Eschatological Fried Pickles (End Times Series Part 25)
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THE EVANGELICAL ECHO OF NARCISSUS
As mythologies go, a young man named Narcissus once lived, blessed with an ethereal beauty that outshone all the other lads of his great day. He was the half-breed son of a river god and tree nymph. From his earliest days, it was apparent that Narcissus possessed a rare and otherworldly charm that drew admirers from every corner of the realm. Yet, despite his captivating allure, he was an incredibly aloof man who was far too distant in his demeanor, casting aside the affections of whoever sought his favor.
One fateful day, as he wandered through the enchanted woods, Narcissus encountered Echo, a nymph ensnared by the curse of Hera. Echo, as her name suggests, could only repeat words that were spoken to her and could not generate an original thought. At least not verbally. And as comedies often go, she fell head over heels in love with the bristly chap, all while lacking the physical ability to express it—just an endless string of echoes.
Like Sting peering in your windows humming "Every Breath You Take," she followed him around like a real creeper in the night until he obviously spurned her advances and callously dismissed her affections, which shattered her heart into a million microscopic particles.
On this occasion, the gods became incensed by Narcissus's conceit and cruelty and decided to enact a fitting punishment upon him. Guiding him through the wooded realm, they led him to a crystalline pool of water; its surface was as clear as polished sapphire. As Narcissus bent down to the tranquil pool for a few generous gulps, he beheld his reflection shimmering upon the water's surface. At that moment, he became so profoundly entrapped by his image, enthralled by his unparalleled beauty, that he fell deeply in love with his reflection and refused to move from that spot.
Hours soon turned into days, and then days quickly morphed into weeks, such that he neglected his own body, sustenance, and thirst and began to wither away. As time wore painfully onward, Narcissus's beguiling visage collapsed utterly into decline, yet the narcissist could not pull away. In the throes of his obsession, he realized his self-love was going to kill him, and instead of repenting from such a foolish action, he whispered a final farewell to that magnetic reflection and breathed his final breath. In some ways, the modern American Church has followed Narcissus' decline.
Instead of falling in love with herself, the devil led her down to the murky fount of dispensational waters, and she became so captivated by eschatological futurism and defeatism that she has since withered away in the present. Instead of standing up and leaving that toxic vision to serve God with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength and to retake culture by making disciples of all the nations, she sits idly by that squalid pool, consumed with negativity, refusing to see the plain reading of the text, and is so captivated by a future that will never come; she has squandered her witness in the present.
This is why we began talking about eschatology all those weeks ago. That is why we started in the Gospels in general and in Matthew's account of the Olivet Discourse in particular (Matthew 24) because there is so much eschatological doom and gloom attached to those verses it took us multiple months to untangle it. Now that this work is complete, it makes good sense to keep going forward, deeper into the New Testament Forrest, proceeding into the book of Acts, so that we can see what futurist and defeatist lies are left to be untangled there. This is intended to strengthen the church and get her to stand up and walk away from the toxic waters of dispensationalism. More than any other, that destructive doctrine has caused the Lord's Church to wither in the same violent way as Narcissus. And before her lamp stand blows out in the West, I want to call her with all my might to stand up, stop looking at that cursed vision, and to get back into the fight.
Now, let us begin with the text. Luke's second book opens this way:
The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. They also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven." - Acts 1:1-11
ESCHATOLOGICAL FRIED PICKLES
On rare occasion, before those mouth-watering sub rare ribeye tips arrive mooing on my plate, I often enjoy a basket of deep-fried pickle chips with a healthy cup of boom boom sauce when visiting my favorite local restaurant. The steak is the main course for my meal, of course, but the fried pickles are too good to skip over. This is how I will be approaching this passage. The main course comes at the end, but there are a few little pickles we have to chew on before we get there.
PICKLE #1: WHEN DO THE EVENTS OF ESCHATOLOGY BEGIN?
The radical futurist would have us believe that the majority, if not all, of the events of eschatology, are situated somewhere in the not-so-distant future. Kind of like a carrot that dangles just beyond the exhausted bite of a weary ass. Instead of those events having already begun, for 2000 years, the futurist has just kept kicking that old can, clattering down the road. The refrain echoes again every century, "the end is just around the corner." Yet, Jesus disallows this from even being a possibility. What do I mean?
According to Jesus, in this passage, the end is not something we are waiting for; it is something we are already living in. How could I make such an incredible claim? Let me give you one single word: "Began."
Luke tells us:
The first account I composed [The book of Luke], Theophilus, [was] about all that Jesus BEGAN to do and teach. - Acts 1:1 (Emphasis mine)
Luke does not tell us of a Christ whose work was buried away in the remote recesses of future time. Luke tells us of a savior who began that work when He burst upon the scene and that we can trust his most trustworthy accounting of those events.
It is at this point that you may object. "Bah Humbug! Luke didn't say the events he described were of the eschatological variety! He talked about how Jesus came, preached sermons, did some miracles, died on the cross, rose from the grave, ascended into heaven, and poured out His Spirit on His people. These are not eschatological events!"
To such an objection, I must heartily retort with an emphatic: "Really?"
When Luke mentions that Jesus ascended "up" and that He went into the "clouds," was he not referring to the Old Testament eschatological prophecy of the Messiah in Daniel 7, who, in the last days, will ascend up to the Father, on the clouds, and be given His end-time Kingdom?
Daniel says:
"I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man was coming, and He came UP to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. "And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.- Daniel 7:13-14 (Emphasis mine)
Luke tells us that Jesus went up into the clouds because it actually happened. But, he also tells us this, using precise keywords and phrases to remind his readers that Daniel's prophecy was being fulfilled before their very eyes. The end times were being inaugurated in their midst!
Forty days after Jesus' resurrection, He ascended up into heaven, riding on a cloud, in order to sit on the throne before the Ancient of Days. Is that a coincidence? Is it a far-distant millennial Kingdom that is yet to begin? You and I better hope not!
On that very day, Jesus ascended victoriously into the heavens. When He arrived, He was given a Kingdom to reign over, which included all the souls of all the saints He just purchased on Calvary. If we are still waiting for that Kingdom to begin, then our atonement has yet to be secured! It is that important!
Thankfully for us, Christ was successful in all He determined to do. He rose from the grave, defeating death. He ascended to the Father to rule a Kingdom that could never die. For the last 2000 years, our glorious King Jesus has been seated in royal matchless majesty, exerting His expanding dominion over the world and cosmos. We are not waiting for these events to arrive. They've already begun.
Now, before we move on, in case there are any holdouts here, let me assuage your fears with words given by the writer of Hebrews.
“God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things” - Hebrews 1:1-2
The writer admits that in the old days, God spoke through Moses, the patriarchs, and through the prophets. He recognizes and will develop that theme throughout the entire book, how God chose various means in those olden days, such as a priesthood, a temple, and the sacrificial system, to communicate His message of salvation. But, now that we are in the last days (aka the end times), God has chosen to speak explicitly through His Son. The obvious conclusion, dear Christian, is that we are not waiting for the end times to begin. They already did.
PICKLE #2: WHEN IS THE HOLY SPIRIT GIVEN?
Luke mentions the Holy Spirit three times in this passage. First, he says that Christ gave His orders to the disciples by the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:2). Second, Luke quotes Jesus' promise that the Holy Spirit would soon "not many days from now" be poured out on His followers in the baptism of the Spirit (Acts 1:5). And third, Jesus promises His own disciples that they will receive the Holy Spirit's power in the coming days so that they can become His witnesses to the ends of the earth.
Just so we are clear, no one who heard these words would have believed that we are waiting for thousands of years before the Holy Spirit arrives. The text says, "In not many days." It doesn't say "not in too many millenniums." Even dispensationalists do not believe in that sort of tomfoolery. Yet, ironically, they misunderstand the eschatological underpinnings of the Holy Spirit's arrival. Let me speak more plainly: When the Old Testament speaks about the coming of the Holy Spirit, it does so in the context of the end times. Even more simply, it is an eschatological event when the Holy Spirit comes! It means the last days have already begun. For instance, Joel does not say that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is a sign of the Church age but a sign that the ends of the ages have come!
Look at what Joel 2 says:
"It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. "Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. - Joel 2:28-29
For brevity, I will not cite all of Joel's chapter 2, but this passage is universally considered eschatological. It is a chapter where God is going to war with His rebellious people. It describes events where the King of Israel punishes them for their covenantal crimes. And it is a passage that the Apostle Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, quoted as the critical event that would usher in the "last days."
In Acts 2, look at how Peter quotes Joel 2. He says:
"And in the LAST DAYS, it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh" - Acts 2:17 (Emphasis mine)
Joel does not say "last days". But Peter does. And Peter did so under the Holy Spirit's authority and inspiration.
Let us sum up. Joel says the Spirit was coming on all flesh. Check. Peter says this will happen in the last days. Check. So, at Pentecost, which was not millennia into the future but happened in the first century, when the Spirit was poured out, God demonstrated that the end times had already begun. This fact may not be convenient for our dispensational friends, but it is an unassailable fact that is right there in the text. The coming of the Spirit signaled that end times were here, and we have been living in them ever since.
PICKLE #3: WHEN DOES THE KINGDOM COME?
Luke tells us in verse 3:
"To these [His disciples] He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God." - Acts 1:3
Luke expects us to know that the Kingdom of God was a promised eschatological reality prophesied throughout the Old Testament era. Not only that, it was always promised in the context of the end of the age and the last days. While we may not be comfortable hearing it in that schema, we understand that there was an old and new covenant era. The old covenant era was the former days or the previous age, and the new covenant era brings an end to that old age and ushers in the latter days. That is what Hebrews 1:1-2 is talking about, as well as several other passages.
In the context of the Kingdom of God, several Old Testament prophecies connect this Kingdom with the coming of the Messiah and the last days. In this way, the appearance of Christ was an eschatological event that brought eschatological time into the present time. For instance, in Isaiah 2:2-4, God promises that in the "latter days" the Lord will establish the kingdom of Zion. How will the Lord do this? By having the nations stream to the Lord so that He can teach them God's ways. Instead of inviting the countries of earth and the various ethnic peoples to an Old Covenant temple, Isaiah foresees a day when the world will stream to the risen Christ. When His teaching ministry, which is recorded in the Word, goes forth from Zion into the world, the world will know that we are living in the latter days.
That teaching ministry began in the life of Jesus (again, see Acts 1:1-3), it continues through the work of the finished canon and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit (John 14:25-26), and it will continue until all the nations of the earth come under the rule of Christ and experience the shalom of God (Isaiah 2:4).
Another example that connects the coming of Messiah's Kingdom with the eschatological end times is Isaiah 9:1, 6-7. Isaiah says:
"In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea… For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over His kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore." - Isaiah 9:6-7
It barely requires explanation. Isaiah foresaw a period known as the latter times (or last days), when the Messiah would be born in His incarnation and when He would set up a world-conquering Kingdom. This is not a future reality we are waiting for but a reality we live in. We are in that end time Kingdom of Christ. We are serving that end-time Messiah who is in His millennial reign. And He will continue to bring about this eschatological Kingdom until the entire earth is under His rule and power. He promised His disciples this very thing in Acts 1, and the Word and Spirit testify that this is still the case today.
If you would like a little extra boom boom sauce to go with these three pickles, check out Daniel 2:44-45 and Micah 4:1-4. These two passages offer two additional and very poignant examples that connect the coming of the Kingdom of God with the inauguration of the eschatological last days. The Father promised it, the Son delivered it, and the church, by the power of Christ's Spirit, has been called by God to advance it to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).
THE ESCHATOLOGICAL STEAK
In the same way, I would not finish my fried pickles and forget to eat my steak; we will not neglect to see the overarching application and point this passage is making. In verses 9-11, Luke says this:
And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven." - Acts 1:9-11
In the same way, two angels with flaming swords stopped Adam from reentering the garden. In the same way, two towering cherubs pictorially safeguarded the way into the holy of holies in Jerusalem's temple, and two angelic beings appeared in order to forbid Jesus' disciples from following into the holy of holies of heaven. Why would they do this? Well, because the disciples still had work to accomplish.
You see, we do not follow Christ into the new heavens and the new earth until the Kingdom of God is fully accomplished here on earth. Jesus has returned to heaven as the true high priest (Hebrews 9:23-28) to begin assembling an eschatological and spiritual temple that is made out of living stones, which will be constructed out of every single believer He predestined in eternity and pardoned on the cross (1 Peter 2:5) so that the mountain of the Lord's house would fill the entire earth (Isaiah 2:1).
The angels were warning these disciples to stop staring into the heavens. He told them, "Boys, you have a lot of work to do before Jesus comes back to finish the job.. Now get to it". That work will cause them to bring the Gospel to all the nations (Acts 1:8), disciple all the nations (Matthew 28:18-20), and see all the nations come under the government of Christ (Isaiah 9:6-7). Until that Kingdom is finished, we will live in the last days. And that brings us to the real point!
Instead of wasting our time trying to pin down every eschatological detail, shouldn't we be working? Instead of assuming, like John MacArthur recently quipped, that we "lose down here," shouldn't we expect that the Lord of resurrection victory, who ascended in triumphant victory and who is ushering in a Kingdom of worldwide dominion victory, will bring these things to fruition?
Eschatological futurism, which is so prevalent among dispensationalists, assumes that the end times are always in the future, which is why they behave like the end times are irrelevant to our lives today. And why should we care about this doctrine if the end times are a future reality that we will all be zapped out of before it begins? But, as the Scriptures teach, if we are living in the end times, and if we have specific work to do in these times, and if Jesus has promised us success and victory in these times, then ought we focus a tremendous amount of energy on this doctrine? We are not pan-millennialists, expecting everything to somehow pan out in the end while having no idea how we got there. We live in the millennial reign of Jesus Christ, knowing that His chosen means of advancing His end-time Kingdom is through His end-time people and that we have a lot of work to do before the final moment of these end times is complete.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Stop staring at the clouds. Stop staring at those murky waters with all the evangelical descendants of Narcissus. Like we said last week, don't just stand there. Do something. And repent of any dispensational defeatism. Understand that the theology we covered this week will have tremendous theological and practical importance for how you will live your life. And when you have done all this, go live with all your heart to the glory of Christ. Build His Kingdom while you are here. And when you are ready to die, hand off your hammer to the next man.
