church

The Last Days

How our View of the End-Times
Affects the Way we Live our
Lives

Session 12
Homework
 Early Christian Hopes
“e way Christians view the future affects the way in which they live their
lives.”

Let me explain. e early Christians had hope for humankind and planet
earth because they believed that far from abandoning this world, God,
who is faithful to His Word and His creation, had made a covenant with
this planet. e eternal, infinite God had personally entered the finite,
space-time world of fallen humanity in order to redeem it. e Kingdom
of God had broken into the kingdoms of this world and the gates of
Hades will not overcome it (Matt. 16:18). For them, Christian hope was
not only beyond history, but also within it.1 ey understood clearly that
they were called to be “the salt of the earth . . . and the light of the
world.” (Matthew 5:13,14). ey also remembered Jesus’ warning, that the
attributes of salt and light could be wasted or rendered useless if not used
properly. Salt serves to prevent deterioration, decay, rot. Light serves to
illumine, expose, reveal. ey knew that Christians were to be actively
involved in both functions. ey were to act as an ethical preservative in
society, preserving the good that existed. At the same time they were to
set a standard of righteousness and justice in a corrupted world. To them,
acceptance of Christianity meant a conversion, and not only a “spiritual
conversion” but a conversion of one’s whole lifestyle.2 To be a Christian
did not mean primarily embracing a new doctrine. Primarily it meant
living a new lifestyle.3

As a result, the Christian community slowly transformed ancient Rome

over the course of 300 years. e North African Christian leader,
Tertullian, for example, exhorted the Christian minority of his day to be
the “soul” of secular Roman culture. Pagan Rome was beset with
corruption and moral decay, but Tertullian urged the Christian community
not to retreat from that culture but to contend for it.4 e second-
century letter to Diognetus said, “As the soul is to the body, so are
Christians to their city.”5 In Alexandria and many other cities, thus,
women rounded up destitute babies and orphans and cared for them.
Christians in these cities knocked on poor people’s doors and offered to
move in to nurse the sick, deliberately exposing themselves to illness.
Unlike their pagan neighbors, they readily ransomed their friends from
barbarian captors, and when plague hit, they tended their sufferers whereas
all others abandoned the sick at the first symptoms.6

In other words, early Christianity laid its heaviest stress on the theme of
the Reign of God to be built in this world, knowing, of course, that it
would only be established in full at Jesus’ Second Coming.7 Nonetheless,
Christians could participate in God’s historical drama with his world. is
apocalyptic vision of mission predominated among Christians until the
third and fourth century. en it was gradually marginalized and replaced

The Integral Mission of the Church 2 Living the Story Series

 by a less powerful vision, promoted by the fifth-century Church Leader
Augustine, which reduced eschatology (the study of Biblical beliefs
concerning all future and final events (end times), as well as the ultimate
purpose of the world, of humankind, and the Church) to a doctrine.8

e Effects of Dispensationalist9 End-Times eology on Evangelical

Christians
Since the 19th century, a certain brand of Christian theology (strongly
influenced by Augustine’s theological dualism) has marked much of
evangelicalism, limiting eschatology to the perspective of personal
salvation, judgment after death, resurrection and eternal life.

In its extreme, this theological conviction boils down to a sentiment

embraced by John Nelson Darby, the promoter of Dispensationalist
theology, 19th century evangelist Dwight L. Moody, and many other
leading evangelicals of the last 150 years. Moody famously asked, "Why
polish the brass on a sinking ship?” is particular eschatological
viewpoint is a perfectly respectable position, held by many sincere
Christians. Known as premillennialism, this view promotes the idea that
the decay of the world is predestined and inevitable and that things will
continually get worse until Christ comes back.10 Indeed, the "Antichrist"
is getting ready to be revealed, the great tribulation is right around the
corner, Jesus Christ is going to return to earth within our generation, when
he will “rapture” the church into heaven, complete His plan for the Jewish
people in the Middle East, and then set up His thousand year reign on the
earth.11 Since the Bible has foretold this all, there is nothing we can
possibly do to stop it and therefore what's the point of improving society
and fighting for a better world?!

In many conservative evangelical circles, this End Times scenario teaches

Christians that all they should do is preach the Gospel and avoid any
entanglements with the world. is means they should not involve
themselves in political or social action.12 Indeed, since the world belongs
to Satan, and since it will be destroyed at the end of time by Jesus Christ,
anything that Christians do to improve society in the meantime actually
opposes God’s will and delays his Second Coming. Not only should they
refrain from impacting their culture, as a few of the more extreme
dispensationalists teach, they should rejoice as they see the world facing
wars, earthquakes, and social decay. Why? ese are signs of Christ’s
imminent return.13

Dave Hunt, Bible Commentator and author of numerous books on the

End Times, expresses this viewpoint in e Berean Call: “‘Christian
activism,’ is not Christian, and represents a detour from the straight path
the church is to walk before the world. It can confuse the real issues, lead

The Integral Mission of the Church 3 Living the Story Series

 to compromise and unholy alliances, and divert time and effort that would
be better used in proclaiming the gospel.”14

To dispensationalists, hence, the failure of the church in its efforts to

reform Gentile society is self-evident. ey feel that the Gentile nations
are not destined for reformation, but judgment. As a result, the central
mission of the church is to save individual souls heading toward hell out of
the world. ey consider the present system of Gentile world-government
to be a sinking ship, and the church to be the lifeboat. eir job is not to
save the ship, which they believe the Scriptures say is doomed (at least in
its present form), but to get as many people as possible off the ship and
into the lifeboat of the church before it sinks.15 Christians, in other
words, have been given a way off of the sinking ship into another boat.
Why not present the hell-bound souls with the opportunity to get off the
boat too, and in that way save as many as possible before the boat sinks in
a catastrophic act of God when Christ returns?

e consequences of this particular eschatological viewpoint on the life of

Christians are clear: In expectation of the last days many evangelical
Christians have bought into a sort of cultural pessimism which results in
evangelistic activism (for some) and a present life of apathy (for most).
Reading the Scriptures with this pessimistic outlook and baptizing this
outlook with theological rationale, Christians simply mourn the coming
destruction of ‘e Late Great Planet Earth’ instead of seeking to redeem
it. Such a retreat, however, only contributes to the growth of evil. Since
good people remain on the sidelines and no longer stand in the gap,
injustice, racism, oppression, exploitation, discrimination, moral decay,
corruption, environmental degradation and many other social evils often
go unchallenged. Premillennial dispensationalism (though it may muster
numerous proof-texts to substantiate its claims and, on a positive note,
seeks to show that ultimately the hope of the world rests in God, and not
in our feeble actions16), thus presents an unfortunate departure from the
early Christians’ action-filled hope based in the knowledge of God’s
encompassing love for his creation and inbreaking of his Kingdom, on
earth as it is in heaven!17

e Need for Biblical Hope

Scripture asserts many times that God has already won the final victory
through Jesus’ death on the cross, that his Kingdom is already among us,
yet that this victory and his Kingdom will only be fully consummated
when Christ returns.18 It is tragic that in our age this early Christian
doctrine of hope for our world – the second coming of Christ – has been
read with a pessimistic outlook and turned into the final basis for
‘Christian’ pessimism.19

The Integral Mission of the Church 4 Living the Story Series

 If you were Satan, how would you keep God’s Kingdom from advancing
on earth as it is in heaven? Most likely you would attack those who are
involved in spreading the Good News of this Kingdom in words and
action at their most vulnerable point. at most vulnerable point for many
urban Christians is our capacity to sustain ourselves in ministry. To
remain optimistic, hopeful, and full of humor while being daily exposed to
the reality of corrupt and unjust systems, structures and people, is the most
difficult task in the work of advancing God’s Kingdom. us the
principalities will seek to make us feel overwhelmed, exhausted, and
pessimistic about what the church actually can accomplish against the
systems and structures. ey will seek to make us loose our vision of God’s
dream to restore Shalom on earth as it is in heaven and instead, deceive us
into rationalizing that this dream was never actually spelled out in the
Bible. Once our hope has been destroyed, we have been destroyed!20

In order for urban ministry workers, pastors and Christians in general to

maintain hope and faith in their ministries and work spheres, they thus
need to develop and tenaciously hold onto God’s vision for the city, nation
and world – a vision that is based on the biblical message that God and
God’s church will someday win and that this world will someday be
renewed and restored to its original purpose!21 Because the early
Christians held onto this hope, they were able to face sporadic
persecutions and eventually overcome the Roman Empire – which John in
his Revelation aptly called “Whore of Babylon”.

reflection questions
Reflect on the following questions and write your answers into your Application
Journal:

• How does your view of the end times effect the way you live your life?
• How does your church’s view of the end times effect the way your
church lives life?
• What hope is it that sustains you in your ministry and calling?
• Does the Bible give a valid basis for hope in history?
• If Christians retreat from society and do not act as salt and light, who
will?

Come prepared to share your answers in the following class session!

The Integral Mission of the Church 5 Living the Story Series

 application journal:

The Integral Mission of the Church 6 Living the Story Series

 endnotes
1 Vishal Mangalwadi, Truth and Social Reform, 124-125
2 Eduardo Hoornaert, e Memory of the Christian People, 81
3 Eduardo Hoornaert, e Memory of the Christian People, 165
4 online available at [Link]

christian-responsibility/
5 Ray Bakke, e Urban Christian, 83
6 Philip Yancey, e Jesus I Never Knew, 156

Aristides, a Christian philosopher and envoy to Roman Emperor Hadrian, wrote about
the Christians of that time: “ey love one another and they never fail to help widows;
they save orphans from those who would hurt them. If they have something they give
freely to the man who has nothing; if they see a stranger they take him home and are
happy as though he were a real brother; they don't consider themselves brothers in the
usual sense, but brothers instead through the Spirit in God. When one of their poor dies,
they provide for his burial according to their abilities; and if they hear that any of them is
imprisoned or oppressed for confessing the Messiah, all of them provide for his needs,
and if it is possible to free him, the deliver him. And if someone among them is poor and
need, but they don’t have enough to give, they fast two or three days in order to supply
the needy with necessary food.” (quoted in Pedrito U. Maynard-Reid, Complete
Evangelism, 17)
7 Eduardo Hoornaert, e Memory of the Christian People, 86
8 Eduardo Hoornaert, e Memory of the Christian People, 87
9 Dispensationalism emerged in 19th-century England. It was brought to America by

missionary John Nelson Darby from his native Ireland, spread at evangelistic conferences
and was later popularized by the widely acclaimed Scoffield Bible Translation. In
subsequent decades it spread throughout the world through the work of European and
American missionaries steeped in a dispensationalist mindset. It thus formed the
backbone of much of evangelical church growth in the Two-irds World.
Dispensationalism teaches that God has divided history into seven dispensations and has
treated humankind in different ways in each of these periods of history. It also teaches
that God has a special plan for Israel that will be completed at the end of history after
Christ raptures the Church into heaven. is will most likely occur before the “Great
Tribulation” when God’ s wrath is poured out on the earth. Jesus Christ will then set up a
thousand year reign on earth. Dispensationalists emphasize evangelism almost to the
exclusion of everything else. While not all conservative evangelical Christians accept the
theological ideology’s basic tenet of seven dispensations, many other key beliefs of
premillennial dispensationalism have influenced the evangelical church worldwide.
10 “It asserts that all negative occurrences in the world show that things are getting worse,

and that this means that the end of times is near. Positive occurrences, then, should be
viewed with suspicion. Indeed, peace talks in the Near East must thus be seen as a clever
scheme of the devil.” (Walter Gut, Dispensationalismus – die heimliche Endzeit-
Ideologie, Bulletin aus dem VBG Institut 2/03 Oktober 2003, 6)
11 online available at [Link]

Before that the Jews must be returned to the Biblical lands of Judaea and Samaria before
the world can end. is has, according to some, driven up American support for an
aggressive Israeli approach to its neighbors in the Holy Land. And perhaps not simply for
love of Israel, but love for self – the desire to see world’s end and thus one’s own rapture
transpire quicker. As Mark Mitchell from the Pennsylvania-based evangelical think tank,
Institute for Global Engagement, says: “e stream of end-times thinking (generally
grounded in the eschatological theory of dispensationalism) represented in works like
Left Behind has had a problematic influence on evangelicals’ international worldview. e
tendency is implicated, for instance, in the lopsided views of the Middle East held by

The Integral Mission of the Church 7 Living the Story Series

 many fundamentalist evangelicals.” (Mark T. Mitchell, A eology of Engagement for
the ‘Newest Internationalists’, e Brandywine Review of Faith and International Affairs,
Spring 2003, 12)
12 For fairness sake it needs to be stated that not all dispensationalists advocate total

withdrawal from society. Some have continued to be involved in social action, even while
accepting the premillennial position. Consider one of the greatest evangelical leaders and
social reformers of the 19th century: Lord Shaftesbury. Shaftesbury (1801-1885) was a
member of the British House of Commons. He had a committed resolve to better society
around him and thus was involved in alleviation of bad conditions in insane asylums;
workers’ conditions, especially women and children; he helped relieve poor housing
conditions; had a great interest in missions and bible societies. For 57 out of 60 years in
public service he received no salary.
13 online available at [Link]
14 online available at [Link]
15 S.R. Shearer, a Dispensationalist writing on Religion in Politics, online available at

[Link]
16 Stanley J. Grenz, eology for the Community of God, 619
17 Apart from premillennialism, two other important eschatological viewpoints exist

within evangelicalism: Postmillennialism and Amillennialism, named after their

particular interpretation of the "thousand years" of Revelations 20. In contrast to
premillennial dispensationalism, postmillennialists emphasize the continuity between the
current era and the age to come. ey generally have an optimistic outlook toward world
history. As the Gospel spreads throughout the earth and brings its divinely intended
results, evil is eventually routed. In fact, due to the pervasive influence of Christian
principles throughout the world, the world’s inhabitants will have a heightened
experience of goodness. Although God’s Kingdom on earth comes as the work of the
Holy Spirit, God uses human efforts in advancing his coming. rough Christ, God has
commissioned his church to participate in the advance of the divine reign and the
establishment of community. Knowing this, Christians ought to be motivated to redouble
their commitment to work and pray, in order that his will might be done on earth as it is
in heaven. Indeed, adherents of this eschatological viewpoint hold that until the kingdom
of God is fully established on earth, Christ will not return. Hence, God’s people must
actively work in their societies to bring about the kingdom of God on earth. In doing so,
they will eventually be successful in the completion of this divinely given mandate. e
result? An earthly golden age of one thousand years will be established, during which
Satan will be bound and evil temporarily restrained. At that point Christ will reign over
the world through his obedient church, and the principles of Shalom will permeate the
whole earth. After these thousand years, Satan will be loosed to lead a short-lived
rebellion. At that time Christ will come a second time to fully rout out all evil and
establish the new heavens and new earth once and for all. While this view is helpful in
getting Christians active in their communities and societies – and thus much closer to the
viewpoint of the early Christians – it has a couple of serious drawbacks: 1. It seems to
predict a world that is progressively getting better, which our experience clearly denies. 2.
Left unbridled, postmillennial optimism also runs the risk of separating itself from its
proper source and thereby degenerating into blind utopianism. (Stanley J. Grenz,
eology for the Community of God, 614-619). A third eschatological viewpoint among
evangelicals is generally known as amillennialism. e word means “no millennium”. Its
proponents do not anticipate an earthly golden age before or after Christ’s return, but
simply anticipate that the second coming of Christ will mark the beginning of eternity
without an intervening interregnum. e result is a worldview characterized by realism.
Victory and defeat, success and failure, good and evil will coexist until the end. e future
is neither a heightened continuation of the present, nor an abrupt contradiction to it. e
kingdom of God does not come by solely as the result of human cooperation with God’s
intents. But neither is it simply the divine gift for which we can only wait expectantly.

The Integral Mission of the Church 8 Living the Story Series

 Consequently, both unchastened optimism and despairing pessimism are illegitimate.
Rather, the amillennialist world view calls the church to realistic activity in the world.
Under the guidance and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, its actions and cooperation
will help advance God’s reign and bring about important, penultimate results. Yet,
ultimate success will come only through God’s grace. erefore, God’s people must expect
great things in the present and actively pray and work for the advancement of God’s
kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, knowing, nonetheless, that the kingdom will never
arrive in its fullness in history. Hence, they must always remain realistic in their
expectations. (Stanley J. Grenz, eology for the Community of God, 615 + 619).
18 Graham Gordon, What If You Got Involved?, 19
19 Vishal Mangalwadi, Truth and Social Reform, 130
20 Bob Linthicum, City of God City of Satan, 278
21 Robert Linthicum, City of God City of Satan, 278

The Integral Mission of the Church 9 Living the Story Series