When Might Christ Come?

 

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Ephesians 1: 10 (GNT)

¹⁰ This plan, which God will complete when the time is right, is to bring all creation together, everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head.

 

The phrase, “When the time is right,” or “in the dispensation of the fullness of the times,” (KJV) has caused me to wonder. But I have no answers. Right now, we can divide time roughly into 2,000-year periods: I am working under the assumption that creation was roughly 6,000 years ago.

Creation to Flood                                roughly 2,000 years

Flood to Christ                                    roughly 2,000 years

Christ to the Present.                           roughly 2,000 years

This fits nicely into Adventist understanding. But it is neither suggested by the Bible, nor does it support it. Christ was born “when the fullness of time was come.” (Galatians 4:4 KJV)

Another way to think of it is to have Christ’s first coming at the middle of earthly time:

      Creation to Christ’s 1^st advent                        roughly 4,000 years

      Christ’s 1^st advent to the 2^nd Advent               roughly 4,000 years

In this case Christ’s second coming would not be for another 2,000 years. This definitely does not fit into Adventist understanding. It would allow humans to develop magnificent inventions. This would allow them to enslave the entire human race to a point we cannot imagine! This point might be the entire destruction of civilization; the survivors would be thrust back into the stone age. Who knows?

Can a loving God tolerate human cruelty to each other for another two millennia? This gives human history a balanced symmetry. But I see no evidence that God values this type of symmetry in time.

Christ was born when the time was right: consult Daniel 8:14, Daniel 9: 24-27. Early Adventists used the Daniel 8:14 to calculate when they though Christ would come. They got the date right but the wrong event for that date. Since that 1844 date, there appears to be no more “right time,” that we can predict ahead of time. Christ was absolutely insistent that “no man knows the day or hour.” Consequently, we need to be constantly watchful.

We look forward to sharing in the bringing of “all creation together, everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head.”

 

Labels: #CALIFORNIA, #IE, #INLANDEMPIRE, #CHRISTRETURN, #BIBLE, #CRFEATION, #HEAVEN, #DANIEL, #MILLENIA, #ENSLAVE, #CIVILIZATION, #DESTROCIVILIZATION, #STONEAGE

 

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[1] https://hopeenlightenment.com/2018/01/24/creator-of-heaven-and-earth/

God and Omniscience

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Matthew 28:20 Good News Translation

²⁰ and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age.”

 

A colleague of mine, Richard Rice, wrote the book entitled The Openness of God: The Relationship of Divine Foreknowledge and Human Free Will. It was published by the Seventh-day Adventist press Review and Herald in 1980. It generated a fair amount of controversy in the Adventist Church. He argued that if God knew the future perfectly, then humans do not possess free will. If humans do not possess free will, then they should not be held accountable for being sinners. And therefore, Christ’s death was not necessary. The fact that Christ died for our sins is a strong argument that God cannot know the future perfectly. Rice called his theory “open theism”.

The openness of God has been taught at the Adventist Universities such as Loma Linda University and La Sierra University ever since the 1950s. This was before Rice was out of high school, so he did not originate the idea, but he certainly gave it a logical status with his book.

Rice presented his openness theism very persuasively in a senior class for physics, math, and computer majors that I co-taught with Ed Karlow about 30 years ago. Adventism was founded on prophetic interpretation of the books of Daniel and Revelation. Adventism grew out of a movement that set a date for Christ’s return on October 22, 1844.  Christ did not return on that date, nor has He returned as I write this blog. How do I know He hasn’t returned—because when He returns, the Bible says in Revelation 1:7, every eye will see Him, even those “who pierced Him.” I specifically asked Dr. Rice what his openness theism did for God knowing the date when an event would happen in the future. He stated categorically that God cannot know specific dates for future events. That was undoubtedly the reason for the controversy Rice’s book raised within Adventism. 

Personally, I have trouble with the argument that foreknowledge is equivalent to predestination. However, I have not spent the time studying the logical reason carefully enough to convince myself of the validity or lack of validity of Rice’s basic premise. I accept at face value, as does Rice, that when God promised that He would be with His followers “always even to the end of the age,” He was definitely including me in this promise. If He is with me, then He will also save me. This promise is also made to you; therefore, God will save you if you let Him, no matter who you are or what you’ve done.

Thank You, Lord, that You have saved us, if only we allow You!

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[1] https://www.dominicanajournal.org/predestination-grace-and-free-will/