United Brethren Bishop Jonathan Weaver, though quite a theologian, apparently didn’t like to fuss over End Times scenarios. I like what he wrote in 1870:

“I know little about what people call a millennium. Whether Christ will reign with his saints a thousand years, I cannot tell. This much I do know: that Christ is reigning, and will reign until all enemies are put under his feet.”

The United Brethren Church has never stated, “This is how the End Times will happen.” Some denominations have it all figured out, and require ministers to be pre-trib, amillennial, or something else. All we say is what the Bible makes clear: that Jesus will come again at the last day–whenever that is, and whatever it looks like–to judge the living and the dead. Some ministers who have joined us from other denominations have said it’s refreshing and liberating not to be forced into an eschatological box.

HOWEVER. We don’t live in a vacuum. “Pre-Trib” is the dominant view among evangelicals. If you ask United Brethren what they believe about the End Times, I’m sure the majority would say, “The Left Behind books–that’s basically how it will happen.”

I, like Jonathan Weaver, don’t like to fuss over the End Times. Every generation thinks Christ will come during their lifetime, and for 2000 years, every generation has been wrong. For a brief time as a teen, reading Hal Lindsey, Salem Kirban, and other authors, I was consumed with the notion that Christ’s return was imminent. I subsequently swung clear the other way, and have seen no reason to swing back.

Here’s my view of End Times scenarios, like the Left Behind books. People take Scripture passages scattered throughout the Bible (Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah, the Gospels, Revelation, etc.), put them in a blender, pour in a cup of whole-grain imagination, add a squirt of low-fat theology, season with current events, and serve with fear of eternal damnation and missing the rapture.

I can hold that view and still be a good United Brethren–as long as I believe that Jesus will, eventually, return. Which I do.