This is part of a series of studies that present varied interpretations of different aspects of eschatology. This one, written by Edward Barnes, follows four different understandings of the timing of the rapture, looking in a different way as to the timing of the return of our Lord. Eschatology is an area where there are many different viewpoints, and we want to encourage healthy and constructive discussion and thought. We encourage readers to reflect on the various studies put forward, and we very much welcome comments that are made in a respectful and thoughtful manner that reflects the brotherly love we should have for one another.

The majority of these articles are written by some of our readers. If you wish to contribute an article to this particular series, then you can find our guidelines here. We hope to look at interpretations of the millennium soon – we are particularly keen to hear if anyone wishes to write presenting a post-millennial outlook.

What will the Church be like just before Jesus returns? What (if anything) must happen between ‘now’ and the Second Coming of Jesus?

To me, such questions are fundamental to our understanding of the ‘end times’. Therefore, my contribution to these studies focuses on what, for me, stands out clearly from scripture, and leaves aside the more speculative elements.

It is my contention that the Church of Jesus Christ must bring about the purpose he intended throughout all ages – the nations coming to a saving knowledge of God and the summing up of all things in Christ through his covenant people. God has no ‘Plan B’. I believe that the Church has been commissioned with a task that God intends for her to complete before Jesus comes again. That task is presently and patently unfinished, yet (I believe) achievable within the span of a generation willing and obedient to its heavenly Master.

A Church of overcomers

With that perspective, I cannot accept that ultimately the Church will struggle for survival, holding out for rescue before its flame would be extinguished. Instead, I see a Church in the last days made up of overcomers – enduring, persecuted, yet taking the good news of salvation in Jesus into every nation, language and people-group.

I cannot accept that ultimately the Church will struggle for survival, holding out for rescue before its flame would be extinguished. Instead, I see a Church in the last days made up of overcomers – enduring, persecuted, yet taking the good news of salvation in Jesus into every nation, language and people-group.

When Israel had failed to recognise her Messiah, she received the harsh rebuke from Jesus himself that the Kingdom would be taken away and given to a people (Gr. ethnos = nation, race) bearing the fruit of it (Matt 21:43). It would seem to be a straightforward understanding that the “people” Jesus was referring to are his Church (i.e. Jewish and Gentile believers) and that he fully expected them (us) to bear that fruit. Has the Church yet borne evidence of the fruitfulness Jesus envisaged having been satisfied?

“Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of my God”. (Rev 3:2).

Let me outline seven (overlapping) areas where I consider the work of the Church to be incomplete . Space limits discussion of context and I accept that there are alternative views and interpretations.

1. The glory of God (Num 14:21, Hab 2:14)

God promised during times of crisis that the whole earth would be filled with his glory. I recognise that for many, fulfilment of this promise only comes about after the return of Jesus, but will it come suddenly or through a process unfolding through the Church age?

2. Enemies become footstool (Ps 110:1, Heb 10:11-13)

It might be considered that the fulfilment of Psalm 110 comes about at or after the Second Coming of Jesus. However, based on how that scripture is interpreted for us in the New Testament, we understand that when he ascended, Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Father (Heb 1:3), which is where he still sits and reigns, until¹ all his enemies are made a footstool for his feet (Heb 10:11-13).

I suggest a similarity in what is regarded as Peter’s ‘second sermon’, when he anticipates the return of Jesus:

“Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times [Gr. Kairos = seasons] of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that he may send Jesus, the Christ [Messiah] appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period [Gr. Chronos = time] of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient time.” (Acts 3:19-21).

While we see it is God, the Father, who doing the ‘bringing about’ of all things into subjection to his Son (1 Cor 15:20-28), the time period spanned is when God’s agency on earth is the Church.

3. Promise to Abraham (Gen 12:1-3)

If we continue Peter’s ‘second sermon’, we read:

“And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announced these days. It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ For you first, God raised up his Servant and sent him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.” (Acts 3:24-26).

Peter is saying that the promise to Abraham is still active, mediated through Jesus Christ (as the seed of Abraham) through the “sons of the prophets” – which I suggest can be understood first as his immediate audience (i.e. repentant Jews), but also to everyone (Jew and Gentile) who comes to faith in Jesus.

When Abraham was called by God, he was given the promise of a two-fold blessing – that he would be blessed and that all the families in the earth would be blessed through him. We have tended to focus on the direct promise to Abraham, overlooking the indirect promise through Abraham to bless the whole of mankind.

We see this promise was transferred to Israel (e.g. Psalm 67:1-2) but remained unfulfilled. As inheritors of the promise through Christ, it awaits fulfilment through the Church – by definition before Jesus comes again.

4. Completion of the Great Commission (Matt 24:14, Matt 28:18-20)

There follows a clear link between the promise to Abraham and the Great Commission.

“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’” (Matt 28:18-20)

“This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” (Matt 24:14)

Of the signs Jesus gave it is the completion of the Great Commission that marks the end of the present age.

When John saw an uncountable number from every tribe, tongue, people and nation (Rev 7:9), is that not evidence of the Church having fulfilled the Great Commission?
I’m with Isobel Kuhn :

“I believe that in each generation God has called enough men and women to evangelize all the yet unreached tribes of the earth. It is not God who does not call. It is man who will not respond!”

5. Heroes of faith (Heb 11-12)

Having reviewed their ‘heroic’ acts of faith, the writer to the Hebrews notes that none of the Old Testament saints received what was promised. Instead, it falls to us to pick up the baton and complete the race they started:

“And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.” (Heb 11:39-40).

In other words, the completion of their acts of faith must come about through us - or not at all!

6. Maturity of the Church (Phil 1:4-6, Eph 4:11-13)

In his letters, Paul writes about churches coming to maturity (completeness or perfection). While our ultimate completeness comes about when Jesus returns, nevertheless there is a call upon us – as individuals, local churches and the Body of Christ – to grow up in all things into the “measure of stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ”.

7. Redemption of Israel (Rom 9-11)

Finally, there remains the promise of the coming to faith of the Jewish people (‘natural Israel’). As with all peoples, their salvation is based on repentance and faith in their true Messiah, Jesus Christ. Paul wrote (hoping) that their salvation might come about through jealousy when they saw ‘their’ blessing appropriated by other nations (Rom 11:14) and discloses a mystery that there will be a time when their hardening is removed (Rom 11:25).

What about ‘difficult times’?

Of course, many might now be detecting a leaning towards certain schools within post-millennialism – such as ‘Reconstructionism’ or ‘Dominion Theology’ – which teach a pre-eminent Church establishing the rule of God over the nations, their governments and human institutions before Jesus returns.

I consider that such teaching goes beyond scripture. We need to understand that affliction and persecution are part of the “normal” Christian life , as experienced by our brothers and sisters throughout history and intensifying as the days ahead become darker. There are clear warnings that the Church will be going through difficult times just before Jesus returns (e.g. Luke 18:8, 2 Thes 2:3, 1 Tim 4:1).

We need to understand that affliction and persecution are part of the “normal” Christian life , as experienced by our brothers and sisters throughout history and intensifying as the days ahead become darker.

None of us should be under any illusion that there will be perilous times ahead. Many will fall away.

Yet again, I cannot accept that the Bible merely paints a picture of a Church floundering in adversity, struggling to survive, awaiting rescue from a world descending into crisis and tribulation.

In his words to each of the seven churches in Asia (Rev 2-3), Jesus includes a promise to “him who overcomes”. How, or whether, we regard these messages as having wider application than to the specific church situation being addressed, I suggest that it still holds that the members of the Church in every place and at every time are called to be overcomers.

What does that mean?

“They overcame him because of the Blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony and not loving their lives even unto death” (Rev 12:11).

All three elements of that verse are important, perhaps the last (frequently omitted) the most important of all. Remember the words of Jesus:

“Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name” (Matt 24:9).

In the last days we know that our enemy will step up his attacks upon believers in Christ, knowing that his time is short (Rev 12:12).

Church history and current events teach us that where persecution is strong, the Church waxes stronger.

The Future of the Church?

Did Jesus set his Church an unfinishable task? When he comes again, will it be to rescue a Church in disarray and simply say ‘oh well, never mind’ – or will he find faith on the earth?

Of course, any examination of the current state of the Church indicates that there’s still a long way to go. If it were not for what the Bible says, it would be easy to say that we’re faced with impossibility. Perhaps little wonder that many have settled for a ‘fear not, little flock’ mentality, as facing up to the alternative is beyond us - which it is, of course, through our own resources.

We can be assured that if this reading of scripture is correct and that Jesus intends that his Church comes to fullness before he returns, he has provided us with every resource necessary for what lies ahead – not least the equipping of the Holy Spirit.

He has provided us with every resource necessary for what lies ahead – not least the equipping of the Holy Spirit.

Once we appreciate this perspective, we also become alert to the many warnings in scripture – many from Jesus Himself – of failing to prepare, press in or follow his instructions.

Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you, either. (Rom 11:20-21)

“For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, he who is coming will come, and will not delay. But my righteous one shall live by faith; And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.” (Heb 10:36-39)

My reading of church history recognises that God, in his grace (and despite the schemes of the religious) has been restoring the Church to her original calling. There have been numerous setbacks, failures and false promises (many in our lifetimes), but they should neither discourage nor dissuade us from pressing forward. I believe that the world has yet to see the Church as Jesus intended her to be – a bride made ready for his return.

Notes

¹ I would recommend a study of the word “until” in the New Testament. “Until” can refer to a time-span or sequence of events that take place before a conclusive time or event happens.