So what do I think? Part 1

In light of everything we have discussed up to this point, there are, it seems to me four basic questions that come to light:

Are we in the “endtime”?

Is what we are experiencing the judgment of God upon us for our sin?

Is the world stage being set for the coming of the Antichrist?



Is this the end of the United States of America as we know it?

The answers to these questions are: yes, no and maybe (not in that order).

In the interest of keeping these posts necessarily brief, I will tackle these four questions one at a time in four separate posts.

The first question seems to be on the mind of all; believer and unbeliever alike. We are curious about what to make of the troubled times in which we live, and as to whether our times are the last days. We are so troubled about these times in which we live that even some pretribulationists are looking at this as a pretribulation tribulation. We are often caught in the act of interpreting these times as that which Jesus referred to as the “birth pangs” (Matthew 24:8 NASB). We cannot help ourselves, especially those of us who so eagerly look forward to His return, to try to see this as the beginning of the end. But so have many in many generations before us. Are we indeed in the endtime?

 

So what do I believe? To the first question, I will answer a qualified “no”.

First of all, let me qualify my answer by saying that I believe that we are close enough to the endtime that there are people alive today that will see the revealing of the “man of sin” (1 Thess.2:3) and the coming of our Lord.

Having said this, it will be of no surprise to those who have listened to my sermon (see former post My Sermon on the Web) that this is what I believe. I understand that some of you, as I have also, experienced some technical difficulties as you have tried to access this message on sermon.net. I apologize for this, though the circumstances are beyond my control. For that purpose, I will recap those parts of it that are pertinent to what we are discussing here. In that previous posting, which instructed you how to access that sermon, I included a set of scripture references that I used in the message. I would encourage you to refer to that posting for those scripture references that are included.

The message revolved around a much ignored statement by Jesus in Matthew 24:14;

“. . . the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come.”

Even conservatives have found many ways in which to explain away this seemingly clear statement by our Lord. I have not found any of these explanations convincing, certainly not as convincing as the idea that I should take this literally, and believe that Jesus meant exactly what He said.

If there is any doubt that Jesus meant what he said, there is another largely ignored passage in Revelation 5:9 that should clarify this for us:

"And they sang a new song with these words:

“You are worthy to take the scroll

and break its seals and open it.

For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God

from every tribe and language and people and nation.“

Please note the tense of the verbs. This all takes place in the throne room of heaven. It is observed that only the Lamb of God is worthy to open the scroll because he was slain for our salvation. The seven seals on the scroll, and the events that issue forth from their opening are considered to be the beginning of the end, regardless of what your point of view regarding the endtime events. We all get this. The part we don’t seem to get is the reason that the Lamb is considered worthy includes the fact that His blood has ransomed people from every tribe, language, people and nation. This is stated in the past tense as a completed action. The first seal is not opened until this redemption of “. . . every tribe and language and people and nation“ has been completed.

We often ask the question “can Jesus return at any time?”  This is not the question that we need to be asking. He can come any time the Father wills.  If you take these verses literally (as I do) He will not come until sometime after there is at least one redeemed representative from “every tribe and language and people and nation“!

I also appealed to our logic, making mention of the great commission that we are to “make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach[ing] these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.” (Matthew 28:19-20 NLT)

Jesus gave His church a mission to perform. Would He take His church out of the world before their mission is complete? While there is no promise that He will come for us immediately after the last language group or tribe is evangelized, we can be confident in light of these passages that it will not occur before this happens.

For what it is worth, the Wycliffe Translators are on track in their goal to have the Bible translated into every language by 2030. No, I am not trying to date the Lord’s return, but just to illustrate that we probably have a few years to go.

Now that I have said that, the point that I am trying to make is this: the Lord is not going to swoop down and deliver us from that which is currently plaguing our world. If the events that we see taking place before us that are causing us concern run their present course and continue to get worse, we are in for a lot of suffering.  Part of the thesis put forth by Robert Jefress is that these times can be an unparalleled opportunity to minister to our world in the name of Jesus. I read once that during the smallpox epidemic of the middle ages, Christians were noted by the secular world to be the ones that were aiding the sick rather than running from them in fear, and were responsible for many who were made well who otherwise may have died.

Perhaps God’s plan in all the suffering which we now are and will be experiencing, is that He will be glorified in what we do and how we handle these crises. Perhaps it will be said of us, as Joseph said to his brothers:

“God intended it all for good. He brought [us] to this position so [we] could save the lives of many people.” (Genesis 50:20 NLT)

So then comes the next question: are we experiencing the judgment of God upon us for our sin? or have we simply sown the wind and are reaping the whirlwind (Hosea 8:7)?  We’ll talk about that next time.

Thanks for sharing this moment with me today.