Last September, I shook my
head in disappointment when I saw that the mainstream media started reporting the
doomsday predictions of another kooky date-setter. This time it was David Meade, a preacher
and self-published author of end-of-the-world survival guides, who prophesied
that the end of days would arrive on September 23, 2017. Meade claimed that the
Planet Nibiru would collide with Earth, setting off one cataclysm after another,
climaxing in the Second Coming of Christ.[i]
When September 23, 2017
came and went with a yawn, Meade joined the ranks of other false prophets whose
dubious predictions suffered the same fate as the Hindenburg and Titanic.
A few years ago, Harold
Camping ended up with egg on his face after he erroneously attached a date to
the rapture of the church, not once, but twice in 2011. Obviously, neither Camping
nor Meade learned from the mistakes of the past. Consider William Miller and
his band of 19th-century Americans who left their fields unplanted and sold
their worldly goods in anticipation of their exodus date from planet Earth —
Oct. 22, 1844. After their “Great Disappointment,” they eventually became the
Seventh-day Adventists. Then there were the followers of Charles Taze Russell,
a 19th-century preacher who looked for Jesus’ return and the resurrection of
the dead in 1878 and again in 1914. They became Jehovah’s Witnesses, who now
ring doorbells and pass out Watchtower literature like there is going to be no
tomorrow.
If only these fellas would
have studied their Bibles as much as they did the zodiac and numerology they
could have avoided a lot of embarrassment. In Jesus panorama of prophecy, the
Olivet Discourse, He spoke about the foolishness of date setting, “But
concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor
the Son, but the Father only . . . Therefore you also must be ready, for the
Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” (Matt. 24:36, 44).
This passage and several
others teach the doctrine of immanency—meaning “likely to happen at any moment;
impending.” When we speak of the imminence of Christ’s return, we mean that He
could come back at any moment (James 5:8; 1 Peter 4:7; 1 John 2:18). There is
nothing more in biblical prophecy that needs to happen before Jesus comes
again. At this point, it is good to distinguish between the Second Coming of
Christ and the Rapture of the Church. The Second Coming of Christ, when He
defeats His enemies and sets up His earthly kingdom, will not occur until after
certain other end-times events take place, specifically the Tribulation (Matt.
24:15-30; Rev. 6–18). Therefore, the Second Coming is not imminent. However,
according to the pre-tribulational view, the Rapture will take place before the
Tribulation. The Rapture--when Christ comes to remove the Church before God's wrath is poured out on the Earth--could occur at any moment (1 Thess. 4:13-18; 1 Cor.
15:50-54) and can rightly be called “imminent.”
With that being said, the reality
of Christ’s impending return should have at least 3 effects on us.
·
We should weigh matters Biblically. In Acts 17:11 we read about the believers at Berea, “they
received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if
these things were so.” Because you and I cannot know the day of Christ’s return
it means that we must rightly divide the scripture and discern the times
carefully. The Lord doesn’t want us turning every eclipse, natural disaster,
sensational headline or new-fangled prophecy into an omen for His appearance.
We should be wary of books and sermons that predict more than what the Bible
allows us to know for sure. The Bible is our ultimate measuring stick, not
man’s speculations.
·
We must walk in purity. In 1 John 3:2-3 says, “Beloved, we are God's
children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when
he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And
everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” Notice that
last part—we ought to be living a holy life because Christ could return today and
we wouldn’t want to be engaged in shameful, sinful behavior. Think of the teacher
who steps out of the classroom and while she is gone her students start shooting
spit-wads and sharing answers. Those kids breaking the class rules would be in
for a rude awakening when the teacher came back in the classroom unexpectedly.
As C.S. Lewis explained, “Note
that because we cannot precisely predict the moment, we must be ready at all
moments. . . The schoolboy does not know which part of his lesson he will be
made to translate: that is why he must be prepared to translate any passage in
the assignment. The sentry does not know at what time an enemy will attack, or
an officer will inspect, his post: that is why he must keep awake all the time.
The Return of Christ is wholly unpredictable you cannot guess it. If you could, one chief purpose for which it
was foretold would be frustrated. And God’s purposes are not so easily
frustrated as that.”[ii]
·
We must witness urgently. One of the greatest reasons why Christ didn’t reveal
the time of His appearing is because if the lost knew they would be tempted to
postpone any decisions about Christ until the last minute so they could sin up
to the day of His return then get Hell insurance. Conversely, if believers knew
they would be tempted to live without any evangelistic urgency. To study
prophecy and not grow with a strong desire to witness is unnatural. It would be
like studying meteorology, seeing a tornado coming on radar, but having no
desire to warn others. But the student of God’s word who understands the
practical implication of prophecy and believes it matters today, wants to warn
others of the approaching danger and how to find refuge in Christ.
The
2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed nearly a quarter of a million people,
drove home the need for scientists to develop better warning systems. These
systems can give people time to move to higher ground and get out of the way of
the destructive water. The scientific community developed buoys equipped with
sensitive equipment which could measure changes in sea level and earthquake
shockwaves on the ocean floor. These early warning devices were called DART
buoys, which stands for Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis. This
system often provides the only warning signal for islanders to prepare for the
oncoming danger.
On October 25, 2010, a 7.7-magnitude
earthquake in the Indian Ocean set off a tsunami that leveled whole villages on
the Mentawai Islands of Indonesia. At least 343 people were killed, and many
more were never found. Survivors say they had no warning that a giant wall of
water was headed their way and the reason was simple: two DART buoys off the
islands failed to trigger the warning alarm.
Unfortunately, according to scientists who investigated
the problem they noted that the buoys “sensors were corrupted” from sea water
which leaked into the on-board computers and rendered them “inoperable at their
hour of greatest need.”[iii]
As followers of Christ, we
not only have the privilege of sharing Christ's love; we also have the
responsibility to gently confront sin and warn people of judgment. If, like the
buoys, we fail in our task of evangelism and if our love has grown cold or
apathetic, we may leave others unprepared for the consequences of not being
prepared for the return of Christ. -DM
[i] Kimberly
Winston, “Will the World End on Saturday?” USA
TODAY, 20 Sept 2017 <https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/09/20/world-end-saturday/685041001/>
[ii] C.S.
Lewis, The World’s Last Night and Other
Essays, “The World’s Last Night” (1952), 107.
[iii] Sarah
Zielinski, Smithsonian Magazine,
"Did Broken Buoys Fail to Warn Victims of the Mentawai Tsunami?"
(October 28, 2010) <
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/did-broken-buoys-fail-to-warn-victims-of-the-mentawai-tsunami-37576333/?no-ist>
