My view of the end of time isn’t as dramatic as it used to be.
The biblical accounts of the end are no longer hidden, cryptic messages waiting to be uncovered and deciphered. There are no secret societies and cabals. There aren’t dramatic wars and nations plotting against one chosen people. There’s no new world order controlling commerce, only selling and buying to those with a special mark of blasphemy on them.
While those elements may make up a compelling fictional story, they make for bad eschatology, which in turn makes for bad living.
No, these days my eschatology is much more quiet and subtle. To be perfectly honest, I simply don’t know much about what’s going to happen. I don’t know what signs and portents in the sky—if they are to happen we have to acknowledge that they are but echos of the crucifixion—may or may not show themselves. In fact, there is only one thing I’m certain of: I am convinced that what we do here and now, in this time and place, will be tried and tested, and the things that are of the kingdom of God will pass with us into eternity.
Let’s get down to brass tacks. I’m a kind of universalist. I believe that Jesus alone saves, and he has saved everyone. Anyone who doesn’t (or can’t) acknowledge him as the saving Lord here and now will when they see him in his glory.
Glory, not power.
Dispensationalists and Christian Nationalists—if there is a distinction, it’s quite difficult to see—talk about Jesus coming in power, to act wrath and vengeance. He flew away with a promise to return in power the way he really is, not humbled on a cross. He only did that because the wrath of God necessitated a blood offering, and he substituted himself for you and I—at least that is the penal substitutionary atonement view, which goes hand in hand with Christian Nationalism and Dispensationalists. The underlying idea here is that humanity is waiting for its salvation. Salvation wasn’t finished on the cross. It’ll be done when the fat lady sings after the bloody war to exterminate all the unbelievers. Dispensationalists and Christian Nationalists are waiting for a violent salvation.
Again, great for an epic movie but horrible for eschatology.
What if Jesus already finished salvation and we’re not so much waiting to receive salvation but rather are waiting to see what salvation means?
To see Jesus come in glory is to believe that he is glorified now, that the work on the cross was finished and complete in itself, and the resurrection was a vindication of the already glorified Christ. Believing that on the cross, Jesus finished the work of salvation changes how we see the cross. It’s not some defeat that Jesus beat. It’s not a sacrifice Jesus made so that if we believe correctly, we can go to heaven. It’s not a position of weakness or some divine humiliation Jesus went through so that God could finally crown him king of the cosmos.
No, the cross is the glorification of Jesus. The cross is the coronation of the Son of God. It is not a defeat he turned around with a resurrection. The cross is the victory of the Son of God over sin, evil, injustice, and demonic forces. The resurrection is the vindication and affirmation of Jesus’ victory, not some surprise twist to the end of the story.
If the cross is the glorification of Jesus, then when we finally see him in the second coming, we are going to see Jesus not being glorified or being given power, but already glorified, and already exercising his power. This is a complete reversal of what dispensational theology teaches.
Instead of Christ being defeated on the cross and conquering in resurrection, the cross is the victory of God.
Instead of Jesus being put up as a substitutionary sacrifice so we don’t have to die (if we believe correctly), Jesus’ glory is revealed in the cross.
Instead of Jesus coming in power to prove that he is the conquering king, Jesus is coming already glorified to unite heaven and earth.
Instead of salvation coming to us so we might finally be saved, salvation has already been accomplished and we’re just waiting to see the extend of that salvation.
If we believe that the glory of God and the salvation of God are most clearly displayed in kenosis—the loving, self-emptying and self-donation of Jesus for us—and that our waiting for the second coming is waiting to see the kenotic God in glory, it’s going to change how we live now.
If we believe Jesus wins because he vanquishes his enemies, we are going to look at those we consider enemies to be vanquished. But if we believe Jesus wins because he gave himself up in love and forgiveness to his enemies, we are going to look to forgive and love anyone who wrongs us.
If we believe that Jesus’ victory is actually yet to come, we’re going to live anxious lives, not knowing with absolute certainty whether or not we’ve done enough, believed enough, thought about things the right way. If we believe Jesus has already obtained the victory, we are going to rest in the grace that it is Jesus himself that saves us, not our actions, beliefs, and thoughts.
Jesus does all the work of salvation. There’s nothing left for us to do but sit back and soak up the two hundred proof grace that saturates our lives. Salvation is a done deal. It’s not a rope thrown down the well for us to hang onto if we choose. Salvation is an excavation to dig up the well and turn it into an oasis. Salvation isn’t a fine that’s been paid if we will only accept the deal from the D.A. Salvation is an expungement of the wrongdoing from the records, so the judge just looks at you and asks, “Just why are you in my court?”
With a salvation like this—one that everyone is already a part of—we can’t help but live different lives, we can’t help but seek to embody this kind of love that we have been shown, this kind of grace lavished upon us, this person of Jesus who saves us.
Embodying the person of Jesus to other people doesn’t mean telling people what things in their life are wrong and sinful, so they better repent and not go to hell. Embodying the Jesus who already saved us all means we can invite people into a new way of living and loving. Embodying Jesus means standing against the systems of injustice, harm, and oppression—the systems Jesus defeated on the cross—and offering not only resistance to these things, but the vision of a way out of them.
As we live differently, seeking to embody Jesus to the people and the world around us, we become testimonies to a new way of living, a new world. We believe that Heaven and Earth are on a collision course, and when they meet, the curse that all creation is under will be revealed to be broken completely. When Heaven and Earth meet, we will see all things in resurrection, restoration, refreshed and restored. Our lives lived in an upside down way—really it’s the right side up—compared to these world systems we contend with are prophetic witnesses that another world is not only possible, but another world is on its way.
This gets us to the heart of the matter: living as someone who is saved by Jesus, freed from the chains and burdens of being captive to these world systems—and indeed none of us are captive any more, we just live like it because we don’t know any other way—means that we can act with intentionality to help others understand their freedom, their salvation.
When we resist, protest, lobby for change, and witness against oppression, inequity, injustice, racism, sexism, queerphobia, ageism, the list goes on and on and on… but when we stand against these things and work for a life of jubilee, these things we do, big and small, public and private, we carry with us into the end of time. When Jesus comes again, what we’ve done—all we’ve done and left undone—will be tested and tried against that glorious self-donation of Christ on the cross. That which is found to be true to kenosis and love will pass with us into the new heavens and earth. The other shit, kindling for a cleansing fire.
Helping other people get in on the work of liberation and witness is our evangelistic mandate. We’re not trying to save souls—that work is already done. What we are trying to do is to build as much of the Kingdom of God here and now as we can, knowing that the work will never be complete until we see Jesus in his glory coming in the clouds, but also knowing that the work we have done will be celebrated and built upon when Christ comes in glory.
Glory, not power.
We don’t need to buy into the ideas of dispensationalism just because they are “popular” and loud these days. There’s a better way, a way not of power and might, but of love and kenosis. Let this universal salvation change us, change you. Let this self-donation of Christ be your blessed assurance. The fields are ripe for harvest, but the workers are few. Let us work those fields, not to save ourselves or our neighbors, but to liberate us all as much as we can until we see the liberation Jesus accomplished in his glory on the cross.
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