"These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must SOON take place."
(Revelation 22:6)
What are we to make of these pronouncements as to the nearness of Christ's coming, and of the shortness of the time? Evidently, "soon" and "near" have to take on a different significance after so lengthy a time period.
The words were meant to be encouraging. Imprisoned on the island of Patmos, John, as well as the Christian church, needed encouragement. That encouragement comes to them in the form of a promise of Jesus near-coming. How then can we understand these words, especially after two millennia?
The answer seems to lie along these lines. The New Testament teaches that the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus ushered in ‘the last days’. This, of course, is signaled to us in the New Testament, by the emphatic assertion that we are living in "the last days" (Heb 1:1-2). The "end of the ages" has already dawned (Heb 9:26). The last days began at Pentecost (Acts 2:17). We are on the last lap of human history. And however long that lasts on our perspective, on Christ's calendar it is soon. Since the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, only one significant (redemptive) event remains: the second coming of Jesus Christ.
From this perspective, the return of Christ is always near. Paul seemed open to the possibility that the return of Christ could take place within his own lifetime (1 Thess. 4:13-18). These words of Jesus in Revelation are to be measured, not by human chronology, but by events in the time-table of God's pattern of redemption in history. In the particular time-table of the God's purposes in history, the next great event to take place is the second coming of Jesus Christ! In that sense, he is coming soon.
(Dr. Derek Thomas)
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