Pastor's Circle - Steve Blakemore

Dr. Steve Blakemore, Professor of Philosophy at Wesley Biblical Seminary and Director of Third Millennium Faith, addressed the now-failed prediction that Jesus would return on May 21st as well as how we should view the second coming.

What should be our attitude towards the second coming? 

Well, it should be the source of our great hope.

We should have a great hope in awaiting Jesus to come and complete the redemption that he has begun.

The doctrine of the second coming...is a reminder to us that we can't create the kingdom of God in this world...God ultimately will have to complete what he started in Jesus.

We should be living for the sake of others - that Jesus wants to bring them into the glory of His kingdom too. 

You didn't hear a lot of people expressing hope that Jesus would come back this weekend (as predicted).  Do we really look forward to the second coming?  Do we in the West have too much affluence to want Him to interrupt all that? 

You know what? I think you have really, right there in that, struck upon a great insight that Christians in the west for decades and centuries have been blessed with such affluence.

Let's face it, the early church's prayer "even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly" was said in a culture where many people wanted to kill them. 

What does it tell us about a culture that doesn't yearn for the return of Jesus? 

I think first of all it tells us the church may not really be living for the triune God and the glory of the Savior of the world.

If we can get the comfort and blessing right now, we may not want Jesus to come and interrupt the comfort.

If we're living for our own satisfaction, we're not worrying about the salvation of the whole world.

So we're not driven to glorify Him nor are we oriented so we can see the redemption of the whole world.

 It's got to say something about the shallowness of our faith. 

I do think it does indeed. Our faith is so individualized...our faith is so focused on what God can give me right here and now that we forget the calling of Jesus is not come to Him and be blessed. The call of Jesus is to come follow Him.

When someone was in need they sold it and gave it. Even in that, the early church was such that they said, "If Jesus can use our stuff, we're not going to hold on to it."

I think it does say something about the shallowness, because we're so focused on personal welfare.

I have an email here from a lady who wants to start a mass prayer to protect against the great tornado outbreak. Is that an appropriate kind of prayer? 

I would say yes.

Because we're to cry out to him and cast our every care upon the Lord. We don't just need spiritual blessings, we don't just need moral blessings...

But I think in light of this we need to remember something that's easy for us to forget in our technological age, we're not really in control.