In my last post I argued that apocalyptic notions of destructive judgment in the end times are initially improbable. There I also noted that I do believe in a form of God’s future eschatological judgment and indicated that at the end of this series I would write about these positive beliefs.
In today’s post I will begin to survey a number of predictions of imminent apocalyptic judgment that failed to (fully) be fulfilled. This is an important part of my cumulative case against many such views. It will also illustrate for us a variety of dangers that often flow out of end times thinking that we should seek to avoid.
So far, prophesies about the final end have been repeatedly wrong, and often to great harm (see Kyle, 1998; Kirsch, 2006; Gould, 1997; and Weber in Walls, 2008).
Let me start with some examples from the Bible itself. In my next few posts I will survey other examples throughout church history and in other religions.
Daniel 11:3-12:4 appears to be an unbroken discussion of the actions of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (215-164 BCE) and supposed subsequent happenings. The earlier part of chapter 11 is transparently about Antiochus Epiphanes and conflict between the kingdom of the North (the Seleucid Empire) and the kingdom of the South (the Ptolemaic Empire) (Sparks, 2008, pp. 116-118; Collins, 1994).
The problem is that the passage goes on to predict things that were never fulfilled. Specifically, the text predicts that Antiochus would die in Palestine (11:45) and that shortly thereafter the general resurrection and judgment would happen and God’s final kingdom would be established (11:40-12:4). We have three sources for Antiochus’ death and they all agree that he died in Persia, not Palestine (Sparks, 2008, p. 117). And obviously the final end did not occur in the 2cd century BCE.
Some conservative Christians believe that verse 36 marks a change of focus from Antiochus and the 2cd century to the time of the Antichrist and the eschatological end. Conservatives are virtually forced to make a break somewhere in 11:2-12:4. But so far as I can see, there is no contextual basis for this.
The text makes no clear break itself. If it is supposed to break, the description of Antiochus is left hanging unresolved. Verse 42 goes on to talk about more conflict with Egypt (the kingdom of the South); which, as John J. Collins notes, has been a constant theme in this whole section (Collins, 1994, p. 65), including parts that are unmistakably about Antiochus. There are abundant reasons for seeing the section as one whole and no reason to make an arbitrary break apart from the self-serving desire to save Daniel from being in error.
As another Biblical example, consider the New Testament teaching on imminent coming judgment and vindication. While I believe that Jesus and the early church were wrong about the timing and perhaps some of the details concerning coming end times judgment, I also believe there are core truths we can draw from their eschatological outlook (on which see my future post).
A strong case can be made that Jesus explicitly said that the final end would occur within the lifetime of his contemporaries (Mk 8:38-9:1 c.f. Matt. 16:24-28 and Lk. 9:23-27; Mk. 13:30 c.f. Matt. 24:34 and Lk. 21:32; Mk.14:62; Matt. 10:23; 23:34-36). Attempts to reinterpret or spiritualize this fail: a.) in context, “generation” in Mark 13:30 refers to that (current) generation and b.) much of what these texts describe could not be said to have happened in the first century (Allision, 2010, pp. 31-220; Stark, 2011, pp. 160-207; Loftus in Loftus, 2010, pp. 316-343; and Dunn, 2003, pp. 431-437).
Elsewhere Jesus is remembered as speaking more generally of the kingdom’s imminent coming (Mark. 1:5; Matt. 10:7; 24:42-44; 25:1-13 c.f. Lk. 12:35-40; Lk. 10:8-11; 18:7-8; 21:34-36; etc.). Later Christian writings very much seem to be reinterpreting the tradition in light of its failure (John 21:22-23; 2 Pet. 3:3-13; 1 Clem. 23:3-5; Gospel of Thomas; etc.) (Allison, 2010, pp. 125-134; Stark, 2011, pp. 204-207; and Loftus in Loftus, 2010, pp. 327-333).
Much of the rest of Jesus’ message is illuminated by seeing him in this paradigm (apocalyptic prophet) (Ehrman, 1999, pp. 141-214; Grant, 1977, pp. 18-29. and Allison, 1998). Jesus’ message and actions closely mirror other millenary groups who expected the end in their lifetime (see particularly Allison, 1998, pp. 78-94 for the global pattern).
Finally, part of the reason it seems likely that Jesus taught an imminent apocalyptic end is that this was the view of both his mentor John the Baptist (Matt. 3:2, 7, 10; etc.) and the early church (1 Thess. 1:10; 2:19; 3:13; 4:15-17; 5:23; 2 Thess. 1:6-10; 1 Cor. 2:6; 4:5; 7:29-31; 10:11; 11:26; 15:51-52; 16:22; Phil. 1:6, 10; 3:20; 4:5; Rom 8:18, 22-23; 13:11-12; 16:20; James 5:1-9; Cor.7:28-31; Heb. 1:2; 9:26; 10:25, 37; 1 Pet. 1:20; 4:7; 5:1; Jude 14-15, 18; 1 John 2:17-18; Rev. 1:1, 7; 2:16, 25; 3:10-11; 22:6- 7, 10, 12, 20). It is unlikely that Jesus held a completely different view, seeing as that would involve two discontinuities: Jesus rejecting John’s apocalypticism and then some of Jesus’ followers rejecting that rejection (Allison in Miller, 2001, p. 85. Allison, 2010,.pp. 48-55).
As to the early church’s imminent apocalyptic expectations, not all of the verses cited above are explicit about imminence. But most are. Perhaps most clearly, in 1 Corinthians 7:17-31 Paul counsels people, including slaves and virgins, to not go out of their way to change their circumstances or focus on worldly things because the present form of the world is in crisis and passing away. In 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 he indicates his belief that both he and other first century believers will be alive when Jesus returns.
Beyond clear passages such as these, the sheer ubiquity of more general immanency indicators is problematic (see Babinski). For various New Testament authors to assert that Jesus’ coming was going to happen “immediately” (Mk. 13:24) after events in their generation or that it was “right at the very gates” (Mk. 13:29), that “He who is coming will come, and will not delay” (Heb. 10:37), that “the coming of the Lord is at hand…Behold, the Judge is standing right at the door” (James 5:8-9), or that Jesus was “coming quickly” (Rev. 3:11; 22:6, 7, 10, 12, 20) etc. when in reality this would not happen for 2000 + more years is misleading at best. Robert Price aptly asks,
But what sort of a revelation is it that is couched in terms unintelligible to those whose sake it is vouchsafed? Given God’s infinite expanse of cosmic eons, what could ‘soon’ possibly mean if it bears no relation to our own use of the word? After all, if God is talking to human beings, he has to use human terms if he wants to be understood. And if he really meant, ‘I am coming thousands of years in the future,’ why didn’t he just say so? (Price, 2007, pp. 159-160).
Again, although I think there are general principles we can glean from the New Testament’s eschatological teachings, in my view its errors regarding end times judgment play into other reasons to reject a number of overly rigid and violent eschatological expectations contained within it and/or associated with it.
References
Allison, D. C. (2010). Constructing Jesus: Memory, imagination, and history. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.
Allison, D. C. (1998). Jesus of Nazareth: Millenarian prophet. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.
Allison, D. C. (2001). A Response. In The apocalyptic jesus: A debate. Ed. Miller, R. J. Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge Press.
Collins, J. J. (1994). Daniel: A commentary on the book of daniel (Hermeneia: A critical & historical commentary on the bible). Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.
Dunn, J. D. G. (2003). Jesus remembered: Christianity in the making volume 1. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Ehrman, B. D. (1999). Jesus: Apocalyptic prophet of the new millennium. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Gould, S. J. (1997). Questioning the millennium: A rationalist’s guide to a precisely arbitrary countdown. New York, NY: Harmony Books.
Grant, M. (1977). Jesus: An historians review of the gospels. New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Kirsch, J. (2006). A history of the end of the world: How the most controversial book in the bible changed the course of western civilization. New York, NY: HarperSanFrancisco.
Kyle, R. (1998). The last days are here again: A history of the end times. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
Price, R. M. (2007). The paperback apocalypse: How the christian church was left behind. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.
Sparks, K. L. (2008). God’s word in human words: An evangelical appropriation of critical biblical scholarship. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.
Stark, T. (2011). The human faces of god: What scripture reveals when it gets god wrong (and why inerrancy tries to hide it). Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock.
Weber, T. P. (2008). “Millennialism.” In The oxford handbook of eschatology. (Ed. Jerry L. Walls). pp. 365-383. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Post-conservative Orphan of God 