The Church’s Embarrassment About the Second Coming

Last updated on: December 21, 2015 at 12:07 pm by Kermit Zarley

The Church’s Embarrassment About the Second Coming 2015-12-21T09:19:38-07:00 Kermit Zarley

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

In the history of Christianity, various things have happened that have caused many Christians and even whole church denominations to be embarrassed about their belief in the second coming of Christ.

Many leading, writing church fathers of the second and third centuries—such as Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Tertullian, and Clement of Alexandria just to name a few—were advocates of chiliaism (=premillenialism), meaning that Jesus would return, establish his kingdom on earth, and reign for a thousand years.

Augustine of Hippo wrote that he held this viewpoint, but he later abandoned it due to some excesses taught by its proponents. He then wrote City of God wherein he taught differently, that the Church was in the utopian, millennial period predicted in Revelation 20 and that the Church would continue to Christianize the world (now called post-millennialism). He also said Jesus’ promised, 1,000 year-reign was literal and that it began at the completion of the Old Testament. Accordingly, Jesus literally would return a thousand years later in approximately the year AD 650.

The Catholic Church adopted this teaching of Augustine. But when Jesus didn’t return when Augustine had predicted, Church officials determined that his date of origin for the millennium was wrong and that it must be Jesus’ birth, so that he would return in AD 1,000. When that didn’t happen either, the Church had now been embarrassed twice on this subject. So, the Church’s position ever since has been amillenialism (no literal 1,000 years). The Middle (dark) Ages further eroded the Church’s viewpoint of being in the amillennial period. All of this caused Roman Catholic Church officials to deemphasize teaching about Jesus’ return. Historians call it a “de-eschatologizing” of Christianity necessitated by the delay of Jesus’ return.

There have been sectarian groups that even predicted the very day of Jesus’ return despite his having said that he did not know that day or hour (Matt. 24.36; Mark 13.32). Many of these Christians were averse to social improvement in the world, deeming it a wasted effort due to Jesus’ near-return. Some quit working and separated from society, camping out in the hills or wherever, awaiting Jesus’ return. When it didn’t happen, that further discredited the teaching about Christ’s return.

Albert Schweitzer wrote The Quest of the Historical Jesus (1906). Scholars recognize it as “the greatest twentieth-century book on Jesus.” Jesus researchers H. S. Reimarus, J. Weiss, and Schweitzer wrote that Jesus said the eschatological kingdom would appear soon, but history proved him wrong (Weiss didn’t admit it). Marcus Borg says of Schweitzer’s book (Quest … First Complete Edition [2001], pp. vii, ix), “Schweitzer’s central claim was that Jesus expected the end of the world in his own time,” and this claim “became a near-consensus in mainstream scholarship.”

So, this supposed error of Jesus has been widely accepted in the academic community to the present time, and it is taught in many seminaries and some universities even though the large majority of Christians know nothing about it.

Those who read my blog know that I post on eschatology a lot, that I premillennial–so that I believe in the literal, yet future second coming of Jesus–and that Jesus said he did not know the time or day of his return (Matt 24.36; Mark 13.32), so that he did not teach that he would return “soon” but “quickly” or “speedily” (Rev 22.7. 12. 20 KJV, NASB; but “soon” in NEB, NRSV, NIV, ESV).

Previous Post

December 20, 2015

Should There Be Church Membership?

Next Post

December 30, 2015 Christian Profession in America is Declining

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Angels Billy Graham Blog Description Book Reviews Christian Living Christianity Christology Church History Current Events Deity of Christ? Disarmament Eschatology Evangelicalism Ezekiel 38-39 Film Reviews God Golf Gospel Harmonization Health History Holy Spirit Incarnation? Interview Islam Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Jesus Last Empire Literary Announcements Major Championship Winners Masters Monotheism My Books New Testament Old Testament Politics Primitive Weapons Ryder Cup Science Society of Biblical Literature The Bible The Restitution of Jesus Christ Trinitarianism Trinity? Uncategorized Unconditional Love? War on Terrorism

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which minor prophet foretells the coming of Elijah before the day of the Lord?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Malachi Haggai Joel Obadiah

Books by This Author Books by Kermit Zarley Blog

See All Titles »