The Christian and the Space-Time Continuum (don't get too excited)
some thoughts on the end of time(?)
“When the roll is called up yonder I’ll be there!” If you were raised like me, then you probably remember singing this song, and maybe you still sing it. It’s first line is unforgettable: “When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more…”
Due to Thanksgiving break for my wife and children, I didn’t have time to really write on John 6 in our series on the eschatology of John. Please accept this “for fun” article as a placeholder for this week.
There Should Be Time No Longer
One question I’ve had over the last ten years or so is if the Bible speaks of the end of time, which we know (or think we know) from the space-time continuum means the end of space itself. We might start by asking where James M. Black got the line “and time shall be no more…” If you’re familiar with the King James Version, then you know this line possibly comes from Revelation 10:6-7, which says,
And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. Revelation 10:6–7
So at the sounding of the trumpet of the seventh angel, “time shall be no more” and “the mystery of God should be finished.”
Now this seems pretty simple, doesn’t it? But if you look into it a little further through comparing a few different translations, then you see there’s more to this passage than meets the eye. Here’s a sampling:
“…there will be no more delay” (Revelation 10:6, NRSVue).
“…that there will be delay no longer” (Revelation 10:6, NASB95).
“…that there should be delay no longer” (Revelation 10:6, NKJV).
The CSB, ESV, and NLT all convey the same idea: “there shall be no more delay!”
But there’s another idea that runs through Scripture which some believe points to an end of time itself.
The Last Days and the Last Day
When I first started studying eschatology, which will be ten years this upcoming February, I began my studies by looking at the last days and its variants in the KJV: last days, latter days, last times, and latter times.
I was sent down this rabbit hole by Guy N. Woods in his debate with a pentecostal named Benjamin Franklin. Woods claimed that the last days referred to the last days of the Jewish state, not the last days of time itself. After an intense period of study and research, I reached the same conclusion but not without some trouble: what would Woods do with passages like 2 Peter 3:3, which is in the context of a goto passage concerning the end of space/ matter/ the elements, which would imply the end of time.
This isn’t the article to answer this question, but it is enough to say that it troubled me for quite some time.
There’s another phrase that comes up exclusively in John’s gospel: “the last day.” It’s used seven times ranging from John 6 to John 12.
The big question here, like with the last days, is “the last day of what?” Are we talking about the last day of the Jewish state, the last day of this age, the last day of time? What’s going on here?
And that’s when we get even more specific.
The Last Hour
Speculation
In 1 John 2:18, John wrote, “Children, it is the last hour!”
Let me be the first to point out that it has been quite a few hours since John wrote this, and time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking into the future.
So…the last hour of what?
Weird Math
Some have tried to tackle this question using math. If one day is a thousand years with the Lord, then 1/24th of a day would be roughly 41.67 years, so John could be saying, “We are in the last generation of the Jewish state.” On the surface, this could work since Jesus began his ministry around the time he was thirty and Jerusalem fell in AD70. But I personally think this math is coincidental.
Other math involves complicated interpretations of the days in Genesis 1 where each day is prophetic of a thousand years of history. This system uses the chronologies in Genesis together with what we know from history to come up with these rough dates: David lived around 1,000 BC, Moses was at 1,500 BC, Abraham was at 2,000 BC, the flood was around 2,350 BC, and the earth was created in 4,000 BC.
So, on the first day of creation (4000 BC - 3000 BC), God separated light from darkness. This would correspond to roughly Adam’s lifespan. On the second day of creation (3000 BC - 2000 BC), the waters were separated from the waters, which corresponds to the flood of Noah. On the third day (2000 BC - 1000 BC), God created dry land and vegetation, which corresponds to God calling Abraham, bringing the people to the land, and “planting” his vineyard Israel.
On day four (1000 BC - 0), God create the sun, moon, and stars, which corresponds to Israel’s monarchy. On day five (0 - AD 1000), God created the birds and fish, which corresponds to Jesus’s disciples bringing in the nations through being “fishers of men” and the nations flocking to the kingdom of God like “birds nesting in a great tree.” On day six (AD 1000- AD 2000), God created man and beast, which corresponds with the time of the enlightenment, the reformation, and the technological revolution, which ends in a catastrophic event known as Y2K because man, like with the Tower of Babel, reached too high.
Yeah… that one didn’t work out.
The Christian Age
The theory I heard growing up is that the “last days” and “last hour” refer to the Christian age as a whole. This could make sense if the Christian age hasn’t already lasted longer than the time from Moses to Christ. This theory is also complicated by the fact that the Christian age has no end because Jesus’s kingdom has no end.
Last Hour of the Last Day of the Last Days
Given John’s seven-fold usage of the expression “the last day,” this could refer to the last hour of the last day of the last days, but for most Christians, I don’t think this interpretation makes very much sense seeing as that we’ve been around for roughly two millennia since then.
However, if the last days refer to the last days of the Jewish state, then this could be plausible if one dates the writing of 1 John to sometime before the fall of Jerusalem.
But I personally take a slightly different, albeit related, view.
The Last Hour of Darkness
Right before John says this about the last hour, he wrote, “Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:8).
This leads me to believe that the “last hour” refers to the last hour of whatever this darkness is.
To complicate things, John then writes, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world, for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches—comes not from the Father but from the world. And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God abide forever” (1 John 2:15–17).
So the darkness is passing away, the world is passing away, and the desire of the world is passing away, but according to John, they were already in the “last hour” of these things, and he knew this because the antichrist was already around!
Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour. 1 John 2:18
You have to admit, regardless of which view you have, this is a pretty bold assertion.
A Quick Note On Interpretation
As I said already, I’m not really here to sort all of this out for you. I’ve given you several options and the reasons some people believe each of them. Instead, I want to present you with something that is more like Midrash than what we might consider to be valid exegesis.
There are ancient Jewish commentaries on Scripture which take more creative approaches to interpretation that are known as Midrash. If you were to take a basic class on hermeneutics in a Christian college and turn in a paper using this form of interpretation, you may be accused of not taking the text seriously, being too allegorical, or totally missing the point.
While the early church’s interpretation of Scripture looked more like this, our modern “scientific” approach focuses more on the grammar, historical context, and intended meaning of the text.
We want to know the who, what, when, where, and why. Speak where the Bible speaks, and be silent where the Bible is silent.
For ancient Christian and Jewish interpreters of the Bible, the “silent” parts were often the most revealing and where they had the most fun.
This next “interpretation” I’ll offer on 1 John 2 isn’t what I’d present on a hermeneutics term paper or even preach on a Sunday morning, but it is a lot of fun, so don’t take me too seriously.
Even though I don’t think this is necessarily “valid,” I do believe there is some truth to the principles that undergird this interpretation.
Christians Can’t Tell Time
Our Changed Relationship to Space and Time
Let’s go back to our roots and allow the meaning to be “this is the last hour of time.” You can include “space” in that if you’re feeling brave.
If John really meant that, then how could it be true? Obviously time still ticks on.
This is where it gets fun.
Obviously we still live in space. We can move forwards, backwards, up, down, left, and right.
How else could we unlock 30 lives in Contra?
We also exist in time. We celebrate birthdays, we have to be to Bible class at 9:30, and if we don’t get the kiddos to bed on time, then they’ll be grouchy.
But consider how our relationship to space has changed. In John 4, for instance, Jesus told the Samaritan woman that we worship neither “here, nor there” but we worship in Spirit and Truth.
Has our relationship to time also changed?
The Jewish calendar is lunar, not solar. It follows the cycles of the moon, not the rotation of the earth around the Sun. While our years are 364-365 days long, theirs can range from 353-355 days a year.
This calendar was centered around seven festivals in Leviticus 23 and one weekly Sabbath. These festivals were their alarm clocks.
When Paul begins ministering to Gentiles, one of the big questions is whether or not the Gentiles would need to tell time. He concluded,
Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. Those who observe the day, observe it for the Lord. Also those who eat, eat for the Lord, since they give thanks to God, while those who abstain, abstain for the Lord and give thanks to God. Romans 14:5–6
He also said,
Therefore, do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food or drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths. These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the body belongs to Christ. Colossians 2:16–17
In the first quotation, did Paul mean that someone could consider Saturday as just another day and be good to go? Did he mean that someone could view Sunday the same way? If we take into account the passage from Colossians, did Paul mean to say that the Gentile Christians shouldn’t be condemned over whether or not they kept the feast days?
As the Hebrews writer said in Hebrews 3-4, Jesus is our Sabbath. Jesus fulfilled the feast days. We don’t have to wait for such and such day to enter the Holy Place because it is always available to us through Christ.
Even Sunday, as precious as it is to us as Christians, is not the exclusive day of worship, for we pray without ceasing.
In other words, just as our relationship to space has changed, our relationship to time has changed.
Time in the New Heavens and Earth
In Revelation 21, John wrote,
I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. Revelation 21:22–23
Remember what John said about the darkness passing away and the true light already shining? I think this is what he was talking about.
Now, if you don’t have sun or moon, then you don’t have hours, days, seasons, and years. You don’t have feast days, weekly Sabbaths, or anything like that because you are in the eternal now.
Everyday is a Sabbath. Everyday is a feast day. Every moment, every action, everything you do is worship.
The apostle Paul said,
Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is already the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone; the day is near. Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us walk decently as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in illicit sex and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Romans 13:11–13
The night is far gone; the day is near. That is, the eternal day, the eternal now, the mode of existence in which space and time cease to be the controls for where, when, and how one is to worship, had drawn near.
Thus Paul could say that one man observes one day above another while another views everyday the same…because in Christ everyday is the same. Everyday is the Lord’s Day. This is the day that the Lord has made.
Was that what John was getting at in 1 John 2:18? Probably not, but wasn’t that fun?