As normal life seems to be grinding to a halt in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, changes unimaginable just a couple of weeks ago are upending our daily routines, and world economies are being shaken to their foundations, I've started to see claims that this is all a prelude to the end of the world. Some Christians are speculating that this is the end-time spoken of in certain biblical passages and that the Antichrist is about to appear as a prelude to the rapture, the return of Christ or some other scheme concocted by overzealous prophecy addicts.
In response to these claims it may be helpful to put predictions of the end of the world and the imminent return of Jesus into a larger historical perspective. First of all, we should note that such predictions are not new. The anticipation of Jesus returning to earth to complete the work of God is a longstanding feature of Christian faith and is rooted in Scripture. From the earliest days of the Church, in light of the teaching of Jesus, his stunning death and his dramatic resurrection, his followers were convinced that God would act to establish the Kingdom of God in its fullness. Many in the early church were convinced that Jesus' departure from earth after his resurrection would be short-lived and that his return was imminent. Jesus's encouragement to his followers to pray, "Thy kingdom come" (Matthew 6:10) was consistent with this expectation. So, too, was the Thessalonians' belief in the impending return of Jesus. In his letters to the church at Thessalonica Paul addressed Jesus's return and indicated that it formed part of his early Christian preaching. Elsewhere, the prayer with which Paul closed his first letter to the Corinthians, "Maranatha--our Lord, come (1 Corinthians 16:22), expresses this hope. So, too, does Revelation 22:20 which concludes with the plea, "Come, Lord Jesus!." The fact that Jesus did not return quickly after his ascension caused some consternation within the early church, but it has not caused the Church to abandon this hope.
It is also important to recognize that attempts to predict the precise date of Jesus's return have been made throughout Christian history. In the second century, a group known as the Montanists eagerly anticipated the return of Jesus and the end of the world. In the Middle Ages, Joachim of Fiore developed an elaborate timetable for the second coming. Close to our time, especially since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, speculation has run rampant. For example, in the 1970s Hal Lindsey's book, The Late Great Planet Earth spawned increased speculation about the world's end. In the mid-1990s a series of Left Behind books by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, subsequent movies and even video games dramatized the purported rapture and the tribulations of those who were to be left behind. Almost on a daily basis, Christian preachers--many of whom appear on television--speculate about the end of the world. There is, therefore, a long tradition of end-of-the-world predictions within Christianity.
While such predictions are grounded in the important affirmation that God will bring his Kingdom to completion and that the return of Jesus will be key to this, the most obvious characteristic that these doomsday predictions have in common is that they have all been wrong: Jesus has not returned, the righteous have not been raptured, and the world continues on.
Our current situation, in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, inevitably spawns predictions of the end of the world and the imminent return of Jesus. But before we jump off the bridge into the abyss of such so-called "prophecies," let's take a deep breath. Let's consider the witness of the Scriptures and the risks associated with such wild claims and speculation.
TO BE CONTINUED...