Completion of the Ages

Many are troubled by the events going on around the world. One young woman asked me this past week—as many have—whether the signs listed in the Bible point to the imminent return of Christ. Will it be soon? When will it be?

As noted in an earlier Blog, movie makers are aware of this angst and are using it to their own ends. Friday of this very week the movie 2012 will be released, supposedly documenting some heretofore unknown Mayan prophecy about the end of the world as we know it, a very scary concept to say the least.

At the same time the Christian church approaches the end of yet another year of public worship. Those of us who follow the ancient liturgical tradition will hear many lessons reflecting upon the end of the present era and the promise of a new and eternal succession of eras led by Christ, the returning and victorious Lord.

 In the next several days I will reflect upon this passage from the New Testament letter to the Hebrews:

"For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.  25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own,  26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.  27 And just as oit is appointed for man to die once, and  after that comes judgment,  28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, tnot to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly uwaiting for him" (Hebrews 9:24-28).

Today I will focus upon but one phrase, "the end of the ages." 


The word for "end" in this passage is—in NT Greek—synteleia. This is a compound word that speaks of completion, consummation, where the whole business has been heading. We are the folks that live in that day and time when God's plans for us humans and our planet are coming to completion. We are about to see the plans completed in Christ. 

Our Lord Jesus spoke about those matters with His disciples. They used the same language when they asked Him,"Tell us, when will these things be (He had just foretold that the temple would be torn down), and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close (synteleia) of the age?" (see Matthew 24).

To start with, Jesus warns them of the dangers of being led astray and deceived by folks who mess with the Bible or throw it out altogether in favor of some human science or philosophy. And that's good advice for us as well, because there are plenty of deceptive teachings and ideas being thrown around.

One of those will come popping up this coming weekend when the 2012 movie opens. As one of my friends-in-the-know says about the Mayans, "Strange that we should take seriously the prophecies of a people who couldn't even foresee the end of their own civilization."