REPENT, FOR THE END IS NEAR! (or is it?)
TCF Sermon
October 18, 2009
What do all these people have in common?
Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Adolph Hitler, Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict 16, Bill Gates, Prince Charles, John F. Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, Martin Luther, Mikhail Gorbachev, Benito Mussolini, Napoleon, Pat Robertson, Vladimir Putin, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
All these people, sometime, somewhere, have been named by someone as the antichrist. In the past several years, we tend to think we�ve never seen such a time as this in history. And in some ways, that�s certainly true.
But in a general sense, people through most of history have thought the same thing. The same is true of interest in the end times. As Jim Garrett noted last week, we�re in the midst of yet another resurgence in fascination with the end times. Best selling fictional book series, or many other non-fiction end-times books, fill the Christian bookstores. Movies and videos are being released with these themes, including the next big one telling us the world will end in 2012, just three years from now.
Among Christians, that interest in the end times takes the form of what one writer called �newspaper eschatology.� As a result, we have many so-called prophets or prophecy teachers (many of whom unfortunately have a large audience through television or books or radio or the internet, or all four) searching the scriptures for specific meaning behind the news of the day, and this often leads to what we�ve just discovered.
Just about anyone, anywhere, can be the antichrist. Some have called this dangerous game �pin the tail on the antichrist.� In fact, let me tell you about how Ronald Reagan was supposedly identified as the antichrist (at least one version of this story).
If you count the letters in the late president�s full name, you�ll discover a sinister pattern. Ronald (six letters) Wilson (six letters) Reagan (six letters). That�s 666.
If that�s all it takes for someone to seriously consider someone as the antichrist, then I�m in trouble. For all I know, after today�s sermon, someone will accuse me of being the antichrist. Bruce has promised never to reveal the number which was assigned to me on the church�s computer payroll system.
But this morning, in the presence of all of you, I�m going to reveal it. It�s number 66. If you take that, and add the six letters of one of my email names, bsully, you come up with, yes, that�s right, 666. Make of that what you will.
We can laugh about this today, but there�s a real problem with the popular eschatology of the day.
Eschatology is the fancy word for the study of the end times. A quick look through a Christian bookstore, or a quick google search, will tell you just how much stuff is out there on these topics. The prospect of imminent doom for sinners,is apparently significantly more popular than the day-to-day following of Christ.
Without judging the motivation of the authors of these kinds of books, one of the things I want to accomplish this morning is to help us think critically about these teachings, and to look carefully at what scripture says about our general stance toward the end times, what it should be. Well meaning, yet unbalanced or unbiblical teaching, is still unbalanced or unbiblical, despite being well-meaning.
Let me first of all state this so there can be no misunderstanding this morning. I believe Scripture teaches the return of Jesus Christ. The things I say today are not meant to undermine that in any way. Jesus is coming back to take his children home with Him. The TCF leadership takes no official position on how this will all happen, or when. We might have opinions, but they�re just that, opinions.
So, some of you may be disappointed, because what I will not do this morning is offer you an alternative to some of the speculation that�s out there, or a guess as to who might be right. I won�t name anyone as the antichrist. I won�t give a date, or even a month or a year or a decade for the second coming or the rapture. I won�t try to match the symbols in Revelation or Daniel,or any other passages of scripture, with current events.
There�s a sound reason why I won�t do these things. Because Jesus said it�s none of my business. And even if it was, I can�t know it anyway. Jesus Himself says He doesn�t know it.
In Acts 1:7, Jesus told his disciples, just before He ascended into heaven: �It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority.� In the Greek, this means literally �it does not belong to you.� Or, �it is not of you.� This nuance reflects the idea that Jesus was telling his disciples �it is not your concern to know the times and dates.�
In popular English, this might be paraphrased, �it�s none of your business to know the dates of future events which my father has appointed.�
This wasn�t a new teaching of Jesus. He had already taught that the kingdom of God could not be observed through signs (Luke 17:20).
In 2 Peter 3:10, Paul said �the day of the Lord will come like a thief.�
In Matthew 24:36, Jesus said �no one knows about that day or hour.�
In 1 Thess 5:2 it says �the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.�
Now, I realize that some of you may be thinking�no doubt prompted by some of the popular newspaper eschatology out there, things you�ve heard preachers say, or have read in books�you may be thinking, doesn�t scripture also say �you are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief?� Doesn�t scripture say specifically we can�t know the day or hour, but it doesn�t specifically say we can�t know the week or month or year? Date-setters argue that Jesus is saying, in effect, go ahead with your predictions, but don�t try to narrow it down to the day or the hour.
One writer called this �an attempt to pull an end-run on God, and find out what He expressly indicated is not to be found out.� It�s like pitting the spirit of the law versus the letter of the law. Since the spirit of the law looks at our hearts, as does God, and since God chided the Pharisees for following the letter of the law,instead of the spirit of the law, we�re on dangerous ground, when we try to rationalize our way around what should be a pretty clear statement of the Lord. It�s the kind of double-talk that makes so many Americans despise politicians. Do we really want people rightly accusing Christians of the same kind of thing?
If you told your child not to eat the cookies, because you wanted to save them for company, but he or she ate one and you found out, your child might respond, �I didn�t eat the cookies. Cookies is plural. I ate one, and there are still plenty left for company.�
Would that be an acceptable answer to you, as a parent? Is that keeping with the spirit of what you intended?
The more detailed one attempts to map out the future, the more inferences one must make which are not explicit in the Scripture. Therefore, the tendency of the imagination to fill the gaps increases and the probability of erroneous calculation grows. John Piper
I could get into a lot of theological hair-splitting that the date-setters, or what one writer called the �calendarizers� have to do, to get around the clear meaning of these scriptures we just cited. I could take some time examining the Greek meaning of the words day and hour, and tell you how these, according to the context, can mean general appointed time, not a literal day or hour. I could point you to scriptures where the word translated day can mean a period from several months to an indefinite period of years. But I won�t waste time with that.
What I want to emphasize today is the context in which these statements were made, and the point Jesus, and in the epistles, Paul and Peter, were trying to make. We don�t know the time of his return, and we don�t need to know. It doesn�t affect our relationship with the Lord Jesus, it doesn�t impact our salvation, and it doesn�t affect our ability to follow Him with our whole hearts. Date-setting, over-speculation on the details, is missing the point. The emphasis is on watchfulness, and readiness, and holiness, not on speculation.
In fact, a case could be made that, if we latch too dogmatically onto one of the many possible eschatology models out there, it could impact our faith in a negative way.
All of the positions on the end times, premillenialism, postmillennialism, amillenialism, pre-trib, post-trib, mid-trib, preterism� all of these various understandings of eschatology base their views on scripture.
The problem is, Scripture is not clear on all of these questions � which makes the various interpretations possible � so Christians ought not approach them with such certainty. Christians should be leery of building their faith on expectations of Christ�s imminent return, rather than what Christ has already done for us on the cross. Gene Edward Veith
Remember, we�re looking at these things, again, with an eye toward equipping ourselves to think, to discern, sound doctrine on these issues, as well as to gain a proper, biblical, balanced perspective on our approach to the end times.
We have to remember that ideas have consequences � the way we think inevitably impacts how we act in this world.
These fine points of biblical prophecy are not mere examples of antichrists dancing on the head of a pin; rather, they have broader implications as to how Christians are to live in the world. The postmillennialists will tend to be activists, optimistically believing Christians really can improve the world. They therefore pour themselves into politics, the arts, and culture-making, confident that God�s foreordained providence is on their side. The danger, though, is that postmillennialists may sometimes think that the church�s business is to save the earthly society rather than to save souls, becoming a political cell rather than a supernatural institution whose kingdom is not of this world.
Premillennialists, in contrast, will tend to see the world spiraling downward in a satanic free fall. Since it is futile for Christians to do much to stop it, they resist entanglements in a world soon to be ruled by the Antichrist. They tend to be separatists, establishing their own subcultures, rather than trying to influence the culture in which they find themselves. To their credit, they will be skeptical of utopian claims and will resist the temptations of an intrinsically non-Christian culture. Their temptation, though, will be to ignore their callings to be salt and light in the secular arena.
Most Christians, historically, have been neither postmillennialists nor premillennialists. Their eschatology is based not on the coming of some millennial age but is focused squarely and simply on the coming of Christ, who, in the words of the Nicene Creed, �shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end.� Instead of arcane attempts to interpret puzzling prophetic symbolism, these amillennialists concentrate on the clear words of Christ, who said that His return will be unmistakable, that it could happen at any time, and that it will come as a complete surprise. Gene Edward Veith
It�s clear that the end times are a key theme in scripture. In the 260 chapters of the NT, there are 318 references to the second coming of Christ. That�s one out of every 30 verses. Anything covered that extensively must be important. It must be so extensive for a reason.
Yet, this is also the area of scripture that�s most abused, and it�s been abused throughout church history. William Alnor wrote in Soothsayers of the Second Advent
Rumors of the Lord�s soon return have cropped up throughout church history. In every case, and in every generation, we have found that if we followed Paul�s admonition � for believers to stick with what they�ve been told, and to keep busy � we would have stopped frenzied end times fever dead in its tracks. Most end time movements have ended in disappointment for, and sometimes embarrassment to, genuine believers in Christ.
We�ve seen this as recently as 2000, when many Christians were equating the Y2k computer bug with the beginning of the end.
Well-meaning believers have never had trouble finding signs of the times in contemporary events. Did you ever think that might be because some of these signs always exist? Wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes and natural disasters, false teachers, people claiming to be Christ, persecution of Christians. Just because some of those things don�t happen in Tulsa, Oklahoma doesn�t mean they�re not happening all over the world.
How many remember the little booklet that came out in the 1980s called �88 reasons why the Rapture will be in 1988?� This was a book written by an ex-NASA scientist named Edgar Whisenant. 4.5 million copies were sold. I picked up one for free. In 1989.
After 1988 passed without the rapture, he recalculated the dates, and amazingly enough, sold thousands more books called �The Final Shout: Rapture report 1989.�
For several more years, he reprinted a similar book with a new date. I guess he finally stopped doing this in 1993, because that�s the last record I could find of this book title.
We can only guess why he quit updating the book year after year - either because no one was buying his books anymore, or because he gave up after being so wrong so many times. Why did it take him so long to lose credibility? Why do so many so-called prophecy teachers have any credibility at all, after being wrong so many times? Why are Christians so gullible? You don�t think it was mostly unbelievers buying his books, do you?
It�s sad enough that so many people bought into the predictions by this man. There are churches that split over this issue. But why in the world give any credibility at all to his subsequent predictions?
We have a tendency to be gullible about many things, not just the end times. Why else would so many Christians contribute so regularly to the internet clutter by forwarding emails that have little or no basis in fact?
As those whose lives and doctrine revolve around the importance of truth, we, of all people, should do all we can to avoid passing along error, regardless of how good it may sound, or the evidential value it might appear to have.
Considering the source is so important these days. This is especially true on the internet and with email. You can spread a false story with a few clicks of a computer mouse. There are easy ways to check out the truthfulness of every forward you get. Some of my friends aren�t too happy with me when they forward me one of these things,
and I quickly and easily check it out, then respond to their forward telling them they�ve been had.
Consider this one, in recent years passed along as facts by Christians:
Visa credit cards are the mark of the beast. One well-known prophecy teacher (you can see him on TV often), noted that the number 6 in Roman numerals is the letters VI. Of course that�s true. Next, he said the ancient Greek number 6 was taken from the sixth letter of their alphabet, the letter sigma, which looks like the English letter S (now, please note, this is not true: sigma is not the sixth letter in the Greek alphabet, it�s the 18th). Finally, he said that the Babylonian empire�s letter A could possibly equal 6. Thus, Visa stands for 666.
So this morning, I�d like all of you to come and lay your Visa cards at the altar, and we�ll have a Visa bonfire after the service. Unless you don�t want to do that, which in fact makes you suspicious � and a willing culprit in spreading the mark of the beast.
Something else I discovered in my reading and research for this message. A significant source for one of the oldest radio ministries in the U.S., which also publishes a widely distributed prophecy magazine, is none other than the National Enquirer.
Now, this ministry does not promote this fact, but they don�t hide it either. Another long-time radio prophecy ministry used information taken from the Weekly World News, another supermarket tabloid. This is the same kind of publication that reports stories on aliens impregnating children, brain transplants, six headed dogs, or the latest Elvis or Michael Jackson is alive photo.
Sidebar: my all time favorite tabloid headline:
Chocoholic Mother Gives Birth to Candy-Coated Baby
True Biblical prophecy helps us see history as part of God�s plan of redemption. That�s what we must focus on. Look at 2 Peter 3 � we�ll read a few key verses here:
2 Peter 3:3-18 (NIV) 3 First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, "Where is this �coming� he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.� (then jumping to vs 8)
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. (now to verse 14) 14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. (now verse 17) 17 Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
One thing that occurs to me in reading verse 3 about scoffers: Are we creating scoffers that needn�t be scoffers? Christians help spread false stories. With irresponsible date-setting, with pin the tail on the antichrist, are we helping the enemy do his work, perhaps killing or undermining faith in things that are real?
Another important theme in this passage is God�s perspective on time, versus our perspective on time. Once and for all, can we acknowledge that God does not view time by human standards at all, in any part of our lives, and especially when it comes to the end times. He is eternal. So there is no delay by God�s standards.
That�s true if He were to bring down the final curtain on history tomorrow. It�s just as true if He chooses to wait another thousand years. If there is a delay, in our human understanding, we are told the clear purpose. He is patient with us. He wants more people to share eternity with Him.
Just as God cannot be confined to the human idea of lateness, He also cannot be confined to our speculations about the time of His return.
All things, past, present and future, are ever before Him(Matt Henry)
God�s perspective on soon, on late, on time, is so much different, so much higher than ours, we cannot understand it, we cannot figure it out, we cannot begin to apply our understanding to it. So why don�t we just rest in it? Why don�t we recognize God�s redemptive purpose in our waiting. Why don�t we take the attitude that God is displaying His mercy by NOT bringing the day of judgment on us today, or according to our well-calculated timetables.
We�d have to be honest and say that God has a right to judge the world. He has the right to judge it today. I have no problem with recognizing that. It�s one thing to declare that God WILL judge. It�s another to say when and how He�s scheduled to do it.
When I read this passage, especially vs 9 where it says �he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance,� I find myself convicted.
I think one reason many people get into this date setting, this figuring out all the details, is because looking for the Lord�s return is inescapably biblical.
Whatever you think about the specifics, the hope of the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ is a vital part of our faith. I like the idea of being lifted out of this world, out of the pain, the suffering all coming to an end, of spending eternity with the Maker of the Universe, with the Savior of my soul. I look forward to that day.
There�s also a longing in me for justice. I see the injustice in so many places in the world and I�m like the Psalmist. I want to cry out, �how long O Lord?� I believe there�s in each of us a desire to see justice done.
Because we understand that the sheep and the goats will be separated. Because we know that God�s judgment will come. Yet, when we think of Old Testament prophets who spoke of God�s judgment, there was always an inherent sadness to their words. They�d seen prophetically what God was going to do, and they knew that it would come if the people did not repent. We must guard ourselves from getting a little too gleeful about His judgment, because for many, it will mean eternity in hell.
So, it�s a both/and situation for me. The apostle John�s prayer in Revelation 22:20 is �come Lord Jesus.� Titus 2:12 speaks of waiting for the blessed hope � the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Yet, His coming will mean both indescribable joy for followers of Christ, and the beginning of an eternity in hell without Christ for people I know and love. So it�s hard for me to say, unreservedly, come Lord Jesus.
Still, whether or not we can clearly discern dates or events, we believe Christ will return. Scripture�s presentation of the end times has nothing to do with figuring out the details. It has everything to do with being ready.
In 1 Thess 5, we again find the image of the Day of the Lord coming like a thief. But what Jesus is saying here is watch, not speculate. When we look at the 2 Peter 3 passage, we see that we are to live expectantly. And then there�s 1 Peter 4:7 which says:
�the end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self controlled so you can pray.�
So you can pray. Not so you can figure out who is the antichrist. Not so you can figure out when the tribulation begins. Not so you can figure out when the rapture is to come. Jim Grinnell once preached a message about the enemy of our souls, the devil, and two of the phrases he used in that context apply here as well:
1. be alert but not impressed.
2. be aware but not obsessed.
Alert and aware in our context this morning, means we are to be spiritually ready, living holy lives, understanding the times we live in, related to our faith in Christ.
Do you think that only applies if we know when Jesus will return, or does that always apply? Do you think if we knew from Scripture that the return of Christ was, say,100 years away, that Scripture tells us this so we can slack off in our faith for the next 99 years? Of course not.
In 1 Peter 4:7 it says be clear minded and self controlled. Be alert. Be aware. But if we�re to be obsessed about anything, it should be what follows verse 7. Paul talks of how love covers a multitude of sins. He talks of how we should offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. He talks about how we should serve. All these are the practical outworking of how we should love and obey God.
In Rom 13:11-12 Paul notes that
�the hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.�
The night is nearly over, the day is almost here. Then what does Paul do in this passage? He proceeds to focus on attitude and behavior for the remainder of Romans 13. These are the things God wants us to focus on, regardless of the nearness of His return.
Of course, today is closer to His return than when we first believed. But so will tomorrow be. If there is a tomorrow.
Prophecy�s purpose is to make us holy. To make us ready. Yes, the day of the Lord will come like a thief. This conveys both its unexpected nature, and the threat for those who are not ready. Despite God�s patience, those who remain unrepentant should be fearful, for the Day marks the end of God�s patience, and the arrival of judgment.
The best way to get ready for tomorrow is to be ready today. A time will come when no further preparation is possible.
We�re not living in the only age, the only time in history, when there were sufficient signs to take seriously Jesus admonition to us
- Keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come (Matt 24:42)
A man named Col Davenport was speaker of the Connecticut house of representatives in the late 1700s. On May 19, 1780, the sky of Hartford darkened ominously, and some of the representatives, glancing out the windows, feared the end was at hand. Quelling a clamor for immediate adjournment, Davenport rose and said, �The Day of Judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty.�
That says quite well what I hope my attitude will be. I want to be the Lord�s slave � doing my duty, if Jesus returns in my lifetime.
in the Bible the Kingdom of God is both now and not yet. This means that both the pessimistic view that the church has no constructive role on the earth other than saving souls, and the optimistic view that the fullness of the Kingdom of God can come about apart from the physical return of Christ, are equally false. We are to be concerned about redeeming culture and thus extending the Kingdom into every area of human endeavor, but, at the same time, we should have no illusions that the world only will get better through our efforts. Satan and the sin nature are still very much at work, and who can fathom the depths of their capacities for evil? It will take nothing short of the Second Coming to fully rein them in (Rev. 19:1�20:3).
Elliot Miller
There will be a Second Coming. Until then, let�s faithfully, wholeheartedly, do our duty as followers of the One we�re waiting on to return.
Pray
