Yes, complaining, but not just complaining.
Warning.
The biblical and historical precedence is that the best minds knowing all the scriptures failed to see what was coming regarding Christ's first coming.
I don't agree with what you're implying, that serious intellects among Christians cannot fathom or properly interpret biblical prophecy. First, the minds of those religious people in Jesus' time were part of a generation that had fallen away, apostacized, and no longer listened to true revelation. They had turned away from true calls to repentance, and had positioned their own form of religion as superior to spiritual truth. They were, in other words, not out for God but out for themselves. And they used their religion to hold onto that power and authority.
They were therefore not in the least representative of Christianity in all times and in all places. Like Israel, Christianity in various nations have come and gone, have risen and fallen, have had great revivals and have turned away to compromise and apostasy. How dare you accuse true Christians of being mindless!
Even in Jesus' time, there were Simeon and Anna, who perfectly well knew who Jesus was and what he had come to do. John the Baptist certainly knew. And the disciples of Jesus became the great apostles of the NT era. So much for Christian minds not fathoming truth, which of course you mean you exclude your own mind?
That it was foretold that the spirit of anti-Christ was already at work, Jesus warned of the evil servant who would claim his master delays his coming, then Peter foretold of false teachers entering into the church teaching destructive doctrine, and Paul told of the believing of that same lie and the strong delusion that would ensue. But most think they can build upon that foundation believing the foretold lie as if none of it was actually taking place as it is written. Talk about delusion--they don't even believe it!
I have no idea what you're talking about. Who is today saying that the Master is delaying his coming? Certainly there are liberal theologians who might say something like that. But who are you addressing now? This forum? Any Christian but yourself?
As for the apostacy coming "that it must come before Jesus returns and before his Kingdom is established on earth." By what is foretold of Christ's coming "not when you expect"--there should be no question that He is not "delaying his coming" as most believe against the warning of the "evil servant." Which only leaves just what He said (and I have advocated under great criticism), that what most have put off to the future actually did "shorty take place", just as He said.
Okay, I see where you're coming from now! You're saying that the idea of Christ's "imminent Return" could not be imminent from the time of the Early Church unless the Apostasy had taken place in the Early Church?
I'm not, however, an Imminency advocate. The idea of Jesus' Soon Return, and the tension of God's wrath hanging over our deeds, are enough to make anybody squirm. That judgment is coming is certain, and whether it comes in the next few minutes or hundreds of years from now, our deeds are still facing eternal judgment. Imminency is not the central thing.
That being said, sins can reach critical mass, and that's when the threat of imminent judgment becomes more serious. There will be no time left to get ready, to repent, to put things right. Jesus made that point when he came to Israel. Their sins had reached critical mass, and they had run out of time. Jesus said that within that very generation, Israel would be destroyed.
But that has nothing to do with Jesus' Coming Back at any moment. Nothing in the Scriptures suggests that. That he is Coming relatively soon is clear. That's clear even if it's been thousands of years. It's nearness has more to do with the tension of human behavior facing scrutiny every day, and with the reality that history is heading towards its climax in divine judgment.
We don't need Imminency Doctrine to make this point. We don't need to have the apostasy of Antichrist take place in the early Church to ensure people know Christ could "come at any moment." In fact, the threat of Christ's Return at any moment never changes anybody. It only warns them when it's too late.
But true Christians are given a sense of history, a sense of time. We are to discern prophetic development, whether in our own time or if we live in the final days of this age.
That's why we were given the book of Revelation. It is about the last generation, but its instruction is helpful in all generations, because in all generations there are Antichrists we have to watch out for and endure.
It is quite the opposite of Imminent Expectation. We are to discern where we are in history, even if we don't know the exact day and hour of Christ's Return. God wants us to know these things so that we can discern lies, and pursue realistic goals in evangelism.
We are not children of darkness, but rather, children of the Day so that we know where we are in history. We're not to try to anticipate the future as much as understand where we are right now and know God's will as we live in it.
