Nov 13

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church

Thessalonians: Are We There Yet?

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

November 13, 2005

1. I’m always amazed at our Lectionary’s ability to find a word from the Lord which speaks to our own day, whatever day it is, whatever year it is. Just last Monday, the Tulsa World carried this full-page story. It points out that current wars and devastations sound like Biblical predictions of the end times. "The last 10 months of disasters have people talking, and asking, about end times." Bill Sherman, World Religion Writer, interviewed several ministers from diverse backgrounds. One minister was from "Thy Kingdom Come Ministries," a couple from Assembly of God; there was a United Methodist and a Roman Catholic. No Presbyterians in the crowd. He asked if they believe we are living in the last days of the earth. The answers Bill received ranged from one extreme to the other. "Nah, we don’t focus on the end-times" to "Almost certainly this is the beginning of the end!"

2. "Are we there yet?" That question reminds me of taking trips in the car with young children. What’s the question kids ask most frequently when you take them on a trip? ARE WE THERE YET? Children become extremely excited! They are READY! But they have a hard time waiting. Five minutes to them is like five hours to us. "Are we there yet?" Then five minutes later: "Are we there yet?" How do you answer their question? There are two ways to respond to their question. One is to answer, "We’re almost there; it just around the corner [or over the hill]. Keep your eyes open! Look for the signs." Obedient little creatures that they are, they keep their eyes glued ahead, watching for the first sign. They see one! "There it is! We’re here!", only to find it looks a lot like the sign, but it’s the sign for something else. Big disappointment! That’s one way to respond. The other way is to answer is "No, we’re not there, and it’s going to be a long trip. So here are some things for you to do until we get there." And you pull out your "Trip Goodie Bag" full of road games and coloring books. And maybe you even plug in the portable DVD players – whatever you’ve brought along to keep them occupied.

3. "Are we there yet?" Children aren’t the only ones who ask that question. Early Christians asked that very same thing! They were on a trip, too – kind of. They were on the trip of their lives! They were going to be with Jesus forever. And they were ready for him to come pick them up! We read Paul’s words last week. He anticipated a magnificent return of Jesus. Believers would be gathered together with him, to be with him forever. Paul wrote to comfort those people, because they had a hard life. They were a minority. They learned quickly that being a Christian meant they had to live counter to their culture – and living counter to the culture is hard and dangerous work. It’s a bit like swimming against a swift current, or walking into a blizzard. They wanted to be rescued!

4. "Are we there yet?" I mentioned last Sunday that a fellow by the name of John Darby asked that question back in 1830 – 175 years ago. His answer was "Yes! We’re almost there! See the signs?" With his answer he created a whole new vocabulary, and taught us what we know about "The Rapture." There’s power in the apocalypse – it enraptures its believers. It "catches up" them up and fuels all kinds of fanatic activity. Hal Lindsey is an avid believers in the "end times," and wrote The Late Great Planet Earth in 1970 to give expression to his belief. Hal Lindsey was once a tugboat captain in New Orleans, and left that profession to attend Dallas Theological Seminary, which teaches this Premillennial Dispensationalism that I mentioned last week. Remember, that’s the theory that Cyrus Scofield developed, based on John Darby’s writings. He believed that God has divided history into seven periods, or dispensations. To "dispense" something, as you know, means you distribute it. So dispensationalism is the belief that God has distributed time in segments. The first segment was Innocence, from the Beginning to Adam and Eve; then Conscience, from Adam and Eve to Noah; Human Government from Noah to Abraham, and so on until the seventh dispensation, Kingdom. Scofield says we are in the sixth Dispensation, very near the end. Hal Lindsey was influenced by this Premillennial Dispensationalism as he wrote his thriller.

4. "Are we there yet?" The problem with thrillers like The Late Great Planet Earth and the Left Behind series is that they answer the "Are we there yet?" question with, "Yes, we’re almost there! Don’t you see the signs?" So all "the kids in the car," or all the people who are caught up by all that anticipation, all those people keep their eyes glued to "the road" watching for signs that they are there – as if there were nothing else going on. Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying we should not be alert. We should watch, that’s true. We find many stories in the Bible that warn us to keep alert, for we do not know the day nor the time when Christ will come again. We need to be ready! I very much appreciated what Bob Pierson said in this article. He is pastor of Christ United Methodist Church. He said life IS precarious; we don’t know what will happen next. "We need to be ready, whether for the end times, or for hurricanes, or cancer." We do not know the future, but we know the present, and there is much about the present that needs our attention.

5. No, we don’t know the future – but as far as we DO know, nobody has seen what Daniel and Jesus and Paul described – One like the Son of Man coming with the clouds with a cry of command and the sound of God’s trumpet, and those who are left being caught up and meeting Jesus in the air. And we’re a bit like children on a long trip. We’ve been waiting over 2,000 years, and we’re tired of waiting. So what is the best thing to do when the trip is longer than our attention span? We bring out our "Trip Goodie Bag" filled with Paul’s words to the Thessalonians: "Encourage one another; build up each other; respect those who labor among you; be at peace among yourselves; admonish the idlers; encourage the faint-hearted; help the weak; be patient with everyone; do not repay evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone; rejoice always, pray without ceasing; give thanks in all circumstances; do not quench the Spirit, do not despise the words of prophets; hold fast to what is good, abstain from every form of evil."

6. "Are we there yet?" No, we are not there, and we don’t know how long this trip will be. So take out your Goodie Bag" and savor its contents. "Encourage one another; build up each other; admonish the idlers; encourage the faint-hearted; help the weak; be patient with everyone; do not repay evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone; rejoice always, pray without ceasing; give thanks in all circumstances; do not quench the Spirit, do not despise the words of prophets; hold fast to what is good." And stop every now and then to practice on the people around you.

Hal Lindsey, formerly a tugboat captain in New Orleans, attended the Dallas Theological Seminary, the heart of American Dispensationalist apocalyptic inquiry, where he studied with John F. Walvoord, author of the 1974 best-seller Armageddon, Oil, and the Middle East Crisis. After touring extensively with the Campus Crusade for Christ, an evangelic ministry, Lindsey established Christian Associates, a prophetic ministry based in California. Deriving his authority from apocalyptic scripture alone, he has spoken on an impending third world war (as Armageddon) to U.S. military intelligence committees, the American Air War College (an Air Force strategic training center), the U.S. State Department, and the Pentagon itself.

Lindsey's most influential book, The Late Great Planet Earth (1971), proved immensely popular in the troubled early 1970s. Its publishers claim that it sold over 28 million copies; it was made into a documentary film in 1978, narrated by Orson Welles. The importance of Lindsey's writing lies in his reshaping and popularizing the elementary apocalyptic scenario into a third world war involving nuclear weapons and a Russian invasion of the Middle East.

The Late, Great Planet Earth is the primary example of pre-millennialist, dispensationalist Christian Zionist literature by prolific author Hal Lindsey (here assisted by co-author C.C. Carlson). It was published by Zondervan in 1970, and the book became the top-selling US title of the decade, selling over 15 million copies.

Lindsey interpreted the Cold War in the context of Biblical scripture, stating that the events of history, specifically the Cold War, fulfilled Biblical prophecy. For example, he pointed to the restoration of Israel as a state in 1948 as the literal restoration of Israel prophesied in the Bible. The central theme of Lindsey's work was his belief that Russia was to be Gog, the invader of the North prophesied by Ezekiel. Some of the word etymologies Lindsey presented to demonstrate these connections were taken from British Biblical literalists of the nineteenth century.

Lindsey wrote in his polemic that current events point to a near future Tribulation which will include the biblical plagues, wars, and famines. Jesus will rapture true believers to himself at the beginning of a 7-year Tribulation, following which he will return to establish his 1000 year millennial Kingdom on earth. The book pointed to the 1990s as the probable time of fulfillment of the prophecies. The book is also notable for its breezy style and punning jokes: "Russia is a-Gog" and "Sheik to Sheik" provide two chapter titles.

A film of the book was made in 1979; Orson Welles provided the narration.

Lindsey has gone on to write many sequels, including Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth and The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon. The latter title is now out of print.

Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Late%2C_Great_Planet_Earth

Originally published in 1970, Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth offered readers a guide to finding the future in the text of the Bible. With 15 million copies in print, this bestseller obviously struck a nerve in the modern world. Specifically, Lindsey offers order to the chaotic close of the twentieth century by arguing that many of the predictions of the Old and New Testament have come true. Such a connection offered hope to many Judeo-Christians that the Bible, and the morality that it imposes, had resonance in contemporary life. It also made many readers turn to the Bible in order to prophecy future events. In this fashion, Lindsey spurred contemporary readers to study the Bible with care and helped to re-energize Christianity. Many critics, however, suggest that few of his predictions for the 1980s came true and that he preyed on readers' hopes and fears. Regardless, the prophetic rhetoric of The Late Great Planet Earth made it the most popular book of the 1970s.

Before I say any more, I need to define three words. The first is

Millennialism. It is the belief that Christ will rule the earth for a period of 1,000 years, during which many will become Christian. Premillennialism is the view that says things are getting steadily worse on earth, and will go on deteriorating until God has had enough, and takes action in a way that will be catastrophic for humanity. The third is Dispensationalism. It is the belief system which divided human history into different ages, which Darby called dispensations. Each dispensation is a period during which God works in a specific way.

To navigate through the web site, click on the buttons at the top or on the side of the pages or on any links within the page. Use your browser's Back button to return to the previous page if that page does not appear in the buttons available. External hyperlinks should open in a new window - close it to return to this page.