The following is a monthly article written by Rev Kenneth Stewart to the Stornoway RPCS congregation…
Unfulfilled Prophecy
Dear congregation,
Many Christians look into the future through the interpretive lens of the Book of Revelation. In many respects, that is understandable: after all, the book’s title – ‘Apocalypse’ – means ‘unveiling’ and, within its pages, Christ unveils a little of the future for the encouragement of His church.
However, if our understanding of the future is shaped by that book alone, it is liable to be deficient in two respects.
First, our understanding is bound to be less informed. And that’s because we are missing the truths contained in the large number of unfulfilled Bible prophecies found outside of the Apocalypse.
Second, our understanding is more likely to be ill-informed. And that’s because the prophesies of the Apocalypse are far more difficult to interpret, in the main, than those found elsewhere in the Bible.
All this is well exemplified in the debates regarding the time of Christ’s return and the events surrounding that return. Sadly, and for many years now, in both church and seminary, Christians have been conditioned into thinking of Christ’s return in relation to an event outlined in the Revelation chapter 20: 1-10, usually referred to as the ‘Millennium’.
As the word indicates, the ‘Millennium’ – from the Latin ‘mille’ (thousand) and ‘annum’ (year) – is a thousand-year period. During this millennial period, Satan is somehow bound. After the millennium is over, however, he will be released again for a time. Again, during this millennial period, at least some of the saints will, in some sense, be living and ruling with Christ.
I think it is safe to say that everyone would acknowledge this passage to be teaching a bright and blessed era for the Christian church. But for reasons I can’t quite fathom, it became the norm for Christians to view the return of Christ, and to define certain aspects of it, in connection with this millennial period. So, for many people, the return of Christ is either premillennial, postmillennial or a-millennial.
First, those who believe that Christ will return before the advent of this thousand-year period are known as pre-millennialists. They believe that Christ will return to establish His kingdom in this world. And so, far from bringing world history as we know it to a close, pre-millennialists believe that his return will usher in this thousand-year period of blessedness and peace. During this millennium, Christ will be present on earth in His glorified body and reigning from Jerusalem. This view has long dominated American evangelicalism.
Second, those who believe that Christ will only return after the advent of this thousand-year period are known as post-millennialists. They believe that, despite greater or lesser setbacks, the gospel will continue its advance until, by the power of the Spirit, there will be a millennium of world-wide spiritual blessing. Although this millennium will end with the loosing of Satan, that evil period will be brief and will itself be followed by the return of Christ, the event which closes world history. Incidentally, some post-millennialists understand the numeral 1000 as being symbolic – that is, as a symbol of an exceptionally long and blessed time (10 times 1000) – while others think of it as literal one thousand calendar years. This belief characterized Puritan theology, American Presbyterianism, and historic Scottish Reformed theology.
Third, there are those who believe that the millennium is not a future period at all. Rather, in their understanding, it is a way of describing the present gospel age during which Satan is bound and the saints reign. Accordingly, these believers are known as a-millennialists – although the term is a little unfair since it seems to imply that they do not believe in a millennium at all whereas, in truth, they merely have a different view of it. This a-millennial viewpoint is the position of the Roman Catholic church, the Lutheran church and, in the areas where pre-millennialism doesn’t hold sway, it has also largely replaced post-millennialism as the mainstream Reformed view – mainly due to the influence of leading Dutch Reformed theologians of the 20th century.
So, all Christians are viewed as post, pre or a- millennial.
Now, admittedly, logic dictates that all Christians will, of necessity, hold some form of one or other of these views. But I must confess that I see this way of viewing end times, and the return of Christ in particular, as being singularly unhelpful. After all, many Christians struggle to define their views of Christ’s return in relation to such a difficult passage of scripture. And while everyone agrees that Revelation 20 speaks of a blessed era for the Christian church, the agreement usually ends there! And so, sadly, the discussion always gets bogged down in the rather elusive and cryptic details of the passage.
That is why I believe that, in order to understand end times, and events associated with the return of Christ, it is far better to step back from Revelation 20, and indeed from the book of Revelation altogether, and to begin with prophetic passages which are outside of apocalyptic literature.
While these passages may have their own difficulties, the fact that they are found in historical or doctrinal, rather than apocalyptic, portions of scripture means that they are easier to interpret. Once we do so, we can then turn to the mysterious Apocalypse…
And when we take that step back, to survey prophecy from a wider aspect, in both Old and New Testaments, I think it becomes evident that Christ will not return until three notable prophecies are fulfilled. In saying that, I don’t intend to say that only three prophecies require to be fulfilled: rather, my intention is to highlight that the three prophecies I am referring to have the distinction of being both plain and prominent in the scriptures and, in an area full of difficulty and controversy, the plainness and prominence are both important.
Now, I understand what I am saying is contrary to the commonly held belief that the return of Christ could have happened – and could still happen – at any time since his ascension into glory. This belief is based on the parables which speak of the suddenness of the Lord’s return – as taught, for example, in the parables of Matthew 24 and 25. However, two things need to be noted in connection with these parables.
First, although they are undoubtedly teaching a sudden coming, they are not necessarily teaching an imminent coming. Second, even these parables themselves indicate a delay (a delay from our perspective, that is) in our Lord’s return of such a magnitude as to weaken the faith of the church, on the one hand, while emboldening the unbelief of the world on the other (see 2 Peter 3: 2-4)
Again, and strange as it may seem, this commonly held belief in an ‘any time’ return is almost unconsciously coupled with a belief that Christ did speak of certain ‘signs’ which would indicate the imminence of his return. Now, clearly, there is an obvious tension between an ‘any-time’ return and the necessity of certain signs preceding such a return and the attempt to hold these views in tension fails: It is normally done either by claiming that the preceding signs are intentionally vague (in other words, Christ did not mean these signs to be too plain in case we would lose the sense of his return being an imminent) or, similarly, that the signs are of such a nature as to be present more or less all the time (wars, famines and so on)
However, this is unsatisfactory. Although signs can be missed or misunderstood, they are originally given to be seen and understood. And if these signs are, somehow, always present or intentionally vague, then they cease to function as signs at all in any meaningful sense.
So, to be clear, I would suggest that, out with the Book of Revelation, there are three plain and prominent prophecies which require to be fulfilled before the return of Christ.
And these are: The spread and triumph of the gospel in all nations; the rise and fall of Antichrist; and the restoration and ingathering of the Jewish people.
We’ll begin next month, God willing, with the spread and triumph of the gospel in all nations.
Your minister
