Jerusalem Blade
Puritan Board Professor
Hi Melanie!
You said, “The focus on the end times takes the focus off of Christ and scripture”, and while there is indeed truth in that (I’ll tell an anecdote in a moment), if one maintains balance with a vital spiritual life having that as a focus is not bad.
A dear friend, much into the Left Behind scenarios, evidently thinks she may have a “second chance” to get right with God when all believers disappear, and does not walk with the Lord now. It is a very dangerous trap.
Prophecy is given us to comfort, encourage, succor, and warn, and this need not exclude a view (albeit not “detailed”) of a prophesied history to come. As an example, this is from Stuart Olyott’s commentary on Daniel, Dare To Stand Alone. The angel has been telling Daniel the visions of chapter 8:
And it did. In those darkest of days, when the people of God were being hounded and killed in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, they needed and they had the comfort of this chapter of Daniel. Throughout that period they were consoled by knowing that this wicked man could not have stepped on to the page of history without divine permission and that everything he did, however awful, was nothing other than what God had predicted centuries earlier. They knew that in God’s time, and in fulfilment of verse 25, he would at last be removed. To know all this was an indescribable comfort to them in horrific times. (p. 110)
This will be the case again, when the writings of Revelation will be “an indescribable comfort” in our “time of trouble” (Dan 12:1). A pastor I know says that the shock of unexpected suffering (“Why did it happen to me – I’ve been good?” “Where is God when I needed Him? Has He abandoned me?” “My faith is shattered – how could God let this happen to my loved ones?”) can be even worse than the suffering itself, for it may attack the foundations of our faith and trust in our Saviour.
There are many who, with the blasé that may come with long familiarity with prophetic Scripture along with the peace we have known in the West – especially in America – turn a deaf ear to warnings that others, as the children of Issachar, “which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” (1 Chron 12:32), take fully to heart and “arm their minds” to suffer those things we have been told would come upon those who live godly in Christ Jesus.
Such confusion has been sown in the field of eschatology by DT and other premil views (to name only two sources of the present confusion!) that many call themselves “pan-mil” – meaning it will all pan out in the end, whatever comes. So many flocks sleep, their pastors not wanting to be branded alarmists, as our own time of tribulation draws nigh. In balanced saints, being awake to such things, but draws them closer to their Shepherd, and quickly weans them from the intoxicants of Babylon.
You said, “The focus on the end times takes the focus off of Christ and scripture”, and while there is indeed truth in that (I’ll tell an anecdote in a moment), if one maintains balance with a vital spiritual life having that as a focus is not bad.
A dear friend, much into the Left Behind scenarios, evidently thinks she may have a “second chance” to get right with God when all believers disappear, and does not walk with the Lord now. It is a very dangerous trap.
Prophecy is given us to comfort, encourage, succor, and warn, and this need not exclude a view (albeit not “detailed”) of a prophesied history to come. As an example, this is from Stuart Olyott’s commentary on Daniel, Dare To Stand Alone. The angel has been telling Daniel the visions of chapter 8:
“You have heard the truth, Daniel,” says the angel (26). “Now preserve the vision, because the future will need a record of what you have seen.”
And it did. In those darkest of days, when the people of God were being hounded and killed in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, they needed and they had the comfort of this chapter of Daniel. Throughout that period they were consoled by knowing that this wicked man could not have stepped on to the page of history without divine permission and that everything he did, however awful, was nothing other than what God had predicted centuries earlier. They knew that in God’s time, and in fulfilment of verse 25, he would at last be removed. To know all this was an indescribable comfort to them in horrific times. (p. 110)
This will be the case again, when the writings of Revelation will be “an indescribable comfort” in our “time of trouble” (Dan 12:1). A pastor I know says that the shock of unexpected suffering (“Why did it happen to me – I’ve been good?” “Where is God when I needed Him? Has He abandoned me?” “My faith is shattered – how could God let this happen to my loved ones?”) can be even worse than the suffering itself, for it may attack the foundations of our faith and trust in our Saviour.
There are many who, with the blasé that may come with long familiarity with prophetic Scripture along with the peace we have known in the West – especially in America – turn a deaf ear to warnings that others, as the children of Issachar, “which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” (1 Chron 12:32), take fully to heart and “arm their minds” to suffer those things we have been told would come upon those who live godly in Christ Jesus.
Such confusion has been sown in the field of eschatology by DT and other premil views (to name only two sources of the present confusion!) that many call themselves “pan-mil” – meaning it will all pan out in the end, whatever comes. So many flocks sleep, their pastors not wanting to be branded alarmists, as our own time of tribulation draws nigh. In balanced saints, being awake to such things, but draws them closer to their Shepherd, and quickly weans them from the intoxicants of Babylon.