End Times

December 28th, 2023

Last week, I went out for coffee with a friend. We’ve known each other for a long time, probably twenty years or more. She is an intelligent woman, well-read and thoughtful. We met as part of a Bible study group years ago, and we have maintained contact ever since that time. We don’t get together very often. She has health issues to manage, and I have to care for my toddler grandson fulltime. So, it was interesting to have a face-to-face conversation with her.

As we sipped coffee and caught up on personal stuff, I felt intense fatigue. Asher, the toddler, had had a rough night, and I had been up and down with him for most of it. Caffeine was no longer really a stimulant. It was simply a diuretic. I was tired and edgy. My friend recognized that.

Our conversation turned to the current war between Israel and Hamas. I explained to her that I knew both Palestinians and Israelis, and this particular conflict was difficult for me. I could understand the arguments on both sides of the struggle. I told her that I was appalled by the bloodshed and destruction.

At some point, she stated matter-of-factly,

“The last step required for the Second Coming is for the Jews to return to Israel.”

I was surprised for a moment, and then I was annoyed. I told her,

“I don’t care.”

She smiled sweetly and said, “It’s all part of biblical prophecy.”

“I still don’t care.”

We moved on to other subjects. She sensed my irritation. I had the same sort of reaction years ago when we were in the Bible study group. There were several people in that circle who were obviously fascinated with eschatology, the study of the end times. They were constantly scrutinizing Scripture for hidden clues about the Apocalypse. They were eagerly looking forward to the day when the Lord would return and straighten everything out.

The interest in eschatology is nothing new to Christianity. The earliest disciples of Jesus expected him to come back any day, and they struggled when he didn’t return promptly. The medieval times, there was the belief that Jesus would show up in the year 1000, the end of the first millennium. Once again, he was busy doing other things. Basically, in every generation, there have been people convinced the Savior was on his way here. Apparently, he is still on his way.

Christians aren’t the only people looking for the Messiah. Jews await the arrival of the Mashiach, who is not Jesus. Some of them closely examine the Torah, hoping to find out where and when their Messiah will arrive. Their efforts have been as successful as those of their Christian brethren.

A friend from the synagogue told me a story about this sort of thing. It goes like this:

There was an old Jewish woman who lamented, “Christians and Jews, we argue too much about the Mashiach. This is what we should do. When the Mashiach arrives, if he says to us, ‘Good to see you all again’, well, then the Christians were right. But, if he says, ‘Let me introduce myself’, then we were right!”

The obsession with the end times bothers me for a couple reasons. First, it seems so fatalistic. Second, it seems callous. When somebody talks to me about the end times, in particular in conjunction with the slaughter that is occurring in Gaza, it sounds like they are saying,

“It is all preordained. Don’t worry about it. Just sit back and watch the show. “

I have never heard a person talk about eschatology who wasn’t convinced that they were going to be on the winning team. All the suffering and tribulation is for the unbelievers and other sinners. Nobody with anything on their conscience wants to hear about the end times. They aren’t eager for the hammer to come down.

I have spent years with a Zen Buddhist community. That probably qualifies me as one of the people who will not fare well during the end times, but I have learned much from the Buddhists. They never talk about eschatology, because they don’t believe that there are any end times. The cycles of life and death continue endlessly. In Zen the focus is not on a possible future event. The focus is on the here and now. The fundamental question is: “What am I doing right now?”

I can relate to that question. Especially since I am one of Asher’s fulltime caregivers, I live in the moment. I don’t have the time or the energy to speculate about humanity’s last days. I am concerned with caring for the people I love right now. The future will take care of itself if I do my job today.

I am not the only person who thinks this way. Martin Luther once said,

“If I knew the world were coming to an end tomorrow, I would still go out and plant my three apple trees today.”

I don’t have any apple trees to plant, but I have a little boy to raise.