No End Times?

"Today, you will be with me in Paradise."

~Luke 23:43

That the world will end someday is not in doubt, either by human hands or when the Sun goes Red Giant. That it will end because of some Biblical apocalypse is what is in question here.

In 1 Peter 4:7, Simon Peter (if he is truly the author of this epistle, which does not seem too far-fetched) states something that is clearly false. He says "the end of all things is near." Meaning the return of Christ, the end of this world and the dawn of the new world. And there is no reasonable doubt that he was dead wrong. Here we are 2000 years later, and the world keeps rolling along.

Peter is by no means alone in this, in fact the overwhelming weight of evidence says that the apostles thought that Jesus would return and end this age and inaugurate a new one within their lifetimes or at least very soon. This is in fact a great witness to the document stability of the Synoptic Gospels after about 200 a.d., because surely if any part of the Gospels were likely to be redacted it would be the embarrassingly wrong part about the imminent return.

The overwhelming weight of evidence in the New Testament is that the apostles all believed, and Jesus possibly taught, that the end of the world as we know it would happen soon. Within one human lifetime from Jesus' ministry.

"I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death

before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” ~ Mt. 16:27-28

“Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age? . . . This generation will not pass away until all of these things take place.” 

~ Mt. 24:3,34

“You (Chief Priests and Sanhedrin) shall see the Son of Man

sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

~ Mt. 26:64

“If I want him (John?) to remain until I come, what is that to you.  You follow me!”
~Jn. 21:21-23
(According to church tradition, all the apostles

except John died before the destruction of

Jerusalem in 70 A.D.)

“All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. I tell you the truth, you will not

finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”
~Mt. 10:22-23

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,

but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son…” ~Hebrews 1:1-2

“Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down

for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.” ~1 Corinthians 10:11

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not

neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging

one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” ~Hebrews 10:24-25

“Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming,

so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.” 

~1 John 2:18

This is all... rather embarrassing, isn't it? I mean, here are all the leaders of the early Church and seemingly Jesus himself saying that a real physical Kingdom of God right here on this Earth is going to happen really quickly. Not 2000 years later, but within a single lifetime. If that is wrong, what else could be wrong? This potentially throws in doubt the entire teaching of the New Testament.

There are a couple things that must be clearly understood to place this into context. The first and most important thing to understand is that the idea of a non-material heaven, a Kingdom of God in an entirely spiritual realm, was completely alien to Jewish thought at this time. Remember that the Pharisees of the time taught a physical resurrection, and that up until relatively recently (prior to approximately the 2nd or 1st centuries B.C.) most Jews did not believe in any afterlife worthy of the name at all. In fact in Jesus' time the leaders of the Temple, the Sadducees, did not believe in the resurrection either. The Sadducees, and most Jews prior to about 200 b.c., believed in Sheol which is a shadowy half-life not really worthy of being called much of an afterlife, and both the righteous and the evil went there upon death. So the idea of a "spiritual heaven" or a spiritual Kingdom was completely alien to the thought of the first disciples. It was not part of their religious lexicon. They were thoroughgoing materialists in that sense. Any Kingdom of God, any heaven, any afterlife, would have to take place physically here on this Planet Earth.

Secondly, the New Testament is not infallible and there are times, times recorded by the Gospels, when the Twelve clearly didn't understand Jesus' message very well. So even if the Gospel writers desired intently to put down their information accurately (which I think is not unlikely,) they couldn't really put down anything they themselves did not understand, except perhaps sometimes as a terse quote without explanation. The Gospels have clearly also been edited, such as is the case with the end of Mark which the earliest texts did not have. This was added material. The Gospels were composed and edited by people who shared this extremely materialistic view of the Kingdom. Since the material kingdom didn't happen in Jesus' lifetime, he was killed, it must happen soon after.

Thirdly, there is plenty of evidence for those who choose to read it that whatever the disciples thought, Jesus thought differently. Jesus himself said "the kingdom is upon you" meaning that it was happening right then. He also told Pilate,

"My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants

would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders.

But now my kingdom is from another place." 

~John 18:36

This is a clear and unequivocal statement that while the Kingdom of God might have been on the Earth while he himself was on it, it is no longer. In Matthew 22 he gives what may be a veiled denial of the physical resurrection:

“At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage;

they will be like the angels in heaven (i.e. not physical but spiritual beings).

But about the resurrection of the dead— have you not read what

God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,

and the God of Jacob?' He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

~Matthew 22:30-32

In other words, that the Patriarchs were alive now in heaven. Also in Luke 23:43 Jesus says to the thief crucified with him, "Today, you will be with me in Paradise." How can he be with him in Paradise that day if he is supposed to have to wait for the resurrection of the dead at the physical end of the world? He can't.

There are also multiple occasions towards the end of John where Jesus is teaching his disciples prior to his crucifixion, that indicate that Jesus' kingdom is not a physical place in this world but a place in God's spiritual domain.

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am,

and to see my glory, the glory you have given me

because you loved me before the creation of the world."

~John 17:24

This is clearly something that is to happen in a non-physical reality. "Be with me where I am -" Well Jesus is shortly to leave the world at this point. Could human eyes and minds even perceive a glory of this magnitude? Also note John 14:2-3

My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told

you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and

prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me

that you also may be where I am.

Where is Jesus' Father's house? In Jerusalem? Maybe Miami Beach? No, God's house is in God's realm. And that is where Jesus is referring to when he says "that you also may be where I am."

So the coming "End Times" which so many Christians so eagerly wait for, aren't coming, any more than they were for the first believers. Rather, Jesus' only Earthly kingdom was when he was here on Earth, and afterwards his kingdom is entirely spiritual. There is no physical resurrection of the dead, no physical kingdom on the physical planet Earth. Your devout loved ones don't have to wait 2000 years for Jesus to arrive and reanimate their bones a la Herbert West. They are with Jesus immediately upon death.