There is a sense in which time itself is fallen. All of creation was subject to the fall, time included. There is also a sense in which all of creation will itself be reborn, just as the human individual is reborn through faith in Christ. This means that time will also be reborn, redeemed, and renewed.
This claim leads to an interesting conclusion: the Christian theological analysis of the salvation of the human being is, in a very literal sense, the drama of the salvation of the world in microcosm. Whatever is to occur to humans, and therefore however we view the human being during the process of salvation, is also to occur to the universe and will also affect the way that we will view the universe during the process of redemption history.
Let's be a bit more detailed here by looking at an example. Several posts ago I discussed the paradox of Christian identity. On the one hand, as children of God we are of infinite worth and value. On the other, as children who have forsaken their father and set their own course steeped in sin, we are of a sort of evil that cannot be underestimated.
The same paradox of human nature extends to the creation itself, and to the end times. If we overemphasize either of the dual aspects of reality, we are likely to distort our perception of the end times. For example, if we only recognize sin in ourselves and in this world, then the end times are exclusively a source of joy and comfort. When God comes, all evil in this world will be overthrown and only goodness will remain. For this reason, we often see such a triumphalist view of the end times playing a prominent role among those who are suffering the most fervently under oppression, and who are therefore most acutely aware of the sin and evil in this world (for example during the Roman persecutions). Simultaneously, we often see such a joyous anticipation of the end times among those who most heavily emphasize the sinful nature of the human being, and who are therefore most conscious of the need to be liberated from our own sin nature (for example neo-Calvinists). While it is certainly true that we should anticipate the destruction of evil, sin, and death at the end times (by, for example, praying "Thy Kingdom come"), the Biblical witness concerning the end times is more complex. Consider, for example, the following passage from Amos:
"Woe to you who long
for the day of the Lord!
Why do you long for the day of the Lord?
That day will be darkness, not light.
It will be as though a man fled from a lion
only to meet a bear,
as though he entered his house
and rested his hand on the wall
only to have a snake bite him.
Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light -
pitch-dark without a ray of brightness?" (Amos 5:18-20)
The theme is common throughout the prophets:
"Let all who live in the land tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming.
It is close at hand -
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and blackness." (Joel 2:1-2a)
"Listen! The cry on the day of the Lord will be bitter,
The shouting of the warrior there,
That day will be a day of wrath,
a day of distress and anguish
a day of trouble and ruin,
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and blackness." (Zephaniah 1:14-15)
It is a theme even in the words of Jesus:
"How dreadful it will be for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great distress, unequalled from the beginning of the world until now - and never to be equalled again." (Matthew 24:19-21)
There are those who dread the day of the Lord, the end times, even though they know Christ. They are almost ashamed of the end times and their corresponding judgment. Quite often, due to their discomfort, they even seek ways to reinterpret the Scriptures so that they can deny a second coming of Christ altogether. While it is easy to simply and quickly dismiss such Christians, we must recognize that their discomfort sometimes originates from the same source as our enthusiasm: an imbalanced perspective on redemption. Where evangelicals are prone to emphasize sin, and therefore to eagerly anticipate the day of the Lord as a release from sin, many other Christian groups are prone to emphasize the goodness of creation and the human potential for redemption, creativity, and beauty. For those who emphasize the potential goodness of humans created in the image of God, the end times represent the ultimate destruction of that image within those who persist in faithlessness and disobedience.
In truth, it seems best to hold a paradoxical view of the Day of the Lord much as we cling to a paradoxical view of human nature. Though marred by sin, creation is a wonderful work of God and we should dread its final destruction just as we rejoice in the new creation the Lord has promised to bring forth. This paradoxical mixture of joy and dread mirrors the paradoxical truth that both the best and the worst are still yet to come.
What does this teach Christians living in the interim between Christ's first and second coming? For those who would focus on the future redemption, we must remember the terror of the day of the Lord. It is by mercy that God delays that final day, and so we should make use of his mercy to combat sin, oppression, and evil in this day. Our battle now will surely be less arduous than that final battle. Likewise, for those who would focus on the present potential for good, we must insistently avoid calling grey white, and must resolutely affirm the greater redemption that is to come while staunchly rejecting as sin that which fails to live up to that future standard. We cannot become so tempered by realism to embrace the surrealism of the coming Kingdom as a model for our own efforts. And finally, wherever there is joy or pain, we must expect both to increase before the final victory. We must thank God for what hope yet persists amid pain, and for what pain mingles with our hope, for both teach us of what is to come and remind us that we are in the present state by God's grace and according to His plan.
