Tuesday, April 9, 2024

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READ: Proverbs 19

Better a poor person who lives with integrity
than someone who has deceitful lips and is a fool.
Proverbs 19:1 (CSB)

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In 1931 William Miller, an American preacher, began teaching that Jesus would return between March 1943 and March 1944 basing his predictions on the 2300-day prophesy in Daniel 8:14. When Jesus didn’t show, the arrival was adjusted to October 22. Some 100,000 people came to believe, helped in part by a celestial sign in the form of a comet, and were devastated when, once again, Jesus didn’t show; an event that came to be known as the “Great Disappointment.”

People struggle to stand in reality and so a handful of the faithful spiritualized October 22 not as the day of Jesus’ return to earth, but as the cleansing of a heavenly temple. Thus the faithful could rest again knowing scripture had not been broken.

But it wasn’t scripture. It wasn’t prophesy. It wasn’t true.

Many such movements were born in that period. The Second Great Awakening of the 19^th Century was an American revival that birthed the Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists as well as Miller’s Adventists, Dispensationalists, The Church of Latter Day Saints, and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The turn of the 20^th century brought an outpouring of the Holy Ghost in new charismatic revivals such as the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles; a movement that stretched from 1906 to 1915. That revival led to the birth of the Assemblies of God Pentecostal churches. Marked by prophetic utterances, dramatic healings, and the speaking of tongues, this movement attracted as much criticism as adoration. But wasn’t this a precursor to Christ’s return? After all, the Prophet Joel predicted, and Peter reiterated in Acts 2, that supernatural activities, and yes, even natural, celestial signs, would prove we are indeed in the last days.

Because I was already deeply immersed in Wikipedia doing “research” for these groups and dates, I decided to search, “how many times has Jesus been expected to return since 1900.” Wikipedia did not disappoint. (Spoiler alert, Jesus has had, and missed, more than a handful of second comings.)

It’s a fascinating thing, our preoccupation with the End… the rapture… the Second Coming… Armageddon… the Age of Aquarius… name your flavour.

On the one hand, I suppose it’s good. People long to be with Jesus; to be done with the suffering and to get back to Eden. On the other hand, at some point, all this nonsense makes a mockery of Jesus. It certainly gives Christians a bit of a crazy old auntie vibe. At what point does a “prophet” become a liar plain and simple?

While I did have a lot of fun watching apocalyptic predictions on X this week, I can’t help but wonder if any good came of it. Goodness knows the rotting corpse of Twitter rarely produces honey, but this week in particular I just think dumb Christians got too much press. I just hope that the same predictors of rapture turn their attention, admonition, very slick videos, and resources towards loving those who are too busy surviving to give a second thought to a cock and bull second coming.