What about the End Times?

I had a very good question asked of me after our last class this past Thursday where we reviewed what the cosmic storyline is in the bible. The question posed is: What about the end times and what films like Left Behind are emphasizing in terms of the rapture and the final events of human history?

This is an excellent question and has relevance because the Bible speaks of the end times - in the Old Testament the phrase is "The Day of the LORD" and in the New Testament the reference is to the "End of all things" and sometimes it is emphasis on what the future holds in terms of "the coming future!"

Here is my response to the question posed:

You are asking very good questions. There is certainly no intentional reluctance to address the issue of the “end times” but I do so in keeping with the perspective of the course. Now that we have looked at the primary cosmic story in the bible we will be looking a bit deeper in the next few weeks about what the end actually looks like. I think that we can only properly see what is going to happen in the end when we see the entire biblical picture from beginning to end. In other words, there is no point going to the last scene of the Lord of the Rings when Frodo reluctantly offers the ring to the fires of Mordor to understand what happened without knowing the beginning and also understanding what happened in The Hobbit as well with his uncle Bilbo Baggins. The meaning of the end is crucially found in its link to the story from the beginning and all that takes place in the middle as well.


Similarly, I think I have established with you that God’s goal is to purge the world of evil and renew humanity and the creation. Now that this is the big picture goal we have established, we can speak of what the end will look like given what the bible tells us. To tell you the truth, I do not exclude rapture or millennium from this but I do think we cannot truly understand what these two pieces of the story of the end mean without understanding the fuller picture. Left Behind and other narratives like it assume that we will be taken away and this earth destroyed. I argue that this is not the biblical storyline. The biblical storyline is renewal. That means what ever we mean by rapture we need to maintain the reality that we will once again be on the earth – a renewed earth with no evil grant it – otherwise what God did at the creation in Genesis is one big mistake and now he will correct it by destroying it and starting again. I think by now we can realize that having relented for 2000 years in terms of Jesus’ return, God’s plan is to spare the earth and not destroy it. There are definite biblical images that show us this both in the OT and NT as well as the Jews continual view throughout their history of God renewing their land and ridding them of evil oppressors and their view of resurrection – renewal of our bodies and of creation. The Christian story of the end is an expansion of this Jewish view – not a replacement – otherwise we are in danger of not maintaining the unity of our scriptures based in OT and NT.

I hope I’m making some sense. We can definitely talk more about it in class. This is an important question and maybe we need a conversation in class about it before we get into more material. There is no doubt that Christ’s return is imminent. What we do know though is that it is not immediate. The early church has been expecting his soon return and now 2000 years have gone by with that same expectation. The truth is, we do not know when but we do know it is imminent. As to whether we are living in the last days? I think in terms of the storyline I have shared with the class last week, we have been living in the last days for the last 2000 years. I know its not helpful but when you think of a storyline that starts with God living in infinity – then these last 2000 years are certainly the ending which may have 1 – 1000 years more left – we truly do not know – but what we do know is that it will come.

Digging Deeper

Jerry Gillis preaches at an Evangelical Church in Buffalo New York and has four good messages on the End Times. Check them out at his website:

Sign of the End Time

The Timing of the End Time

The Big Picture

Living with the End in Mind