Living as if Christ were to come soon

[Matthew]

The mark of the beast without which no one will be able to buy or sell cannot be far-off now.

People must have been saying this since at least 200 years

It is written the Scriptures, that in the last days just before Christ REALLY DOES come, that the people of that time will say, "Where is this Coming He promised? For all things have continued as they were since Adam until now." But the hour is coming when He who is Coming WILL come and will not delay any further. We should never balk at or pooh-pooh the suggestion that His coming may indeed be truly nigh, even in our own days in which we live and may be witnesses to that very event promised long ago, and hoped for by Christians since the days of the Apostles.

[Jean-Serge]

The last days are a reality but why should we believe you whan you say they are coming soon while previosuly, many other people, even orthodox said so and were mistaken. Christ gave signs to identify those last days, or more exactly a conjunction of signs, one of them being that the gospel would be preached everywhere. I've not seen true orthodoxy being preached everywhere until now...

[Matthew]

The last days are a reality but why should we believe you whan you say they are coming soon while previosuly, many other people, even orthodox said so and were mistaken? Christ gave signs to identify those last days, or more exactly a conjunction of signs, one of them being that the gospel would be preached everywhere. I've not seen true orthodoxy being preached everywhere until now...

Dear brother Jean-Serge, of course there is a great wisdom in not going overboard and being "convinced absolutely" that Christ will come in our days. We cannot know this any more than those who came before us. In fact, many confessors under the Soviet yoke prophesied that Antichrist would come in the life time of their spiritual children (they spoke in mid-20th century--60 years ago!) and they spoke in terms that were nearly absolutely certain. Yet I think most of those spiritual children must be nearly 90 now, or at least 75. But to answer your question, "Why should we believe that Christ will come in our lifetime?" Because the generations before us displayed this wise saying in their attitude:

"Live like Christ will come Today, but plan like He will not come until Tomorrow."

This is the wisest approach in my opinion, because if we do this we will neither err to the left or to the right, but will be prepared no matter what happens to be the case concerning our life time. If Christ comes in our days, then we will be exercising the due vigilance needed to be ready and spiritually awake and roused to action. If he does not come until some other generation in the future, we will have been acting wisely and building and planning and trying to extend His kingdom, and also getting married and having families and raising up godly seed for the next and future generations so that the True Faith will be there for the people of that future time. So we ought to always be ready, expectant, but also sober in our minds and decisions.

[Jean-Serge]

Living as if Christ was to come soon is one thing different from asserting -as you did- that he would come very soon.

[Matthew]

I am not ashamed to say I "asserted it". Yes, I did. Where is real fervency without real convictions? I only say that such convictions need to be held in balance with wisdom and caution. I actually and really do believe Christ will come back in my natural lifetime (assuming I live to be 70 or 80 years of age.) However, I plan as though He will come later than that. I am sure that the Apostle Paul, and the believers of the early Church and on down through the ages also believed that Christ would really and truly come in their time and they used it as fuel to fire their efforts, and precisely because of that real and true belief they arrived at the end of their lives with much fruit of which they were not disappointed or without reward. I think you and I are approaching the same idea from different angles, but that we are really on the same page when it comes down to it.

[Maria]

Yes, we should live our lives in repentance as if Christ were to come tonight (as a thief in the night), for we may fall asleep in Christ to await His Second Coming in the next life.

[Matthew]

Yes, the remembrance of death is indeed the recognition of the sudden and any-moment "end of the world" for each of us. And indeed, that is a daily real possibility. No mistake about it.