To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here
Throughout the season of Lent, we’re taking a close look at the Apostles’ Creed – one of the earliest and most concise summaries of what followers of Jesus believe.
It’s called the Great Disappointment.
No, we’re not talking about the fact it’s been 26 years since a B1G Ten basketball team has won a national championship.
Tens of thousands of followers of William Miller, a Baptist preacher from New York, became convinced that the Second Coming of Christ would occur on October 22, 1844. Some of them quit their jobs and gave away their possessions. Others began to act like toddlers, remembering Jesus’ teaching that only those who become like little children will be able to enter God’s kingdom.
When the sun came up on October 23, with Jesus nowhere in sight, the Millerite movement became the Great Disappointment.
As Paul Boyer points out in his book When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture, date-setting and end-time speculation are recurrent American pastimes. Earnest believers in every generation attach themselves to a fresh set of calculations from a new prophetic voice – usually based on texts from Daniel, Revelation, or the Gospels.
Harold E. Camping, a California-based radio broadcaster and evangelist, announced that the Second Coming would occur on or about September 6, 1994. When that didn’t happen, he revised his calculations and pinpointed September 29. Disappointed, he then looked toward October 2, 2005.
Even after three swings and misses, Camping wasn’t out.
With accelerating confidence, he declared that Jesus would return on Saturday, May 21, 2011 – a day of salvation for believers but Judgment Day for everyone else. After five consecutive months of “fire, brimstone, and plagues,” the earth would finally go up in smoke on October 21, 2011.
This time the general public paid attention. It helped that Family Radio, the flagship of Camping’s ministry, spent more than $5 million on billboards announcing the date (along with the words, “The Bible guarantees it”) from coast to coast.
Some true believers emptied their bank accounts. Others gave away their pets.
Nothing happened. The 89-year-old evangelist once again tried to pivot, declaring that Jesus had in fact “returned” on May 21 – not physically, but spiritually. He stuck with the October 21 date as the end of everything, but when alarm clocks went off as scheduled on October 22 (curiously, the famous Millerite date) Camping joined the inglorious ranks of those who have been decisively mistaken about the date of Christ’s return.
As it turns out, everything that Harold Camping had ever needed to know about the timing of the Apocalypse had been available to any first-time Bible reader for 2,000 years.
Concerning his future coming, Jesus says in Matthew 24:36: “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
If Jesus himself doesn’t know the day or hour of his own return, it seems fairly certain none of us is going to solve the riddle.
More importantly, we are expressly forbidden from wasting our time trying to do so::
“So stay awake, alert. You have no idea what day your Master will show up. But you do know this: You know that if the homeowner had known what time of night the burglar would arrive, he would have been there with his dogs to prevent the break-in. Be vigilant just like that. You have no idea when the Son of Man is going to show up” (Matthew 24:42-44, “The Message”).
The sheer intrigue of discerning “the signs of the times” will undoubtedly produce more doomsday prophets.
But none of their efforts will be sanctioned by Jesus. In fact, his guarantee is that we’ll all be surprised.
So don’t be surprised that you’ll be surprised.
Jesus’ Second Coming rates only five English words in the Apostles’ Creed: “From there he will come…” There denotes heaven, where he is currently ruling at the Father’s right hand.
Despite the brevity of that phrase, the obsession in certain quarters of the church with the timing and significance of the Second Coming prompts us to commit a pair of reflections to its wider meaning – in particular, how God would have us live in light of the fact that history has a definite future termination point.
Why does that matter? How we think about the future unfailingly impacts how we live in the present.
It matters whether we look ahead with hope or fear, assurance or uncertainty – and whether we steward God’s creation as a treasure that reflects his glory, or dismiss it as a tarnished work of art that will one day be thrown onto the trash heap.
Jesus may return before you finish reading this sentence. That would surprise most of us.
After all, we’ve made plans for dinner, we need to get our taxes done before April 15, and many of us are pondering plans for summer travel.
One thing’s for sure: One of these days, Jesus is going to make good on his promise and come back.
A few years ago, a group of church leaders huddled in a conference room. Before they dived into their strategic planning agenda, the leader asked, “Does anyone here think that Jesus is going to return within the next 60 minutes?” Everyone looked thoughtful. Everyone shook their head No.
The leader then silently circulated an index card bearing a single verse of Scripture:
“You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him” (Luke 12:40).
Who knows?
That hour may be closer than any of us suspect.
Be ready.