I’ve started a series on the book of Revelation. It probably won’t be what you would expect.
You’ll never see me make specific and fanciful predictions about the end of the world. Instead, this series will review four major themes in Revelation. I’ll be upfront about things we cannot know, and focus on what is knowable.
Our theme verse about the timing of the end of the world is a quote from Jesus. “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” [Matt. 24:36]
We’ve begun with an explanation of why this is such a mysterious and misused book.
———————————
Revelation is fertile ground for active imaginations. I had a thick file in my office with documented proof that Jesus will come, in 1973. And proof he will come in 1982. And proof he will come other times. In that file I have a carbon copy that came from my grandma, which appears to predict the Second Coming in Sept. 1944.
There was a book that came out in 1988 entitled “88 Reasons Why the Rapture is in 1988.” It didn’t happen. The author figured out his mistake, and realized it would happen the following year and sold even more books. It wouldn’t have done any good to remind him of our theme verse, where Jesus said we couldn’t know the day or the hour. The author didn’t claim to know the day or hour. But he did claim to know the week, and that it would happen between Sept. 11 and 13, 1988.
That’s an extreme example. And there are plenty of others throughout history. I knew a husband and wife years ago for whom this was their overwhelming obsession. Every single conversation I had with them, no matter the subject, ended up being an update on why the Second Coming of Christ was eminent. They were really good at this. We might have been making small talk about what we like at Steak-N-Shake, and within 90 seconds I’m hearing about the Mark of the Beast. Whoa! How did that happen? Is it the Chili 5-Way?
All people who have alleged proof of when the Second Coming will happen have been wrong. All of them. There are no exceptions.
Throughout the centuries the Church’s interest in End Times studies has come and gone. We’re in one of those phases now, and have been for decades. I think the phase we are in now started after World War 2, in part because of three new developments.
One is the creation of the modern state of Israel, which some saw as a red flag, or a green flag, depending on how you interpret that development. Another is the introduction of nuclear warfare where, for the first time in human history, there is a good chance we really could exterminate all humanity. The third development was the creation of the United Nations and the European Union, which some saw as the beginnings of a world government, which some interpreted as a fulfillment of some prophetic texts.
In high school I read Hal Lindsey’s book Late Great Planet Earth. It seems to point to the mid 1980s as when God would come again and end the world. It scared me. When you are in high school being scared of the impending wrath of God isn’t a bad thing, and it helped me take my faith much more seriously. I read a lot of other books on the subject, representing various sides of the debate. But after a few years I came to the conclusion that the issue was unresolvable. I began to realize our limitations.
With that kind of track record our instinct may be to stay away.
Bob Lowery was a professor at Lincoln Christian University. In his book Revelation Rhapsody, he explained why many people, including legitimate scholars, avoid the book of Revelation. Dr. Lowery wrote “It is often perceived to be a favorite book of weird people or individuals with too much time on their hands.”
But there is another danger far more serious than sensationalist, conspiracy theory flavored fictionalized and Hollywoodized portrayals of the Apocalypse. And that would be ignoring the fact that Jesus will come again. It’s not likely to be remotely like anything sold by TV preachers, posted in blogs on fringe websites, or distributed in cheesy literature by door-to-door evangelists. But he will come again. The greatest danger of wrong prophecy is that it desensitizes us to correct prophecy.
The challenge for us is to be very well aware that the end will come, without being drawn into adrenaline fueled dramatizations of potential scenarios that feed our appetite for entertainment. We need balance. In his first letter to the Church, John wrote. “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” [1 John 4:1]
——————
Next time we will look at how Revelation differs from other New Testament books, and it’s worth.
——————
Dave Soucie lives, serves and writes in Indianapolis.
Dave Soucie 