8-30-19 Yes There is a Coming Apocalypse Part 2
Yes, There is a Coming Apocalypse (part 2) - by: Gary Stearman -
THE GREAT BALANCE
In the study of eschatology, balance is everything. Eschatology comes from two Greek words, eschatos, meaning "last," and logos, meaning "word, or discussion." It is a discussion of last things, in other words, apocalypticism. It is the general discourse upon how and when Christ will be revealed ... the "who, what, where, when and why" of His coming.
The proper study of eschatology is vital in the accurate understanding of Scripture as a whole. Christ's coming touches upon every aspect of theology. The great subjects of sin, redemption, resurrection and judgment must all be understood in terms of prophecy, both in past fulfillment and future discovery. God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the inspiration of the Word, the Virgin Birth, Israel in History and Prophecy must all be fitted within the context of the ages.
Satan, the angels (both good and evil), the Body of Christ, stewardship, reward and service, sanctification, personal tribulation, international tribulation and ultimate glorification are parts of the eschatological picture.
A misunderstanding of prophecy invariably blanks out the perception of His overall plan. Sound doctrine depends upon sound prophetic interpretation. At least a third of Scripture is specifically tuned to people and events that were future at the time of the writing.
Liberal extremists will deny that any Scripture at all is prophetic. In fact, even some sound pastor-teachers will avoid the direct teaching of prophecy. First, they find it too difficult to interpret prophecy. And this is for good reason: prophecy often presents complex and thorny issues. Second, they find that it tends to split their congregations, since prophecy cuts into the heart of worldly belief systems that may have crept into the church.
In the end, there are two common extremes. On one side, there are sensationalists, with special revelations about the date of the rapture, or a new eye-opener proving that the church will go through the first half of the Tribulation. Grandstanding and self-promotion are not unheard of in the world of Bible teaching.
Conversely, there are those who have declared prophecy to be the purview of wild-eyed self-promoters. They react by throwing up their hands and declaring prophecy off-limits.
Neither extreme is correct. Balanced study of prophetic Scripture will include all aspects of systematic theology, from the sin of Satan to the Restoration of the cosmos, and from atonement to glory. Balance is everything. The true apocalypticist knows this.
THE APOCALYPTICIST AS WITNESS
For at least two reasons, a thorough knowledge of eschatology is absolutely necessary for a convincing presentation of the Gospel.
The first has to do with the inspiration of God's Word. If it can be shown that Bible prophecy is inerrant, it can also be shown that the message of the Gospel is true and reliable.
Earlier, we mentioned that many Old Testament references to the Messiah were fulfilled in the New Testament. The presentation of ancient prophecy that has already seen fulfillment is surely one of the best tools we have for effectively bringing the Word to the unredeemed world. The prophet Isaiah, alone, has brought many to Christ:
"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14).
The virgin birth - dating back to the "seed of the woman" prophecy in Genesis 3:15 - can be presented while witnessing for Christ. His miracle birth, death and resurrection set the terms of salvation. To be born again, is to experience the new birth in Christ.
The entire fifty-third chapter of Isaiah is a witness to the One who bore the sins of mankind. The fact that it has been entirely fulfilled is - in and of itself - a phenomenal witness for Christ:
"He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:3-6).
In fulfillment of the ancient prophecies, He came to provide redemption for all. Prophecy demonstrates God's plan in a palpable way. And just as it convinces, it can also convict.
This brings us to the second aspect of eschatology in the presentation of the Gospel. The apocalypticist knows that no other device is quite as capable of sounding a warning to the unsaved and the ungodly. Prophecy, in both Old and New Testaments, is most often concerned with bringing stern warning to the wicked and immoral of the world. Those who have never been introduced to the Bible are often shocked to learn that many global events are being brought to the staging point right now. The world may soon radically change, and for the first time, they will be forced to face themselves.
Currently, there is a perfect example that fits this model. It is the 38th chapter of Ezekiel, in which a massive enemy alliance stages itself for an invasion of Israel. A number of current political analyses, articles and even novels have shown that Ezekiel's scenario is currently having its final details set on the world stage.
Russia, mired in post-Communist degeneration, is looking for ways to regain her lost power. To the south, an array of sheikhdoms and Islamic dictatorships cry out for someone to bring them out of the continual chaos that plagues them. Meanwhile, Turkey and Europe are rapidly falling into the subtle clutches of radical Islamic jihadists who threaten to dominate their culture.
The apocalypticist has long since recognized that this is precisely the setting for Ezekiel's prophecy:
"And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts o armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee. (Ezek. 38:1-6).
Magog (Russia), Persia (Iran), Ethiopia, Libya (Northeast Africa), Togarmah (Turkey) and Gomer (Germany and Eastern Europe), unite to invade Israel. Now, that's apocalyptic! And it's a warning to the ungodly that judgment is coming. Even the most secular mind must give pause in the face of the growing evidence that just such a scenario is building at fever pitch. It's happening ... right now!
At the same time, and in the same way, the ungodly can, through prophecy, be made to understand that the God of the Old Testament is Deity. It is no coincidence that these nations have come together since Israel became a nation once again.
The apocalypticist, well grounded in prophecy, can point this out in a powerful way.
Furthermore, Ezekiel's prophecy tightly links God's judgment to the outcome of the battle of "Gog, the land of Magog." The enormous force that comes against Israel will be overthrown, and that action will precipitate the Day of the Lord:
"And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face. For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the Earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the Earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground" (Ezek. 38:18-20).
In these verses, the apocalpyticist naturally sees the apocalypse! Far more than a mere military action, and far more than nuclear weapons, it will be a time of geological upheaval unlike anything ever witnessed by man. Massive shifts in the Earth's crust will be accompanied by volcanism and meteorological upheavals. Fiery objects will fall from the heavens. Judgment will come upon all those left on Earth after the rapture.
Most interesting of all, "the great and the terrible day of the Lord"(Joel 2:31) will come "at the same time" as the defeat of Gog's forces. The awesome power of the Lord will be revealed to all men.
Jesus rebuked the Jews of His day for failing to discern "the signs of the times" (Matthew 16:3). Prophetic awareness tells us that life on planet Earth is not going to get better and better. The apocalypticist watches in sadness as "Bible Belts" become casino carnivals, and thinks, "How many casinos did I drive past to get to church today?"
"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come ... But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived" (II Tim. 3:1,13).
CENTURY TWENTY-ONE PARADOX
This brings us to that perennially favorite debate question: "Are we living in the last days?" And here, we come to an interesting paradox. (As an apocalypticist, you will have noticed that prophetic study usually presents you with a paradox.) Christians are used to this: Did the Lord choose you from before the foundation of the world, or did you choose to follow Him? The answer is "yes" to both. But of course, that answer is impossible. Then again, nothing is impossible with God.
But, back to the question about the last days. When the Apostles use the term, they are referring to the closing days of the church age. In the broadest sense, however, they are describing the general deterioration that has characterized the entire church age. To the apocalypticist, the term "last days" holds no clue as to timing or dating. But it does indicate a trend, as when Peter wrote:
"Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the Earth standing out of the water and in the water" (II Pet. 3:3-5).
Clearly, Peter was writing about a time following his own. Today, in retrospect, we know that, through the leading of the Spirit, he was writing about the naturalistic philosophy called uniformitarianism. It declares that for millions of years, the Earth has slowly and uniformly formed itself into the environment we see today. Science now denies that God has any part in the natural world. They scoff at believers who want to describe nature's intelligent design. Is this proof that we are living near the time of the rapture? No, but it gives you that certain "last days" feeling. And let's not forget all those preachers, crying out, "Jesus is coming soon!" Don't bother telling them that we are not at the end of the church age. All that may be said, is that we are - or we are not - living in the last days. A paradox, indeed. But apocalypticists are quite accustomed to living in such slippery environments.
And speaking of paradoxes, perhaps the greatest paradox of all is so obvious that it's often overlooked. Namely, that we are living in the twenty-first century. At this writing, it has been about 2,022 years since Christ's birth in 3 B.C. That's two millennia, plus! We are now well into the third millennium since the coming of the Messiah.
And what it so important about this fact? Prophecy has long suggested that it would be about two thousand years between His first and second comings. And upon this point, we are reminded of a key Old Testament prophecy:
"For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him. I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early. Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the Earth" (Hosea 5:14-6:3).
Here, in one of the most wonderful prophecies of the entire Bible, written in the eighth century B.C., the Lord speaks to Israel and Judah through the prophet Hosea. He says that He will come to both the northern and southern Kingdoms as a rampant lion, then return to His place in heaven. Of course, this prophecy has long since been fulfilled.
Israel has been judged and scattered and repeatedly afflicted. They have earnestly sought Him for nearly two thousand years - represented by the "two days" mentioned in the above portion of Hosea. As of May 14th, 1948, they have been "revived." They are now a secular state, regathered in unbelief. They have been revived, but not "raised up," (a term referring to Israel's spiritual rebirth).
This is prophesied to happen in the "third day." If millennia are depicted in Scripture as days, we are now living in the third day. We can therefore expect Israel to be spiritually reborn, and very soon. The Bible is most emphatic about this event. It comes at the beginning of the Tribulation period, as shown in the seventh chapter of Revelation (The Apocalypse, for all you apocalypticists), where the 144,000 Jews are sealed and anointed by the Lord.
Repeating for emphasis - as apocalypticists often do - this is the time period in which we now live!
But just how can we say that we are now living in the third day? Well, according to the "millennial-day" theory, the seven days of creation foreshadow the seven millennia of human history, each "day" being a thousand years in length.
The Epistle of Barnabas was, at one point, considered for canonization in the New Testament. The great nineteenth-century scholar, J.B. Lightfoot, published a famous English translation, from which the following selection is taken. In condensed fashion, it presents a belief which is thought to have been common among the disciples of Jesus in the first century:
"Of the Sabbath He speaketh in the beginning of the creation; And God made the works of His hands in six days, and He ended on the seventh day, and rested on it, and He hallowed it. Give heed, children, what this meaneth; He ended in six days. He meaneth this, that in six thousand years the Lord shall bring all things to an end; for the day with Him signifyeth a thousand years; and this He himself beareth me witness, saying; Behold, the day of the Lord shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, children, in six days, that is in six thousand years, everything shall come to an end. And He rested on the seventh day. this He meaneth; when His Son shall come, and shall abolish the time of the Lawless One, and shall judge the ungodly, and shall change the sun and the moon and the stars, then shall he truly rest on the seventh day" (Barnabas 15:3-5).
As an apocalypticist, this comes as no news to you. You have long since acknowledged with some exhilaration we are living at the very beginning of the seventh day since creation ... the seventh millennium. This is the day in which Barnabas said the "Lawless One" would be defeated. For this to happen, he must be revealed. It is logical to assert that this event must happen in the near future. Not long ago, the media wondered aloud whether he might be alive today. Then, in a paroxysm of scorn, they tossed the idea into newsroom wastebaskets across the land. You, however, quietly retained your thoughts on the matter, and kept your eyes open.
Speaking of quiet thoughts, the apocalypticist may muse, "Since I'm already living in the seventh millennium, can I still be called a Premillennialist?" Without a doubt, that's an interesting question.
Apocalypticists will not have missed late developments in the United Nations, where the corrupt meet to redistribute the world's wealth to their sons and daughters. They also regard the United States as a huge pie, to be cut up and served to the "more deserving," which will then be governed by their paid lackeys in a system that divides the world into ten zones of control. Hmmm ... doesn't the Bible say something about ten kings, one of whom will rise to power as the man of sin, the antichrist?
And apocalypticists must be watching the breathtaking rise of China as a world trader and manufacturing colossus. A generation ago, the Chinese couldn't even own property. Now, China boasts dozens of nouveaux riche millionaires, who, in a rampant orgy of conspicuous consumption, say that they will become the world's most powerful class. The "kings of the east," are on the march.
And surely, apocalypticists will have noted that the most potent concentration of geopolitical power in the world is now squarely focused on old Persia (the new Iran), Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Arabia. One can almost feel the nuclear heat radiating from the area.
These are but a few examples of why the apocalypse must be very, very near. Allow me to say that it's no accident that many preachers have risen to proclaim "Jesus is coming soon!" The Spirit of the Lord has moved them to speak these words. And soon...means soon! So, am I an apocalypticist? What do you think?
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