Advent and Eschatology. Pray and Work.

The Advent story doesn’t seem to sit particularly well with post-millennial thought.

 

What do I mean?

 

Advent is about Israel languishing in her sin, darkness and exile.  Pretty much helpless until Jesus came and fixed things.  The faithful could do little more than wait and hope.  God has to bring about His own prophecy, right?  Would the faithfulness of Israel have moved up God’s timeline for sending Messiah?

 

In our eschatology debates, this is usually either a pre-mil or an a-millennial perspective.  The post-mil view says that Jesus has empowered the church to advance the gospel on earth, without Him needing to come back and make it happen.

 

Can Advent and Post-millennialism live together with consistency??

 

Yes they can.  Here’s how.

 

Most Post-Mil folks are also Calvinists, and emphasizers of the redemptive history told in the Bible.  The key is to know where you are in God’s story.

 

1 – Jehoshaphat or Ehud?

When an army came against Jehoshaphat, he gathered Israel, and prayed to God: “we don’t know what to do – we are waiting on you.”  When Eglon oppressed Israel, Ehud marched right into his throne room (then into his bathroom!) and stabbed him in the belly.  There ARE times when we have done all we can do, and have to leave events to the Lord’s hands.  And there are times when we have to go take action by faith to fulfill the dominion mandate.  Israel back from exile, awaiting the Messiah, was partly faithful (Simeon, Anna, Zachariah, Elizabeth) and partly compromised (Sanhedrin).

 

The key here is to have the wisdom to know where the boundaries of responsibility lie. 

Our nation is becoming decidedly more secular and godless in its culture and life.  To what extent can I do something about that?  Post-mil folks often lay heavy burdens on believers here, that you can always do more, and if the culture isn’t becoming more godly then you individually, or the Church corporately, are failing.  Not so.  But pre- and a-millennial folks also lay a heavy burden too, saying, you can’t do anything but wallow in your pessimism and wait for God to come and fix it.  Sometimes it’s time to pray and wait.  Sometimes it’s time to work.  Don’t let an eschatological view say your life should always be one or the other.

 

Sometimes you’re at a point in the story where you’re going to lose the battle you’ve been faithfully fighting unless help arrives.  Your spouse will die of cancer; your neighbor will die in unbelief.  Other times, you’re going to lose the battle because you’ve been despairing and negligent, unless you buck up and take action.  Lead your family in worship; go to the town hall meeting and speak up.

 

 

2 – Postmillennialism does NOT believe in a constant increase of faithfulness, with no setbacks anywhere.  The period from the exile up to Christ’s advent was one of those setbacks, when God chastised and refined His people.  Today, Christian faith is waning in the big picture in the Northern Hemisphere of God’s earth.  But it is waxing profoundly in parts of the south.  To note the setbacks is not a betrayal of faith in God’s Pentecostal power given to the church to bring the gospel to the nations.

 

 

3 – I remain divided between the post- and a-millennial views.  I grew up a-mil, believing that the spiritual battle goes on without a clear victor until the end, when Christ comes and mops up.  I’ve recently become more post-mil, believing that the Lord will see the nations of the earth become His own.  Abraham is the heir of the world (Romans 4:13).  But will that happen AT Christ’s coming, or before?  Whatever the answer, let us work and pray, pray and work for the advance of the gospel wherever we can, however we can, as much as we can.