Muddled & Confused

I typed the search term “end times” into Google the other day and it came back with a result of 5,250,000 over 79 pages. Whatever else those figures tell us, it shows that millions of people all over the world have some interest in this subject.  Next, I typed in the search term “end times prophecy” and it resulted in 142,000 over 71 pages.  Why the huge drop from millions down to less than two hundred thousand when the word “prophecy” is added?  I don’t really know the answer to that, but it certainly makes me live with the question.  Could it be that when it comes to the study of end times prophecies, people become muddled & confused at the various differing opinions and therefore, cease to study it any further?

Without wishing to make a doctrine out of my own experiences, that was my experience for years.  As a new Christian, I once asked the pastor of my church about the New Testament Book of Revelation.  What does it all mean?  What about the symbolism?  What about the church … the tribulation etc?  He by-passed those questions by saying, “There are so many different teachings and interpretations on that book – everyone of them believing they have the truth on the matter.”  He left it at that, leaving me with the impression that it was not all that important to study what God has to reveal to us about end times.  In the following six or seven years I heard nothing about end times except, “Jesus is coming back soon, Amen?”

Then later, Satan arrived at that church, so (with lots of “help” from him), we left.  The next church we went into apparently had a history of end times teaching, but the focus had shifted since we arrived on the scene.  In trying to find out what it was they did teach about it, I soon gave up because it was clear to them that Jesus would not be returning anytime soon.  In fact, He would not be returning until the church was sinless and perfect.  As I was to find out later on just about everything taught in that place, “cut & paste” interpretive Scripture methods were used, incorporated with allegorizing and spiritualizing the Scriptures, at the expense of retaining the plain meanings.

The next few years saw my wife and myself sitting in a church whose constant emphasis was one of, “having faith” and “God loves us so much” and “Jesus died for our sins” and, “Jesus is coming back soon, Amen?”  Lots of heads nodding as they too expressed their “Amen!”  The leaders had no problem convincing themselves and the church that Jesus “is coming back soon, amen,” but not one of them appeared to be biblically able to take it a step further and bring some sound expositional teaching on the matter.  In the meantime, I was trying to find out as much as I could about the subject, regularly putting it to one side too because of becoming muddled & confused with what I was reading.

Over the next few years the attempt to seek out end times teaching became a most frustrating time for me.  Often I got annoyed with the whole thing.  One day I was reading Revelation and I said, “Lord, yet once again I am reading, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy….,” Revelation 1:3, yet I feel anything but blessed.  I’m confused.  How can this be, since in another place You tell us You’re not a God of confusion or disorder?” 1 Corinthians 14:33.  From such an attitude of praying, God did not reveal a lot about end times, but He did reveal that there’s a better way to approach Him in prayer!  It is the humble who get guided and taught  His way, not the arrogant Psalm 25:9.

Speaking of arrogance, that was what I found to be off-putting in my search.  Not only did I find it common for a teacher/writer to strongly disagree with another on end-time views, which is more than acceptable, but sometimes it was done in a manner that I believe grieves the Holy Spirit.  I love the example of one teacher, who, whilst he disagreed with them, he was, “not unappreciative of the studies and writings of the numerous commentators who have followed different routes of interpretation.  Many godly and scholarly men have used a wide variety of approaches (amillennial, postmillenial, preterist, historical, cyclic, post-tribulational, mid-tribulational etc.).” This man knew who he was in Christ, so he wasn’t threatened by those who disagreed with him.

I am very grateful to God for putting this end times desire in my heart.  The answers did not come from mere casual praying and curiosity.  Like so many times before when wanting to know the mind of God on a matter, I had to ask, seek and knock for Him to open the door. As has been written elsewhere on this blog, ‘Ask’ means to: beg, call for, crave, desire, require. ‘Seek’ means to: go about, desire, endeavour, enquire, require.  Although I had read the book of Revelation at least once a year for many long years, it was not until I spread myself out before the Lord in that manner, did I begin to get a grasp on what it is He is really saying in it.

I always knew that it was the Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Church and that it was written to show those things which were/are coming to pass and not to obscure them in a maze of symbolism and dark sayings.  Now I was experiencing the great blessing that’s promised to all who read and hear the words of this book of prophecy … and it has not stopped.  Thanks to books and the Internet, the Lord has brought numerous teachers my way and whilst they don’t necessarily all agree with one another, there is great grace, honor and love flowing among them.  The one thing they are all declaring is, “Jesus is coming back soon” and without date-setting, they can systematically teach such end times prophecy from Genesis, all the way through the Scriptures, culminating in Revelation.

From what I can discern among God’s people in my neck of the woods, the lack of sound biblical preaching and teaching on the end times is no different today than what it was when I first asked about it (at the time of writing) 24-plus years ago.  Apart from agreeing, “Jesus is coming back soon, amen?” nobody I know talks about it in any depth.  Worse still, if I should mention it, I get that, “it-all-depends-on-how-you-interpret-the Scriptures”-type look.  So when I ask, “how do you interpret them?”… they cannot answer.  To me that means they are failing to seek God for themselves on this matter.  It probably also means they’ve had no teaching on end times and that they’re not likely to get any either.

Even though most Christians can readily talk about the five foolish and five wise virgins from Matthew 25:1-13, few there are who see themselves as possibly being among the foolish.  Regardless of their spiritual state, “we are members of the Bride of Christ” rolls off their tongue without a thought that they may need to double-check for which of the five they are.  It is not for me to judge who is and who isn’t, but one can sometimes discern who’s in danger.  By their responses to the warnings to “Watch” Mark 13: 37, they judge themselves.  The institutional church is asleep!  Talk about making the word of God of no effect through their traditions…..!!

So, apart from personally failing to seek God plus the lack of teaching on this, why is that Christians can agree that “Jesus is coming back soon, Amen?” … yet at the same time say, “it-all-depends-on-how-you-interpret-the-Scriptures”?  Too, how is it that many live their lives as though He’s not coming back soon?  Again, I don’t really know the answer to that.  Could it be that their spiritual senses have become dulled by the familiarity of Matthew 24:6-7?  Too often when I mention “wars and rumors of wars….nation rising against nation…..kingdom against kingdom…..famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places” … I get the same responses as those of unbelievers.

Response examples: “Aw  yeah….Look, these things have been occurring for hundreds of years.  Every generation  somewhere around the globe has experienced them at some point.”  Or, “That’s what they said during and after the first world war.  And how about Hitler?  War has always been with us, it’s the nature of the beast.”  Or, “Starving and famine…..what’s new about that?  There’s always been a famine somewhere….always will be….same with large-scale sickness and disease.”  And, “Here we go again … prophets of doom, you sound just like one.”  What I always find remarkable is the lack of original thought given by such responses.  These have been around for generations too!

The reality is, when “Jesus-is-coming-back-again-soon-amen” Christians make such flippant, non-original, non-creative remarks, they are treating the Lord Jesus Christ with great contempt.  To devalue Jesus’ revelations on the signs of the times and the forthcoming end of the age is to devalue the Lord Himself.  If that is the case, it matters not how wise those Christians (virgins) see themselves, they are foolish.  And, if one should take a casual glance into the book of Proverbs and read up on the foolish, one will discover that God has nothing good whatsoever to say about them.

The fact that war, famines, pestilences and earthquakes have been happening since time immemorial is not the issue.  The issue is, these things seem to be on the increase happening almost daily, and, in places where they haven’t happened before.  Predictions are being made by intelligent scientists and others, that there’s a lot more to come.  World famine, food shortage and sky-rocketing prices as a result are very much on the cards.  The issue is, these things are lining up with the Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Church.  Some say that this means Jesus will be returning for the Church before the awful horror called the Tribulation comes to the world.  Others do not agree with that interpretation, they believe Christians will be in it as well.

Whatever our theology here, that’s not the issue either.  The issue is, are you ready?  Are you prepared for whatever it is that God may allow to happen?  Are you ready to “meet the Lord in the air” if He should come today “in the twinkling of an eye”?  Are you ready to suffer in the Tribulation if He doesn’t?  Earlier in this post I mentioned that the institutional church is asleep just like those foolish virgins.  It is NOT prepared and will never become so.  That church has no love for the biblical Lord Jesus, no love for His Scriptures, which means it has no love for truth – or people.  So, we already know the outcome of that.  It will most certainly go through the Tribulation.

Just how accurate those Google stats are I don’t know.  Like their stats on most things, they are forever changing.  Nevertheless, I find them interesting.  Accurate or not, it seems that human nature is running true to form, with millions of people showing a cursory interest, but for whatever reason, only a few hundred thousand ever likely to follow through.  It’s no different in the church.  Perhaps in your endeavors to study “end times” and “end times prophecy” you too have been/are muddled & confused and have set aside your search.  The Lord Jesus has a great word of encouragement for you to keep at it.  “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth.  Behold, I come quickly!  Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.” Revelation 3:10-11.