How Will It End?

Do humans get a second chance at salvation?

That such a hodgepodge of references should be accepted by most evangelicals as the only "true" interpretation of Bible eschatology is a testimony to the lack of clarity the Bible gives us on the topic. As I've already noted, with so little to go on we really can't get a clear picture that everyone will agree on. In recent years one evangelical minister has attracted a lot of attention with a series of novels based on the generally-accepted view of a seven-year tribulation followed by a thousand-year earthly reign of Christ.

I have this penchant, however, for alternative viewpoints, and I'd like to suggest that Mr. LaHaye's approach, borrowed largely from The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey, is NOT the only viable interpretation. In fact, given understandings established in other papers on this site I think a different interpretation is not only acceptable, it is demanded.

The people I've heard teach the generally accepted eschatology have little to go on as a reason to break the seventieth week of Daniel nine off from the others. Nearly all interpreters see the sixty-ninth week ending with the annointing of Jesus in baptism. But to make the last week immediately follow the others makes Jesus the prince who puts an end to sacrifice and offering, and it gives a date for the end of God's favoritism to Jews. These are issues I've discussed in other papers in this section.

Partly in response to Dr. LaHaye, and partly as a result of thinking processes following the shocking events of September 11, 2001, I have started a short novel that presents my own viewpoint on the millenium. I intend to add an appendix in which I give the Biblical basis for my interpretation. This document is a rough draft of that appendix.

I start with a passage from II Peter:

First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and with water. By water also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men....

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare [burned up].

Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

(II Peter 3:3-7, 10-13)

Peter links Christ's coming to the destruction of the earth. Jesus links his coming to the judgement. (See Matthew 13:40-43, Matthew 16:7, Matthew 25:31-46.) Could all of these be one and the same event? If so then the great supernatural event of his coming will take place too late for those who want to "wait and see." As soon as it's clear that Jesus has come he will announce the results of an already-completed divine judgment, and the only thing that remains is the final execution of that judgment.

I could take time to review other New Testament passages about Christ's second coming, but I've done that in other articles in this section. So let me go straight to Revelation nineteen. In verse eleven John describes a vision of a rider on a white horse. When he appears, the great powers against God already revealed in this prophetic book's symbols join to make war against him. But just like in Revelation sixteen (see verses 12 through 16) this battle never takes place. The beast and the false prophet are captured and cast into the lake of fire (a symbol, we see in Revelation 20:14, of the second death) and the rest of them (apparently the kings of the earth and their armies from verse 19) are killed by the sword that came from the mouth of the rider.

It must be clear to even a casual reader that this passage is also using metaphors or symbols for the events, personalities, and cultures it describes. We don't expect Jesus to arrive swinging his tongue around and slicing off millions of heads with it. The fact that the sword comes from his mouth suggests that it's speaking of his all-powerful word (the same word that created the earth, Psalm 33:6-9). As he spoke the world into existence, he now speaks it out of existence. The agent that accomplishes his purpose, described in Peter's non-symbolic description of the world's end, is fire.

Now we have the beginning of the thousand years. John doesn't specifically state where the righteous are in this passage, but they aren't in the place reserved for Satan described as the Abyss. An angel comes and binds Satan in this "bottomless pit" where he must wait out the thousand years. Could this Abyss be the earth? It has just been destroyed or laid bare (according to Peter) by fire. No vegetation, no animate life, a space rock as barren as the moon. Peter's language suggests the very atmosphere of earth (the heavens) will be destroyed in the super-nuclear fire.

The Old Testament describes the earth as "without form and void" (KJV) prior to creation. Both Hebrew words carry the idea of empty or vacant -- a ruin. If God's judgments return the earth to its pre-creation state then it would meet the concept of a very deep place (Greek abussos, from which we get our Abyss) called for by Revelation 20. This suggests, then, that the righteous do not reign with Christ on earth.

In describing this period John says there's a judgment taking place. Why? Hasn't Jesus already executed the decisions made by God before the second coming? Not permanently, John suggests. The righteous dead come to life at the second coming (see I Thessalonians 4:13-17 and I Corinthians 15:51, 52). The rest of the dead stay dead until the END of the thousand years. John doesn't specifically say the wicked dead will be resurrected, but there is very strong inferrence to this idea. Verse five gives two clues leading to this conclusion:

(The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection.

(Revelation 20:5)

At the end of the thousand years Satan goes out to deceive the nations. What nations? All the people who came to life in the second (unmentioned) resurrection. John calls these nations Gog and Magog (a reference to Ezekiel 38 and 39) linking this event to the battle of Armageddon. Thus instead of Armageddon being the precursor to the second coming most evangelicals think it will be, it takes place AFTER the thousand years. The gatherings referred to in Revelation 16 and in Revelation 19 did not end in war because Jesus' coming interrupts events.

There is a sense in which even this battle does not take place. Satan's army surrounds the camp of God's saints (if Jesus is right they greatly outnumber the saved). But the saints don't fight. Instead God executes the final, permanent judgement on those who would attack his people. John symbolizes it with fire that comes from God and destroys them.

I've already questioned why permanent judgement is not executed at the second coming. There is a hint in this passage, linked to other passages, that the saints are the ones sitting in judgment (verse 4). Think of it this way. If Jesus is right and the number of lost greatly outnumber the saved, then every saved person will know several people who aren't saved. Jesus suggests that some will be bed mates (spouses) or co-workers. Suppose Jesus takes you away and leaves behind a number of people very close to you. I don't care how much you trust God, you'll want to see for yourself why. God gives you that chance for a thousand years. Unlike human governments, God opens the books and lets the little people audit him.

Once all have been convinced that God's decisions were right decisions, he can finish the work of judgment begun at the second coming. Now all the wicked (and Satan too) can be permanently destroyed. The "eternal torment" depicted in verse ten and in Revelation 14:10,11 could well stand for the eternal conviction of all living beings that God acted justly in bringing their existence to a complete end.

So here's how I imagine things happening:

The world becomes more and more polarized. Reactionary, control-addicted people bring in ever more heavy-handed tools for governing. Dissent is no longer a sign of a healthy intellectual environment, it is seen as a sickness that must be wiped out. When the world has been divided into those who go along for the sake of going along, those who believe control must be maintained, and those who maintain that their consciences are for them alone to control, God intervenes.

Christ's coming relieves the dissenters of the oppression of the world. The oppressors die and their leader, Satan, is chained in a place where he cannot torment them. The world is wiped clean by fire. All the toxic pollutants are destroyed, and the earth is left in this desolate state. God's people now begin a thousand-year time of healing. They shake off the complexes they developed living in an evil world.

When the healing is done (is it a thousand years, or is this prophetic time -- 360 thousand years?) God brings these healed people back to earth. He resurrects the wicked and gives Satan time to deceive them again. But when they attack he acts to put an eternal end to sin. The wicked, who would not be separated from their sin, are destroyed with it.

With the threat over, God now recreates this earth. Maybe he again takes seven days. The meek inherit the earth, not the polluted, troubled world of today, but a freshly-cleansed, perfect world. NOW God wipes away all tears; NOW the old order of things has passed away.

There's one key aspect of this that I have only briefly hinted at. The common evangelical interpretation leaves the door open for more people to be saved after the second coming. The Jews, they believe, realize that Jesus really was the Messiah and become ardent missionaries. Those who listen to the Jews during the seven-year tribulation get to live forever with the saints.

This, I fear, leads to potentially unwarrented complacency. Many people live with huge doubts about the existence of God. This teaching allows them to harbor those doubts, for the penalty for unbelief is having to live through the seven-year tribulation, not eternal irrevocable damnation. But what if I'm right? What if God won't give humans the third chance (Adam and Eve blew our first chance) this doctrine suggests. Will the teachers of that doctrine not share in the condemnation of those of whom Christ said, "I never knew you."?

Maybe, when Paul said that "now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation," and when the author of Hebrews suggested that "God again set a certain day, calling it Today," they really meant it. NOW you must make your choice. If I had to choose which to teach, I'd want to err on the side of safety.