End Times. Now.

When I was 12, I started in Yahoo! a group dedicated to discussing the endtimes. At that age, I was decidedly post-tribulationist. Where would be the fun if we were all raptured? The group was, I think, not very successful. But it could've done worse. I don't know of its fate today.

Just recently a friend of mine asked me whether we will make it through the end times. That seems to be the concern of many a Christian, and I wonder why they're not learning survival techniques and storing up on baked beans by now.

The time is near, at least they think so. So did, uh, Herr Luther. Of course he's dead now, but he did believe rather fervently that Jesus was coming very soon.

I don't like to rant. I've ranted before. Believe me. But here it is again, and please bear with me for a moment.

Revelation shouldn't be interpreted literally. At least, I don't think it should. Yet we have dear Hal Lindsey's imagination working overtime in his "interpretation", and his (and others of his kind) legacy remains today. God forbid (indeed) Left Behind.

And, I don't think Paul was wrong when he said that Jesus was coming "soon". Now, "soon" has been extended to two millenniums by many folks. But our dear Apostles were not speaking from the viewpoint of God. Rather, they spoke from their viewpoint to (and this is most important) other humans. Ditto with Jesus in his Olivet Discourse.

So, when I say I'll give back your money soon, I don't mean to say that I will only give it back to you by the time your grandson has great-grandsons.

My dear friends, I hardly think the end is soon. But then again, maybe it is. And I'm not sure about everything the Bible says (I'm still caught between the millenialisms). On the other hand, people have been wrong for 2000 years. I don't think we'll be right anytime soon.

Date setters have never gotten it right. Even a youth pastor, teaching on the end times, has said that the end should've been at least one generation after the gathering of Israel (1947).

That means...uh...yeah, the tribulation should've started already. No, he said. We're living on "extra time". But such ad hoc adjustments only serve to notify us that it's a theory that clearly is lacking hard evidence.

So, the antichrist might already be here. But I shake my head and say, "not likely". Not because I'm certain it ain't true. But because I know that the methods in which people arrive at the conclusion are clearly dubious.

My closing words? There are other interpretations of the end times. I think the most persuasive one (a summary of which can be found here) is preterism. But most premillenial folk will reel in horror at such a suggestion. But I think it's the closest to what the Bible teaches.