If I were to write further articles on ‘eschatology’ – and I plan to – the next one would be on ‘I don’t expect a millennium,a great tribulation nor an antiChrist‘. Now there are smarter people than me that tick all those boxes and there is a strong (and sensible) history of thought behind all three (as well as some fanciful stuff). As I need to reserve all my bright ideas to that article I will not give them away here!
But in short reply why don’t I expect that trilogy? Well a millennial-rule is only found in Revelation, a book unveiling the reality of Babylon (Imperial rule), and being of the genre of apocalyptic literature. A literal 1000 years? Maybe. And in the same chapter the devil is bound by chains. Literal chains? Maybe not. Early church history certainly records those who believed in a (pre-) millennial time as well as those who took an a-millennial approach. But those writers are predominantly from the Hellenistic (Graeco-Roman) world not the world of Jewish apocalyptic writings. I probably don’t fit any of the three main schools of thought (pre-, post. and a-) on the millennium.
The ‘tribulation’ is found throughout Scripture cos that is our world. Two kingdom / values / commitments in total opposition to each other; and if we push for a ‘great tribulation’ we are back to Revelation and Jesus’ words in Matthew 24 (and parallels) where ‘all these things will be fulfilled in a generation’ (i.e. by 70AD/CE). So we expect tribulation but I am not so sure we are to expect a final great tribulation.
Then the antiChrist? Diverse Scriptures have to be shoe-horned together that do not seem to be addressing the same issue. So no…
Overall my main reason for not ticking those three boxes is Scripture itself. There is so little in the book concerning what is thought to be the ‘end times’, and there is so much in there that informs us that since Pentecost we have been living in a new era – the ‘end times’. Speculation is not a word, regardless of what accent is used, that spells the word Scripture. Leave that to the world of the horoscopes.
But hang on a minute. I actually think an antiChrist is highly likely, not because Scripture says there will be one but if we do not get our act together we will create the space where an antiChrist (or many) can appear. So I genuinely do not think that Scripture predicts one, but Scripture informs us there will always be one if we continue on a certain path – one or many.
If we gave Scripture a voice and there was a recognisable antiChrist around I don’t think Scripture would say ‘look I told you so, I predicted that in various texts’ but rather ‘look I told you so, this is the inevitable outcome’.
These last few days the world of AI has come central. Whistle-blowers who have left that world saying that within a decade AI could wipe out the human race; Claude is now at the point where the next iteration does not need coding – it can code the next upgraded release! And from there? Well we should not think of a team working on coding and a new release coming out, for example, annually.
I posted what might well be an AI generated video of robots running the 100metres and physically attacking others in the race. I suggested that we could caption the video ‘and humanity created in their own image’.
AntiChrist is not simply a major attack on God, it is an attack on humanity. John (who is the only one to use the term!) says that at the core there is a denial that Jesus was human. It is an attack on humanity.
It is not only whistle-bowers from the inside who have grave reservations about AI, I do too. Theology has not helped with a distant God and a perspective on humanity that denegrates them all in the name of preserving the glory of God (I don’t think that is our responsibility, God can take care of that).
Beasts from the land and the sea find their fulfilment in history, but history is ongoing. People, systems and the like are ever present to fill space.
If I were to shout two warnings – the first would be take note of the rise of narcissism (well documented how it has recognisably grown over the last 40+ years). I once spoke with a psychotherapist (no I was not lying on a couch!) who talked to me about narcissism. I replied with the wrong observation that such people ‘love themselves’ and he replied with ‘absolutely not; they love the image of themselves’. Image. And the second warning would be related to AI. Created in human image. (AI is here to stay and is part of our world, and will also be ‘good’.)
There is an eternal gospel, but that eternal gospel has to be incarnated in time and space, in the here and now.
There is one Saviour of this world (there is my eschatology in a nutshell) who is the image of the invisible God and the one into whose image we are being changed.
AI might wipe us all out… maybe that is the ‘end’ but I thank God for the ‘I see a new creation’ vision we find in Scripture.
I might not believe in an antiChrist in the classic sense of what that means but I want to make sure I am on my guard concerning every antiChrist manifestation that is present. The level of that presence grows and shrinks… let’s see how much it can shrink regardless of what is created and what anxieties are voiced.