In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.”These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit- Jude 18-19 NASB

My bestie calls the late 1980’s to the early 2000’s the “this present weirdness” phase of contemporary Christianity. 

It’s more than just a snarky jab at a set of books that were hugely popular for decades. The late 1980’s to the early 2000’s was an age of spiritual excess on all sorts of different fronts. There were a lot of charismatic extremes in (some) churches. The lack of discernment surrounding the Holy Spirit allowed almost anything to be considered a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, no matter how weird or extra-biblical those things happened to be. There was also an emphasis on spiritual warfare that frequently veered off the rails. Besides the popular fictional books postulating about spiritual warfare there were also all sorts of “Bible studies” on spiritual warfare including one where participants were instructed to eat certain foods based on what kind of demons they happened to be battling at the time. Then there was also the well-intended but not always well-thought purity movement. It left the better part of a generation of Christian kids confused about sexuality and walking in shame for having normal sexual desires. 

Sigh. 

There was also a huge emphasis on the second coming of Jesus. Booklets like Edgar Whisenant’s 88 reasons the rapture will happen in 1988 and 90 reasons Jesus will return in 1990 were insanely popular. The fictional series Left Behind by Tim LaHaye captivated millions.  Anxiety concerning Y2K added to theories regarding Jesus’ return as did songs like I Wish we had all Been Ready and I Will See You in the Rapture.  

Christians were ready.

But nothing happened. 

There was zero action on the return of Jesus front. Life went on. It turned out to be much ado about nothing. 

Then that thing happened that always happens anytime anything goes too far: the pendulum swung back. Really HARD. Most Christians put their heads down in shame stopped talking about the return of Jesus altogether.   Today there are many followers of Jesus who disbelieve it will even happen. Some Christians openly mock those Christians who do believe Jesus is literally returning to earth. The amillennialism view of eschatology has become wildly popular. It teaches we are currently living in the millennial reign of Christ and there will be no tribulation or bodily return of Jesus. 

However:

Scoffing and mocking at the notion Jesus will return is a prophesied indication of the soon-return of Jesus. The apostle Peter says this about the subject: 

Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires- 2nd Peter 3:3

It’s hard to argue effectively against the idea that the Bible teaches there will be a bodily return of Jesus (John 21:22, Matthew 24:3, Matthew 24:37-44, Luke 21:25-27, John 14:3, 1st Thessalonians 3:13, 1st Thessalonians 5:23, 2nd Thessalonians 2:1, James 5:7). There’s just too much scripture that says there will be a return of Jesus. Admittedly, there are some very real problems with having hyper fixation on the bodily return of Jesus. However, there are also some very real problems with discounting the bodily return of Jesus (2nd John 2:7). Some of those problems include: 

Spiritual knowledge is a use it or lose it proposition-

Jesus makes it clear that the more we believe and apply God’s word the more of God’s word we will understand and be able to apply to our lives (Mark 4:24). It just makes sense the inverse is also true. This means that choosing to disbelieve one aspect of God’s word (like the return of Jesus) surely limits our ability to understand and effectively apply all spiritual truth (Hebrews 5:11-14).

We become contented with spiritual mediocrity-

There’s a reason God didn’t just gave us the exact date of Jesus’ future return. If He had most of us would remain morally and spiritually sketchy until ten minutes before Jesus showed up. Then we would get real busy really fast. Knowing (and believing) Jesus could return at any time gives us the motivation to stay busy doing God’s will and living for him until He does show up (Matthew 25:1-13, Matthew 25:31-46)

We begin to see this world as our home–

Christians were never intended to get overly cozy with the things of this world. When we do, we lose our power and even our motivation to fix the brokenness (Mark 8:36, 1st John 2:15-17, Matthew 5:13-16). Therefore, the most dangerous aspect of choosing to disbelieve there will be no bodily return of Jesus is it causes us to become really comfortable with this world and what we have in this world. This renders us spiritually useless in every sense. 

We are all products of the great age of reason.  We have been trained since infancy to only believe in things we can prove, things that are easy to understand, things we can logic out. Jesus’ return is none of those things. It’s a matter of faith.  Because it’s been a while since Jesus left the first time it’s easy to be a scoffer or a mocker concerning the return of Jesus (2nd Peter 3:8-9). The whole notion feels far out and crazy so we talk ourselves out it. We decide (on our own) Jesus was being metaphorical when He said He will return. We tell ourselves only wild-eyed irrational nutjobs believe in such things.

We become scoffers. 

We forget, scoffer’s get proven wrong by God all the time. 

Rather, we should commit to being the people Jesus talks about in Matthew 24:45-47, those who wait expectantly, in faith for His return. Those who faithfully do His will right up till the minute He gets here. 

There are good things in store for those people.