Our Blessed Hope
Revelation 21:1-7
Many students of the Bible have added much speculation about these events, about what biblical scholars and theologians call “eschatology.” Numerous books have been written attempting to answer every conceivable question about life after life and the return of Christ and the “end times.” Movies, Youtube videos, books, songs…many of them create fear in even Christians’ hearts and minds. What will be? What will happen? Why isn’t the Bible clearer about it all? Why is there so much disagreement about it all, even among God-fearing, Bible-believing, Jesus-loving Christians?
Listen as I tell a parable that might helpfully answer the latter question. Why is it so difficult for even the best of Christians to come to agreement about eschatology? Why is it not easier to know, even to picture the future?
The parable: There was a fetus growing and developing comfortably in his mother’s womb. But he was different than any other fetus in that he understood English. A prodigy above all other prodigies. One day his father spoke to him through his mother’s expanding stomach. His father asked him if he looked forward to emerging from the womb into the world outside of it. The fetus could also speak and said firmly “No!” “Why not?” asked the father. The fetus replied “Because I’m comfortable in here and I know nothing about your world outside this womb.” The father said “But it’s beautiful out here. You’ll love it. You’ll have so many exciting experiences. You should look forward to your birth as we do!” Then the father began to describe the world outside the womb. The fetus interrupted him and said “I hear your words but don’t understand them because I have no experience of all that. I can’t picture any of it. And I fear it because it’s so different from anything in here.” The father did his best to describe the outside world and assured the child in the womb that he would love what came after birth even if birth itself was feared and could possibly be a bit traumatic. The child in the womb tried to picture what the father had described and did believe the father’s promise, but he still preferred his womb existence to birth and what would come after that.
I have come to believe that death must be something like birth, for the Christian. And by “death” I mean both the event and experience of dying and what comes after for us. We are like the child in the womb. Maybe not as comfortable in this life as he was in his, but fearful of the future because it is largely unknown. We understand the Bible’s words, but we have trouble picturing what it says about the future. Both about “Paradise” and the “Parousia” (return of Christ) and the events leading up to it and following it.
My message to you, my brothers and sisters, is the same as the parabolic father’s to his child in the womb: Fear not; focus on what we can know even if we cannot picture it perfectly. The Bible’s eschatology is meant to comfort us and give us hope, something to look forward to. This life is a gestation period, a time of growing, even sometimes through hardships. According to the Bible, there is glory to come.
So what does the Bible say about the future?
Another analogy might help here. Think of a thousand piece puzzle that has a few missing pieces and a few pieces that don’t fit anywhere. Imagine buying such a puzzle at Goodwill and discovering that about it. Needless to say it would be frustrating. The puzzle could never finished. It couldn’t be. And yet it could partially reveal a beautiful picture.
Like the puzzle, the Bible’s “picture” of the future seems to be missing a few pieces and have a few pieces that don’t fit with the rest. At least that’s how it seems to us. In that future we will discover that the problem was ours. Like the father in the parable, God did his best to communicate the future to us.
The centerpiece of biblical eschatology is the return of Jesus Christ, what theologians call “the parousia” which simply means “appearing.” The angel on the mountain from which Jesus ascended after his resurrection said to the disciples “Why do you stand here gazing up? This same Jesus who went away will come again in like manner.” That is not the only place in the New Testament where God promises, through and angel or an apostle or prophet, the second coming of Christ. He will return. A question asked by many is “Why so long between then and then, between his first coming and his return?” The Bible says it is because God is patient, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.
What will his return look like? What will we see? When will it be? The Bible strives to tell us some partial answers to these and other questions, but all we really need to know is that sin and evil, wars and catastrophes, will not go on forever. Christ will return and establish his kingdom on earth, doing away with all that is harmful and bad. He will judge the nations and vindicate his deity and messiahship and establish “The Peaceable Kingdom” where lions and lambs will lie down together. How literally should we interpret all that the Bible says about this and other future, end times events? We don’t need to answer that. We will find out. All that we need to know is evil will be abolished and our lives will be glorified.
Backing up—what about death and afterlife? Two weeks ago I talked about life after death for the believer as a restful condition called by Jesus and the Apostle Paul “Paradise”—a word that names a beautiful garden, an oasis in a desert, the courtyard of a rich Roman’s villa. A place and time of restful waiting, waiting for future resurrection, the reuniting of body and soul. A place and time of being with Christ. Can we picture it? Only dimly, as through a glass marred by smoke and dirt. But what is promised is comfort and rest even if not yet the fullness of redemption.
Moving forward, closer to the return of Christ—what will lead up to it? The Bible makes clear that the world will become worse as Christ’s return comes closer. Scholars call much of the Book of Revelation and other portions that speak of that time as “apocalyptic” which means “catastrophic.” The Antichrist and the false prophet, the Battle of Armageddon, a seven year period called “The Great Tribulation.” But many questions remain. Will all true Christians escape that Great Tribulation by being “raptured”—taken up to be with Christ? Or will we have to endure the Great Tribulation? Many Christian scholars claim to know the answer, but the Bible is not as clear as we wish it were.
What the Bible is clear about is that, whether before or after or in the middle of the Great Tribulation we will meet Christ.
What I want to emphasize is that much that is written and depicted about these events are designed to frighten. Typical is the song by Jesus Freak Larry Norman entitled “I Wish We’d All Been Ready.” “Life was filled with guns and war and everyone got trampled on the floor, I wish we’d all been ready. … There’s no time to change your mind, the Son has come and you’ve been left behind.” Rather, I want to emphasize that whatever happens, the Bible’s promise is for our good. The Apostle Paul said in Roman 8 that nothing we go through in this life can compare with the glory to be revealed to and in us.”
Jumping ahead, over the parousia, the return of Christ, I believe the Bible promises that he will reign over this world for a thousand years. Revelation 20 says that “Satan will be bound a thousand years” and will be unable to tempt anyone. Isaiah 65:17-25 describes this messianic reign of Christ… (read it)…
Many questions about this “millennium” cannot be answered without much speculation. For example, will people born during the millennium still die? Will some people still sin even though Satan is bound, unable to tempt? Will there still be natural disasters and catastrophes? The Bible only assures us that Christ will enforce peace and justice among people. It will be a peaceable kingdom such as the world has never known.
Somewhere in all of this eschatological witness, the Bible promises that we shall rise with new bodies, souls and bodies reunited, just like Jesus’s resurrection. New bodies that are immortal and incorruptible. Fit for heaven. Transformed. Glorified.
What will our resurrected bodies be like? Stripping away speculation, the Bible does tell us something. The Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15, points us back to Jesus and says they will be like his resurrection. Bodies but changed. Our bodies but transformed. Continuity and discontinuity—between the body buried or cremated and the new body. Recognizable as us but barely. Some of Jesus’s followers recognized him after his resurrection but others did not until God opened their eyes.
Again, many questions about our resurrection bodies cannot be answered without much speculation. For example, both Christians and non-Christians asked ancient church father Bishop Augustine how old we will be in the resurrection. He answered “thirty.” When asked why he said because everyone younger than thirty wants to be thirty and so does everyone older than thirty. He knew that age answer, thirty, was speculation, but it was what I call “reverent speculation.” But so much speculation about life after death, life after life, and the return of Christ is irreverent speculation that causes fear rather than joyful anticipation.
Then, after the great resurrection and the millennium, God will resurrect the earth. Then comes the “New Heaven and New Earth”—brought together in glory. Revelation 21 tells us about it. So does the Apostle Paul in Romans 8—earth and us freed from “bondage to decay” and brought into the “glorious liberty” of sons and daughters of God.
We usually speak of “heaven” as, for those die in Christ, immediately after bodily death. But I call that place and time without bodies “Paradise.” “Heaven,” in this eschatological sense, comes in the ultimate future after the millennium. Paradise is preparation for heaven. Of course, so is our spiritual communion with God, with Jesus, here and now. But Paul talks about “degrees of glory.” Our glorification is a process—our salvation now, our being with Christ in Paradise after death, the earth ruled over by Christ for a thousand years, our resurrection with new bodies like his, the new heaven and new earth where there will be no more tears, no more sickness, sin or death. God will be “everything to all” in a bright, glorious new city where Jesus will be the light.
Eschatology. Full of mysteries. Described to us in ways difficult to picture. And yet the Bible lays out for us a great drama, a beautiful story, promises of glory to come. It is all to be anticipated eagerly rather than feared or pushed aside. We should also be wary of people who claim to know too much about “the furniture of heaven or the temperature of hell.” Too many books claim to tell too much. A bit of healthy skepticism is called for when we read them. Nobody knows the day or the hour of Christ’s return. Nobody knows who the Antichrist will be. Nobody knows with certainty whether there will be a rapture or not. What every Christian should know and be satisfied with is that God has only good instore for us. Dying is fearful, but being death is not. There will be much trauma in the “end times,” but we experience glory even if we are persecuted for holding firmly to faith. Fear not, beloved, but be encouraged. Face the future with trust in God’s promises.
According to the story, Reformer Martin Luther was once asked by a student what he would do today if he knew for sure that Jesus was going to come back tomorrow. His response: “Plant a tree.” “Occupy until he comes”—without fear and with eager anticipation.
*Note: If you choose to comment, make sure your comment is relatively brief (no more than 100 words), on topic, addressed to me, civil and respectful (not hostile or argumentative), and devoid of pictures or links. If you use this sermon or republish it, be sure to give me credit for it.*
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In