Intro
In order to understand why I feel it is important to write this commentary, you would need to have seen the world as I have. While that’s not possible, I can try to share a few things to give you a small picture of what is bothering me. I’ve encountered people with sour attitudes toward others, a sense of entitlement, and a fear of living in a time of trouble and pain.
Those who lack love for their neighbor seek to one day be saved from them. Helping someone else or being a servant to them is apparently too much work for some to bear. They seek an escape from other people. For these people, being called away, taken in a blink of the eye to eternal paradise, is all for which they have to hope.
To some, while they may also find it hard to love others, they feel special among the world. They want. While they might also have many possessions, they would send all their things away to prove their selection and righteousness. Being one of the elect is a status that sets them above others, and they would be happy to see others left behind to suffer in a world that they have escaped.
There are also people who live in fear, though they call it hope. They fear disasters, wars, diseases, and the actions of others. It is much easier to just accept that they might one day be taken away from these things while they are still alive. They look around the world and think, “Where is the promise? The world continues just as it always has” deliberately ignoring that the new kingdom is of Heaven and not of Earth.
Whoever you are, even if these descriptions do not fit you, you have held to an idea that speaks to these people in various ways. It is a fantasy of impatient, holier-than-thou, anxious teachers that want you to believe that you will one day escape from your service to others. It is also a tactic of angry preachers who instill the fear of death in you and speak about the power of Satan more than the love of God.
Putting my opinions and feelings aside, my task is to present a timeline of events and messages that lead to the fulfillment of the promise and separate our modern ideas from what was written by the followers of the Christ Jesus. I could do this without delving deeply into the roots of the scriptures or the manuscripts that have been studied for centuries. I could ignore what scholars have said for millennia about the Torah or Prophets. I could even demonstrate how our English translations should not lead you to believe that you are waiting for Jesus to return. If I didn’t do these things, would you still find my commentary convincing?
Perhaps it would be enough for you to see the simple statements recorded from the words of the Christ Jesus himself or to interpret what Paul says in his many letters, being someone that was trusted to teach the nations about salvation. I’ll instead give you more credit than that and strive to provide a comprehensive breakdown of everything I’ve been studying related to your eschatology.
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