THE
NEW MILLENNIUM
Religious leaders around the world made much of the new millennium.
The Christian community in particular has a special attachment to the year 2000. As the year approached, the Israelis
arrested eight members of the Denver based cult, Concerned Christians. Intelligence reports indicated, according to
Brig. Gen. Elihu Ben-Onn of the Israeli police, that cult members "planned to carry out violent and extreme acts
in the streets of Jerusalem at the end of 1999 to start the process of bringing Jesus back to life" (The Columbus
Dispatch, January 4, 1999). These folks are among the more extreme elements of those in the "Christian community"
who are anticipating something of great spiritual and religious significance to occur with the dawn of the new millennium.
Interest in the arrival of the millennium is not a new phenomenon. Frederick Marten, in The Story of Human Life and
Doomsday, described a period of religious panic in the ten years prior to A. D. 1000. Prisoners were released, debts
forgiven, food was given away, possessions were sold, and people resorted to mountain tops to observe the second coming of
Christ. On December 31, 1999, Pope Sylvester II held a midnight mass so the Pope's followers could witness the end of
the world in the presence of the man they considered to be God's leader on earth.
I have absolutely
no doubt that Jesus Christ will come again. But, I have no idea when that will be, and there is nothing in the Bible
to indicate when he will come. Anyone who claims to know when Jesus will return is a liar. It's just that simple.
There is nothing in the Bible to suggest that the arrival of the new millennium has special significance to the disciples
of Christ. The message of the New Testament regarding the coming of Christ has been, and continues to be, a call to
vigilance.
The Lord, Paul, and Peter all speak of this event as being like the coming of a
thief (Matthew 24:42, 43; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; 2 Peter3:10). Thieves do not make appointments. They strike suddenly and unexpectedly. So it will be with the Lord's
return. Jesus warned, "Therefore be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not
the Son of man cometh" (Matthew 24:44).
Time means nothing to God. He is an eternal being. This was the point Peter
made when he wrote: "But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day" (2 Peter 3:8). God is not bound by time. He has no need for a calendar. He does not need to watch the clock. And,
unlike us, no matter how much time passes, He never forgets a promise (2 Peter 3:9).
Don't be taken in by all the prognosticators of doom and gloom. They know not what
they speak!
--Roger
