What Time Is It?
The Architect’s Plan
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day." (Gen. 1:1-5)
"Timing is everything." That’s a common observation that has tremendous implications in the context of Bible study. We are time-bound in the natural realm and our day is full of time references. We choose not to pay attention to most of them but they inundate our day. We now measure time in nanoseconds or smaller because calculations related to the operation of the physical world which God created are so precise that they both allow and demand such accuracy. We are obsessed with time (or the seeming lack of it!).
We seldom stop to think of how things appear from God’s perspective. He is not bound by time. He is present in all time and in all places. For Him, all time is present. This is not to suggest some sci-fi theme of time-bending or anything like it. God is eternally existent and there is not a moment in all that eternity in which He is not present. That idea is more than our minds can grasp! Rather than think in such terms we divide that eternity into manageable periods.
The verse above gives us the first time references we have in recorded history: "In the beginning" and "...there was evening and there was morning, one day." Following the creation of the earth, it was cloaked in darkness until, "Let there be light" and from that moment on we have counted days. Have you ever observed that the sun, moon and stars were not created until the fourth day and yet there is light from the first day? What was the nature of that light? Now there is a study question for you!
For our purposes here, we only note that time began to be measured in days defined by cycles of dark and light. As the creation story proceeds we find the next cycle to be the week. The idea of keeping track of years by consecutive numbering would come much later in history. Instead, other points of reference are used. One of the more common one’s is using the reign of kings (i.e. "In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it." Daniel 1:1). Not a bad way to reference dates in a culture with oral traditions.
In 1964, Alvin Toffler wrote Future Shock. The general idea of the book was that the modern world was entering a period of time in which technological advances would be occurring so rapidly that no individual would be able to keep up with them. Consequently, society would find itself confronted with quantum leaps in technology that would mimic transporting someone to the future. The inability of the individual to stay abreast of technological advances would at first produce awe and wonder. But, as the changes begin to come more quickly, the individual may become uncomfortable or even fearful. Today, many find themselves longing for earlier times when things moved at a slower pace (I’m among them!).
Keeping of time has become a curse instead of a useful tool. It is a strange dichotomy that at this point in our culture we are so time conscious in many ways, but few people ever get anywhere on time. It seems that most people think punctuality has something to do with grammar!
We live in a "fast food" culture that wants what it wants and it wants it now. The willingness to defer gratification is no longer a desirable character trait. We have raised generations that will accept almost any terms if it can have what it wants now. They will worry about the price tomorrow because they are convinced (and often with good reason) that when it comes time to pay the piper, someone else will have to accept that responsibility. In essence, we have failed to teach the value of time except to warn that time is short and we should reach for all the gusto we can get. The loss of an eternal perspective pollutes the purpose of the present.
How we see our purpose in life largely determines how we value time. If our lives are lived for our own gain, time is a fleeting commodity that must be milked to our every advantage. On the other hand, if our lives are subject to a higher calling, time is a precious commodity that is invested in a future that is unseen by those who live for this world.
Though counting time in minutes, hours, days, etc. serves a practical purpose, we tend to view time past in terms of periods, stages, seasons, or phases. You can probably identify such in your own life. What time is it?
Just as God ceased from His creation, there is a time coming when our time to complete our calling will end. The beginning of a new year is a good time to assess our progress and renew our commitment. Being sensitive to the opportunities that God places before us daily is a good place to start. Pray for vision to capture those moments.
The Carpenter’s Corner
"And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him." (John 12:23-26)
Christ’s earthly ministry was regularly punctuated with time references. For most of the time with His disciples, they heard, "My hour is not yet come" or something similar. Christ had an appointed time which He understood well.
The author of Hebrews tells us that we all have an appointed time. It is certain and it should provide a fixed reference for how we view the rest of time. Do we live each day with that end in view? Jesus says that those who would serve Him, must follow Him. We could spend a lot of time discussing how that plays out in our individual lives, but Jesus summarizes it well, "If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me." That is pretty graphic language when you stop to think about it. When visions of the road to Calvary flood our mind, do we see ourselves as a parade of cross-bearers following the Savior, or do we simply see ourselves along the route as recipients of the grace His suffering extended to the world?
Simon of Cyrene bore Jesus’ cross; was he willing to bear his own? Are we? "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified ... follow me...." Somehow we imagine that glorification comes without suffering and sacrifice, but God’s word makes it clear that the two are intrinsically linked. As surely as "the hour" came for Christ, it has come for His followers, each in their turn, from that moment to this very day. The hour is upon us. Are we attending to the matters at hand, or do we allow ourselves to be distracted by the seemingly more pressing matters of the day?
Jesus says that those who follow Him will be honored by the Father. The Greek word here has the idea of valuing or treasuring, not rewarding or recognizing. We are co-workers with God and He values our useful service to Him for His purposes and His glory. There is no substitute for seeking God’s aid daily so that we will recognize the path He puts before us and know how we are to walk in holiness before Him. Our morning prayer should include a request for that awareness and for the diligence to capture those moments for His glory.
"The Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. But He replied to them, When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times? "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah." And He left them and went away." (John 16:1-4)
Christ reserved His harshest rebuke for those who professed themselves wise: those who thought they were the final arbiters of truth. Here He chastises the Pharisee’s for seeking a sign, and in doing so He indicts all those who seek signs: even those in our time.
Jesus makes it clear that those who seek Him see the signs that are manifested all around them. They don’t need some special parlor trick to be convinced, their eyes are open. God had acknowledged Christ as the Anointed One at His baptism. He confirmed it at the transfiguration, He demonstrated it with miracles by our Lord and forever affirmed it at His resurrection.
At Pentecost, God confirmed the ministry of the Apostles by sending the promised Holy Spirit and the Kingdom came with power. The time had come. Just as John had decreased and Christ increased, so Judaism was coming to an end and the promised Kingdom was at hand.
The Pharisees did not know the times in which they lived. It is important to ask ourselves, "Are we sure we do?"
The Foreman’s Forum
"Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts." (Romans 13:10-14)
In the passage above, Paul helps us to understand the time in which he lived. Obviously, he lives beyond Calvary. He properly concludes that obedience to the law of love results in obedience to the letter of the old law; but as Christ demonstrated in the Sermon on the Mount, the new law went even further. The darkness which had engulfed mankind because of the law was being lifted and daybreak was near. If you read Paul’s letters, you will find he talks of salvation in terms of past, present and future. He refers to a previous time in which they believed but observes that salvation is now nearer than before. The night (Judaism) is not yet gone, but since the death and resurrection of Christ, day is dawning.
The night officially ended with the collapse of biblical Judaism in A.D. 70 and the Son had fully risen. In Matthew 5:17, Jesus said that "... not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished." Christ makes it clear that even the most minute particle of the Law would stand until all the Law and the prophets were fulfilled. Salvation and the coming Kingdom depend upon that fulfillment. If any aspect of the Mosaic Law stands, we are still bound by all of it today (see Gal. 5:3-4).
It is easy for most Christians to agree to the idea that Christ fulfilled the Law by His righteous and sinless life. But agreeing that He fulfilled all prophecy is another matter! Last time, I introduced this idea (known as preterism or covenant eschatology). I hope that has provoked some prayerful thought and Bible study on your part. I’m still digging and seeking to understand these things and I hope you will join me in this challenging study.
Paul’s remarks above resound with imminency: "... the day is near." Let me be really clear, fulfilled prophecy means just that: all prophecy in scripture has been fulfilled ... all! That’s a tough idea to accept given popular teaching. Is it possible that Christ has come a second time? To do an honest study requires that we lay aside our presuppositions about what the Bible teaches and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us.
I have to admit, I struggle with this idea but my struggling is based upon what I have been taught. As diligent students of God’s word, we must be willing to challenge what we believe if we are to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord. That is a goal I believe we share and I welcome your observations as you enter into this study.
The Carpenter’s Toolbox
"And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him." (Hebrew 9:27-28)
You should read all of chapter nine, or all of Hebrews to capture the context for this excerpt of the text. It presents an interesting aspect of salvation that most of us have not considered. The context is Christ as the ministering High Priest in the heavenly tabernacle. Understanding the type on which this statement is based will aid our understanding of the passage. The language is pregnant with meaning if we take the time to investigate the type itself. That study means going to all that boring stuff in Leviticus we usually read over!
Annually, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest sacrificed a bull and entered the Holy of Holies. There were bells on his robe so the others could hear him moving about and know he was still alive. There was a rope tied to his leg so he could be pulled out if he did not survive the encounter with God. His first trip was to offer sacrifices for His personal sins.
He then left the Holy of Holies and sacrificed a goat for the sins of the people before them and took its blood into the Holy of Holies to atone for their sins. He then appeared a second time, not with respect to sin, but to announce their salvation.
It is this image that the author of Hebrews is drawing upon. Christ appeared the first time with reference to sin. Following His death, burial and resurrection, Christ ascended to enter the heavenly Holy of Holies. For the typology of Hebrews to be consistent, demands that He appear a second time with reference to salvation, not sin (Hebrews 9:28).
The second appearing was to acknowledge the acceptance of the Sacrifice by God, and proclaim the salvation of those "who eagerly await Him." The typology suggests that if Christ has not appeared a second time, we have no assurance of salvation. The assurance of salvation we see in the New Testament writers is based on their conviction that Christ would appear while some of them yet lived.
Read the New Testament again and listen to the imminency of the message. Notice how often we read, "the time is at hand" or similar phrases. There is no hint that Christ, the apostles or the early church anticipated a delayed second appearing. If you find such references, let me know. The idea of a delayed return of Christ inherently means that we do not know if Christ’s sacrifice for our sins was acceptable. This confronts with the question, "What then is the time of His coming?"
If He has not come, what then is the assurance of our salvation? If He has come, what are the implications for our lives? Both questions demand serious answers based on diligent study. Are we up to the challenge?
The Apprentice’s Journal
God continues to amaze me as I am willing to seek His will and understanding. If there is one thing I know for sure, it is that there is little I know for sure!
Some of you may feel threatened by what you find here. It is not my intention to threaten you, but to challenge your thinking as mine is being challenged. Regardless of where we end up on this issue, I think we will all agree that we are to be living daily with the awareness of the presence of Christ in our lives. Whether or not we ultimately agree about that being a spiritual or physical presence has little consequence in how we live our lives.
The problem comes when we desire to escape from this life and the ministry to which God has called us. The Kingdom in which we are to reign is eternal and today is as much a part of eternity as tomorrow. How prone we are to focus on tomorrow!
Christ warns us about that. Certainly we live for tomorrow in the sense that our walk of faith has a view to our future beyond this life; but our preoccupation with the things of this life can easily distract us from the purpose of our life before the Father. It is here, we need to be diligent. We are a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a people for God’s own possession, ambassadors of Christ and much more. Our attention must be to the moment in terms of our position in Christ.
To relegate the responsibility of that calling to a future day is to miss the opportunity God places before us each moment. That we should not do! The beginning of a new year and a new millennium offers us the opportunity to "check the time." Young or old, we are all on a journey to an eternal city. Are we living in the peace and joy that it offers us even now? Deferring the hope, defers the celebration that victorious living brings. Proverbs 13:12 reads, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life."
In all honesty, I have to ask myself, "Has God deferred our hope?" The author of Hebrews defines faith as "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." If we have faith, we have the substance of that hoped for and the evidence of that which is not discernible in the natural realm.
Was the second coming of Christ intended to be spiritual or natural or possibly both? That is a question we each have to answer for ourselves. However, it should be obvious that if we determine Christ has come just as He said He would it is the final proof that He is exactly who He claimed to be and the church need not explain any delay to skeptics.
The assumed failure of Christ to return as prophesied by the scriptures is a real sticking point for unbelievers who diligently seek to understand scripture. Would that the church were more diligent in its study of the issue! In many of the circles of which I am included, I often hear the statement, "We will just have to agree to disagree." I accept that observation with one qualification.
We can only agree to disagree if we agree to continue seeking the truth together. It is that agreement which allows us to fellowship one another in spite of our flawed understandings. When agreeing to disagree means to abandon the pursuit of truth, it becomes a cancer that eats away at the substance of faith. Truth is then replaced with one’s private interpretation of it and the common ground for Christian unity is lost.
We cannot have it both ways. If we would live in fellowship with the household of faith, we must pursue Him who is Truth.
Can two walk together except they be agreed? Amos 3:3