Wars and rumors of wars are among the things Jesus mentions in Matthew 24 as he describes signs leading up to his return and towards other definitely eschatological events. Contrary to the assumptions of some Christians, the brief comments in Matthew 24 pertaining to wars specifically neither point to an ever-present impending return of Christ (while he says we cannot know the day or the hour, for reasons I have examined before and will somewhat address again here, the time right before the last days would be much worse than seems to be the case now) nor are presented to cause alarm over every armed conflict of the reader's era. Many evangelicals like to feel adrift in the stupidity of assuming that every generation is probably the last before Christ's return, and they are likely to miss these logical ramifications of Matthew 24 even if they stare at the words on the page.
What Jesus does say is that, in themselves, wars are just one of many birth pangs/pains preceding the true last days. He even says to his listeners in Matthew 24:6 that wars and rumors of wars will happen, but the end is still to come. Wars alone are not supposed to be Biblical signs that the Second Coming and the last days are here, but that they are someday coming. Evangelicals love to on one hand dismiss the severity of many world events that do not directly impact America while on the other hand treating each and every war or catastrophe as if it means the return of Christ is about to happen literally any day now. On the contrary, according to all sensory evidence the typical person could have access to, there is no war currently happening that is the worst one yet, so if anything, the prophetic trend in Matthew 24 of intensifying birth pangs is paused.
After all, that the end follows a series of worsening wars, plagues, and other tragedies does not mean there are no intervals of time where some societies get objectively better according to a Christian moral framework and wars temporarily decrease in frequency or severity. Wars and rumors of wars are simply not the automatic Biblical affirmation that the Second Coming or any other major specific eschatological event promised by the Bible is really right around the corner. If anything, Matthew 24 is talking about extended periods of time and how various things like wars might almost make the end seem nearer than it is as they really only tend to worsen or improve over long periods of time, much more than the few years or decades that evangelicals like to assume we have left.
If one reads past Matthew 24:7, one can even see that Jesus calls wars and rumors of wars the beginning of birth pangs instead of their climax: "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains" (Matthew 24:7-8). One ramification of this is Jesus saying that while wars are one of multiple indicators that there would someday be a Second Coming and more explicitly apocalyptic events, there is no need to fret over every single war as if his return is literally moments from occurring. Paradoxically, this can have a calming impact on otherwise anxious Christians who see the eschatological relevance of wars and rumors of wars (and famines and natural disasters) but do not assume that whichever event they are living through is the final sign that the last of the last days have begun.
There is no way that the final events of Matthew 24 would be about to happen if the status of the world is as it seems, in fact [1]. Christians have no need to worry that the latter eschatological events are about to be sprung upon them, for there is not only no evidence for that despite the high evidential probability of Christianity, but there is also plain Biblical evidence that we are not about to reach the last days if Christianity is true. That Jesus singles out wars and rumors of wars as being the start of birth pains instead of their culmination in and of themselves is a reason for present Christians to find relief that they were born into this era. Although it might not always look like it at a micro-scale, by Biblical standards, this is one of the best times to live in the timeline of recorded human history.
Dudeee that last part. I've tried to comfort some people with that thought. It really is a wonderful time to be alive, statistically speaking. But sometimes I've gotten confused looks, as if I've said life is perfect and there's zero hardships whatsoever. I presume one reason lots of people don't think that's the case is because of the media constantly blasting bad news in our faces 24/7 (especially in America)
ReplyDeleteNews outlets trying to get as much attention as they can certainly don't help with making this seem like an easier, more stable time in history in at least some ways. While the current day still has its trials, some being more unique to this era than others, I am so grateful to live in this time of immense medical, artistic, and technological progress, among other things! Even the last two years could have been so much worse, as difficult as they were for many of us.
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