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- Martin Luther

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by Jamey Bennett

See part 1, Not A Snowball's Chance This Will Ever Happen

A Snowball's Chance is written from a contemporary perspective, with mostly contemporary organizations, circumstances, and places. Though Duncan is willing to admit that the end-times events portrayed in the novel could be "delayed for years, or even for decades" (4), throughout the novel and in the appendices, the doctrine of imminence, or nearness, of the return of Christ is nearly taken for granted. In Left Behind, one church's "pastor spoke 'often' about 'the rapture'" as if "this is such a common/obvious doctrine in the Bible." There is no indication that ASC's Pastor Bobby is any different, especially since he led an evangelistic study through Revelation and had an antichrist figure pinpointed!

While the book is abounding with expectations of the "any day now" approach to the return of Christ, a few examples will suffice. Here are several places ASC gets caught up in "prediction addiction":

• "…the sure and soon return of her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…" (186)
• "…one of the signs of the soon return of the Lord" (197)
• "…the soon return of the Lord…" (210) Pastor Bobby says that "the rapture is the next thing that's going to happen on the “prophetical calendar”, and that Christians all over the world are looking forward to it occurring at any moment" (203). He later says that all signs indicate that "the rapture of the church [is] near," and that he personally expects "His coming to be very soon" (213).

Duncan is very clear here. The novel's end-times scenario is expected to happen "very soon" and "at any moment"; the time is "near" and "just around the corner"! But how does this compare with the Scripture? Does the Bible teach that "the soon coming of Jesus Christ" (191) is "just around the corner" (269) for a 21st century world as Duncan and his characters seem to anticipate?

It is interesting to note that the book of Revelation uses many of the same terms that Duncan himself uses. Here's what the Scriptures say:

• "The Revelation of Jesus Christ…[shows the] things which must shortly take place." (1:1)
• "The time is near." (1:3)
• "Write…the things that are about to take place." (1:19)
• "…the hour of trial…is about to come upon the whole world." (3:10)
• "Behold, I come quickly!" (3:11)
• The Lord God's angel showed "His servants the things which must shortly take place." (22:6)
• "Behold I am coming quickly!" (22:7)
• "The time is at hand." (22:10)
• "Behold, I am coming quickly." (22:12)
• "Surely I am coming quickly." (22:10)

Each of these passages makes it very clear that God, through John, wanted to convey to his audience a sense of imminence about the things he prophesied. Applying the same literal sense of interpretation to the Scriptures as we do to Duncan's novel, we cannot reach any other conclusion. I presume Duncan would have us believe that it was figurative when John wrote these things, and literal when “Pastor Bobby” says them. Why the change? Why should we take it literally when Duncan says it, but not when God says it?

According to Gary DeMar,

Every time near is used in the New Testament, it always means "close" in terms of distance (Mark 2:2; Luke 15:1; John 11:18; Acts 1:12) or "close" in terms of time (Matt. 24:32; Luke 21:30). Shortly is used in a similar way (Acts 25:4; Phil. 2:19, 24; 3 John 14). Thus, the events of Revelation were near -- close, at hand, impending, right around the corner -- for those who first read and heard the prophecy.

The New Testament couldn't be any clearer; many of the prophesied events were near and at hand for the early church. We should remember that John told his audience in the first century that it was the last hour -- at that time! No need for circus clowns and monkeyshine exegetical tricks here; the Biblical data is unambiguous, and we must take it seriously.

Next we will look at the controversial Olivet Discourse.

Part 3 - The Great Tribulation of the 1st Century
Part 4 - Gaps & Monkeyshine Exegesis

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