The Second Advent Part 1

"Advent is the liturgical season that prepares us for the Lord's birth, but it is also the time of expectation for the definitive return of Christ."
Pope Saint John Paul II (1996)

We are in the midst of one of the most sacred time in our annual Church Calendar. We prepare our hearts and homes to celebrate the commemoration of the Lord’s birth that we call Christmas. It’s important to the world too as it is one of only two times of the year, along with Easter, when their attention is drawn to one extent or another to the historical fact of the birth, life and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is one of the times when they may be open to hearing not only about His first coming, but also His prophesied Second Coming.

We are actually continually in the advent time of that Second Coming. We mention that fact each Mass when we say “The Mystery of Faith” after the Consecration of the Elements; “When we eat this bread and drink this cup we proclaim Your death, O Lord, until You COME AGAIN”. This promise was given to the Apostles right after the Lord’s Ascension from the Mount of Olives. We read in Acts 1:10-11: “And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’"

Unfortunately, the majority of Evangelical Christians (and some Catholics as well) are in the same position of the Apostles on the Mount. They spend more time trying to fit the headlines of their newspaper to the prophecies of the Bible and not enough time preparing their hearts and lives. It’s a paradox of the times in which we live that more and more believers’ eyes on “on the eastern sky” and yet personal holiness is at an all-time low. They are playing “pin the tail on the Anti-Christ” but spiritual discernment has never been so lacking. Saint Paul foresaw this and warn us through Saint Timothy about it.

Itching Ears

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

That day came in 1517 when Martin Luther published his “95 Theses”. The story that he nailed them to the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany is under debate and really is unimportant. Luther had one advantage that every other heretic before him didn’t have: the ability to publish in volume. Thanks to the invention of the printing press with moveable type it was possible to produce pamphlets and books that detailed his theology. The result is that for the first time since Christ founded the Church there was an alternative available to the religious who despised the discipline and authority of the Catholic Church. Saint Paul also warned the elders from Ephesus of this as he was heading to Jerusalem to begin his captivity. “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” (Act 20:29-30)

Just as Saint Paul warned those who desired to be free of the Church did indeed “heap unto themselves teachers”. Starting with Luther and then Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, John and Charles Wesley and continuing to this day when there are, according to Pew Research, somewhere around 30,000 denomination. As I discussed in the article “Do Protestants Actually Believe Sola Scriptura?” they also started producing commentaries after commentaries and study Bibles all designed to tell them what God’s Word means. That’s a “heap” of teachers, isn’t it?

Turned from Truth unto Fables

The Lord had established the Church as the rock upon which the faithful could stand as a firm foundation. As I also discussed in the above article God had established a “three legged stool” to insure that the people were taught sound doctrine…the Scriptures, Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium. Now two of those legs were removed and what would take their place? Fables! In Part 2 we’ll look at some of those fables and the fruit they have produced.