Now, Not Yet TDD #23

Now, Not Yet

Perhaps you are accustomed to saying that You are saved, but you are being saved, and still you will one day be saved.   If you have studied the writings of Peter than you are familiar with this thought.   The same is true of the Kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God is “not yet” here and is “already” here.  Not yet here in its consummation, but already here in significant fulfillments.

In fact, “fulfillment without consummation” was the outrage of Jesus’s ministry. He claimed that the kingdom of God “is in the midst of you” (Luke 17:21), and yet Jesus was not overthrowing the Roman regime.   This frustrated and confused his disciples. 

Do you remember John the Baptist was puzzled too and asked in Matthew 11:13, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

This was the “secret of the kingdom” revealed only to a few. “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables” (Mark 4:11). 

So what was the point of the parables?  It was to reveal and to conceal.  As jesus told parables, he taught and provided insight to those whom he wanted to enrich, but those who rejected him the parables were meant to hide the truth, and in a verbal way cover up in a disguise from those who refused to believe. 

The secret was that the kingdom was indeed already present (“If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you,” Luke 11:20), but the kingdom has not yet come completely.  Jesus was sharing the passover with his disciples in the upper room and he said:  “I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom,” Matthew 26:29.

There was a now and not yet aspect to the kingdom.

What About the Antichrist?

if you remember we are talking about the tribulation from Matthew 24.  I encourage you to read Matthew 24:1-14, passages in Thessalonians, and Revelation to better understand the Antichrist, and the 7 short years he will reign.

But most of us are not accustomed to speaking of the antichrist in a dual language.

We do not often hear of him as already here but not yet here. But consider the way the apostles John and Paul speak of this figure. Only John uses the term “antichrist.” But Paul refers to the same figure as “the man of lawlessness,”  or the “son of perdition.” 

First listen to Paul. “Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day [of Christ’s second coming] will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. . . . And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work”
(2 Thessalonians 2:3, 6–7).

Paul makes it clear that a “man of lawlessness” is coming {future} . And yet he says that the “mystery of lawlessness” is already at work {present}.   This now,  not yet aspect of the kingdom, salvation and eschatology confuses so many people.  it has and will likely continue to do so.

 Here is the lesson I take away from this: There is  a distinct figure of great satanic power (2 Thessalonians 2:9) who is coming, he is not here yet.  Still, his evil presence and influence can already be felt in the present day in which we live.

 He is “already” here in one sense, and he is “not yet” here in another.  As we march toward the appointed day, that evil influence will grow and cast a greater shadow on the tribulation.

Similarly, John says, “Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already”
(1 John 4:3).

There is a future antichrist yet to come. But the spirit of antichrist is already in the world. In fact, John goes so far as to say: “You have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come” (1 John 2:18).

So both Paul and John picture a final time just before the second coming when a person of great demonic power will rise up in rebellion against the true Christ and his people. In the meantime, the satanic characteristics of that figure are always manifesting themselves in the world with greater or lesser dominance. The antichrist is coming and he is here already. “Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is . . . the antichrist” (2 John 1:7).

What does this mean for us?

It is a call for us to live sober lives of alertness and faithfulness. Our minds should be girded for action (1 Peter 1:13). We should put on the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:13–18). “The hour has come for you to wake from sleep” (Romans 13:11). The aim of the “mystery of lawlessness” and the “many antichrists” is to deceive us into the blinding slumbers of indifference and love of sin.

Let’s out-love and out-rejoice the darkening world.

But we are the children of light. We are not of the night or of the darkness. “So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober” (1 Thessalonians 5:4–6).

“Love one another, for many deceivers have gone out into the world” (2 John 1:6–7). “Blessed are you when people hate you. Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy” (Luke 6:22–23).