The
Day of the Lord
Stephen
Terry
Commentary
for the June 17, 2017 Sabbath School Lesson
“But
do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a
thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in
keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with
you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:8-9, NIV
The Seventh-day Adventist Church was legally
incorporated as a religious denomination in 1863, during the height of the
Civil War. The immediacy of the Parousia predominated the thinking of those
pioneers to the extent that it achieved secondary billing only to the
Seventh-day Sabbath in the denomination’s name. That immediacy grew out of the
Great Disappointment of 1844 that resulted from the teachings of William Miller
who believed that he had found the formula to determine the exact date of
Christ’s return. This was in spite of biblical passages stating that such date setting
was impossible.[i]
Nonetheless, not to be deterred by the error of setting a date, those early
Adventists felt the immediacy was there even if they did not know the exact
moment. Referencing passages from Matthew, chapter 24 and 2 Timothy, chapter 3
as well as the prophecies found in Daniel and the Revelation, they found ample
evidence of parallels between those texts and what they were seeing in the
world around them. “As in the days of Noah,”[ii] wickedness and evil
thinking seemed to be growing by leaps and bounds; surely the Lord’s return
could not be far off.
But in the interim, with two world wars that swept tens
of millions into early graves and the development of nuclear, biological and chemical
weapons capable of producing unparalleled death and devastation, incredibly we are
still waiting for the promised return. In a few decades we will have reached
the bicentennial of the Millerite disappointment. And if our surprise at the
delay after a few centuries seems fitting, what of those, who like Peter,
expected the return two thousand years ago? Of course, they are beyond caring
at this point. For them, what will happen will happen. They need only rest in
their graves until such time as everything is finally revealed. But for the
living, things are not so simple. When we reach our sixth, seventh, or eighth
decade of life, do we look back at what we have made important over the years
and think maybe those priorities would have been different if we had known we
would still be here waiting? Would we have been more or less fervent in the
expression of our faith to others? Would we take a chance on alienating them by
telling them about the signs pointing to Jesus’ return, or would we lose that
sense of immediacy as the years marched by and all things remained as they have
always been? Would we regret the time spent on evangelizing that could have
been spent on improving the situation for ourselves and our families here and
now? Would we have made our faith secondary to the advancement of our careers?
We look at the Bible, and we can trace the fulfillment
of past prophecies. We see the march of nations presented in the great image of
Daniel, chapter 2. The same timeline is presented again in chapters 7 and 8,
but the prophecies all have a similar haziness as they reach the modern era.
They are so specific as to be limited to particular persons and empires as in
the cases of Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander the Great, or Alexander’s four
generals, Cassander, Ptolemy, Antigonus, and Seleucus. Perhaps that is why some
have tried to find similar specific meaning in the ten toes of the image in
chapter 2, but this is problematic. Those toes are in existence right up until
the moment that the stone strikes the feet of the image, an event seen as the return
of Christ. But every account that tries to identify the toes with the nations
of Europe, the common application, runs aground on the simple observation that
any ten nations that existed at the time of the fall of the Roman Empire would
not be identical to any list currently in effect. In fact, this is often
acknowledged with the admission that nations such as the Vandals and the Ostrogoths
that existed in the declining years of the Roman Empire, no longer exist today.
A quick search on Google for “ten toes” and “Daniel 2” will reveal that the
certainty of the association of the toes with particular nations has faded
almost completely away. Instead, they are often referred to as an undetermined
symbol that nonetheless has attributes of the Roman Empire without its
strength.[iii]
Such a nebulous symbolism makes it very difficult to
hang one’s prophetic “hat” on that wobbling peg. Instead it beggars comparison
with a gypsy fortune teller speaking in such general terms that they could be
true of almost anyone. This seems to wander far afield from Peter’s reference
to the reliability of prophecy earlier in his second epistle.[iv] So how can we have
certainty in the face of such uncertainties? Must we abandon faith when we
cannot “nail down” these specifics? Perhaps this is more challenging for the
biblical literalist who feels that the interpretation of prophecy they may have
devoted their life to believing and sharing is in question. But just as the
Millerites faced a similar disappointment in October of 1844, a disappointment
quickly set aside by the new interpretation of prophecy put forward by Hiram
Edson the very next day, a fresh perspective on the prophecies may set aside this
modern dilemma as well.
The problem with prophecy is that it is often either
true or false depending on the perspective of the interpreter. 20/20 hindsight
often helps as it does with Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander, but if the imagery is
too vague then we end up with difficulties even looking back as in the case of
Antiochus Epiphanes and Daniel, chapter 11. Who is the King of the North, or the
King of the South for that matter? Many scholars have tried to pin this one
down, even with obviously contrived efforts to equate the symbolism with Russia
and the United States. This is perhaps in part because the literalist may have
difficulty living with ambiguity. But perhaps we should develop the ability to
say, “I don’t know,” when faced with passages that challenge our ability to
decipher them. It is OK to have various views of interpretation in the face of
such ambiguities, but we tread on unstable ground when we insist that there is
no other possible interpretation than the one we hold based solely on our
opinion or that of some celebrity we admire.
When we are young we tend to want the world to fall
neatly into place. We often base our lives on that assumption, planning our
educations, careers and families around certain principles. Whether the
principles are universally held is immaterial. We feel that they are foundational
to who we are and where we are headed. However, as the years roll by, we find
that some of those principles needed adjusting to fit circumstances, perhaps to
introduce a more compassionate outcome to a situation. We come to understand
that our tendency to see what was as clearly black and white as the ink on a
page now fades into shades of gray. We come to learn that grace is more
important than rules. If it were not for that grace, no rule could save us.[v] That recognition causes
love to sprout in our hearts for the God who makes it possible.
We go through life with our ironclad principles and in
the process we hurt others when we should be healing and compassionate. I am
not pointing fingers here, for we all have done it.[vi] If the Holy Spirit is
speaking to our hearts with the truth from God, we begin to understand why
Jesus has not yet come. We really need and want more time to become what God
would have us to be, surrendered and open to His leading. When we learn to
become malleable under His guidance, perhaps then we will have a right to ask, “Why
the delay?” But of course, we will already know and will no longer have any
desire to ask. Instead, we will spend the remainder of our life resting ever
deeper into the arms of grace. Instead of seeking intricate prophetic
constructs, we will find the balm of healing and restoration in the pages of
our Bibles. We will discover the spiritual presence of God in the way the Bible
speaks to our hearts. Every time we read it through, it will have a continuing
dialogue with what is going on in our lives at that moment. No other book has
that power. That is a certainty more sure than any interpretation of prophecy,
wall charts notwithstanding. It is an assurance we can take with us throughout
our lives, whether we live to see the Parousia or we simply enjoy a life well
lived, ending with only the comfort of being surrounded by family and loved
ones.
