No. 25 So what do we believe and teach about the end times? How and when will Christ come again? >>PROFESSOR ROLAND ZIEGLER: Well, Josh, I mean the short answer to your question "When will Christ return?" is we don't know. So we could go on from here but let's talk a little bit more about that. Let's talk a little bit more about the question about Christ's coming and what precedes Christ's coming. So we do not know the exact time as Jesus himself said. Of course there were many in church history who were rather dissatisfied with that answer and then they started to calculate. And the German theologian ***Urinard Babinger who aided one of the first critical editions of the Greek New Testament for example, he lived in the 18th Century, he made a calculation and said: The millennium will start in 1836. Well, that has proven to be a rather incorrect calculation. And the Jehovah's Witnesses in the 19th Century had several calculations about the beginning of the millennium. Now they have gotten smarter and no longer give any exact date. They will just tell you that it's imminent and maybe this generation will live to see it. But they will not give you any dates. So we don't know the exact time. Nevertheless, Jesus speaks about the state of the world before his second coming. In the parables and in the great end times speeches at the end of the gospels, Jesus paints a rather somber picture of the state of the world before the Son of man will return. He speaks of the signs of God's judgement in the present. That there will be welfare, famine and catastrophes. He speaks about the signs of rebellion in the world. That there will be a breakdown of authority. A breakdown in the family. That one will go against the other. And he also talks about the fact that in the church the love will grow cold in many. And there will be false messiahs. And there will be an apostasy in the church. So that's a pretty dark and somber picture. And the question is: Can you see from these signs when the coming of the Lord is near? And that's really kind of a difficult point. Because when you look at the state of the world and the state of the church, there is much that reminds you of the description that Jesus gives of the end times. And if you look at church history, there were many generations before us who would say: Yes, everything has been fulfilled. It just looks the way Jesus has described it in these end time discourses. And then Jesus did not return. So what we have to see is that in a way the description of the world that Jesus gives applies to many times. And also that church history and the history of the world are not simply linear. It just doesn't go downhill and that's it. You know sometimes people who are relatively conservative, they have this view: Well, everything goes down. Everything gets worse. In contrast to those optimistic people who think everything is just getting better and better. And conservative Christians tend to also have a conservative view of the world. So they have a rather somber view of the world oftentimes. But we also realize that there are times where there is a renewal in the church and society. If you lived during the time of Augustine at around 400 and you see the hordes of those Germanic tribes invading the Mediterranean countries, the visigoths conquering Rome, plundering it. Civilization is breaking down. No wonder you would say: Yes, it's being fulfilled. Heresies are all over the place. The Aryans that seem to be out of the picture, they come back with a vengeance with these Germanic tribes. Authority in the government breaks down and the families. So the end must be imminent. Well, maybe this was the beginning of the Dark Ages for several centuries. But then these Germanic tribes converted to an Orthodox Trinitarian faith. And there was a rebuilding of culture. And there was a rebuilding of government. On the other hand then you had all of these abuses in the Middle Ages. But then you had the Reformation. That was certainly a turn to the better. Luther himself believed that he lived at the end of the times, for example, one of the reasons why he said: Don't worry about reforming the calendar. It's so late anyway. It's just not worth it. Well, it was not during his lifetime or shortly after his lifetime that Christ returned. When you look at the history of the Lutheran Church, you have gloom. You have decay especially in the time of rationalism. But then you have a confessional revival in the 19th Century. A revival that is part of the history of the Missouri Synod and really in a way that the Missouri Synod lives that revival. You had times where things went up and times where things went down. And also culturally, you know, the 18th Century was certainly not really better than the 19th Century if you look at family life or at the spread of infidelity. So it's not simply in a line going downhill. But really it's up and down and up and down. And that's why it is so difficult to say: Oh, yes. This has now been fulfilled. It's now just a few years. What these signs, though, tell us is that we should not buy into a blind belief in progress. Progress is really I would say the ideology of modernity. Things will get better and better in civilization, in technology and in the church. We are more enlightened. We are healthier. We are taller than our ancestors. We live longer. We have a better technology. And of course we are so much smarter than the people who lived before us. And that has also its consequences then for Christianity. You do away with out modeled ideas. With ideas that then are medieval. And that's not the picture Christ paints of what history is like. It is not this kind of progress that many believed in and still believe. It is also a warning to Christians of all times not to get complacent or congratulate themselves for all the great things they have done. It is incredible how the preaching of the Gospel, for example, has spread throughout the world. It is incredible what opportunities we have. And we should use them. But nevertheless, there's a proffer that says: Where God builds a church, the devil builds a chapel. This is never a linear progress. There's always a battle raging on between sin and the new man. Between God and the devil in this life. And this battle gets worse and worse through the course of time. So we have to be aware that our life is not some kind of cruise where everything will just be nice. But that apostasy and immoral breakdown is always a reality that might increase. Now, God might also give us time of respite, as he has done before, where things will turn to the better. And certainly we pray and work for that. If you have the very opposite view of progress, everything is just going down, everything is gloom and doom, well, that kind of paralyzes you. Because then you're saying: Well, it's getting worse and worse. Our Lord himself said it. So what's the use? Let's just sit here and wait for the end. That's not what these signs of the end are to teach us. It's not to put us into inactivity. But rather they are to be alert. To be not drowsy but alert for what is going on. So these signs of the end will precede the coming of Christ. There are also certain other things that are often mentioned as the signs of the end. And that's -- and I would like to talk about two things. And that is the question of the anti-Christ and the question of the conversion of Israel. Yeah, the anti-Christ is one of those figures that capture the imagination of many. Again, if you read the "Left Behind" series or at least one of them, that's one of the central parts of the plot of these series of books. And as you know, it's always much easier to describe a villain than a good person. Good persons in literature are mostly boring. But a villain, yeah, that's a really good subject. And so you have in the "Left Behind" series, Nicholas, the new world dictator that comes to power through the United Nations. And you have the Christians who try to outfox him. Well, Lutherans do not see the anti-Christ as a political figure. Rather from Thessalonians they say that the anti-Christ is described as somebody who sits in the temple of God. And the temple of God is not some third temple that will be built in Jerusalem. But the temple of God is the church. So the anti-Christ sits in the church. And if you look for example at the dogmatics of people who follow here, the dogmaticians of the Lutheran Orthodoxy, it actually does talk about the anti-Christ not in the context of eschatology but in the context of Ecclesiology. The anti-Christ is so to speak, the antifascist to what the church is. The anti-Christ is the corruption and the total apostasy of what the church is. And therefore, the anti-Christ is also a warning to the church what can happen to it if it forsakes her Lord and keeps the outward form but really becomes no longer the body of Christ but a satanic invitation of the body of Christ. So who is the anti-Christ? Is it some kind of religious leader at the end? Well, in II Thessalonians 3, the marks of the anti-Christ are that there's apostasy in the religious sense. That he sits in the temple of God, that is the Christian church. That he acts as if he were God himself. That he exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped. And the anti-Christ does not, say, to himself but he is his tool. Now, the identification of the anti-Christ is of course a difficult thing. The New Testament does not give us a nametag. But it gives us certain things that identify the anti-Christ. The Lutheran Confessions teach that the anti-Christ is the paper scene. Every time we talk about that in class, people kind of uncomfortably shift on their chairs. Because that seems to be just a relic out of the arsenal of bitter confessional feuds. And if you look at the last pontiffs, I mean John Paul II is not that bad of a guy. And Benedict is also not that bad. He's actually a world renowned theologian. So why do the Confessions talk about that in such a way that they call the Pope the anti-Christ? They call the Pope the anti-Christ because of his claims to universal jurisdiction. And especially then also because of the claims of somebody like Boniface VIII in his ***buluma sanctum that is it is necessary for salvation to submit to the Roman pontiff. They also called the Pope the anti-Christ because he not only condemns the heart of God's revelation, that is justification by faith alone. But he actively persecutes those who confess this doctrine. And you have to remember that in the 16th Century, theological debates were not only fought by pamphlets and books but that there are also Lutheran models in the 16th Century who were killed because of their adherence to the doctrine of justification of faith alone. So the papacy in the 16th Century had a far more fierce appearance and being than it has today. In all fairness, you have to say that the papacy has changed quite a bit. The claims of Boniface VIII that it is necessary for salvation to submit to the Roman pontiff are no longer upheld. If we look today at the Roman Catholic Church as Lutherans, we might even think that the pendulum did swing to the other side. That now with the teaching of anonymous Christians, all kinds of people according to Roman Catholic teaching can be saved without even knowing who Christ is if they just follow the voice of natural law and are just people of good will. Also the Roman Catholic Church since Vatican 2 has actually embraced the idea of freedom of conscience and rejected the teaching that we should force people to embrace Roman Catholicism. And of course Roman Catholicism has for quite some time had no power to force anybody by a secular force. I mean, there is still Vatican City and you have those rather picturesque Swiss gods. But they are not a political power anymore in that sense. They have influence. The papacies have influence. But it's not a territory where it has some kind of Roman Catholic theocracy and oppresses the Gospel. Nevertheless, the papacy is also not simply kind of benignized institution. Why not? Because the claim of general jurisdiction is still there. And since the Reformation, the papacy has declared itself to be infallible. And therefore, it is still necessary as a Christian to submit to the papacy. On the question of justification, there has been some movement. But even the joint declaration on the doctrine of justification that was signed by Rome and the Lutheran World Federation really does not solve all problems. And at the center, the dissent is still there. That's one of the reasons why the Lutheran Church in the Missouri Synod did not sign it. And the late President A.L. Berry actually put in some -- adds some papers because he wanted the public to know that not all Lutherans think: Oh, everything is cool between us and the Roman Catholics. So Rome still does not embrace the central doctrine of the Gospel. And we have to realize that this is not a ***milametum. Some people look up to the Roman papacy and hope great things for it because Rome stands pretty firm on a lot of ethical questions. Rome stands very firm on the question of abortion. It is very firm on the question of gay marriage, for example. Whereas a lot of Protestant churches and also Lutheran churches are either wavering or have succumbed to the liberal agenda. So Rome looks suddenly pretty attractive. Also when you look at the state of mainstream Lutheranism like in the United States, the ELCA, and you are a conservative Christian, it seems that Lutheranism did not fare that well. And there were quite a few people and there are quite a few people who think the experiment of Lutheranism has failed. It's time to go back to Rome. Afterall, they adopted what the Reformation had criticized. Because these people believed that the joint declaration on the doctrine of justification actually solved the problems. Lutheranism has either become liberal and apostacized from traditional Christianity or sectarian. That's us. So Rome seems to be the rock that stands. I can understand the fascination and the longing for something that is solid in an age where many things crumble. And I think that's one of the dangers of the papacy. And that's why the papacy is still an anti-Christian institution. The anti-Christ I think is not some fierce monster. The anti-Christ is attractive. Apostasy in the church always puts on a cloak that attracts people. You don't go out and say: Oh, we don't like Christ anymore. It all sucks. We don't want to have any inhibitions anymore. Let's just live out that vilest impulses. No. You say: Oh, we now really understand what love is. And how love includes everybody. And we do away with those morbid things. We now really understand that God accepts everybody unconditionally. It's always a perversion of the good that brings about apostasy. And so also the papacy has something good. It's not just all bad. And that's how it attracts people. But the problem is that people are not saved because they are against abortion and against gay marriage. Because otherwise the Mormons would be the best Christians. People are saved because they believe that God has forgiven their sins on account of the death of Christ without any of their doing. And as long as Rome does not embrace this teaching, it is one of the main candidates for the anti-Christ. Now, the Lutheran Confessions also know that Rome does not exhaust what anti-Christ is. They can talk for example about Islam as an anti-Christian feature. Luther can also talk about the -- the Zwinglians the sectarians as an anti-Christian feature. Rome is not the only candidate for apostasy that sits in the temple of God. But Rome is the only institution that sits in the church and claims that this is the authorized channel of God. That everybody has to submit to it. So when we talk about the papacy being anti-Christian, again, we talk about the papacy. Not the individual Pope. But the institution with all its claims. What the status of the Pope is as an individual, we'll leave that to God. It's not our job to judge people fortunately. That's Christ's job. But the claims of the papacy are anti-Christian. If they are not anti-Christian, well, what are they then? They must be true. ***Herman Sasa wrote in the late '40s, early '50s an essay: Is the Pope still the anti-Christ? And Herman Sasa was not a fanatic. He was good friends with Augustine Cardinal ***Beya who worked at the Roman Curia. And he was from his early days on in the ecumenical dialogue. But he points out that the papacy is either one of the greatest seductions in Christianity or it is the rock on which the church stands. So though we can be happy when the Pope issues statements with which we agree, we also have to be aware that there's a lot where we don't agree. Most Lutherans for example will not agree with the stand of birth control with papacy. Most people will probably not agree with a stand on the death penalty. If you start looking closely at the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, it might help you to lose a little bit of your illusions about the papacy. There's a lot of good there. And for that we are thankful. But there's still a lot that oppresses conscience and a lot that drives people away from Christ. Maybe last year when John Paul II died you watched some of the media coverage. Well, it was almost inevitable because it was 24 hours almost. I taped the funeral service and then also the service in which Benedict XVI was installed as Pope. And there's a lot of good things there. But you know, there are also many teachings where just kind of my toenails started to curl. And so therefore we have to see the papacy is not some benign institution. John Paul II was a very nice person. And the present pontiff is I think a nice person and intellectually brilliant. But that does not change the anti-Christian claims of the papacy. Now, let's look at another thing, the conversion of the Jews. Especially in some forms of millennialism, that's a big thing. At the end Jews will be converted. And the prime passage for that is Romans 11:26 where Paul writes: All of Israel will be saved. Most millennialists don't take that literally although their claim is always: Oh, we take everything literal and you do not take these things literally. Most millennialists will not say that all Jews who have ever lived will be saved. But rather they say: Well, at the end of time there will be a massive conversion of Jews. Lutherans have never interpreted that statement as talking about a massive or comprehensive conversion of Jews at the end of time. Because Israel here is not simply Israel according to the flesh that is the nation of Israel, the Jews. But if you read Romans 9 to 11, Paul will distinguish between the true Israel and the Israel according to the flesh. There are several exegetical options here. One is that Paul speaks about the elect. That is all of Israel are all the elects of Israel or that Israel is here actually comprehensive for the elect Jews and also the Gentiles that will be Christians. So the conversion of the Jews as one of the signs of the end time is not accepted by Lutherans because they think this is a misinterpretation of this passage. When we therefore, ask when does Christ come again, we say: We don't know. But we know that we are moving along. And we are waiting. And it is our task on this wait that at the one hand we do our duty and do not gaze at the end and either become inactive or hyperactive. That we do our duty. And on the other hand, that we are aware that things might get tough and will get tough. And that suffering is a part of the Christian life. So that we are not surprised when suffering actually becomes part of our life. Or that we are discouraged in our faith as soon as hard times start. Hard times will come. But the hard times are short. And then the glorious return of Christ comes. And that's why as Christians we have this view of history that actually has a goal. This world has a goal. And that is Christ's return where then the evil will be ended. It's not so that this universe will peter out and the sun will explode and then the earth will go up in flames and hopefully we have been thinking interstellar space travel and can have our second earth or anything like that. No. It's not some kind of endless and thereby meaningless existence. This world will come to its completion. And evil will have an end.