Does This End-Times Theology Sabotage the Church’s Relationship With Jesus?

I believe that we are to influence all areas of society with biblically based solutions, yet I am disturbed by those who embrace the “post-millennial” understanding in their teaching on the last days. This understanding says that we can now go forward to conquer the whole world for Jesus without His actual return.

Wherever one “places” the Great Tribulation—whether in the past or in the future, like both classic Protestant and Catholic views—the real concern with this thinking is the loss of passion for the return of Yeshua. The New Covenant Scriptures exhort us to long for the return of Yeshua.

• Peter notes in Acts 3 that the Jewish people need to repent, “that He may send the Messiah appointed in advance for you, that is, Yeshua” (v. 20b, CJB).
• In Philippians 3:20, we are told that, “We are citizens of heaven, and it is from there that we expect a Deliverer, the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.”
• In Colossians 3:4 we are to hope that “When the Messiah, who is our life, appears, then you too will appear with him in glory!”
• In 1 Corinthians 16:22, we read the words Marana, ta, “Come, Lord.” This was a greeting among believers in the first century.
• In 2 Peter 3:12a, we are encouraged to live in such a way that we are “wait[ing} for the day of God and work[ing] to hasten its coming.”

Now of course, we know there has been delay. Yet the Bible does not explicitly command us to, “Go forth and influence every sector of society and bring it into obedience to biblical principles.” I do believe in such influence as an implication of the Good News of the kingdom. I see that slavery would not have been eliminated in England and America if it were not for believers who acted.

However, the passion of the New Covenant Scriptures is our relationship with our returning Lord, not taking control of the so-called “seven mountains.” The passion for His return, like the passion of the bride for her bridegroom, should supersede other desires. We live in the light of His return. When I was a child, I thought as a child. I did not want the Lord to return until after I had experienced marriage and raising my own children. But now I know that whenever He comes, it will be the best for all of us. Let us by all means influence society in our journey, but let us embrace the passionate, New Testament sense of the soon return of Yeshua. We can do both.

*The so-called “Seven Mountains” teaching is one such understanding. The post-millennial view teaches that the Great Tribulation has already passed. This view was embraced by Charles Finney and Jonathan Blanchard (founder of Wheaton College). Wheaton’s motto, “For Christ and His Kingdom,” was originally, but not currently, understood in post-millennial terms. Many today have the view that the church will come to rule the nations without the return of Yeshua literally. They speak of a victorious church, but they imply post-millennialism. This teaching is closely entwined with the widely discredited ideas of dominionism. {eoa}

Dan Juster is the director of Tikkun Ministries International, a Messianic Jewish ministry. He is an author and has been in Messianic Jewish ministry since 1972.

This article originally appeared at tikkun.tv.