Will God act ‘soon’ in answer to prayer?
Unless y'all are a deist (even perhaps a moral therapeutic deist) then belief in the orthodox understanding of the Trinity implies an expectation that God, by his Spirit, is at piece of work in the globe and in the life of the believer. In 1 Corinthians, Paul describes the active work of the Spirit in the congregation at Corinth; in Romans 8 he peculiarly focusses on the piece of work of the Spirit in the private believer; Luke in Acts recounts how the work of the Spirit amongst the apostles and others in the early church building continued the work and ministry of Jesus amidst them and in public ministry. The merits of the New Attestation is that, even though we live in dissimilar times in history, we inhabit the aforementioned theological time: the season of the post-Pentecost outpouring of the Spirit, and and then (in some way or other) we should take the same expectations.
But any sense of expectation will, as anyone in pastoral ministry knows, also bring with information technology the inevitable frustration, disappointment and even heartbreak when it seems as though God fails to act. This ranges from the lilliputian, when something in everyday life doesn't happy the mode we wanted or hoped later praying about information technology, to the tragic when we witness the decease of a friend or relative, and are left request 'Why?'
Function of the upshot relates to the language that the New Attestation uses well-nigh God coming 'shortly' or acting 'soon', and in fact this language extends the challenge across the pastoral to the eschatological: did the beginning followers of Jesus wait the kingdom of God and that end of the world to come up 'soon'?
There are two small-scale but important words in NT Greek here. The starting time is the adverb tachus, which comes xiii times in the NT, and consistently ways 'apace', in the sense of something happening without delay. (Meet Matt five.25, 28.vii–eight, Marking 9.39, Luke 15.22, John 11.29, James 1.nineteen for examples.) Simply in that location is besides the phrase en tachei, which makes employ of the substantive tachos 'quickness' or 'suddenness'. This is less frequent, just coming eight times (Luke eighteen.8, Acts 12.7, 22.18 and 25.4, Romans 16.twenty, 1 Tim three.fourteen, and Rev 1.1 and 22.6). Ben Witherington points out that, whilst this phrase tin can mean something similar to the adverb tachus in describing the timing of an event ('quickly', 'immediately'), as in the examples in Acts, on other occasions it refers to the manner of the activity—all of a sudden and unexpectedly, rather than without any temporal delay.
In Luke 18.8, for instance, the point of the story of the unjust judge is precisely that there will be a filibuster earlier prayer is answered—but when the answer comes, it will exist swift and decisive. Similarly, in Romans 16.20, Paul'southward point is nearly likely not that Satan's defeat will come in a brusque while, simply that it volition be sudden and decisive. This meaning is also confirmed by examples of the phrase in the LXX (Septuagint), the Greek translation/paraphrase of the OT, in Josh viii.18–19, Psalm 2.12 and Ezek. 29.5, also as Sirach 27.3.
This utilise of linguistic communication connects very powerfully with our ain feel of how time feels before and later nosotros are waiting for something to happen. As the maxim goes, how long a minute lasts depends on which side of the bathroom door you are standing. When we are waiting for something to happen, time seems to drag and be drawn out—yet when the longed-for action take identify, in that location is a sense in which we forget the waiting in the relief that now comes. If this is true for the niggling, it is certainly true in the tragic. I was struck a while agone by the language of the parents of Becky Godden, who was tragically murdered, but whose case was delayed past five years because of police error. Her female parent talked of the 'eternity' of waiting, and y'all could see the suddenness of the relief when the verdict finally came.
Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that both Quondam and New Testaments depict on the linguistic communication of painful man waiting when talking about the nature of God'southward intervention in history. In Is 66.7–11 (and in Micah 4 and 6), the distress of God's people waiting for his intervention is likened to a woman in labour pains waiting to be delivered. (The double use of 'deliverance' in relation both to given nascency and to God'southward salvation works in Hebrew and Greek too as English language, since it depends not on language but on experience.) This is the idea picked up in Rev 12: the woman 'clothed with the sunday' is not any private, merely the people of God pending the promised messiah. Jesus uses similar linguistic communication in Matt 24.8: 'these are but the get-go of birth pangs…'
Information technology is still unremarkably claimed that Jesus (and his followers) expected The End to come soon, and that the failure of the kingdom of God to fully materialise acquired a crunch which led to a reconfiguration of Christian theology. But this is largely based on a misreading of Matt 24 and its parallels, which in turned is based on a failure to understand Jesus' and the gospel writers' use of the Old Attestation.
Information technology is quite common to read the whole of Matthew 24 every bit if information technology was all nigh Jesus' 2d coming at the stop of the age. But in fact the affiliate is in ii sections, corresponding to the two-fold question of the disciples at the first of the section: 'When will all this happen, and when will be your coming and the end of the age?' The first main section Matt 24.i–35 is well-nigh the immediate time to come and the destruction of the temple, but the second main section Matt 24.36–51 concerns a more distant expectation of Jesus' second coming at the terminate of the age. Nosotros can see that in the switch from Jesus' language about 'this day' and 'these things' in the first half, to a focus on 'but almostthat day…' in 24.36. And this is underlined past Jesus' solemn declaration near the end of the outset section:
Amen I say to y'all, this generation volition certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. (Matt 24.34)
Jesus' saying here is quite emphatic in form, including the emphatic form of the negative, mentioning 'all' these things clearly, and opening with the 'Amen' formula, characteristic of Matthew's record of Jesus' teaching, and suggesting recollection of Jesus' bodily words in Aramaic. This is very difficult to evade; Jesus draws hither a hit contrast between the immediate events relating to the destruction of the temple, about which nosotros are to 'discern the times', and the afar events of 'the cease of the age' which volition come after a long filibuster, but which might therefore take us by surprise. (For an exploration of all the issues in this reading, encounter my more than detailed weblog post on Matthew 24.)
This kind of dynamic is also present in the Book of Revelation. Right from the very kickoff, it uses the language of 'soon' and 'the time is curt' (one.1 and one.three). This appears to prepare up an expectation of God'southward immediate intervention in the situation facing the fragile Christian communities. But closer inspection suggests something more nuanced. The word translated 'soon' in 1.1 isnot the adverbtachus (with the sense 'immediately') but the phraseen tachei with the sense 'with suddenness'. And the 'time' that is 'most' is notchronos, meaning days and hours (from which we get 'chronology') justkairos—the moment of opportunity. In fact, the phrase 'the fourth dimension is near',kairos engus, is strongly reminiscent of Jesus' own proclamation in Mark one.xv: 'The fourth dimension is fulfilled; the kingdom of God is at hand.'
The wordkairos occurs seven times in Revelation, then appears to be of some importance. Three of these come in the phrase in 'time, times and half a time', which is equivalent to both the 1,260 days and 42 months (you tin can exercise the sums to check, taking 'time' as a year, and a month equally existence an ideal religious calendar month of xxx days) signifying the interim time from Jesus' death and resurrection until his coming again. John is hear stealing a phrase from Daniel, of intense but express 'tribulation', and using that to describe the experience of Christians equally we wait for Jesus' return. Significantly, John also uses thiskairos language in relation to the work of the devil: 'he knows his fourth dimension [kairos] is short' (Rev 12.12). This is focussing non on the length of time, so much every bit the limited opportunity the devil now has, given that he has been overturned past the death of Jesus ('the blood of the lamb') and past the faithful witness of Jesus' followers ('the give-and-take of their testimony').
All this has direct relevance to the pastoral issue that we started with. Some time ago I was teaching on Revelation at a Community Church building which is part of the Salt and Light network (ane of the 'new' churches). I had answered a question at the terminate of the session, explaining the difference betweenkairos andchronos and Revelation'south use of the terms. At the finish someone came upwards to me in tears; this person was suffering from a quite debilitating illness, and believed that God had promised to bring healing 'before long'. Understanding the perspective of Revelation (and the rest of the NT) enabled her to motion from anxiety and frustration at the fact this hadn't yet happened, and instead have a sense of hope that Godwill act, and patience to wait until that moment came. This is surely what John means past existence our 'brother in kingdom, tribulation, and patience endurance' (Rev 1.ix).
(Offset published in 2016)
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