US. Mennonite Brethren, as well as many other evangelicals, have been greatly influenced in their reading of Scripture, and specifically “end times” passages, by dispensationalism. Where does this way of interpreting Scripture as popularly portrayed in the “Left Behind” movie series come from? What should guide the way followers of Jesus read the biblical references to Christ’s return?
The dispensational lens for reading Scripture begins with John Nelson Darby. Darby, a Plymouth Brethren pastor who lived from 1800 to 1892, instituted a two-stage return of Christ and removal of the saints from the earth before the great tribulation. Along with this, Darby developed a system of looking at different parts of Scripture as uniquely applying to different periods in history depending on God’s work during those times. These periods are called dispensations.
C.E. Scofield (1843-1921) popularized Darby’s concepts. Scofield, a lawyer from Atchison, Kan., was converted at a crusade by Dwight L. Moody. With his footnotes and cross-references, Scofield used Darby’s dispensational system as a lens by which he viewed the entire Bible. This Bible was later popularized as the Scofield Bible.
Darby’s views and Scofield’s Bible eventually became popular in Mennonite Brethren churches. After churches moved away from raising up bi-vocational pastors within each congregation toward a system of finding professionally trained pastors, young men began to seek training for the pastorate by attending seminaries. Two popular schools at that time where dispensationalism was taught were Moody Bible Institute and Dallas Theological Seminary. When MB Biblical Seminary was founded in 1955, some of the professors were also trained at these schools and taught from a dispensational perspective.
The Anabaptist lens
However, not all Mennonite Brethren agreed with a dispensational reading of Scripture. One of these theologians was J.B. Toews, president of MB Biblical Seminary from 1964-1972. Toews guided the seminary in a way that was instrumental in bringing in new faculty to change the school from a dispensational approach to a more Anabaptist approach of interpreting Scripture.
During Toews’ tenure as president and emeritus professor, the seminary thrived and produced many pastors who interpreted Scripture differently than dispensational theologians. These students were taught to see Jesus as the fullest representation of God and thus to place the words of Christ, especially the Sermon on the Mount, as central to their understanding of Jesus’ teaching for the church.
They were taught the value of seeing all of Scripture through the lens of Christ’s teaching. Therefore, the Gospels and Acts were the starting place, revealing the fullest revelation of God in Christ and the work of Christ through his Spirit in the church. This interpretive lens was then cast on the readings of the Old Testament and the Epistles. With the base of the Old Testament, the Gospels and the Epistles, the more difficult and figurative writings of the apocalyptic literature of Daniel, Ezekiel and Revelation were to be understood.
Here are some of the conclusions I have reached regarding Christ’s return when interpreting Scripture using this Anabaptist lens.
Reading the Gospels
In Matthew 13:37-43, Jesus interprets the parable of the weeds that are sown among the good seed. This passage, along with others in the Gospels, says Christ’s return will be a time of judgment when God separates those who are his followers from those who are not. Those who follow Jesus will remain and “shine like the sun” and those who do not will be cast into hell. The day of the Lord’s coming is a day of separating the wheat from the chaff and the sheep from the goats.
Jesus compares the second coming judgment to the days of Noah. In Matthew 24:36-41, Jesus says the flood of Noah’s lifetime was a day of judgment. This raises the question: Who is taken and who is left in the great flood? As we look at this passage in the same way that we look at the parables of Jesus, the ones who are taken are the chaff, the weeds, etc. The chaff is taken and burned and the weeds are separated from the grain and destroyed.
In Noah’s day, those who were not on the ark were taken by the flood. Noah and his family were left. Therefore, this Matthew passage doesn’t describe the sudden disappearance of Christians. It likely describes God’s judgment, meaning the unbeliever is taken in punishment, and those who believe enjoy life eternal. No one is “left behind.”
Matthew 24:3-8 warns us of things that will occur as the time of Christ’s return draws nearer. But the main point isn’t about panic; Jesus instead says not to be alarmed. This passage calls us not to build bunkers, arming ourselves to the hilt and stashing food. Rather, this is a call for believers to do the work of the kingdom, fulfilling the great commission.
Connections in the Epistles
As we move from the Gospels to the Epistles we see further connections. 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 compares Christ’s coming to a thief in the night. Calamity will come to people who are thinking that all is safe and peaceful. Unprepared people are caught off guard. In verse four Paul states, “But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.”
Believers do not know the day of the Lord’s coming, but instead of experiencing it as an unpleasant surprise, they face it in anticipation of something far greater. Therefore, we are to encourage one another and build one another up as we see the time drawing near.
As we read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 we cannot ignore the idea of the rapture of the church. It is the event of Christ’s return where those who have died are resurrected to join Christ, and those who are alive in Christ are changed. It is described as the exciting event of Christians being united with Christ at his return. It gives hope to the believer and provides comfort for those whose loved ones have passed.
There are three different positions as to the timing of the rapture in relation to the time of the great tribulation. Since Revelation is unclear as to its timing, we need to hold these positions with humility.
As we move from the Epistles of John to the book of Revelation, if we take the epistles as seriously as we take the figurative language of the Apocalypse of John, we see a different picture of the antichrist than is popularized in the movies. 1 John 2:18-19 teaches that there are many antichrists. These are people who were once involved in the church but left the church and became opponents of Christ. The
antichrist, if consistent with many antichrists of this scripture, may be a particularly gifted religious personality who has turned against the followers of Christ. And if this is so, he may not be recognizable as an evil political dictator as portrayed in the movies.
Concepts in Revelation
As we now move to those concepts about Christ’s return that are only mentioned in the book of Revelation, we move into a discussion of concepts that have many figurative components. For many of these, there is no mention in the Old Testament, the Gospels or in the Epistles.
The great tribulation is one of these issues. The church has always suffered tribulation. Tribulation is simply the experience of misery and chaos. As God’s judgment nears, Revelation teaches that the world will enter a time of great tribulation. There is much controversy as to the order of events surrounding this tribulation. Believers must not add to the present chaos over specific views of its timing. Believers should rather encourage faithfulness to Christ during difficult times and hold their views concerning the timing of the great tribulation with much humility.
Another of these issues is concerning the millennium. This concept of a thousand-year binding of Satan appears only in Revelation 20. It is described as a time when the martyred believers will reign with Christ. When the millennial reign of Christ ends, Satan will be freed to deceive the nations and then be destroyed by Christ in the lake of fire.
There are at least four different nuanced views of the timing of this reign in reference to Christ’s return. I believe that these views should be held with a great deal of humility and should not be issues that divide the church.
A closing suggestion: Begin by reading and understanding Christ’s final triumph from the Gospels and Epistles. In light of the truths that are found there, read the apocalyptic books and remain humble regarding positions of timing on Christ’s return concerning these things. Remember, only the Father knows the day or the hour. Come Lord Jesus.
David A. Loewen is a part-time visitation pastor at Parkview MB Church, Hillsboro, Kansas, and will complete his term as chair of the USMB Board of Faith and Life in July 2024. Loewen is a graduate of MB Biblical Seminary, now Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary. He taught at Christian high schools in Oklahoma and Kansas before joining the faculty of Tabor College in the Teacher Education Department.
