 3:16 God promised Satan, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” The “he” in this passage refers to Jesus who would eventually be born of woman and make atonement for all sin, dealing the crushing fatal blow to Satan.

The problem facing mankind has always been sin. The result of sin is death...spiritual death, separation from the eternal God who is life. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). The apostle Paul repeatedly wrote that we are dead in sin, but made alive in Christ. Sin has always separated man from God. Isaiah said in chapter 59:1-2, “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” The story of the Bible is what God did about the problem of sin. Adam and eve chose to sin. Even though they knew the consequences beforehand, they still made that choice. Living in paradise was not sufficient motivation for them to always obey God. They sinned…they died. But God did promise to do something about the sin problem in the future.

The story of the flood in Genesis 6-9 is not just some unrelated story about a man who built a boat and saved a lot of animals. It is a graphic illustration not only of the consequences of sin but also the futility of trying to physically remove it from the earth…even by very drastic means. Even though people were created in the image of God, they were given the freedom in their own lives to make their own choices. All of us sometimes make the wrong choices. Following the flood men and women still were free to make their own choices…and they often chose sin over obedience to God.  In Genesis 8:21 God again made a promise; “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.” God promised he would never again destroy all living creatures because of sin. The answer to the sin problem was not annihilation. There had to be a better solution.

In Genesis 12 God called a man named Abram to separate himself and his immediate family from the other nations and he would become the father of a great nation. Later the Lord changed his name to Abraham in Genesis 18:18 God said, “Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.” Abraham did not live to see the ultimate fulfillment of this promise during his lifetime and, for many more generations, there was still no solution to the sin problem. However, we know through him, Isaac, Jacob and their many other descendants Jesus was eventually born into the world. God was true to his promise and through Abraham’s seed all nations were and are indeed blessed.

As the story of Abraham and his descendants unfolds in the Bible, we find they eventually had to go live in Egypt to survive a terrible famine. After a number of good years, a new pharaoh began to rule and the living conditions of the Israelites, as they had begun to be known, quickly degenerated into slavery. Like everything else in God’s plan, their bondage in Egypt and miraculous delivery by God’s power was symbolic of an even greater event that would occur many generations in the future. All of mankind was in bondage to sin and only a great deliverer could bring freedom.

Once the Israelites crossed the sea into the wilderness, safe from the Egyptian army, God called Moses up Mount Sinai and gave him the Ten Commandments along with all the other regulations of what became known as the Law of Moses. Because people were unable to keep the Law perfectly, it still did not solve the problem of sin. Animal sacrifices offered annually by the High Priest were insufficient to make atonement for sin, but they were a symbol of the One who was coming who could do that once and for all. The Old Testament books of Law, along with the Psalms and Prophets, all pointed to a coming Messiah who would finally make atonement for sin by sacrificing his own blood.

And, when God’s time was finally right…JESUS CAME.

He came exactly when, where, and how God had said he would. Thousands of years of history and prophecies pointed to the exact time and place where Jesus would be born…and die. When he was only 33 years old, after three short years of personal ministry and teaching, Jesus was betrayed, arrested, falsely accused, beaten, forsaken, crucified and died. Three days later, just as he had promised, he arose from the grave. Everything about Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection happened precisely as, and when, the Holy Scriptures said it would. But God’s eternal plan was not yet complete. And just prior to his crucifixion Jesus made some astonishing statements concerning another future event.

He was coming again!

Like everything else in God’s plan, this was not anything new for those listening who understood the Scriptures. The same prophecies that had so accurately predicted his birth and death also predicted this second coming with the same pinpoint accuracy. If we invest the time and effort to understand the Old Testament prophecies we will also have no trouble understanding what Jesus and his apostles taught about the Lord’s future coming.

Let’s start with the obvious. Did Jesus say when he was coming back? You may be surprised to know the answer is absolutely “yes”. He not only told them when he was coming back but also told them exactly how to know for sure when it happened. There would be signs that nobody could miss.

In Matthew 24:1-3, Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings....