Where
in the world did we get the idea that "time" was
going to come to an end?
If you read only the King James Version, you could get that idea.
In
Revelation 10:6 & 7, the KJV
says there will be "no more time." Where the KJV
says
"no more time,"
the NASB is more faithful
to the Greek "chronos"
rendering it: "delay." The word "Chronos" means "a
space of time."
It doesn't say "time"
(sequence of events) will cease to exist. It actually says that
there
will be no more "delay."
Time for a specific
purpose was to end, not "time" itself. Read it!
You'll see!
(It is also translated delay in
the Amplified
Bible.)
I can find nowhere
in the
Bible that says "time" will come to an end. There will
never
be an eternal "now."
If you know of a scripture that says
time will end please share it with me.
The idea that time will come to an end, is largely from the KJV rendering of Revelation 10:6 & 7.
Rev. 10:6:
AND SWORE BY HIM WHO LIVES FOREVER
AND EVER, WHO CREATED HEAVEN AND
THE THINGS IN IT, AND THE EARTH AND THE
THINGS IN IT, AND THE SEA AND THE THINGS IN IT,
that there shall be delay
no longer, 7. but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when
he
is about to
sound, then the mystery of God is
finished, as He preached
to His servants, the prophets.
Not a word
about the end of "time,"
but the end of the "mystery" of
God.
There is much more to this than
meets the eye. In the Greek it says in
verse 7: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is
about to trump, then is also finished
the mystery of God, according to the good tidings which he
declared
to his bondmen the prophets."
Now we can
see that this mystery has to
do with "good tidings" which is elsewhere translated "glad
tidings,"
or "gospel." For some reason, most
translations
of the Bible left out the "glad tidings" in
Revelation 10:7, but
it is there in the Greek text. This you can find in a
good
interlinear Bible.
The Greek
word used in this text (eueggelisen,
a variation of euaggelion) means "gospel." Another variation
on
this word (euaggelistes) means a "preacher of the gospel" and from this
we get our word "evangelist.":
Another fact
is that Jesus, in the Olivet
Discourse did not speak of the end of the "world"
as the
KJV
translated it. The word translated world
was "aion"
which actually means"age." Some of the later translations
rendered
it correctly as "age." Jesus was really proclaiming the end of
the
age, which was the winding down
of the Old Covenant based on the
law, as the New Covenant, based on grace, was replacing it, forever.
Daniel was
promised a resurrection at the
end
of the age (Dan 12:13). He was also told to seal up the book
until
the time of the end (Dan. 12:4). This was not the "end
of time" as the NASB rendered it. In this case, the
KJV
is true to the Hebrew text.
If your
mind-set is such that you are thinking
of "time" coming to an end, it would be easy to make a
mistake
in rendering Daniel 12:4 from the Hebrew.
A lot of our Bible renderings
have been "colored"
by preconceived
ideas.
Why do we
think that time has
to come to an end? I
believe
it is because we, are finite beings, having a
beginning and an end
in this physical existence, therefore, we see everything as
having
a beginning and an end.
Of course,
we know that God always existed
and will always exist, although we can't fathom such an
idea.
He
also promised us that we could have
"eternal life," if we trusted
in Jesus Christ for our salvation.
So, if we
believe this, and I do, we have
a physical beginning and a physical end, but if we
have a
spiritual
(Holy Spirit) beginning then we do not
have a spiritual end.
We come into physical existence by procreation
and go out by physical
death (it is appointed unto every man once to die), but because we
have accepted Jesus
Christ's atonement for our sins, we are
given an extension
of our spiritual existence to last eternally. Instead
of our
corrupt body of flesh, we will have a new spiritual body! That's
fantastic! We are crucified with Christ and
are raised from Spiritual
death through His resurrection! So we already have eternal life
residing
in us by the
Spirit.
But why do
we want "time" to come to an end?
Why do we think
that we are the last generation on earth?
Where do we get
this escapest mentality?
I believe
that life on earth goes on perpetually.
God commanded His word to a thousand generations. "He
has
remembered His covenant forever, the word which He commanded to
a THOUSAND GENERATIONS."
Psalm 105:8.
Based on 100
years for a generation, as
indicated in several places in scripture,1000 generations equals
100,000
years. That does not say that time will end after a hundred thousand
years,
but we don't have to worry
about it, time goes on. How
long
has life on the earth existed? If we believe Genesis, it has only
been 6,000
years. That's nowhere near 100,000.
In Psalm 104:5 it says: "He established the earth upon its foundation, so that it will not totter forever."
Show me in
the Bible where it says that
life on earth will cease. Destruction by fire, you say?
This
was only
prophecied to happen to the Jews and
it happened
when their world, the city of Jerusalem and the Temple, was
destroyed by
fire in A.D. 70. Read Luke 19:43-44, Matthew 23:34-38 and
Luke
21:20. Although these
scriptures don't use the word "fire," history
tells us that the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in A.D. 70
was
largely by fire.
Read Luke
21:20-24. These
verses describe the "Great Tribulation."
In A.D. 70, the vast Roman army, led by
Titus burned Jerusalem and
the Temple. This was to fulfill the words of Jesus in Matthew 24,
Mark 13 and Luke
21. The tribulation period actually
began at Masada
about AD 66, when the Jews attacked the Romans that were
there. The
great tribulation period ended in A.D. 73, when the Romans came to
attack
the Jews who were holding
Masada.
The Jews at Masada committed mass suicide rather than be killed by the
Romans. Many catastrophic
events, foretold by Jesus, occurred in
this seven year period.
In Noah's
day, when the world was destroyed
by water, it still remained and was re-populated.
Destruction
by
fire did not mean the end of all
existence, a remnant
was left. Many of the Jews were taken into captivity and
scattered
into other nations, but they were not all destroyed.
All of the
descriptive types in the New
Testament, used to describe the heaven and earth passing away and the
sky
being rolled up like a scroll were figurative language, much of which
was
used by prophets in the Old Testament.
Suppose we were the last generation to live on the earth
If we were
the last generation,
what would be the significance of that? I believe the Bible
teaches
that the earth
will continue forever. People will
continue to be born,
and many of them will accept Jesus as their saviour and God's
kingdom will
continue to increase. "Of His increase there will be
no
end." There is no limit to the number of people
who can have eternal
life, "whosoever will."
GOD DOES NOT HAVE TO QUIT WITH US!
What if
those in the 19th
century who believed they were the final generation
were
right? We would never have
been born. We would never have
been given the good news of the gospel and could not
have
eternal life. God does
not have to quit with us. Why
should we think He would? Is it because
our
preacher keeps saying the time is
short and the end is to come soon?
Why does he say this? Is it because he has not taken the
time
to study the truth
concerning what the Bible calls the "time
of
the end?" It doesn't say the "end of time," but "the
time
of the end," different
thing.
If we could
only realize that the Bible
gives us a written record of the words that Jesus spoke to His
disciples
who were
in His presence, listening to Him.
These words were
not spoken to us. Of course the principles that He taught
apply
equally to us, but the events
that He foretold were
to come upon
"that generation," and not another.
Luke 21:32,
"Truly I say to you, this
generation will not
pass away until
all things take place." If someone
tells you it means
another generation, they are not telling
the truth.
He precluded a repeat of those events by saying it would be the
worst
ever and would never be that bad again, Mt. 24:21.
That
only allows for ONE fulfillment.
Are we so blind that
we can't
see that?
Re-read
Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21
and see if you think that we have a future "great tribulation" coming
that
will be world-wide. You
can't prove it from the Bible.
The Great Tribulation Jesus foretold was for Judea, not for the whole world.
How does it
serve Jesus for us to sit around
waiting for Him to "rapture" us out of this old sinful world? We
have
misunderstood His promises?
If Jesus
comes back again, as so many believe,
and sets up a kingdom on earth for 1000 years, then at the end
of the 1000
years everyone goes away to heaven, then there could never be other
humans
who could be saved.
What of our descendants?
It would all
come to an End! Why? God is eternal! For
God, there will never be an end.
But. . .If
we live our lives, serve Him,
and at death we enter His
everlasting
kingdom, and the earth goes on
perpetually, many
more people will come to know Him and His salvation, and they
too will enter His eternal
kingdom and it goes on, and on, and on.
Jesus told his disciples in John 14, 15,
& 16 that He would send the Holy Spirit and He would be with us
forever.
Jesus is with us, in fact, He is IN
US, by His Holy Spirit,
and He always will be. (I am speaking of born again
Christians, of which
I am one.)
We can live
this life in constant victory
because of His divine presence. We are not perfect, but He
is. It is HIS
righteousness that allows us to appear
pure, not OURS. By His power, we are more
that
conquerors. We are
His body
NOW, we do not have to
wait until "He comes." He is already here, in His body, the
church.
If we
could only grasp this, we could accomplish
much for His kingdom.
"
We should expect death to
be our transition into eternity, not "rapture." "Rapture" is
not
in the Bible, and the
concept is not taught there. It is
fabricated
by mistranslation and misunderstanding of scripture.
Jesus said,
in Luke 17:20b, "The kingdom
of God is not coming with signs to be observed; Luke 17:21b, "For
behold, the kingdom of God is in
your midst." (within you).