497
Did the Apostles believe that the second coming of Christ and the end of the world were at hand?
Peter: “The end of all things is at hand” ([1 Peter iv, 7]).
James: “The coming of the Lord draweth nigh” ([James v, 8]).
John: “Ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists: whereby we know that it is the last time” ([1 John ii, 18]).
Paul: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” ([1 Thessalonians iv, 16, 17]).
Renan, ever ready to palliate or overlook the errors of his hero, frankly admits that the predictions concerning his second advent and the end of the world were a dismal failure. “It is evident, indeed,” he says, “that such a doctrine, taken by itself in a literal manner, had no future. The world, in continuing to exist, caused it to crumble. One generation of man at the most was the limit of its endurance. The faith of the first Christian generation is intelligible, but the faith of the second generation is no longer so. After the death of John, or of the last survivor, whoever he might be, of the group which had seen the master, the word of Jesus was convicted of falsehood” (Life of Jesus, pp. 203, 204).
498
To what extent was the gospel to be preached before his second coming?