Distinctions

Ever have one of those fleshy moments when you just want to well....react to someone? I had one such moment. I was talking with another believer I'm barely acquainted with, and he began talking about end-times events and what is currently happening in the Middle East. He said something like, "Things are really lining up aren't they?" I could tell that he was excited about the subject and wanted to talk about these things, and agreed with him that they were in fact, "lining up". This prompted a dear friend who was listening to interject a comment. She said, "I don't interpret prophecy by reading newspaper headlines." I answered her by saying, "I don't either." I was feeling a bit defensive I guess. My friend does not share my eschatology. My acquaintance and I immediately dropped the subject and changed to another one. In my flesh I wanted to say something to my friend but (gladly) the Lord had given me the restraint to be gracious.



It isn't that I believe that what my friend said was necessarily wrong, as reading prophecy through the headlines is a dumb thing to do. However, when headlines confirm prophecy, I think it would be a weird thing to ignore what is happening all around us. One used to have to spend real time if one wanted to look for headlines related to Bible prophecy. Here are a few that I read just this morning from a single website:

"Russian Official Says that Israel is Behind Continuous Tension in the Middle East"

"Ahmadinejad: Iran Will Not Negotiate on Nuclear Program"

"Atheists roll out ad campaign: "In the Beginning, Man Created God"

"Half of Israelis back immediate strike on Iran"

"Church of Scotland backs gay minister"

"Russian FM praises ties with Hamas"



My friend later sought me out and evidently wanted to explain her comment. We were having a general conversation when she blurted out, "I have looked at what some people believe about what God will do in the end times and it just makes Him look so mean!" Once again, I dropped the subject. I love this person and it just didn't seem worth the effort to try to explain why I believe in a pre-tribulation rapture of the church, a seven year period of tribulation in which astounding judgments will take place and a literal, millennial reign of Jesus here on earth to be followed by the great "white throne" judgment of people's souls. God isn't mean. He is patient, and mankind brings judgment upon itself. If anything, the fact that He allows judgment while men are still living in order to wake them up to their own sinfulness is an act of total kindness. They cannot say they were never warned of what is to come. My friend's eschatology is so vastly different from my own and it is after all, a "non-essential" doctrine as regards one's salvation. I almost never bring the subject up in any conversation with people outside of my own church family.I have met few people outside of my own church whom I can talk to about the subject of eschatology whose defenses don't immediately snap on. I have actually seen people stiffen up when the subject is broached. So why bother? Is eschatology more important, or is salvation more important? Salvation is. No question. It is preeminent.


So why do some people get so upset when talking about their eschatology? Is it some kind of unwritten Biblical taboo? I don't know all the answers to that. I do know that some have a loyalty to what they have been taught about it and that they believe only they have the answers. I know that some believe that end-times prophecy can't be understood at all and therefore it is a waste of time. I know that some take the approach that prophecy related study and discussions are a potential distraction from the work of spreading the gospel and therefore nothing to be concerned with. Some folks have simply never bothered to look into it for themselves, perhaps because their pastor does not teach expositorily, and the subject simply has never come up. I could go on. None of these reasons will change the fact that prophecy and eschatology are subjects worth studying just like any other subject or type of passage in Scripture.



The fact is that current headlines about the Middle East do have something to do with end-times events because we have been living in the end-times for some two-thousand years. Ever since He departed into the clouds, His followers have been expecting His return for them. A pastor friend of mine was asked, "When do you think Jesus will come for us?" He answered her, "Today." As believers, that should always be our answer and our attitude. We have a promise that Jesus will come back and that some of His followers will never die. It could happen today. He gave general descriptions about the kinds of things that would be happening that would precede that event, and He also told us to be aware of such things. Not to do so would to be to walk around in a sort of self-imposed ignorance.



I see things related to prophecy to be indeed--"lining up", and moving forward at an amazing rate of speed. That is the deal. People who are not believers are going to be caught by surprise by end-times events. Believers should not be caught off-guard. Just as in the case of a Broadway play production, the stage has to be set. Each prop has to be put into its proper position for the players to interact with them. That has been slowly happening for a long time. What makes our current time seem so different is that we are living close to the culmination of what has been slowly building for such a long time. I've heard several persons say that very thing, "But that's been going on for a long time." Exactly.



If a huge house was being framed up over a couple of thousand years, one generation might not easily notice that a stud or two had been set into place from the generation before. But at some point the gradual work that has been done brings one to a house that is very near completion, and that is more noticeable than all of the work that has gone on before. That is somewhat like what is taking place now in regards to biblical prophecy. The stage is being "set". Headlines today reflect that fact. Whether or not one can see that has to do with whether or not one views the headlines through the lens of God's prophetic passages. Some Bible students have been desensitized to what's going on in the Middle East presently, by what has gone on before.



There has been so much effort by politicians and political organizations to achieve "peace" in the Middle East between Israel and those nations who would see her obliterated, that many have lost sight of how significant peace for Israel is with regard to end-times events. For a generation now, ambassadors from many nations have been offering their worldly wisdom to Israel, pushing their fleshly plans for peace on her and to the nations around her in order to bring about a halt to the tumultuous events that have become such daily occurrences so as to numb the sensibilities of everyone watching. That Israeli mothers and fathers must wear an UZI in a sling over their shoulder while riding on their children's school buses is commonplace----goes beyond the notice of those who dismiss what is happening there as nothing important. The world over, people condemn Israel and cry out for "peace and safety".



Iran is threatening Israel with total destruction. Many say, "Oh nonsense. That's been going on for thousands of years." True. But until now, Iran could not make a bonafide thermonuclear threat. Israel is at the very center of a situation wherein her enemies could trigger the chain of events that will usher in the Tribulation period--at any instant. We have become so accustomed to small-minded dictators making nuclear threats that we have become detached from the significance of what such statements mean. We have gone from a generation who was trained to hit the floor and stay away from windows to a generation of those who wave such possibilities off and say, "Whatever", with a smirk. But Jesus said, "And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch." (Mark 13:37)



The Lord wasn't kidding around when He told us to be watchful, and with respect to those who find prophecy a distraction, people do get so involved in things prophetical that they forget what the first order of business is for believers. That business is Sonship--winning souls to heaven through Jesus Christ. In Matthew 28:19 and 20 Jesus spelled it out for us in the Great Commission, "19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen." Work---and watch. There is and must be a balance as He commanded us to do both. A balance does not come about if the prophecies He spoke are ignored or dismissed altogether.

We are to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole world. “And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47) and telling people: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16).

The very culmination of end-times prophecy cannot come about until His truth has been proclaimed throughout the entire world and to every person with a willingness to hear it. In Matthew 24:14, Jesus tells us; “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." He wasn't saying, go throughout the world and bring about social change, so that people can see how concerned and fair-minded Christians are. He told us to preach the gospel so that hearts can be changed--now. It is the same gospel that Paul obediently preached and wrote of in 1st Corinthians 15:3 and 4.

The peace overtures which have assailed Israel are worldly and Bible prophecy tells us that they come before "sudden destruction" and a host of other events which will precede His coming to take His church out of the world. We ought never to stop paying attention to prophecy, and to the fact that time is growing short, so that we may be more than ever spurred on to work to see that as many as possible will come to faith in Jesus Christ while we are here--where we live and while we sojourn here.