When will the End of the Age, or World, Come?
by Harley Pinon
It seems the biggest problem that some have with when the world will end, or the end of the age will come is how we interpret the words “suddenly” and “quickly,” James Johnson wrote an article which is very good, and which you can easily go to on this site, .What is the Meaning of "Quickly" or "Speedily"?
Was Jesus misleading people when He seemed to
indicate that His return would be very soon? I don't think so.
I think Jesus, and God, want us all to live in a state of readiness, and I think
the story about the unfaithful servant who was unfaithful because he thought his
Lord delayed His coming bring this out. "But if that evil servant says in
his heart, 'My master is delaying his coming,'
{49} "and begins to beat his fellow servants, and
to eat and drink with the drunkards, {50} "the master of that servant
will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not
aware of, {51} "and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the
hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Mat 24:48-51 NKJV)
Some speak of “delay” if the Lord didn’t come back in the first
century. In fact, some would almost make Him out to be a false prophet if He did
not return in the 1st century. I guess I think in different terms.
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their
hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to
end.” (Eccl 3:11 NKJV) “He has put eternity in their hearts” I don’t know how
many ways we may interpret that, but I’ll give you my simple rendition, “We just
live like we will live forever.” Let me explain. I am 67 years old. I know
that over half of my life is gone, but how does that change my life? When I was
59, my aorta dissected. You may remember the actor, John Ritter, who recently
died with that. My brother was told I had one chance in 20 of living through
the ordeal. I’ve never known anyone else who did, and I had a nephew by
marriage and a friend who was a local businessman who died from the same thing
that happened to me. At any rate, I thank God I am a live. My life is
restricted because my aorta has only two layers now instead of three because the
inner one split and never grew back together. “Careful” is the word because if
I split the next layer, the last one may not hold, and you die before anyone can
do anything.
Having said all of that, how do I live? I live as normally as possible. I have retired from teaching school, but still have two jobs. I do not think constantly about dying, or meeting the Lord. Maybe I should under the circumstances, but on a normal day, I often do not even think about what has happened to me. I’m sometimes reminded of what I can no longer do like running or heavy lifting, but life goes on.
When I, as a Christian, and with my age, and health problems go on living a pretty normal life, how do others feel? The healthy, the robust, and even the not so healthy, can say, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." (2 Pet 3:4 NKJV) In my condition, I can say, “I feel fine.” I do, but knowing what I know, I know not to do things that would raise my blood pressure even though I would love to be able to run and lift a bag of cement, and do all the things I once did, but I know better. I know in a moment I could do something foolish and die.
God wants us to have that feeling that His return is near. It helps to keep us from doing something foolish and losing our souls for eternity. But what about "this generation"? Some are just sure that this meant Jesus must return to earth before the generation to which He was speaking died, "And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. {25} "And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; {26} "men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. {27} "Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. {28} "Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near." {29} Then He spoke to them a parable: "Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. {30} "When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near. {31} "So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. {32} "Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place." (Luke 21:24-32 NKJV)
Here is that statement that is so troublesome for some, “this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place,” but where is it found? It is found after verse 24 which says, “Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” I think we are living in the time of the Gentiles. Some say that the Jewish age is over. I say the Jewish age ended when Jesus died on the cross and the veil of the temple was torn in two by God’s power when Jesus died. I would agree that the Jewish age is over, I just disagree on when that happened, but back to the text. "And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations.” v. 25. I don’t think it has happened yet. Read on, "Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near." I ask, has this happened? I don’t think so. I think this is talking about our final redemption from the tyranny of this world system as we now know it. The destruction of Jerusalem was not something to cause you to look up and lift up your heads. Now tie it all together, and look at this: "So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. {32} "Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place.” When you see all these things, then you can “look up and lift up your heads” because “this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place.” Which generation? The one that sees “these things begin to happen,” That’s the generation.
There are those who say, “I say to you, this generation” must mean this generation; that is, the one to whom Jesus is speaking. Here I disagree. This is prophesy. Prophesy can be understood, but it is a bit like Jesus parables, and what did He say about parables. "Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. {14} "And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: 'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive;” (Mat 13:13-14 NKJV) In other words, it sounds to me like Jesus is saying, I’ll make it easy for them to miss what I’m saying, unless they really want to search it out.
How can we understand prophecy? I think one of the best ways is to look at Old Testament prophecy. How about this one? “For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isa 9:6 NKJV) Now let me try to make a point. What is the language? “unto us a Child is born” “Us” Who is us? As I understand what some say, it has to be the ones he is writing to. Isn’t this a prophecy of Christ? Was Jesus born to the people who heard Isaiah speak? We all know the answer to that. Some criticizes me because I say there is “man’s time” and “God’s time,” but I’ll go one further: God has His own way of saying things, whether it is parables or prophecy, and He doesn’t always say things in exactly the way that we would. “Unto us,” yet the “us” in this statement were not born until centuries later. Why then is it so difficult to understand that “this generation” did not refer to those standing there when Jesus clearly inserts the events that must take place before you get to the generation to which He refers? Why is that so hard to understand? Do we have problems understanding that the “us” of Isa 9:6 did not refer to the people who heard him? Let’s be consistent. Isaiah could say, "unto us," and no one calls him a false prophet even though Christ was not born during the life time of those who first read his prophecy. Let’s read carefully, and may God help us understand prophecy as well as the rest of His word.
I do not agree with those who make the destruction of Jerusalem the end of the age, or "the end of the world." I believe that is yet future, and we need to be ready for His return.