The delay of the parousia - Can God tell time?

[Pergamum]

imago*futura: C.S. Lewis and the Delay of Parousia

How do you respond to critics that point out that the NT seems to expect the return of Christ right away, but that his delay has been delayed a long time?

I was almost intrigued by the preterist position when I was newly saved due to a tract entitled, "Can God tell time?" that hypothesized that all those verses about the near return of Christ really happened in 70 AD. But other scholars simply say that Jesus and/or the Apostles were mistaken and expected Jesus to return within their own generation.

I am anticipating answers fuller than II Peter's "...one day is as a thousand years...."

 

[Andres]

It seems to me that every generation feels like Christ is going to return during their lifetime. It's like when you see those bumper stickers that say, "Christ is coming soon". I always wonder about the "soon". Isn't "soon" relative? And what is "soon" when dealing with eternity?

 

[Contra_Mundum]

The expectations for an "instant" parousia were partly encouraged by pre-passion expectations of a Messiah coming to reign with glory--expectations that Jesus himself sought to remove, but which "bounced back" in a different form once his humiliation was complete, and his exaltation begun.

Personally, I've never read Paul or the other disciples as teaching Jews or Gentiles (especially new converts) that Jesus return was definitely right around the corner. Even "critics" admit that Paul's or John's later expressions of the Christian life call for patience. What about the Thessalonian correspondence? Both those letters are early, both reference the 2nd Coming, and I've never read them as though they tell their readers anything more than that we believers are waiting eagerly for Jesus. One even explicitly refutes the idea that because people have died, they are going to miss his coming; or it has already happened, because people are dying and buried who should have gone with Christ.

I've certainly never read Jesus in the Gospels as preaching his own immediate return, or a consummate kingdom of immediate recognition--but all around him I see people who are expecting one thing, while he's working overtime to disabuse them of their errors. The thought that Jesus himself failed to comprehend his own timetable (or over-invested in a quick send-back from the Father) are largely being "read-back" into the content of the gospels.

The facts are: 1) people often misunderstood their own Scriptures, their own times, and NT teaching; 2) Christians have always hoped for Jesus' return in their own time; and 3) God has an eternally conditioned definition of "soon," which its our duty to make our own. The "delay" of however long allows continued development of history, an extension of the Kingdom in time and space, and an enlargement of the Kingdom with elect individuals whose existence is required to complete the Kingdom design.

People today seem eager to uncouple their own convictions from any permanent grounding in an unchanging faith. The last is easier to do, once you are persuaded that not even the first Christians were "right" about their own religious notions--"we're all just muddling along, crafting our own religion as we go, just like Jesus did."

 

[Peairtach]

Our Lord explicitly denied He was returning when the temple was destroyed within a generation of A.D. 33.

Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There he is!' do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you before. So, if they say to you, 'Look, he is in the wilderness,' do not go out. If they say, 'Look, he is in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.(Matt 24:23-27)

He indicated it would be a long time. Noah was preaching for 120 years before the Flood came.

For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark,

A long time:

As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.(Matt 25:5)

A long time:

Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. (Matt 25:19)

not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, (II Thess 2:2-3)

Neither our Lord nor the Apostle Paul gave Christians any encouragement to believe in the any moment Parousia of the Lord but gave them indications of when it wouldn't happen without setting a date for when it would happen.

There are other indications in Scripture that it won't happen until the Jews are converted and the other nations are converted, which hasn't happened yet.

On the other hand, the world ends for most people in death, and that's when the Lord comes for most people, apart from the last generation.

Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. (Matt 25:13)

Christ's return for us is also "already.......... not yet"

 

[JennyG]

It seems to me that every generation feels like Christ is going to return during their lifetime. It's like when you see those bumper stickers that say, "Christ is coming soon". I always wonder about the "soon". Isn't "soon" relative? And what is "soon" when dealing with eternity?

Aslan: You will see me soon...
One of the Pevensie children: What do you call 'soon', Aslan?'
Aslan: I call all times soon.