Guilt by Association

Recently, I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Church of the Churchless. In his February 2 entry, author Brian Hines made some remarks about the supposed Second Coming and it got me to thinking about the same topic.

I’ve read several items lately that suggest that many fundamentalist Christians believe the Second Coming is near and so they are making every effort to hasten the Messiah’s arrival. This perspective helps to explain why such individuals don’t seem interested in saving the environment – it will all be burned to a crisp any day now as the Lord comes marching down from the clouds.

One of the key problems with this dire expectation is that some folks in EVERY generation stridently believe they are on the precipice of the End Time. Look back throughout the annals of history and anyone can find numerous individuals and groups – pointing to the Bible in relation to then-current affairs – who sounded the clarion call of the impending death knell.

You can even find such inferences in the New Testament itself. I tend to think that it often sounded like both Jesus and Paul thought the end of the human society was only a generation or two away. There was an immediate sense of urgency in their messages, one that sounds quite reasonable IF you think the world, as we know it, will cease to exist in the next 50 years or so.

But there’s yet another problem with the concept of hastening the Apocalypse – it directly contradicts a telling dictum from Jesus. Jesus told his followers that they would not know the hour or day of the Second Coming. If they expected it at a certain time or within a particular time frame, it definitely wouldn’t be then. (If you’re interested in the reference, go to Mt. 24:36.)

In other words, the divine shepherd of the VERY people who are forecasting the imminent “end of days” is forewarning the rest of us that these people are horribly wrong! He’s letting it be known right off the bat that they are deluding themselves and anyone who cares to listen.

Finally, there’s a third problem to consider. From the viewpoint of contemporary Christiandom, biblical characters like Judas Iscariot, the Sadducees and the Pharisees were unholy folks because they worked diligently to hasten the end days of Jesus himself. Wouldn’t it follow then that these current day hasteners are guilty of the same misdeeds as this unsavory group?

I’m sure all three of these points will be lost on those who believe what they believe is above reproach. At least it gives the rest of us some fat to chew on.