Apocalypse

When I’m checking out my groceries at my local Publix grocery store, one of the check-out lines has on display a book titled The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Apocalypse. I’ll try to refrain from the obvious joke embedded within this title to make another point.

Within certain elements of the Christian community, there are those who seem to be obsessed with something called the “End Times” as expressed in prophetic Biblical books such as Revelation and Daniel. The interpretation these people like to make is that these books, written on the order of two thousand or more years ago, are intimately concerned about what’s going on RIGHT NOW in the early twenty-first century. There is supposed to be a world-wide period of tribulation when someone called “the Anti-Christ”, accompanied by another called “the False Prophet”, rules the world and subjects it (and especially Christians) to some really bad persecutions. And God will then release some really nasty judgments back on Earth in retaliation. Finally, after about seven years, Jesus is supposed to come back and make things all right. So what’s with this story?

I have a major, major problem with this apocalyptic worldview. Christianity is based on the idea that the believer, by expressing and demonstrating faith in Jesus Christ the Savior, will repent from his/her sinful ways, be “reborn” into the family of God, and have an eternal relationship with the heavenly Father through his son Jesus. All of this doctrine is very personal, according to each individual’s life. It deals with what happens when people die, and has nothing to do with any particular historical epochs. So an Irish farmer living in the fourteenth century who faces a plague in his area is living, at least theologically, under the same conditions as a trench soldier in France during World War I or a diabetic ninety-five year old nursing home resident in the early twenty-first century. In fact, the specter of impending death is a fact of all of our lives, regardless of how “dangerous” or “safe” the times may seem and how healthy or ill we are. The whole point of Christianity is based on the notion that as humans, we may live our lives in community with each other, but we leave it alone, ultimately according to God’s timetable and not our own. And are then judged as individuals as well.

So instead of getting all hung up about the “markers” out there of a coming apocalypse, Christians need to make their faith personal. For each person faces their own personal “apocalypse” with their own eventual death. The idea of meeting Jesus after death because of one’s faith in him makes the whole idea of a worldly apocalypse seem a bit redundant and unnecessary.

Supposedly, if you were to take Revelation literally, Jesus is going to come back to Earth at the end of the tribulation period, overthrow the villainous Anti-Christ, and rule for a thousand years. But why should that make any difference for a believer? After you die, you’re going to be with your Lord. Beyond that, what’s the point of all this extra stuff? I’ve always been told that Jesus defeated the enemy (Satan) by his crucifixion and resurrection nearly two thousand years ago. And by this doctrine, he is then able to “save” believers after their deaths by interceding on their behalf with God, who otherwise would have judged them guilty as sinners and consigned them to hell. Since Jesus already won the big victory, what’s with the apocalyptic sequel??!! Sounds like a pretty lame sequel, if you ask me.