End Times Madness: Part 1

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End Times Madness: Part 1

Written by Mr. Trev McCallum
Wednesday, 20 May 2009

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Are we living in the last days, the final generation of the world as we know it? Will the Church be raptured away from the earth? When Jesus returns will He battle with the nations and setup an earthly kingdom from socio-political Jerusalem? Will the temple be rebuilt? Many people answer all of these in the affirmative. Does this align with what the Scriptures teach? Our view of the world and how to live life must be shaped by the Scriptures alone. If you allow the newspaper or TV news to shape your view of the times we live in you have succumbed to an arbitrary autonomous worldview. Autonomy must be avoided at all costs. We have been bought at a price. Salvation is freely applied to us but it was not free. It cost the very life of the Son of God. Redeemed people must live like those who have been bought. We must redeem the time and take all thoughts captive to Christ ( 2 Cor. 10:5). Thus the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments must be the yardstick for all of life ( Matt 5:17-19, Luke 6:46-49, 2 Tim 3:16). There is no neutrality. Christ reigns over our hearts ( Jn. 3:3, 7), our families ( Josh 24:15), the Church ( Eph. 5:23, Col 1:18, 2:19) and the world ( Rev. 1:5).

“The world today is like a stage being set for a great drama. The major actors are already in the wings waiting for their moment in history...The prophetic play could begin at any time…The Middle East now occupies the attention of the world...Each nation is ready to play out its role in the final hours of history. Our present world is well prepared for the beginning of the prophetic drama that will lead to Armageddon. Since the stage is set for this dramatic climax of the age, it must mean that Christ’s coming for His own is very near.”^{^[1]}

“World tensions will continue to build...Jesus will come suddenly and without warning to Rapture His bride to heaven...All unbelievers will be left behind...In the wake of the Rapture...there will be a shift of world power...Out of the chaos and confusion created by the Rapture, the Antichrist will rise from a reunited form of the Roman Empire…[which] will probably be some future form of the European Union. This final Roman prince will make a seven-year peace treaty with Israel…[T]he Antichrist...will be hailed a peacemaker...The world’s utopia won’t last long…[T]he coalition of of nations in Ezekiel 38will stage a surprise attack on Israel…[They] hope to draw the West into...a final great clash of civilizations. God will supernaturally intervene...and destroy the invaders…[T]he Antichrist...will seize this opportunity to launch his world empire...The Great Tribulation Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24:21will break out, plunging the world into its final days of darkness and dismay. The world will be saved...by the Second Coming of Jesus Christ who will establish his 1,000-year kingdom...on earth...The signs of the end are all around us.”^{^[2]}

“…[I]n addition to the well-known signs of the nearness of His return…(wars, pestilence, famine, earthquakes, etc.) there are some other signs unlike anything known to previous generations. Ours is the first generation for which these prophecies, seemingly impossible before, even make sense...There were no weapons capable of wiping out all life on this planet...until our generation came along…[T]hese are the last days of which He [Jesus] spoke…[T]he day of the Second Coming can and will be known…[but it] cannot be known as yet…[because e]verything hinges upon the Rapture...Once the Church has gone...seven years from that time, the day of the Second Coming can be determined.”^{^[3]}

Are we living in the last days, the final generation of the world as we know it? Will the Church be raptured away from the earth? When Jesus returns will He battle with the nations and setup an earthly kingdom from socio-political Jerusalem? Will the temple be rebuilt? Many people answer all of these in the affirmative. Does this align with what the Scriptures teach? Our view of the world and how to live life must be shaped by the Scriptures alone. If you allow the newspaper or TV news to shape your view of the times we live in you have succumbed to an arbitrary autonomous worldview. Autonomy must be avoided at all costs. We have been bought at a price. Salvation is freely applied to us but it was not free. It cost the very life of the Son of God. Redeemed people must live like those who have been bought. We must redeem the time and take all thoughts captive to Christ ( 2 Cor. 10:5). Thus the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments must be the yardstick for all of life ( Matt 5:17-19, Luke 6:46-49, 2 Tim 3:16). There is no neutrality. Christ reigns over our hearts ( Jn. 3:3, 7), our families ( Josh 24:15), the Church ( Eph. 5:23, Col 1:18, 2:19) and the world ( Rev. 1:5).

Those who believe in the eminent cataclysmic end of the world turn to Matthew 24and determine those events to be futuristic to us. Is this the case, does Jesus give us time texts to indicate the timing of these events? He does. From a plain reading of Scripture I do not think He allows for a 2000 year plus futuristic interpretation of (at least) verses 1 through 34. In the next few weeks I will look at these verses in more detail.

Before looking at the specific text I want to raise three points about studying the Bible: 1. the original Scriptures are the infallible Word of God given to us in the Bible. Thus the Bible must be our final authority for all of faith and life; 2. the Bible interprets itself. The newspaper or TV news must not shape our view of the Bible. We must learn to carry out exegesis not isogesis. Our view of man, the world and God must not be imported back into the Word of God. Rather, the Bible must inform us in these and all other areas of life and faith; 3. the Bible must shape our world and life view. All presuppositional first premises are taken by faith. Even Atheists believe there is no God and then set out to prove this first premise. As believers we are to accept the Scriptures as God’s Word to us. We are then to apply them in all our endeavors.

Matthew 24:34gives the time text for the preceding verses of the chapter: "Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place." Thus Jesus identifies the timeline of that which He has just prophesied. The question then arises – which generation? Every single time we hear "this generation" in the New Testament it means what it says it means – the generation to which Jesus/the Apostles are speaking (e.g. Matt 1:17, 23:36, Luke 1:50-51, Acts 2:20, 13:36, Heb 3:10, etc). Remember in the original Greek there were no chapter segregations. Matthew 24flows from Matthew 23. In Matthew 24the disciples ask further questions of Jesus' teaching in and about the Temple ( Matthew 23). In Matthew 23:36Jesus specifically says that judgement is coming upon "this generation," the wayward scribes and Pharisees. Socia-political Israel is to be judged. We must use Scripture to interpret itself. "This generation" is understood to be referring to Jesus’ contemporary hearers everywhere else in the New Testament. In fact, in the very events preceeding the disciples questions Christ uses the same phrase to refer to his contemporary hearers. Thus we should interpret it in the same manner in Matthew 24:34. He is referring to the generation to whom He is talking. The burden of proof is upon those who want to interpret "this generation" to mean something different. If Jesus refers to the generation He is talking to every other time He uses the phrase then by letting the Bible interpret itself we can assume He is talking to His contemporary hearers. Accepting this probably has some ramifications. At least everything up to verse 34 (of Matt 24) must take place prior to the generation Jesus is talking to passes away. A generation is considered to be forty years. The Olivet Discourse ( Matt 24) occurred in around A.D. 30. Therefore, all of the prophecy in Matthew 24 (at least prior to verse 34) must have taken place in the first century A.D. Why? The time text that Jesus gives in verse 34 sets the context, not the newspaper or how persecuted we feel.

It cannot be asserted, with Hal Lindsay (in The Late Great Planet Earth) that the “this generation” in Matthew 24:34refers to; “the generation that would see the signs - chief among them the rebirth of Israel. A generation in the Bible is something like forty years. If this is a correct deduction, then within forty years or so of 1948, all these things could take place. Many scholars who studied Bible prophecy all their lives believe that this is so.”^{^[4]} The context of Matthew 24, i.e. the time text, tells us that “this generation” refers to those whom Jesus was speaking to. It is not a generation to be born some two thousand years later. This is precisely why we have so many prophecy cranks today. Prophecy revealed to be fulfilled before the expiry of a specific generation alive in Christ’s time cannot be applied to ourselves. If we do the truth is distorted. This does not mean these texts have no meaning for us in the 21^st century. Certainly not, rather we must apply them with hindsight (not foresight) and over 2,000 years of Church history.

Yes, the verses preceding Matthew 24:34speak of the sign of the end of the age; the great tribulation; the coming of the Son of Man and the parable of the fig tree. I assert that all of these things took place in the first century A.D. Why? Jesus gives us the time text for these things to happen in verse 34. We have the responsibility to search the Scriptures like the Bereans ( Acts 17:11) to understand how this is so. Do I deny the bodily second coming of Christ at the consummation of the entire world – no. I assert, as the Apostles Creed proclaims, "He will come again, to judge the living and the dead." However, I do not believe that Matthew 24:1-34 (at least) speaks of the end of the universe and the second coming of Christ. Over the next few weeks I will try to display, from the Scriptures, why this is so. The 20^th century’s last days madness must be addressed. Our view of the future shapes how we live now. It is our duty to understand the greatness of the Great Commission. The world is to be subdued under Christ’s feet, we are to take dominion – not by domination but through the preaching and living of the Gospel. The Gospel truly is the power of God unto salvation, for Christ came to save the whole world. He came to make all things new again. Our responsibilities entail transformation not cataclysmic hysteria.

I began this article with lengthy quotes. The end (of this article) is eminent; it will be bookended with another set of quotes. For the last century premillennialists have played the boy who called wolf. How long will this continue? Upon reading what has been said, quotes from the beginning of this article will sound familiar! Recycling, revamping and reapplying interpretation to current news events is a characteristic of the End Times hysterians. Why? Well, decide for yourself…what I know is that the Christian prophetic industry is big business and this stuff sells a truck load of books/CDs/DVDs. This is probably why the news and many featured TV programs centre on the end of someone’s or everyone’s world.

R.A. Torrey wrote in 1913 that; “While we talk peace, we are increasing our navies and our armies. We are squandering untold millions in schemes for destroying the lives of our fellow men and for protection and extension of our own nation. We talk of disarmament, but we all know it is not coming. All our present peace plans will end in the most awful wars and conflicts this old world ever saw.”[5]

In April 1917 The Weekly Evangelical informed readers that; “We are not yet in the Armageddon struggle proper, but at its commencement.”[6]

Christabel Pankhurst informed in 1923 that The Lord Cometh because; “Current international events are assuredly finger posts to Armageddon.”[7]

The King’s Business proclaimed “that the outcome of the present situation [1929] will finally confirm the Jewish claim and will eventually speed up developments for setting the stage for the final act of the end of the age.”[8]

Louis S. Bauman (1934) argued, in the King’s Business, that; “And in this hour, authoritative voices in every land are telling us in no uncertain tones that it is not a matter of years, but of months, when the battle flags of the nations will again unfurl, and the scourge of the earth will be on the march – to Armageddon!”[9]

In 1936 Leonard Sale-Harrison boldly proclaimed that; “The present return of the Jews to their own land is…a remarkable and unmistakable sign that we are in the latter days.”[10]

D.P. Holloway told the readers of The Pentecostal Evangel, in 1949; “That we are nearing the great battle of Armageddon there can be very little doubt.”[11]

Louis S. Bauman was at it again in 1950. In the King’s Business he declared that the whole world was “in a very frenzy of preparation for the greatest of wars! Such is the divine revelation of the days immediately preceding the Armageddon. No human being need be told that exactly that describes our days!”[12]

John F. Walvoord, a past president of the Dallas Theological Seminary and theological founding champion of the modern premillennial school, wrote in the December 1959 Moody Monthly that in his day there was; “a situation shaping up that will lead precisely to the scene described in Ezekiel.”[13]

In 1954 radio evangelist C.M. Ward surmised Walvoord’s centiments dramatically; “The eyes of the whole world are upon the East. Will we or will we not make a ‘do or die’ stand against Communists? When and where will this matter be resolved between East and West? God marks the spot and gives the name – Armageddon!...God’s hour is upon us, neighbour! Mankind is marching inexorably toward ARMAGEDDON.”[14]

Charles C. Ryrie explained, in Christianity Today (1969), that; “Any premillennialist’s rejoicing over the apparent nearnessof the Lord’s return will have to be coupled with saddness over current events.”[15]

In 1970 Hal Lindsay predicted that; “The current build-up of Russian ships in the Mediterranean serves as another significant sign of the possible nearness of Armageddon.”[16]

Again, Hal Lindsay exclaimed that; “It’s happening. God is putting it all together. God may have His meaning for the ‘now generation’ which will have a greater effect on mankind than anything since Genesis 1.”[17]

Notes

^{^[1]} Walvoord, J F, Hitchcock, M, 2007, Armageddon, Oil and Terror - What the Bible says about the future of America, the Middle East, and the end of Western Civilization, Tyndale House Publishers Inc, pp. 207-208.

^{^[2]} Hitchcock, M, 2006, Iran: The Coming CrisisMultnomah Publishers Inc., pp. 192-194.

^{^[3]} Hunt, D, 1993, When Will Jesus Come? Harvest House Publishers, pp. 187 & 243-244.

^{^[4]} As cited in Bray, J L., 2008, Matthew 24Fulfilled, American Vision Press, p. 239.

[5] As cited in Wilson, D, 1991, Armageddon Now! The Premillenarian Response to Russian and Israel Since 1917, Institute for Christian Economics, p. 37.

[6] Ibid., p. 36.

[7] Ibid., p. 59.

[8] Ibid., p. 59.

[9] Ibid., p. 86.

[10] Ibid., p. 86.

[11] Ibid., p. 144.

[12] Ibid., p. 161.

[13] Ibid., p. 179.

[14] Ibid., p. 181.

[15] Ibid., p. 215.

[16] Ibid., p. 188

[17] Ibid., p. 202

Published in : Worldviews, End Times

Keywords : Worldviews, End Times, End Times Madness, eschatology, Bible prophecy, end time, prophecy end time, the end times, the end of time, eschatological, the end of time

Users' Comments (3)

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Posted by Andy Thomas, on 02-09-2009 04:19, IP 210.79.17.8, Guest

1. Eschatological sanity available

Having just returned from a conference in which a very alternative position was outlined which does away with the hype and speculation and deals with the historical context of Revelation, I hearterly recommend a thoughtful reading of Ken Gentry's books as well as the lectures given at the conference, obtained via Daniel 2:44 wed site.