by
Damien F. Mackey
Were Jesus Christ and his
Apostles deluded about the Second Coming?
Did they pass on to us the
wrong time-table?
When
we compare what Jesus Christ, St. John, the author of Revelation, and St. Paul
the Apostle, had to say about the “coming” of the Lord with what modern-day
Christians have to say about it, we encounter a radical difference in time
concept.
In
the first case, the pre-modern one, the emphasis is upon the shortness of time.
Jesus stated emphatically (Matthew 16:28; cf. Luke 9:27): ‘Truly, I say to you, there
are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in
his kingdom’.
According to John (Revelation 1:1a, 3): “This is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to
show His servants what must soon [Gk.
tachos] take place .... Blessed is the one who reads the words of this
prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written
in it, because the time is near”.
Paul wrote similarly in various places. Here I take just 1
Thessalonians 5:23:
“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you
wholly, and may your spirit, and soul, and body, all together be preserved
blameless at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ”.
Typical
of the modern view is the ‘slingshot’ effect, sling-firing these prophecies
right away from the time of Jesus Christ and squarely into our modern era.
For
example, Fr. William Saunders has written (in “The Second Coming of the Lord
and the Last Judgment”):
https://www.ewtn.com/faith/teachings/judga2.htm
As
Catholics, we are mindful and profess in our Creed that Christ will come again
to judge the living and the dead. The Second Vatican Council's “Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church” states, “Already the final age of the world is with
us and the renewal of the world is irrevocably under way; it is even now
anticipated in a certain real way, for the Church on earth is endowed already
with a sanctity that is real though imperfect” (No. 48). To try to grasp the
when, what and how of this Second Coming and last judgment, we really need to
glean the various passages in Sacred Scripture to see how our Church has
interpreted them. They are united in one drama.
Our Lord
in the Gospel spoke of His second coming. He indicated that various signs would
mark the event. Mankind would suffer from famine, pestilence and natural
disasters. False prophets who claim to be the Messiah will deceive and mislead
people. Nations will wage war against each other. The Church will endure
persecution. Worse yet, the faith of many will grow cold and they will abandon
the faith, even betraying and hating one another. (Confer Mt. 24:4-14; Lk
17:22-37)
St. Paul
describes a “mass apostasy” before the Second Coming, which will be led by the “son
of perdition”, the “Man of Lawlessness”, the “adversary who exalts himself
above every so-called god proposed for worship”. This “lawless one” is part of
the work of Satan, and with power, signs, wonders and seductions will bring to
ruin those who have turned from the truth.
However, “the
Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of His mouth and annihilate him by
manifesting His own presence”. (Cf. 2 Thes 2:3-12) The Catechism affirms, “God's
triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the last judgment after
the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world” (No. 667). Our Lord will come
suddenly. “The Son of Man in His day will be like the lightening that flashes
from one end of the sky to the other” (Lk 17:24). St. Peter predicts, “The day
of the Lord will come like a thief and on that day the heavens will vanish with
a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire and the earth and all its deeds
will be made manifest” (2 Pt 3:10).
Death will
be no more. The dead shall rise and those souls who have died will be united
again to their bodies. All will have a glorious, transformed, spiritualized
body as St. Paul said, “He will give a new form to this lowly body of ours and
remake it according to the pattern of His glorified body ...” (Phil 3:21).
At this
time, the final, or general judgment will occur.
Jesus
said, “Those who have done right shall rise to life; the evildoers shall rise
to be damned” (Jn 5:29). Our Lord described this judgment as follows: “When the
Son of Man comes in His glory, escorted by all the angels of heaven, He will
sit upon His royal throne and all the nations will be assembled before Him.
Then He will separate them into two groups, as a shepherd separated sheep from
goats” (Mt 25:31-32).
Here each
person will have to account for his conduct and the deepest secrets of his soul
will come to light. How well each person has responded to the prompting of God’s
grace will be made clear. Our attitude and actions toward our neighbor will
reflect how well we have loved our Lord. “As often as you did it for one of My
least brothers, you did it for Me” (Mt 25:41).
Our Lord
will judge us accordingly.
For those
who have died and already have faced the particular judgment, their judgment
will stand. Those living at the time of the Second Coming will receive
judgment. Those who have rejected the Lord in this life, who have sinned
mortally, who have no remorse for sin and do not seek forgiveness, will have
condemned themselves to hell for all eternity. “By rejecting grace in this
life, one already judges oneself, receives according to one's works and can
even condemn oneself for all eternity by rejecting the Spirit of love”
(Catechism, No. 678). The souls of the righteous will enter heavenly glory and
enjoy the beatific vision and those who need purification will undergo it.
We do not
know when the Second Coming will occur. Jesus said, “As to the exact day or
hour, no one knows it, neither the angels in heaven nor even the Son, but only
the Father. Be constantly on the watch! Stay awake! You do not know when the
appointed time will come” (Mk 13:32-33).
[End
of quote]
This
appears to me to be a confusing, on the part of Fr. William Saunders, of the
“coming” predicted by Jesus Christ in Matthew 16:28: ‘Truly, I
say to you, there are some standing here who
will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom’, with
what is commonly known as the “Second Coming”.
The first of these may be regarded as a
spiritual coming, when Jesus Christ returned in c. 70 AD to oversee the demise
of the old Bride, harlot Jerusalem gone wrong, and to embrace his new Bride,
the Church:
Jesus Christ came
as Bridegroom
(5) Jesus Christ
came as Bridegroom | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
The second of these is the definitive “Final
Coming”, commonly referred to as the “Second Coming”.
(For Catholic readers, in particular, both
terms are used, “Second Coming” (Our Lady) and “Final Coming” (Jesus) - this
latter was spoken of by Jesus, the Divine Mercy, to Sister Faustina: ‘You will prepare the world for My final
coming’. (Diary 429).
As the
Americans say, Let’s do the math.
First: “In the Gospels the Lord shows us that his first coming was
in humility, as a Servant, to free the world from sin”.
http://www.ewtn.com.au/devotionals/mercy/coming.htm
Second: His soon-to-take-place “coming” as gleaned from the quotes
above, follows that one.
Last: There is yet to be a Final Coming, as indicated by the Catechism: “God’s triumph over the
revolt of evil will take the form of the last judgment after the final cosmic
upheaval of this passing world” (No. 667). The Last Judgment.
“Must Soon Take
Place”
Revelation
is a book of urgency. The events it describes were to happen soon.
When
the Bible says “soon”, it means soon, as in the case of the birth of Isaiah’s
Immanuel - not in the Third Millennium! We learn that lesson when we start
reading Revelation at its beginning.
Plato,
in The Republic, had stated an important maxim: “The beginning is the
most important part of the book”, and this principle holds a special
significance for the would-be interpreter of Revelation.
“Unfortunately”,
as Kenneth L. Gentry Jr. has rightly noted (TEMPORAL EXPECTATION
IN REVELATION):
https://postmillennialismtoday.com/2013/12/02/temporal-expectation-in-revelation/ “too many prophecy enthusiasts leap over
the beginning of this book, never securing a proper footing for the treacherous
path ahead”.
The
key to Revelation is found in St. John’s beginning, as quoted above.
But,
in case we missed it, John repeats this soon-ness at the very end (22:6):
The angel
said to me, ‘These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God of the
spirit of the prophets, sent His angel; to show His servants the things that
must soon take place’ .... Then he told me, ‘Do not seal up the words of the
prophecy of this book, because the time
is near’.
Just
as it would have been senseless for Isaiah’s “sign” for king Ahaz to have been
something that would not occur until 700 years later, so would John the
Evangelist, according to Gentry: “... be taunting [the churches] mercilessly if
he were discussing events two thousand or more years distant. God answers the
anxious cry “How long?” by urging their patience only a “little while longer”
(6:10-11). Revelation promises there will no longer be “delay” (10:6).
The
angel’s command to St. John not to seal up the scroll is also tellingly in
favour of this “soon” interpretation.
The
prophet Daniel, by contrast, had been commanded by the angel to keep his “words
secret and the book [scroll] sealed until the time of the End”, because the
things Daniel was shown were not to happen for a long time - in the time of the
Apostles’ generation.
For
Our Lord Jesus Christ himself had, during his important Olivet Discourse when
facing the Temple of Jerusalem, referred to the “abomination that makes
desolate of which the prophet Daniel spoke” (Matthew 24:15; cf. Mark 14:13).
We
know from Josephus’s history that the Roman armies of Cestius Gallus, that came
up to (and surrounded) Jerusalem in 66 AD, and had all but conquered the city,
had suddenly, most strangely, retreated. Even Josephus recognised the hand of
Providence in this most unexpected turnabout. Many Jews, he said, fled the city
at the time - no doubt e.g. those obedient to Jesus Christ’s Olivet warning.
And Josephus is correct in seeing this intermission as only intensifying the
pressure ultimately, so that with the return of the Roman armies the final
destruction of Jerusalem, when it came (in c. 70 AD), would be total. Thus
would be fulfilled Our Lord’s prophecy that ‘Jerusalem will be trampled on by
the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles are fulfilled’ (Luke 21:24).
St.
John recalls this in Revelation 11:2: “But exclude the outer court [of the
Temple]; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They
will trample on the holy city for 42 months”.
As
Kenneth Gentry has observed: “... the trampling of the temple in AD 70 (Dan.
9:26-27) after its “abomination” (9:27; cf. Matt. 24:15-16; Luke 21:20-21) ends
the Gentiles’ ability to stamp out the worship of God. In Daniel 9:24-27,
Matthew 23:38-24:2, and Revelation 11:1-2, the “holy city” and its Temple end
in destruction”.
But
how do the “times of the Gentiles” relate to the forty-two months of Revelation
11:12)?
Well,
according to one view, the period would range from the spring of 67 AD - when
Emperor Nero sent his general, Vespasian, to put down the revolt of the Jews -
to August 70 - when the Romans breached the inner wall of Jerusalem,
transforming the Temple and city into a raging inferno: a period of forty-two
months.
The
five months of Revelation 9:5 pertain specifically to the period when the
Jewish defenders held out desperately (one might say, fanatically), from April
70 - when Titus began the siege of Jerusalem - until the crescendo at the end
of August. According to Gentry (61): “This five months of the Jewish war
happens to be its most gruesome and evil period” (cf. Wars, 5.1.1, 4-5; 10:5;
12:4; 13:6).
Until which “coming” would the Apostle John live?
“Peter
turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them.
(This
was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said,
‘Lord,
who is going to betray you?’)
When
Peter saw him, he asked, ‘Lord, what about him?’
Jesus
answered, ‘If I want him to remain alive until I
return,
what
is that to you? You must follow me’.”
John 21:20-22
The
Apostles of Jesus Christ were the types who were never going ‘to die
wondering’.
Philip,
for instance (John 14:8): ‘Master, show us the Father; then we shall be content’.
And Thomas (20:25): ‘Unless I see the nail marks in his hands
and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will
not believe’.
Now
Peter: ‘Lord, what about him [John]?’
Jesus
often met such questions with a mild rebuke.
In
the case of Philip (John 14:9-11):
‘Have I been with you so long, and yet you
have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so
how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the
Father in Me?
The
words that I speak to you I
do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does
the works.
Believe
Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the
sake of the works themselves’.
In
the case of ‘Doubting Thomas’ (20:27): ‘Put your finger here;
see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and
believe’.
In
the case of Peter: ‘What is that to you?’, etc.
But
there may now arise a modern question: If, as most Christians seem to believe,
Jesus has not yet come as He spoke of
to his disciples - {and as they (e.g. Sts. John, Paul) wrote of with phrases
like “soon”, or even “very soon”} - then how is it that the risen Jesus can say
that He wanted John ‘to remain alive until I return’?
This statement, by the way, is perfectly in
accord with what the pre-Resurrection Jesus had told his followers (Matthew
16:28): ‘Truly I tell
you, some who are standing here will not taste death until they see the Son of
Man coming in His kingdom’.
Apparently, while Peter was not going to be
one of these, John was.
Peter’s
lifetime approximated to only the First
of these comings.
John
would live on until the Second of these.
We
still await the Final coming of Jesus
Christ.
