Dating the End of the World Has Christological Implications

The recent controversy caused by the declaration that the end of the world would occur on 21 May 2011  caused me to think how what the bible clearly says about the timing of the end could be ignored.  I think I know, and it turns on a misunderstanding of who Jesus was..

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” 1 John 4:1-3

This passage addressed what was apparently one of the first, possibly the first, heretical interpretations of Christ to be introduced into the Christian community.  The heresy is that of Docetism, from dokein, a Greek verb meaning "to seem."  Though the heresy arose very early within the Church, the actual word "docetism" was first used in 1846. 

The Docetists insisted that since Jesus was God Almighty He could not have felt pain, He probably did not have an actual Human body, and He had no human limitations; therefore, He only seemed to be human.  An understanding similar to this is at the heart of the recent attempt to set a date for the Second Coming.  The “Son” ^@ in Matthew 24:36 is declared not to be Jesus, but the Devil.  Jesus must have known the date because He was God.

To insist that Jesus did know the day of the end of the world when He said He did not comes dangerously close to saying He was not really human, a sort of quasi-Docetism.  Jesus limited Himself, He “emptied” (ἐκένωσεν) Himself (Philippians 2:7) and became fully human.  We should believe that Jesus meant what He said.

Jesus is coming again, but He also is already here.  Those who love the Lord will be ready whenever He physically returns, if it is in the year 3411, next October 21, or two minutes from now.

^@(“Son” is not in the KJV translation but it is in the original Greek text.)