If Not Now, When?

There is a preacher who is convinced that the Rapture will be tomorrow. Well, who knows how many people have thought they knew the day and the time, and sat on mountains waiting for it to come? There are some interesting things about that expectation.

One it is only very recent in Christian history that the notion of Rapture and Thousand year reign and that whole schematic has been developed. There was a hope from the beginning of the Early church that Christ would come soon, but the diagrams and the plot line for how it would all turn out is only a couple of hundred years old.

Two, Jesus told us not to worry about when it would happen. Nobody knows and even Jesus said he did not know when God would complete creation and restore it and fulfill the dreams of a new creation: a new heaven and a new earth. So why waste a lot of time trying to do what Jesus told us not to do.

Three, Jesus seemed to me to talk a lot more about how we were to live with each other in this world. Sermon on the Mount, the sheep and the goats, the parables all talked about how we were to love God, love our neighbors and then be a part of the kingdom of God. In fact, the strange things is he talked more about our relation with money than he did almost anything else. He seemed to focus pretty heavily on this world's conduct.

Four, there seems to me that the notion of a "new heaven and a new earth" somehow suggests that we may not be "lifted up and taken away" from this earth as to be a part of that miracle which transforms and renews this earth. So that when Jesus comes we may meet him in the sky but that might be like greeting him on the donkey and we rally with him as he comes on down to earth and completes the creation story.

Five, Why would you imagine that you need to do something different if you are already living as faithfully as you can? If you are one who expects the Rapture, then you probably have been active and faithful in your Christian living, so why worry about it? It has been an abundant life in faith so far, and if Christ comes tomorrow, I expect it will be an abundant life in whatever way He wants to take it. Even So, Come, Lord, Jesus.