The brake of Alfred Kuen. - He summons the world of the pastors, he anoints!

Code by Fab

The brake of Alfred Kuen. - He summons the world of the pastors, he anoints!

A code search on Swiss theologian Alfred Kuen.

Fab

As a bonus, article by him :

The Return of Christ by Alfred Kuen (translation from French of : http://www.protestanet.be/sp/article253.html)

According to the New Testament

When 35 years ago, we started with some friends to study the Bible, we discovered there the doctrines of the Return of Christ. Soon it invaded all our thought and we were prompted, with the unconsciousness of youth, to interpret the prophecies and the signs of times: one erected scaffolding a precise calendar of the events which would occur before and after the return of Christ, one could locate the exact place where such battle, such historical fact, would occur... "

I am Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." (Apoc 22.13)

Some relevant remarks of an elder brother were dawning one to collapse our construction like a house of cards. Then a phenomenon of rejection occurred: if the interpretation of prophecies is a science if conjoncturale whose impact on the life of everyday is so weak, what good is to devote his time to it? One will see well when the events occur!...

But can one entirely draw aside this part of biblical teaching? More than 300 passages of the New Testament speak of the Return of Christ: this hope thus constituted a significant element of the preaching of the primitive Church. It is related to our sanctification, our service, our daily vigilance. We unbalance the biblical message if we neglect this aspect of it. "a belief in Christ without the hope of the parousy would evoke the image of a staircase which would lead nowhere and would finish in the vacuum " (E Brunner) [ 1 ]

1. What is certain Which certainty the Bible brings to us it about the Return of Christ?

First certainty : Jesus will return

He said it Himself : One day the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels (Mat 16:27 cf. Mark 13:26; Luke 21:27; John 14:3). The angels predicted this return (Act.1:11). All the writers of the New Testament spoke about it : Paul : "the Lord himself shall descend from heaven" (I Thess. 4:16, cf. It Tim. 4:8; Titus 2:13), Peter : " the appearing of Jesus Christ" (I Peter. 1:7), Jude : "the Lord will come with tens of thousands of angels" (v. 14), James : "the return of the Lord is close", (James.5:8), the author of Hebrews : "and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation" (9:28).

2nd certainty : All the men will see Him

This return will be for all to see : "For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day" (Luke 17:24); "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Mat 24:30). "every eye shall see him," (Rev, 1:7). This visible character is underlined by use of the verb to appear, (Col 3:4; I John 3:2) and the name appearance (I Tim. 6:14; It Tim. 4:1-8; Titus 2:13) employed for this return awaited by the believers. The apostles use also the words to reveal and revelation (apokalypsis) (I Cor 1:7; II Thess. 1:7;1 Pe.1:5, 7, 13; 4:13; 5:1) : one day, the veil which is hiding the true nature of Jesus will be taken off and all the men will see Him in His glory.

3rd certainty: It will be the glorious advent of the King

2nd certainty : All the men will see Him

This return will be for all to see : "For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day" (Luke 17:24); "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Mat 24:30). "every eye shall see him," (Rev, 1:7). This visible character is underlined by the verbs to appear, to appear (Collar 3:4; I Jean 3:2) and the name appearance (I Tim. 6:14; It Tim. 4:1-8; Tite 2:13) employed for this return awaited by believing. The apostles use also the words to reveal and revelation (apokalypsis) (I Horn 1:7; II Teas. 1:7;1 Pi.1:5, 7, 13; 4:13; 5:1): one day, the veil which hiding place the true nature of Jesus will be taken off and all the men will see it in his glory.

3rd certainty: It will be the glorious advent of the King

The technical term to indicate this return is the word advent (parousia) which is found 24 times in the New Testament. In the hellenistic Greek, it is the expression devoted to the official arrival of a king or an emperor in a province or with the inauguration of a new reign; frequently, one dates a new era starting from this arrival.

4th certainty : A day of joy for the believers

The apostle employs the word advent (parousia) for the removal of the Church (I Thess. 4:15; It Thess. 2: 1) and for the arrival of the Lord with all his saints awaited by the believers (I Thess. 3:13, cf. 5: 23). The apostle John exhorts us to be vigilant to "not be ashamed before him at His coming" (I John 2: 28). That day, the believers who died in Christ will be resurrected (I Cor 15: 23, 52; I Thess. 4: 16), those still alive will be removed with the Lord (I Thess. 4: 17). Together they will take part in the marriage of the Lamb (Rev. 19 6-9) and in the reign with Christ (Mat 25 31, 34; Luke 22: 28-30; It Tim. 2:11; Rev. 3: 21).

5th certainty : It will be the hour of the judgement

It will be also a day of Judgement. it will be the great separation of the spirits, one will be taken, the other left, (Mat 24:37-41). The man of sin will be destroyed "with the brightness of his coming" (II Thess. 2:8). The apostles indistinctly employed the words coming, appearance, revelation, advent to speak about the removal of the Church and the glorious demonstration of Jesus-Christ in front of the world. They spoke about the same event by calling it "Day of the Lord" (I Cor. 1:8; I Thess. 5:2; II Thess. 2:2) "day of Christ" (Philip. 1:10) or "of the Son of man" (Luke 17:24) or simply : "that day" (Mat 7:22). It is also "the day of wrath" (Rom. 2:5) and "the day of judgement" (II pe 2:9). Any distinction between these various expressions is arbitrary and does not hold in front of the comparison of the texts because, for the primitive Church, Jesus, is the Lord. In this conviction, it included prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the Day of the Lord or of the Eternal and applied them to the return of Christ (cp Isaiah 26: 27 with I Thess. 4). The earth polluted by sin will be judged and destroyed (II pe 3:10, 12), it will be replaced with a new sky and a new ground.

6th certainty : The Lord gave us signs of his return

"When shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming?" (Mat 24: 3). If Jesus did not want to answer the first question, He however gave 7 signs of His Return (Mat 24: 5-14) to which He requires our attention (v. 33):

False Christ and false prophets (v. 5);

Wars and threats of war (v.6-7);

Famines, epidemics and earthquakes (v. 7);

Persecution of the believers (v. 9-10);

Apostasy of the Church (v. 11-12; cf. II Thess. 2:3-4);

Disappearance of any law in the world (v. 12; cf. It Teas. 2:6-8);

Preaching of the Gospel to the whole world (v.14).

The last sign before the advent will be an upheaval of all the laws of the cosmos (v.29).

7th certainty : The Lord wants us to await Him constantly

He asks us to be vigilant as servants who await the unexpected return of their Master (Luke 2:36-40) or the possible arrival of a thief (Mat 24:42-44). "Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth" (Rev. 16:15). In the epistles, thevwaiting of the Return of Christ is indicated by words which speak about impatient expectancy (Phil. 3 20, cf. Act. 17:16), of reception (Col.17), burning waiting (Titus 2:13; Jude 21), as on the edge of the feet (Rom. 8:19, 23).

Let's not be robbed from any of these invaluable certainties given by the Word of God.

2. What makes problem

Up to now, all was simple. But there are difficulties, and it would not be honest to hide them. As somebody said, "eschatology is the most difficult chapter of theology ". Thus, let's try to study closely what are the problems which are related to the hope of the Return of Christ, problems which can go as far as causing deep divergences of interpretation between doctors or theologians of the Evangelical Churches.

1. The interpretation of the prophecies

The prophetic language is primarily a symbolic language : visions, symbols, parabolas, which poses serious problems to the interpreter. Should prophecies be included/understood literally or spiritually? If, for example, I interpret Rev. 18 literally and if I say that Babylon is the capital of Chaldea, the Lord cannot return yet, because this city cannot fall before to be rebuilt and to have reached a considerable economic growth. If it is the symbol of a power whose ancient Babylon was only the prototype, nothing is opposed to see the realization of this prophecy in one of our political or religious systems.

If the Antichrist is a politician who must seat in the Temple of Jerusalem, the Lord cannot return yet. If this earth must "full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters covers the sea" (Isaiah 11:9; Heb. 2:14) before being destroyed, the Day announced by the apostle Peter is not imminent. Thus the achievement of certain prophecies seems to be opposed to the imminence of the Return.

2. During centuries

The first Christians do not seem to have been sensitive to this contradiction. They announced, among the signs preceding the Return, the apostasy and the evangelization of the whole ground, and yet, they awaited this Return during their generation ("we who are alive and left remaining until His coming"). The Fathers of the Church also believed in the imminent Return. But, little by little, the hope grew blurred. For Augustin, the Church entered the millenium.

In the XVIth century, the waiting of the Return is brought back to life again. Luther thought that the Lord could return at any time before he finished his translation of the Bible. Calvin says to await Him every day and to be ready, constantly, to welcomeHim. Weren't they sensitive to the tension between the achievement of the signs of the Return and its imminence? Yes, but for them, the signs were achieved, Antichrist was there : He was the Pope.

To counter-attack this interpretation, the Spanish Jesuit Francisco Ribeira imagined in 1590 to apply many prophecies to a remote future. He was the initiator of the futuristic interpretation of the Revelation : the Temple of Jerusalem will be rebuilt, there would be a period of 3 years ½ of tribulation. The Cardinal Bellarmin hastened to spread this interpretation which came apropos, and soon it was accepted by Rome.

Towards the beginning of XIXème century, the theory penetrated Protestantism by means of a Anglican historian : Samuel R. Maitland. Others completed the picture by identifying the 70th week of Daniel with the great tribulation.

3. Around the Millenium

In Revelation 20:4-6, it is spoken of a "thousand years" reign of the saints with Christ; during this period, Satan is bound, then is released for an ultimate attack against the Holy City.

How to locate the Return of Christ about which the Gospels and the epistles speak vis-a-vis the millenium? The pre-millenarist school points out that some dead people are resurrected at the beginning of this thousand years reign, therefore Christ must return before the millenium. The post-millenarist thesis draws the attention to the fact that, everywhere else in the New Nestament, the Return seems immediately followed by the last judgement and final state. The millenium must thus precede this Return and include/understand the achievement of all prophecies concerning the expansion of the reign of Christ on all the earth. The a-millenarist interpretation underlines another fact : the only passage where it is a question of this millenium belonged to a book where all numbers and names have a symbolic meaning, one could not thus give it a literal interpretation which would contradict the clear assertions of the Lord.

4. Imminence or not of the Return

In the three thesis, the same problem occurs : how to reconcile the achievement of a certain number of prophecies before the Return with the concept of imminence which comes out from so many biblical texts?

In the post-millenarism, the imminence disappears completely : Christ will return only at the end of a long period. As Satan does not even appear yet dependent, this Return will in any case not occur before thousand years.

In the pre and a-millenarisms, it is necessary to place this return before the achievement of the prophecies concerning "the great tribulation", the Antichrist and, possibly, the massive conversion of the Jews. This Return thus does not seem either to be able to be for today - unless one remains in line with the reformers for whom the Anti-Christ was the Pope.

In the XIXth century, a woman of the illuminist circle of Irving had a revelation : the removal (the so-called "rapture") would be secret and take place before the great tribulation. John Nelson Derby took up the idea and combined it with that of the Church-bracket : this Church is not in the continuation of the plan of the redemption which started with the old covenant, it is a bracket which was introduced because the Jewish people refused to accept the proposed proposed. The bracket will be closed again with the secret removal of the Church : then the history of the world will continue at the point where it had started : then will take place the great tribulation, the Jewish remnant will be saved. Darby thus endorsed again the futuristic interpretation of the Ribeira Jesuit to which he associated a new innovation : the idea of a first secret return before the great tribulation. It is the pre-tribulationnist theory of the Return. Derby spread his views in America during six trips. Two books contributed to spread them in the whole world : "Jesus is coming" by Blackstone (W.E.B.) in 1878, given out for free at hundreds of thousands of specimens to the servants of God, and the "annotated Bible" of Scofield (1909). The footnotes of this Bible suggested a system of interpretation of prophecies called dispensationalism because it distinguishes 7 dispensations or covenants in the ways of God towards humanity : Eden, Adam, Noah, Abraham, the Law or old covenant, grace or the bracket of the Church, the kingdom or Millenium. Between the removal which marks the end of the bracket of the grace and before the millenium, one would fall down in the mode of the old covenant.

This theory maintained the possibility of an imminent return constantly but to the price of exegetic prowesses sometimes not easily reconcilable with the first meaning of the texts.

Others finally locate the removal in the middle of the great tribulation (semi-tribulationist theory) or make take part to it only "the winners" (doctrine of selective removal) the hyper-dispensationalists push even further from the biblical economies and see, during the ministry for the apostles, a succession of different dispensations. Each one of these systems comprises, moreover, many alternatives defended by Christians whose neither piety, nor biblical competence could be questioned.

3. What is wise

How the simple faithful will be able find his way in this labyrinth? What position to adopt to maintain at the same time our hope of an imminent Return of the Lord, our faith in the achievement of the prophecies and... our communion with all the Christians?

First principle : To distinguish between the biblical assertions and the systems of interpretations.

The biblical assertions only are divinely inspired. They can seem to us contradictory because "we know in part" (cf 1 Cor 13:9). Then, we are tempted, to give a certain coherence to our system, to put certain aspects of the biblical message "under the bushel". Concern with harmonization, however, is an often bad adviser, because we harmonize in a manner around certain truths, others harmonize around other assertions, and we are thus divided as a result, mutually accusing each others to twist the meaning of the Scriptures. Wouldn't there be worth not to have any system of coherent prophetic interpretation and to remain attached to all the truths clearly taught by the Word? " No prophetic views, tells us F Buhler, is entirely safe from objections. None agrees in a perfect way with all the biblical texts" [ 2 ] we thus do not lock up in a system at the point not to more see the clear assertions of the Word which contradict it.

We do not want to be unconditional disciples of human doctors, we want to only follow Jesus-Christ. His word alone makes authority for us.

The system can even become dangerous if, by an artificial Word of God's division, it withdraws us for the benefit of certain promises or the achievement of certain orders. When it is said to us, for example, that the Beatitudes or the Lord's Prayer are for the Messianic kingdom but not for the Church, that the majority of the words of Jesus were addressed to the Jews but not to the Christians, the eschatological system removes from us, more than any theological liberalism, the most vital part of the Word of God. When the word of Jesus is interpreted : "Go, make of all the nations disciples" as addressing itself to the Jewish people and having to be carried out after the removal of the Church, we are in right to issue serious reserves and of saying, like O Allis, that, in this case "the presence of the Church on earth would be the biggest obstacle to the effective achievement of Jesus orders" [ 3 ], instead of being the means. Thus let us keep our critical attitude before any system. If there is apparent contradiction between two biblical passages, these are never the unquestionable assertions which are contradicted, but our interpretations of these texts. For example, the Paul apostle says to us that the removal and the appearance cannot take place before the arrival of the man of sin (II Thess. 2: 3-4), but it does not specify that this man would be a dictator who would take the head of a world government and would reign in Jerusalem. Why this would not be this new race of men whose our century is cultivating and which is precisely characterized by three features announced by the apostle :

The apostasy, i.e. the deliberate rejection on the faith of the ancestors;

The anomia, i.e. the refusal of any law above himself;

His own deification "rising above all what is called God" and "proclaiming himself God".

It is a new, unknown phenomenon there in all the history of humanity. As Professor G Millon says : "And why giving him a name, whereas one can find him in our streets and his doctrines have a world audience?" [ 4 ].

The same goes for all the "signs" which must precede the Return of Christ : all can be regarded as accomplished - according to interpretation that one gives to them - and could thus by no means constitute a prevention to an immediate Return of the Lord. Great tribulation? Ask a little our brothers behind the curtains of iron or bamboo if they think that the tribulation could be worse! Antichrist? The apostle John already said to us that, in his time that "several Antichrists" were in the world. Since then, the history did not miss applicants with this role, and no one could peremptorily assert that one of the political heads who persecute the Church today could not fulfill the prophecies on this subject.

2nd principle : To distinguish between the clear texts and the obscure ones

When devoted Christians, to whom God provided with gifts of interpretation of his Word, reach opposite conclusions, it is necessary to have humility and admit that they are difficult texts, likely to be included/understood in different ways. However, one of the first rules of hermeneutic consists in interpreting the obscure passages in the light of the clear texts - and not the reverse.

The certainty we raised in the first part of this article melt on clear assertions of Jesus-Christ and the apostles. They constitute the solid core around which all the exhortations and the assertions of the Word could be built upon.

Other truths are clearly taught in the Word : By the cross, Christ reversed for always the partition wall between the Jews and the heathens (Eph. 2:14, 16; 3:6; Gal 3:28; 1 Pe 2:9-10). The New Covenant definitively replaced the old one : the Writing presents it to us like an eternal covenant (Heb. 13:20). The bloody sacrifices are abolished forever : they were only the shade of the goods to come. The kingdom that Jesus-Christ came to establish is not of this world : it is a spiritual royalty on those who accept it. All the words of Jesus, all His prayers, all His commands are valid for us Christians now.

In their speeches and their epistles, the apostles report to the Church many prophecies of the Old Testament. In more than 650 quotations and allusions to the Old Testament, the apostles show that, for them, "all is accomplished" in Christ : it is the point of convergence of any prophecy, the promises of the Old Covenant find their achievement in the current Christian economy. The neo-testamentary interpretation of the prophecies give us the key to all the prophecies.

Prophecies were given to us to build and exhort, and not to satisfy our curiosity. They are not read like anticipated history. Many features will be decipherable only at the time of the fulfillment "What will be the end of these things?", asks Daniel to his divine interlocutor - "Go your way, Daniel!", it was answered to him, "for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end." (Dan 12: 9).

3rd principle : To distinguish the essence from the secondary

In the Bible, the life precedes knowledge. The faith, the hope and the love are the three things which remain. The union of the Christians is more significant than their prophetic scholarship, and it does not imply necessarily the uniformity of views on the events to come.

And of which value would be for us an exceptional competence in the prophetic field, if our interpretation cut us from the communion with the our brothers, or even, made us throw the anathema on them and their message? As B. Payne says it : "Instead of being a source of blessings (Rev. 1:3), the study of prophecy becomes a wound for the Church if its lawyers are more concerned to know what relates to the great tribulation than to glorify Christ and live in the love towards the brothers" [ 5][6 ].

In the prophecies themselves, which is significant in the eyes of God are especially the practical exhortations related to these truths, the conclusions we must draw from them. Because, never the Lord or the apostles speak in abstracto about the Return, to satisfy our desire to know the future. Always, these predictions are used as a motivation to an exhortation, a consolation, a warning : "Thus be careful... keep your lights burning!" (Luke 12:35-36). The prospect for the Return of Christ enables us to support with patience the present tests (1 pi 4:12-13), to await the divine verdict in the embarrassing cases (1 Cor 4:5). It causes consolation and comfort (1 Thess. 4:17-18), exhortation with a life in the light (Rom. 13:11-12), holiness (1 Thess. 3:12-13), sobriety (Luke 21: 35-36), self-control (1 Pet 4:7-8) and the purity (1 John 3:2-3).

The essential is not to know, but to love the advent of the Lord (II Tim. 4:8), to live in the perspective of His Return (Jude 24), to await it with joy (Heb. 9:28; 1 Pet.1:8-9) and to join the prayer of the Spirit and the bride : "Come, Lord Jesus " (Rev. 22:17, 20).

Printed from : http://protestanet.be/sp/article253.html (September 30 2005)

Main Bible Code Page