While there are many victories for the cause of Christ along the way between his resurrection and his return, and while there are many, many people who have been and will be converted to the name of Christ, still, in the aggregate over time, there is also an increase of both the extent and the severity of opposition to Christ and his people, and especially so immediately preceding the end. Welcome to MidAmerica Reformed Seminary's Roundtable Podcast, a broadcast where the faculty of MidAmerica discuss everything from Reformed theology, cultural issues, and all things seminary. This is episode 82. I'm your host, Jared Luchbore. Thank you for tuning in. Stepping up to the microphone over the next few weeks is New Testament professor, Dr. Marcus Menninger. We'll kick off a series of episodes on the New Testament beginning with a discussion on optimism and pessimism. That is to say, will things get better or worse before Christ's return? Here's Dr. Minning. The question often comes up when we read scripture and we look at the world around us. Should we be, as Christians, should we be optimists or pessimists? Does scripture teach us that things will get better and better over time, leading towards Christ's return, or worse and worse? Or in what sense, either one? A lot of times this comes up in my teaching when discussing the Book of Revelation in the midst of its complex imagery, the predictions that it makes or seems to make, how to deal with all of that challenge certainly in that book. But it's a larger question too that goes well beyond the Book of Revelation. The way I like to approach this topic is to start with some of the big picture statements in the New Testament from other texts, more didactic texts that aren't quite as imagery-laden as the Book of Revelation. The imagery in the Book of Revelation is wonderful. It's a great asset to us for all of its particular contributions, but it also has some difficulty associated with it to figure out what exactly those images mean. And so it's easier sometimes to get our bearings by starting with a few other texts first and then come back to some of what is in the Book of Revelation. This is just a thumbnail sketch, but here's some reflections on this topic. Optimism or pessimism? We can start by looking at Romans 8, in particular Romans 8, 18 through 25. There's a lot of rich theology there, of course. One of the things that Paul says in verse 18 of Romans 8 is that the present time, or as he calls it, the now time, is marked by suffering. He says in verse 18, the sufferings of the now time, or the present time, are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us. And when Paul describes the now time, the boundaries of that time clearly in that context go all the way to the time of Christ's return, the general resurrection. When he says in verse 19, the time when the sons of God, meaning Christians, will be revealed, will become visible to all around them because, as verse 23 says, their bodies will be resurrected or redeemed is the specific language, but describing the resurrection. And as he also says in verses 24 and 25, at that same time point, that future horizon that the passage looks towards, our faith and our hope will become sight rather than being something we cannot presently see. So the entire period then Paul is describing in Romans 8, 18 and following, the entire period from his own day, specifically from the time of Christ's resurrection, all the way until the second coming of Christ, is characterized by suffering being one of its distinguishing features. And we can look then at the broader context in which different kinds of suffering are spoken about in Romans 8 right there. in that same passage, and as well later in the chapter, verses 35, verses 38 through 39. And that suffering, which is going to characterize the entire time period until Christ's return, includes things like the general groaning of creation, as Paul describes the presence of decay and futility within the creation itself. It's subject to futility and the bondage of decay, as he says. This word futility, for example, is what the book of Ecclesiastes in the Septuagint has, which we often will hear translated, vanity of vanities or meaninglessness or something like that. It refers to the inability to produce a lasting good, that whatever is done ends up being undone and there's not a lasting product from it. These things, Paul says, are inherent to the creation all the way until Christ's return. We can also see other sorts of difficulty in that same context. Later in the chapter, Paul talks about what sort of sufferings does he mean when he talks about the sufferings of the now time. These sufferings include persecution. tribulation, nakedness, peril, sword. In other words, opposition from those who are against Christ, right? Which can even to the point of death. Now, these sorts of experiences ebb and flow throughout history. Sometimes they're greater, sometimes they're lesser. But in the big picture, Paul says, they all characterize the entire period from when he's speaking in Romans 8, shortly after Christ's resurrection, some decades after his resurrection, all the way through to Christ's return. We can conclude then from Romans 8 that we are not as Christians to expect a golden age to arrive in history prior to Christ's return and the final judgment, the bringing about of the new heavens and new earth, and the resurrection of the dead, and all of those things. That final end time scenario, we're not to expect a golden age before it. The suffering of the sort that we see now, including opposition from unbelievers and persecution and those sorts of things, will continue to be a part of the life of God's people until Christ returns. So there may be wonderful changes throughout history, and we'll talk some more about that coming up. But all of what is accomplished through the reign of Christ from heaven will still exist within the context of continued difficulty, continued suffering until he returns. And that's why Paul says in verses 24 and 25 of Romans 8, that the great hope, the great transformation and change that we ultimately long for remains something unseen at present. He says, hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what they see, but if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. And he's making the point that we do not yet see this great definitive change, and we won't see it, a change that brings about relief of suffering and opposition. We won't see it until Christ's return. So, Romans 8 can start us off by showing that there's not a golden age type of optimism that we should have as Christians. That there will be some period of time along the way, perhaps shortly before Christ returns, in which opposition and suffering disappear. No, these things will continue all the way until He returns. A second text on the general topic is 1 John 2.18. 1 John 2.18 says this, Little children, this is the last hour, and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrists have come, this is how we know that it is the last hour. Here the Apostle John reflects on the last period of time, which he calls an hour in that case. The Bible uses different language for day, hour, various things that will, period of time, moment, It varies, but the last period of time before final judgment, and he says especially two things about this period of time, of course, which is the period of time within which we live as well. First, he sees the presence and operation of various antichrists, plural, right now. And he says that this is characteristic of the time period. And then second, he sees the future coming prior to Christ's return of a specific greater Antichrist figure in the singular. So the first part of this is, in keeping with what we just saw in Romans 8, that opposition to Christ, the operation of Antichrists, as John puts it, plural, is characteristic of the time period, we see that John says, this is how we know that we're in the final time period because of this opposition of Christ. It's not something that's going to go away, it's definitive of the period of time. But then along with that, John expects, and this is something that Romans 8 does not specifically talk about, the worsening of this conflict due to the coming future presence of an Antichrist singular, a definitive opponent of Christ, who is still coming but wasn't yet there in John's day nor in ours. So, again, the entire period is characterized by opposition to Christ, but we see also here in 1 John 2 that this opposition to Christ will worsen in some definitive way before the end. Thirdly, then, we could turn to the book of Revelation, which I mentioned before, and just make a few observations. It's obviously a very large and complex book. But most people know that the Book of Revelation has a structuring device in it that it often groups things in sets of seven. So there are seven letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor in chapters two and three. Then there are the seven seals that are opened in chapters four through seven, roughly. the seven trumpets, after that the seven bulls, later in chapters 12 through 14, seven signs, possibly it gets a little bit fuzzier and a little bit more debatable, but likely seven sayings in chapters 17 through 19 and seven revelations or particular things being shown in 21 and 22. Again, some of those things are clearer than others, but it's very clear that the book purposefully uses sets of seven as a structuring device. The question comes up then, what are we to make of this, and what time period do each of those different sets of seven describe, and how do each of the sets then relate to one another? What can we observe about, say, the structure and direction, the shape of historical development as we look at all those different sets? And here we can make two observations. First is that each of the sets of seven in this book, particularly at least beginning in chapter four onward, each of the sets of seven ends in a description of final judgment. Some of these are very, very clear that it is in fact final judgment that's in view. We can think about chapter six, 12 through 17, where it talks about, for the great day of wrath has come and who can stand, right? Or we can think about chapter 11, 15 through 19, the seventh trumpet, and that section there talks about the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and goes on to describe how your wrath came and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth. So again, language that evokes final judgment. or the seventh sign in describing that. Chapter 14 describes how the angel gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God, and blood flowed from the winepress as high as the horse's bridle, et cetera. The seventh bowl has a similar sort of language, then comes in chapter 19, white horse judgment, and chapter 20, the great white throne judgment. And so it seems to be that the book of Revelation goes through these cycles of seven, each of which end in judgment, and in particular something that describes final judgment. This is, in other words, to say that each of the sets of seven Redescribe the same period of time in history leading up to the final judgment. The second thing we can observe about this is that each of the sets of seven, as they go by, the focus from one to the next comes to be more and more particularly on the final judgment itself. and the time immediately preceding that final judgment. So over the course of the book, as you go through each of these sets of seven, they all narrate events that lead up to the final judgment. Each of them does that. But then they, over the course of the book, begin to focus more and more just on the final end. This is what sometimes people call progressive recapitulation in the book, that you're redescribing the same time period again, but more and more with a specific focus just on the end. Now, if that's so, then we can back up and make two large-scale observations about what the book seems to describe. First of all, each set of seven in the visionary content of the book is characterized by a worsening of conflict across its own seven items. particularly the first six items. There's a worsening of conflict in particular that climaxes in the sixth item, whether that's the sixth seal or bowl or trumpet, and then is resolved in the seventh. So this is very similar then to what 1st John 2 describes, that it seems to describe a worsening of conflict over time across each set of seven and a climactic worsening just before the end. The second thing we can observe from the book is is that as we look across all of the different sets of seven, each of them worsens within itself, but all of them together cumulatively show a worsening picture as well. The more that these sets of seven focus in on the very end, the more you see a heightening of conflict. Although there's some very large-scale observations, but I think it is the case that the book of Revelation confirms what we've just talked about elsewhere from Romans 8 and 1st John 2, a heightening of the opposition between Christ and the serpent leading up to and then climaxing prior to the final judgment. As you look at the big picture of the book of Revelation, that's what it seems to be evoking. Fourthly, then, a few comments about Revelation 20 and the Millennium there. And of course, all of these are very big topics, but we're giving a thumbnail sketch here by the nature of the case. The description of the Millennium in the book of Revelation provides an interesting piece of corroborating evidence that I think is often overlooked. The millennium in Revelation 20, of course, is something that's in itself described very positively as a time when God binds Satan so that Satan might not deceive the nations any longer. It says that in verse 3. And people debate exactly what the millennium refers to. I take it to be referring to the entire time period from Christ's resurrection to his return. But regardless of that particular thing, which we'll set to the side for now, it's important to notice what the Millennium does and doesn't accomplish in the world. Beginning in verse 3, Revelation 20 begins to describe the situation after the Millennium, after this restraint of Satan in a definitive way for a period of time. And after that millennium is over, Satan will be released for a little while again when it says he will deceive the nations to the four corners of the earth and gather them for battle, verse eight. And then those people that he's gathered who oppose Christ, it says, will be like the sand of the sea in number. And they're pictured there, again, this is after the millennium. It's right before the final end. They're pictured as opponents of Christ, like the Sanhedrin number, coming and surrounding the camp of the saints of God who are huddled together in the beloved city, verse 9, who the saints would be overwhelmed and destroyed were it not that then Christ returns in judgment and intervenes. Interestingly then, this time after the millennium seems to describe the earth's population in certain numerical proportions prior to final judgment. And when it pictures those numerical proportions, it appears to show unbelievers far outnumbering this one small city of believers. In other words, the proportion of the earth's population at that time, as described in this passage, seems to show great or even we could say predominant resistance and opposition to Christ numerically speaking. So while a great host of people from every tribe, tongue, and nation will in fact be converted to Christ over the course of history between his resurrection and his return, Still, the proportion of the entire population on the earth that consists of believers prior to the very end when Christ returns, that proportion seems still to be quite small compared to the proportion that's opposed to them. As a result, these important details seem to corroborate, again, what we've said before from Revelation, from elsewhere, that While there are many victories, abundant victories for the cause of Christ along the way between his resurrection and his return, because he is enthroned in heaven and reigns over all things, and while there are many, many people who have been and will be converted to the name of Christ, still in the aggregate over time, While those things are true, there is also an increase of both the extent and the severity of opposition to Christ and his people, and especially so immediately preceding the end. We can say then that, in general, the content and structure of the book of Revelation, along with what we've seen in Romans 8 and 1st John 2 and elsewhere, provides some of the reason why I might say that I remain pessimistic, so-called, right? Not an optimistic amillennialist, but a pessimistic one, if by that you mean that opposition within the world and expressions of conflict and suffering for Christians should be from the Bible, based on the Bible, expected to increase over time before Christ's return. There's not a general trajectory of increasing success that leads to a final golden age, but in the midst of Christ's reigning and ruling over his people, there still will also be increased opposition outwardly. At the same time, though, I think it's important that we would say that while we should, I think, expect a worsening of conflict between belief and unbelief leading up to Christ's return, And in that sense we might say scripture leads us towards a kind of pessimism. Still, the great encouragement of the book of Revelation is that Christ has overcome sin and death and so we are overcoming now too if we remain in him until death. In other words, the book of Revelation is one in which pessimism with regard to outward difficulty in this world, difficulty with those who oppose us and oppose Christ, characterizes our immediate experience, still our expectation is that because Christ is enthroned above, glorified in heaven, because he continues to reign over all things from that position, our pessimism with regard to outward experience, such as it may be, is combined with a great optimism and expectation, a sure and certain confidence that Christ is directing all of these things towards the great ends of his kingdom purposes and he has brought about victory in his death and resurrection which he will consummate upon his return. What then we might could be more realistic about the reality of suffering right now and yet at the same time more optimistic about ultimate vindication than that. We can be thankful to God then that he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ no matter how much earthly opposition we experience. Christ is on the throne. His victory is assured and so whatever may happen outwardly Even if it is, in fact, the worsening of conflict and persecution, we may be ultimately optimistic, confident in our Savior and His victory. Ever thought of optimism and pessimism in those categories before? What a fascinating subject from Dr. Menninger. Next week he'll address the issue of canon. What exactly is the canon of scripture and how did it come about? Tune in next week to learn more. For more episodes you can find us on our website at midamerica.edu slash podcasts and wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Be sure to search for and subscribe to Mid-America Reformed Seminary's Roundtable. I'm Jared Luchobor, till next time.