I'd Like to Tell You Jesus is Coming Soon, but...

Perhaps within every generation of Christians, at least some are imbued with an expectancy that the return of Christ could be imminent. The hope did not die with the earliest believers, but was passed down through the teaching of scriptures, and the pondering of anxious saints. 

Today, some understand the future event one way, while others find the comfort expressed in certain Bible passages to mean something else. But most, if not all, within the denominations and dogmatic currents of Christianity still believe that the Son of God who said He would return, will indeed, return.

Many of us have found recent events rousing the anticipation to a level not experienced for a while. But we have felt it before. Then things settle down and we find ourselves in wait mode once again, considering our Redeemer must be tarrying a little longer. 

Earlier this year, I stated in a blog post entitled The Art of Crying Holy, that I feel like my Deliver is coming. I made that proclamation pre-COVID-19, pre-protests and riots (no, they are not the same thing) and I stand by it. But maybe I’ve always felt it. Maybe I’m simply one of those who carry that burden of imminency. So, no, I don’t know when. Nobody does.

Surely, past disasters left many hoping and praying for the Rescue. In ancient times an earthquake, like the one in Ephesus in 262AD, might have left the early Christians considering the end was near. They were cut off from the rest of the world and didn’t know, at least for a while, that it wasn’t the entire planet that was shaken. 

In modern times, disasters, and social atrocities committed by one group against another, have been broadcast to the entire world. I can only imagine how observers in the Christian community must have watched and waited expectantly for their Messiah during WWI and WWII, during pandemics much more deadly than this present one, or during times of social upheaval that left so many homeless and hungry.

But a world at war is not the end. It may happen again. In fact, it may have already begun. A plague is not the end. Nor is an economic downturn. Nor is widespread social unrest. People have always found a reason to believe it was time for Christ to return. Our current confounding predicament has caused some of us to consider the lateness of the hour. In a series of blog posts from the latter part of 2019, I wrote about the potential of another civil war in America, including a post entitled Racism: The Church, the Media, and the New Definition of Racist. Some of what I wrote about has ramped up. I didn’t think the devolution would come on this quickly. It’s almost like it was orchestrated.

I’ve read so many conspiracy theories that I believe I’m now suffering from what’s been tagged Crisis Fatigue. I don’t know if the coronavirus was engineered. I don’t know if there are people in high places who want us to hate each other and fight in the streets. I don’t know what the future of the U.S.A. looks like. I don’t know if people like me might be loaded onto a train and delivered to a camp set up to retrain deplorables. I don’t know what Jesus meant when He said, “I am coming soon.”

Here’s what I do know: God is more powerful than any plague. It’s the devil who spawns hatred. The action of my faith will not be swayed by politics or public opinion. My destiny is in God’s hands. And the end times began when Jesus made the statement that He’s coming soon. What’s two thousand years to God? It’s a breath, that’s all. But the Day is closer today than yesterday. My Deliverer is coming, and so I wait expectantly, joyfully, and with certainty. I won’t rely on my own understanding. Or my own strength. Or my own righteous indignation. The battle is the Lord’s.

The end is predetermined. The enemy is not my neighbor, or any of my diverse brothers and sisters in Christ, or the angry citizens of my country who peacefully stand against injustice. Please know, justice is coming, and His name is Jesus.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12

THE LOCKDOWN AND THE FREEDOM GOSPEL

Stay at home. If you have to go out, follow social distancing guidelines. Don’t visit your extended family or friends. Don’t go to a restaurant. Don’t get your hair cut. Don’t walk in the park. Don't go to the bar. Don’t go to church? That one matters to some of us. No matter how COVID-19 has changed your life, you know what to say. I’m not sure why a pandemic needs branding, but here it is: We’re all in this together. Right?

With our movement restricted and our economy crippled, we’re not as free as we were two months ago. Our survival instinct has ramped up to the point that we’re willing to submit to an altered societal structure without question. Safety has become our priority as fear eclipses freedom. That short punch of encouragement—we’re all in this together—is pushed on us by the media, governing authorities, even grocery stores and car dealers. It does serve a purpose, I suppose. It reminds us that our actions affect everyone around us. But even that realization drives the fear because we might be infected and not know it, so we can’t go around breathing on people, or touching stuff, or, God forbid, shaking hands.

A customer (we own an essential business) reached out to shake my husband’s hand. I said, “Don’t shake hands.” The man responded, “Eh, that’s *%$#&&@!.” And then he latched on for a handshake. So, maybe not everyone is willing to accept the “new normal.” I’m okay with forever removing the handshake from of our cultural habits, but some people are not going to change.

Some of us, two months ago, presumed we were free, and now we will defend our right to remain free. The current bombardment of information overload, conspiracy theories, and threats to our indulgent, consumer-driven, comfortable way of life has us yanking on proverbial chains. We don’t know how we got trapped so quickly. We don’t know when the powers that be will allow us to return to our former freestyle selves. We’re feeling the reality of a loss of freedom, albeit trivial and temporary. We sense we’re walking in the shadow of something that might become permanent.

But not all of us are wasting so much time on the headlines and the news briefs. We're not ringing our unshakable hands over how we might phase back into the old normal. Some of us have known all along that the freedom posed by this world isn’t true. We’re not wondering if there’s anyone who can set the world right again. We know we’re free, and we know the One who sets all things right.

The world is messed up because it’s always been messed up, ever since we collectively walked away from God. The whole world suffers the overwhelming, inescapable consequence of our rebellion. The only way out of this mess is the Good News, that is, the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s the only true freedom available to humankind. The only remedy to the corruption swallowing our planet. The only thing that will save us.

If you’re feeling trapped by the new normal, if you’re not sure exactly what this is that we’re all in together, ask God to set you free. This world filled with lies and crooked landscapes lorded over by the rulers of evil is passing away. It’s inevitably becoming unreal. The freedom offered by the gospel is the solitary passage into the real world. And the real world starts right here, right now.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. John 3:16-19

If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36