Let’s identify and diagnose a very dangerous spiritual
disease. I call it millennialitis. One of its symptoms is Rapture Fever (I’ll get to that in a moment). The millennial malady is highly contagious. In fact, it is an epidemic in our country. More importantly, it can be spiritually lethal. The good news is that it can be prevented and cured. So roll up your sleeve and prepare yourself for a much needed vaccination. Will it hurt? Sure. So what! No pain—no gain!
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Millennialitis is easy to spot. You know you are deeply infected with it when you deliriously mouth the millennium mantra. What is that? It is this: Jesus had and still has a millennium on the brain, that is to say, when Jesus first came on the scene He relentlessly offered to reign as king from Jerusalem for a peaceful and prosperous 1,000 years (a millennium). In other words, when Jesus took on flesh and was born of the virgin Mary He had millennial mania. After dying on the cross, the main thing He intended to do was to set up an earthly reign of 1,000 years and then Judgment Day would come. When you talk like that you have become sick with millennialitis. With that, let’s pause for just a second and reflect on the unwholesomeness of this affliction. What does millennialitis leave out from the get go? What is not even on the radar screen? What (or Who) gets diminished or downgraded? Yes, that’s right. You guessed it. It is the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus— what you know as central and essential: sine qua non! However, when you are tainted with millennialitis, you can’t see that Holy Week, Good Friday and Easter Sunday were ever part of the Lord’s divine plan—ONLY THE EARTHLY MILLENNIAL KINGDOM IS!
Since people in the New Testament rejected His offer of the millennium and put Him to death (whoops!), Jesus put it off for a while. Consequently, those infected with millennialitis still wait for the goal or climax of history: the millennium. It’s almost like Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection from the grave was hastily put into place like some kind of Plan B! When you suffer from millennialitis, you aren’t as able to “fix your eyes on Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2) who endured the cross for your salvation. Instead, you are fixated on a postponed future millennium as the whole enchilada of God’s purpose for you and for the world! That ought to raise a lot of red flags! It truly indicates just how
severely detrimental millennialitis is to your spiritual health! Jesus, however, teaches just the opposite. The first sermon out of His mouth is that the climax of all history has come in His earthly ministry that leads to Good Friday (Mark 1:15). Jesus actually does bring about God’s reign of peace on the earth but it is precisely in, with and under His birth, life, suffering, death on the cross and His glorious resurrection from the dead. This is the central teaching of Jesus and His apostles (Matthew 1:21-22; 20:17-19, 28; Luke 1:79; 2:14; 24:26-27, 44-46; John 12:23; 17:1; Acts 2:17, 30-36; 3:18-24; 10:36; Romans 5:1; 1 Corinthians 10:11; 2 Corinthians 1:20; Ephesians 2:14, 17; Colossians 1:20; Hebrews 1:1-2; 9:26; 1 Peter 1:20). Since His ascension to the Father’s right hand, Jesus continues to reign until the Last Day as He dispenses forgiveness, life and salvation through the preaching of the gospel and the giving out of the sacraments (Matthew 16:19; 18:18; 26:2628; 28:19-20; Mark 16:15-16; Luke 24:47; John 20:19-23). However, when you’re ailing from millennialitis, you also suffer from a high-grade Rapture Fever. It makes you delirious. You can’t think straight. Rapture Fever makes you hallucinate. One of the delusions that come with the fever is this: Seven years
