Christian Living

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Of all the things a devout Christian should not do during a lifetime, spending precious mortal moments on earth trying to determine when Jesus, the Son of God, will return in his glory to judge mankind, to punish them for their sins and to reward them for their godly acts and thoughts, is at the top of the list.

I very recently read on a politically conservative Internet website that a Christian pastor, Mark Biltz, has written a book, "The Feasts of the Lord," with his personal ruminations, calculations, and determinations about the time and date of the Lord's second coming. I, also, am a prolific writer of fiction and non-fiction, arduously endeavoring to finish my first book, so I realistically know the amount of time and effort it takes to fill the void of a blank page with readable, publishable prose. So I'm wondering whether Pastor Biltz has, in his study of the scriptures, read and understood the statement of Jesus in Matthew 24:36, as it reads in the Revised Standard Verson of the Bible. "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only."

The way Biltz's book is advertised, the good pastor not only purports to know the exact day the Lord is coming, but, also, the exact year. This type of sensational advertising will, no doubt, appeal to the curiosity of cabalists, numerologists, and disciples of Nostradamas and the De Vinci code; and, perhaps, Biltz will become a best-selling author if his book sells more than a million copies. Nonetheless, the pastor is holding-out in his book that he knows something that the Savior of mankind does not know, which shows quite a bit of hubris in Biltz.

How many hours and days do you think Pastor Biltz has spent concocting his proposed date for the second coming of Jesus Christ? Do you really think that God the Father, from whom all blessings, knowledge, and wisdom emanate, would approve of the attempts of the pastor, and channel information to him, information that his only begotten son on his right hand does not know? I surely don't.

There was another religious figure from the 19th Century worth mentioning in this context, an American Baptist preacher named William Miller, who also didn't take the statement of Jesus about his second coming very seriously. This controversial fellow was born in 1782 and, in the years leading up to 1818, concocted a convoluted mathematical formula from the Old and New Testaments that somehow revealed to him that Jesus was going to return to the earth sometime in 1843.

From 1831-on, Miller wrote several treatises on the subject of Adventism and lectured about his calculations and beliefs. In his religious exploits, William migrated religiously from the Baptist faith, into which he was born, to Deism, and from Deism to Millerism or Adventism. In 1842, Miller prepared his flock of several hundred disciples for the Lord's coming between March 21, 1842, and March 21, 1843, not giving a precise date.

When the heavens did not miraculously part during the proposed time, Miller, though somewhat discouraged, revisited his numbers and formulas to claim that he had made an error in his calculations. So, what did he do? The man rebounded from his first egregious error to provide for his followers, of all things, a day, month, and year for Jesus' second coming, which was October 22, 1944! And, lo and behold, his disciples believed him again. By that time, Miller had a Millerite Church membership numbering more than 800 people. Most of these folks were gathered on a hillside near Exeter, New Hampshire on the early morning of October 22, 1844, and there they wept and prayed for 24 hours until 12:01 a.m. on October 23. But the skies didn't part, the earth didn't tremble, and the Son of Man did not return to the earth on that day, as Miller had said he would. Miller died on December 20, 1849 greatly disillusioned about is pastoral abilities but still a firm believer in Jesus imminent second coming.

So what should this bit of history convey to Pastor Biltz? Well, when Jesus also said, during his personal ministry, that adultery was a bit more than the designed physical act, that a married man's lusting for another woman in his heart was tantamount to the actual act, his disciples seemed to fully understand what he meant, for there weren't any questions recorded that were asked of the Savior.

Likewise, when Jesus said what he did in Matt. 24:36, there weren't any questions from his apostles or disciples recorded about that important bit of information. It would seem that what he was essentially saying was, "No one knows but the Father when I will return to the earth a second time. So, don't be trying to figure it out. The signs of the times will, however, give you a general understanding of the beginning of the end-times." This is probably why the Apostle Paul wrote, in 1 Thess 5:2, "For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night." Paul obviously didn't support Christians spending time doing meaningless things. At the time he wrote what he did to the Christians in Thessalonica, Paul might have been thinking, don't worry about when the Lord Jesus will come, but, rather, worry about being prepared for his coming. To the prolific Apostle, this might have meant spending the great amount of time one would use to concoct numerical algorithms and formulas, in a futile attempt to determine the day and hour of the Lord's coming, in much more useful pursuits of loving and serving God's children.

Paul said the same about spending unnecessary time with genealogical research, in 1 Tim 1:4, "Nor to occupy themselves with myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the divine training that is in faith," and in Titus 3:9, "But avoid stupid controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels over the law, for they are unprofitable and futile." Do you suppose that the Apostle Paul considered polemic discussions about the day and hour of Jesus' coming as stupid controversies?" I think so, since Jesus plainly said that only God the Father, our Heavenly Father, knows (and could know) the day and hour.

While apparently afflicted with a degree of arrogance, Pastor Mark Biltz is probably a respected Christian clergyman who, like the late William Miller, holds the trust of his flock of believers, who have obviously supported him in the writing of his very apocryphal book. Interestingly though, the Library of Congress is filled with hundreds-of-thousands of such books and manuscripts, some which theologically argue and debate about such things as how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Imagine all of the time spent by human authors writing these tomes.

Perhaps such polemic topics are of great interest to professed Christians who choose to spend the bulk of their lives in erudite seclusion, behind word processors, away from the mainstream of humanity and the proverbial publicans and sinners, whom the Lord Jesus regularly chose as cordial company over the Pharisees and Sadducees of his time. Yet, are such time consuming efforts approved in the eyes of the Lord? I can very clearly see the worth, in the eyes of God, of spending time writing books on how Christians may function in life as more effective good Samaritans, to better serve and love their neighbors as themselves. But writing about things that are really none of our mortal business, or are so nonsensical and immaterial that they really have no relevance to the task of being a good Christian, such as vainly trying to calculate the date and time of Jesus' second coming, serves no purpose in becoming more Christ-like, which is the ultimate Christian goal. I think it is good to remember what the wise King Solomon said in Eccles 12:13. "The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. . ."

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