Eschatology Is Not a Bad Word

Image by Ronald Sandino, from Pixabay

Eschatology: the study of end-time events. I have heard numerous Christians say they want nothing to do with any of it. “It’s confusing. It isn’t important. Loving Jesus is all that matters.” The truth, though, is that it matters to Jesus — a lot. It is part of His story, and He wants us to pay attention to what He says about the end times in the Bible.

Jesus spoke extensively on the time of the end in the gospels. It was a major emphasis of the apostles in their letters to the early Church. They consistently reminded believers to be ready and looking for Jesus to come for them at any moment. The Old Testament prophets also spoke at length on the last days. Clearly, end-time events are important to the Lord, and He wants us to be informed about what is to come. We won’t get it all down pat, but we can all understand way more than we do.

I grew up in a liturgical church where we rarely heard anything about Jesus’ return. Once a year, we sat through a frightening sermon, taken from 2 Peter 3:10. Basically, the message was, “The earth is going to be cinderfied by God. Any of us who are still alive then will be burnt to a crisp, so get your act together now.” That one little snippet was all we were ever given. Good for us!

The after-church discussion at our dinner table amounted to my parents expressing their terror of becoming black toast. As an eight- or nine–year-old child, I simply thought, “It will probably only hurt for a second or two, and then I’ll be with Jesus.”

I married a Jesus People kind of guy. He had a different story of how it was all going down. He and all his buddies had inhaled Hal Lindsey’s book, The Late, Great Planet Earth. I never read it, but I think all the cinderfied earth was still somewhere in there. But there was also a “great catching away” (Rapture), a “Great Tribulation,” and a thousand-year reign of Jesus on earth coming first. It was a whole new weird theology to me.

I was skeptical and stubborn. I guess I wanted to cling to getting burnt to charcoal for some reason. But, I did what has been a faithful standby for me all these years. I said, “I am not swallowing this unless You show it to me in the Bible, God.” And He did. Not Hal Lindsey’s 1970s version. Just Bible verses which began to pop out here and there, much to my awe and illumination. I became one of those (gasp!) pre-Trib Pentecostal people who now looked forward to Jesus coming for His bride.

Twenty-five years later, a new take on the end times was introduced into my horrified brain by the apostolic/prophetic community. Now I was being barraged with “Jesus isn’t coming back any time soon” stuff. “He can’t, because if He does, your children’s children’s children won’t have the chance to fulfill their prophetic destiny.” (???) “Rapture-smapture! We are going to turn the earth around in its tracks, solve all mankind’s problems by supernatural revelation, and then hand our perfected planet on a platter to Jesus. He won’t come back until we do it all!” That’s a tad bit exaggerated, but you can tell the smidgen of humor is to get my point across, right?

So, what did I do? I began asking the Lord again to show me truth in His Word. I set aside a Bible just for my new eschatology adventure, and every time I ran across a verse that had any whisper of the end times in it, I underlined it in red. Doing that kept me standing strong through the latest barrage of uncomfortable teaching.

The project took a couple of years, but it was worth it. Along the way, I noticed that the early apostles were hugely focused on Jesus coming back for His people. They mentioned it all the time! And they believed it could happen at any moment. They heeded all Jesus had told them on the subject, like Jesus’ exhortation to continually watch and be ready for Him, because “the Son of man will come at an hour when you don’t think He will” (Luke 12:40).

Am I trying to convince you to join my pre-Trib camp? Nope! I have often said that I don’t think any of us have the whole picture exactly right. Some of the puzzle pieces don’t fit for me yet, either. We will understand it all much better after it happens.

But do realize that studying the end times in your Bible is exceedingly important, even if it is confusing sometimes. It’s precious to the Lord when we search the Scriptures to learn as much as we can about what comes next on God’s timeline — because it is a subject dear to His heart. He loves it when we converse about it with Him. He wants to put a deep longing in our hearts to be fully united with Him, in our glorified bodies, seeing and knowing Him as He is, face to face. We are meant to desire Jesus’ literal rule and reign on earth — yes, because of the restoration and justice He will bring — but even more, because He will receive all the glory He deserves.

And there’s still more after that: the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, as described in Revelation 21 and 22. So much good stuff ahead! Sheer blessing for us, but ultimately, it is all for Him.

“Love His appearing” as 2 Timothy 4:8 says. Be on tiptoe for that catching away of all the saints “in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Corinthians 15:52), so that we will forever be with the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Look forward to Jesus setting all things right on earth at His physical return, and the heavenly Jerusalem we will enjoy with God through all eternity.

And get as informed as you can now about it all by studying what He has said in the Bible. Eschatology is meant to bring hope, joy, and peace into our hearts. It helps us to know God’s heart better. Let it do that for you.

Related post:
Is There Still Going to Be a Rapture?
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All-Surpassing Peace in a Shaking World

Before Whom We Stand: The Everyman’s Guide to the Nature of God

What About Coming National Judgment?

We live in shaky times. Wickedness abounds, hostility toward Christians is rapidly increasing, and many problems are afflicting our nation and world for which there do not seem to be solutions.

In the midst of this, some are calling loudly for judgment — and even seem to be enjoying the prospect of it coming. Who and what should we believe? How should we view what is happening around us? What should we do, and how should we pray in the middle of it? Or is it all going down, and there is no point in praying anymore?

I have not been on the Shemitah bandwagon. Most of you probably know what I am referring to. In case you don’t, a New York Times bestseller, The Mystery of the Shemitah, is at the center of it. The last day of the Shemitah year was Sunday, 9-13-15. Predictions were made of a total economic collapse, with a possible huge stock market crash on Friday, 9-11-15, or Monday, 9-14-15, the two closest business dates.

Along with the Shemitah, a lot of attention has been given to the four blood moons falling on Jewish feast days in 2014 and 2015. Three of those have occurred, with the final one coming 9-27/9-28. Although I acknowledge that  blood moons on the feast days might be an end-times sign, I have not been a fan of the blood moons emphasis either.

In addition, there have been many reports of visions and dreams of tsunamis devastating both the east and west coasts of America. When Greece defaulted on loans midsummer, a 1994 economic collapse prophecy by David Wilkerson briefly caused a lot of alarm. Over the last few months these things have been widely (and wildly) talked about among some Christians. Fear is a huge problem throughout the world, and clearly the Body of Christ is struggling with it, too. Unfortunately, some in Christian media are capitalizing on that fear through sensationalism.

How do we know whether these phenomena are worth being concerned about? Here is the process I slowly worked through in trying to discern the Shemitah, blood moons, and various prophecies:

1.)  I looked at whether the claims agreed with Scripture and whether Scripture was being correctly used in supporting them.  I felt that applying the Shemitah to America was not biblically correct. The seventh year of resting the land, canceling debts, and releasing indentured servants was meant exclusively for Israel. America is not a new Israel, bound by Old Testament law, although persuasive arguments were given to prove that it is. The Bible does not connect the Shemitah with economic collapse, either. I felt that Scripture had been taken out of context and misapplied.

The blood moons were said to be a fulfillment of prophecies in Joel 2:31 and Revelation 6:12, 13. It does not look to me as if the current blood moons fit the magnitude of what Joel and Revelation describe.

2.)  I researched whether historical facts supported the claims. If economic crashes (or at the very least, downturns) were part and parcel of Shemitah years, and if God was applying them to America, then going back through our nation’s history should have revealed negative economic events showing up every seven years. They did not. Downturns happened erratically, not consistently every seven years.

The timing of past historical events in relation to previous series of blood moons was initially reported inaccurately. The story started out that the blood moons appeared as omens before certain dramatic events connected with Israel had occurred. However, the blood moons actually came after the events had already happened.

3.)  I looked at whether numerous people from different streams of Christianity were saying the same things. Quite a few prophetic leaders were not on the Shemitah / blood moon / destruction of America bandwagon. For instance, I did not see Mike Bickle, James Goll, or Cindy Jacobs promoting them. Spirit-filled Reformed and Word of Faith friends were not hearing much about them in their circles, either.

Concerning the dreams and visions of tsunamis on the east and west coasts of America, the sheer number of the revelations, along with the credibility of some who had received them, indicated to me that the basic tsunami visions are genuine.

However, the interpretation and application has been generally poor. Too many have assumed that the timing for these calamities is now, which may not be the case. It is possible that people are seeing into things which will not happen until the Great Tribulation has begun. Some have urged believers to flee from the coasts immediately. However, God does not expect us to make drastic moves without a clear, personal word from Him. And, I don’t think it is completely clear whether the tsunamis are literal or symbolic representations. They could be both.

4.)  I listened to what the Lord was speaking (and not speaking) to me. I was hearing that there would be difficult times in 2015, but also that there was nothing to fear and that God would take care of His people. Whenever I asked Him about the predictions and prophecies concerning economic collapse, all I heard was that there was nothing to fear.

5.)  I asked, “What is the fruit of the Shemitah / blood moons / judgment disasters focus?”

• Fear, which is not of God. “Men’s hearts failing them for fear” (Luke 21:26) and “fearful looking for judgment” (Hebrews 10:27) are not the heritage of the righteous, yet God’s people have been sucked into these very things. This is not good fruit.
• Emphasis on money and the economic system, rather than dependence on God. I saw that most of us are not trusting in the Lord as our Source of all provision. I was troubled by what I discovered in my own heart and asked the Lord to help me do a better job of depending on Him for my needs to be met.
• The distraction from Jesus, the gospel message, and intercession. Instead, the fascination has been with mystical, obscure signs, speculations, and distress over how to preserve our material goods. This, to me, is the most disturbing fruit of all.

I am not denying that we may have difficult days ahead. Our nation’s sins are a great concern. The shift away from allying ourselves with Israel is, too. Many aspects of current events are indeed troubling.

But I harbor hope and faith that if we persevere in prayer, God will even yet have mercy and set things right. I am still looking for a great harvest of souls in America before the end. My determination is to not give up, to not cave in to fear, and to not be distracted from the Lord and His purposes.

Next time: Ways we can pray in the midst of shaking