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End Times

© John L. Hoh, Jr.

The church year is now drawing to a close. Following on the heals of Thanksgiving comes the Advent season which kicks off a new Church year. Thus the Sundays of Pentecost draw to a close.

These final three Sundays of Pentecost are known as the Sundays of the End Times. In these weeks we look at what Scripture says about the coming end of the world, the last Judgment, and our eternal life as part of the Great White Host.

And well the end of the Church Year should focus on the End Times, for Pentecost observes our lives in Christ. And what other terminus does a life in Christ have other than anticipating his return, preparing for heaven, and living eternally with our Lord in heaven with his Father?

In celebrating the End Times, we are celebrating the coming of our King to gather us to heavenly mansions. Advent's focus on the coming King also has a taste of End Times in it. Good planning will prevent the focus of end times from dragging out to seven total weeks.

Within the End Times time frame in the Church Year is Reformation, when we celebrate that we have an inheritance that is ours through grace by faith alone. Thanksgiving, though a secular holiday, falls in the End Times period and reminds us to give thanks to God for his gift of salvation even as we await his coming, or him calling us home to eternal rest.

A favorite hymn of mine is "Behold a Host, Arrayed in White." Based on the vision of Saint John in Revelation of the Great White Host in heaven, the hymn is a joyous celebration of the eternal life awaiting us in heaven. It is a hymn that will be sung at my funeral, if I die before the Lord's return.

During this time we can repeat the Easter greeting of the ancient Christians: "Allelujah! Christ has Risen! He has risen indeed! Allelulah!" Easter is a major componenet of the End Times, because if Christ did not rise, we are still in our sins and we have no hope after death. Christ's resurrection means that the End Times and the Judgment are not to be feared, but rather are, as Matthew quotes Jesus, "Like birth pains." Any mother will tell you that the pain of childbirth is forgotten once the mother holds her child for the first time. Our travails here on earth will be forgotten amid the joys of heaven.

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