God has Plenty of Time

Christians always seem to be in a hurry for the second coming to come. God is generous and gracious wanting many people to come into his kingdom, so he is not in a hurry. Peter reminded us that God is not bound by our sense of urgency.

With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Pet 3:8,9).

These verses have used as a key to interpret biblical prophecy, but that totally misses the point. The real point is that time is different for God. A thousand years a like a day. That means that the two thousand years that have passed since Jesus was crucified, seem like only two days to God. If only two days have gone by, why would God be keen to wind up his show on earth. In fact the opposite is true. God patient. He is willing to let many thousands of years so that more people can come to repentance and enter his kingdom.

Christians who want Jesus to return soon are out of touch with God’s heart. He did not send his son to die for just a handful of people. He is gracious and generous and wants hundreds of billions of people to come into his kingdom. He will not establish his kingdom, and then immediately put it away like last year's toy. He might enjoy watching his kingdom for thousands of years. God is patient, so he is quite happy to let several thousand more years go by, so he can keep his covenant for a thousand generation.

Here is a woe that should make us worry.
Woe to those who say, "Let God hurry,
let him hasten his work
so we may see it(Is 5:19).

God is not in a hurry. His people should be careful about making him hurry. He has many more promises to fulfil. His people should be as keen to see many billions more people coming into the kingdom. Those who want to rush Jesus coming, do not understand his concept of time.

Ten thousand years is just like a few days to God. He will wait that long to fill his kingdom with billions of people.

God does not need to hurry. From his perspective this show has only been on the road for a couple of days. It makes no sense for him to close it down, because the opening crowds were disappointing.

Parable of the Minas (7) Take Time

The Parable of the Minas was also a warning that the economic restoration brought by the Kingdom of God would take time.

Zacchaeus actions would not stop the poor people from being harshly tax. The fact that Zacchaeus had resigned did not mean that the people would not have to pay tax. That would be wishful thinking, and Jesus reminded them of the harsh reality. If Zacchaeus could not do the job, his collection responsibilities, would be handed over to someone else, like the first servant, who could extract money where it had not been put in. Zacchaeus would be replaced with a chief tax collector who was even more harsh and corrupt. In the short term the situation would get worse.

As long as political powers exist, they will find someone to collect their taxes. As long as they have power, they will look after their cronies. The people would not be freed from their excessive tax burden until hundreds of chief tax collectors had been converted and given away their surplus wealth, instead of handing over to the political powers. Only when no one harsh enough could be found to take on the tax collector role would that happen, causing the entire political system to collapse.

The Zacchaeus incident was a sign that this would happen, but it would take time. The unfairness of secular capitalism and the corruption of politicised capitalism will eventually collapse and the Kingdom of God would come in its place. That would take time, and in the meantime many people would suffer under the harsh treatment of a corrupt political and economic system.

Epochal Events

We live in a decimal world. Human commentators measure change in terms of years, decades and centuries. Newspapers nominate a “man of the year”. At the beginning of a decade, they prognosticate about shape of the next decade. At then end of century, they try and draw out the themes of the century and guess if the next one will be different. At the turn of a new millennium, they really get carried away. Many Christians think the same way.

God does not operate in a decimal system. He does not see history in decades and centuries. God is eternal, but he sees human history in “time and seasons”. Paul told the Thessalonians that they already understood about times and seasons, as they already understood them.

Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you (1 Thes 5:1).

To see history as God sees it, we must understand the times and in which we are living.

The word "epoch" is derived from a Greek word, which means pause. It is used to describe the breaks between the acts of a play. In God’s plan each new season is started by an epochal event which marks the end of the old season and the beginning of the new one. God breaks in and changes the "state of the play" and starts a new stage of history.

The key epochal events in the Old Testament were the flood, the tower of Babel, the Exodus and the Exile. The incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus was the ultimate epochal event that marked the transition into the new covenant.

The New Testament age has six seasons and the transition from each season to the next is generally marked by an epochal event. We are currently at an epochal point in history, when the world passes into a new season. A season called the Times of the Gentiles is coming to an end. The short season called the Time of Distress is about to begin. The epochal events that mark the end of the times of the Gentiles are described in the four horseman of Revelation 6.

The first two horsemen have already been released.

• The first horseman is the Islamic Revolution that began in Iran 1978.
• The second horseman is the Tribal Conflict that began about the same time.

I have been watching the world for a sign that another next horseman has been released.