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They wait.
And wait.
But it doesn' t happen.
The Enigma
When Jesus does not return at the
height- and in t he aftermath-of
the cataclysmic events of A. D. 66-
70, the shock is great. Many Chris–
tians are puzzled, d isturbed, de–
moralized.
It
is a surprising development–
or nondevelopment.
It
is a mys–
tery- an enigma. What has "gone
wrong"?
The Church is tes ted. Many face
agonizing decisions. Many begin to
doubt, and question.
The apostle Paul had once faced
t his issue. He had long expected
J esus' return in bis own lifet ime. In
A. D. 50 , he had writte n to the
Thessalonians of
"we
whic h are
alive and remain unto the coming
of the Lord ..." ( 1 Thess. 4: 15).
Five years later, in a letter to the
Corinthians, he had wri tten that
"we
shall not all sleep [die] " before
Jesus' coming
(1
Cor. 15:51 ) .
But in a letter to Timothy
in
the
days j ust before his death, Paul
clearly sees a d ifferent picture. He
wri tes of the " last days" in
afuture
context
( 11
Ti m. 3: 1-2 ). H e
declares:
" 1
have fought a good
f ig h t ,
1
h ave fini s hed m y
course ... " (4:7). He speaks of
receiving his reward at sorne future
time (4:8).
Un li ke Paul, however, many
C hrist ians become disheartened
and demoral ized . Their hopes are
shattered. "Where is the promise of
his coming?" many complain.
But sorne Christians understand.
They real ize that God
intends
that
they face this question, to see how
they wi ll react. T hey continue to
wait and watch patient ly, continu–
ing in well-doing. They remember
the words of J esus to his disciples,
" Watch therefore: for ye know not
w h at hour you r Lo rd dot h
come ... for in such an hour as ye
think not the Son of man cometh"
(Matt. 24:42, 44). It would be
those who "endure
unto the end"–
whenever
that was-who would be
saved (verse 13) .
Sorne Ch r istians- mis und er–
standing the fi nal verses of the gos–
pel of J ohn-believe that J esus will
yet return in the apost le J ohn's life-
June 1983
t ime (John 21:20-23) . As J ohn
grows progressively older-out liv–
ing his contemporaries- many see
suppor t for this view. T hey sti ll
hope for Jesus' return in their gen–
eration. They wait.
But others are not so pat ient.
They are rest less, uneasy. They
begin to look for other answers.
Their eyes begin to turn from the
vision of God's kingdom and the
true purpose of life. They lose the
sense of urgency they once had.
T hey begi n t o s tray fr om the
st raight path. They become con–
fused- and vulnerable.
U ntil the "disappo intment,"
false teachers had not made signi fi–
cant headway among Christ ians.
Christians expected J esus' return
a t a ny time- th ey had t o be
faithful,
and
ready
at a n y
moment!
But now a large segment of the
Christ ian community g rows more
recept ive to " innovations" in doc–
t rine. The ground is now ready to
receive the evil seeds of
heresy!
Another Gospel
Following the martyrdom of many
of their fait hfu1 leaders, many
Christians fall victim to error. Con–
fused a nd d ishear te ned , they
become easy prey for wolves.
False teachers were nothing new
to the Church. The crisis had been
a long t ime in the making.
As early as A.D. 50, Paul had
declared to the Thessalonians that a
conspi racy to supplant the truth
was already under way. "For the
mystery of iniquity doth ALREADY
work," he had written to them
( 11
Thess. 2:7).
Paul also warned the Galatians
that sorne were
pervert ing
the gos–
pel of Christ, trying to stamp out
the preaching of the true gospel of
the kingdom of God t hat J esus
preached (Gal. 1:6-7) . He told the
Corinthians that sorne were begin–
ning to preach "anot her Jesus" and
"another gospel"
( 11
Cor. 11:4).
He branded them "false apostles"
and ministers of Satan (verses 13-
15).
Paul had often reminded the
churches of the words of J esus, that
MANY would come in his name, pro–
claiming that Jesus was Christ , yet,
deceiving MANY (Matt . 24:4-5, 11 ).
The MANY- not the few-would be
led down the paths of error, deceived
by a counterfeit faith
masquerading
as Chris t ianity!
The prophecy now comes to pass.
The si tuation grows increasi ngly
acute . The int roduction of false
doctrines by clever teachers divides
the beleaguered Christian commu–
ni ty. It is split into contending fac–
tions, rent asunder by heresy and
false teaching!
Slmon the Sorcerer
Unknown to most, this havoc in the
Church represents a posthumous
victory for a man who had sown the
first seeds of the problem decades
earl ier. Notice what had occurred:
A sorcerer named Simon, from
Samaria ( the one- t ime capi tal of the
house of Israel), had appeared in
Rome in A.D. 45, during the days of
Claudius Caesar. This S imon was
high pr iest of t he Babylonian–
Samaritan mystery religion (Rev.
17:5), brought to Samaria by the
Assyrians after the captivity of the
house of Israel
(11
Kings 17:24) .
Simon made a g reat impression in
Rome with bis demonic mi racle–
working-so much so that he was
deified as a
god
by many of its
supersti tious cit izens.
Earl ier, in A. D. 33, whi le st ill in
Samaria, Simon (often known as
Simon Magus- "The Magician")
had been impressed by the power of
Christiani ty. He had been baptized,
without adequate counsel ing, by
Philip the deacon. Yet Simon, in his
heart , had not been will ing to lay
aside the prestige and influe nce he
had as a magician over the Samari–
tans. So he asked for the office of an
apostle and offered a sum of money
to buy it. J esus' chief apostle, Simon
Peter, s ternly rebuked Simon the
magician, told him to change his
bi tter atti tude and banned him from
all fellowship in hope of future
repentance (Acts
8).
Traveling to Rome years later,
Simon conspi red to sow the seeds
of division in the rapidly growing
Christian churches of the West.
His goal: to gain a personal follow–
ing for himself. He seized upon the
name
of Christ as a cloak for his
teachings, which were a mixture of
Babylonian paganism, J udaism and
Chr istianity. He appropriated a
Christian vocabulary and other out–
ward t rappings to give a
surface
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