“Repent! The End is near!”
Film at 11
Adapted from Brazil Times blog of August 22 2014
The “Repent!” part is always useful (“he who is without sin” and all that).
The “End is near!” part? Well, maybe.
Years ago there was a program on TV about Biblical prophecy and how it might work out in the real world. In an interview with a Greenpeace spokesman he said, ‘whether there were prophecy or not, whether there even was a God or not, man himself would consume and destroy the earth by his own hand.’
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If you are one who braves watching TV news, chances are you’re aware there is a lot of ‘end is near’ stuff going around...
Pandemics, plagues, and pestilence;
rebellions, wars, and rumors of wars;
active super-volcanoes on all continents;
more earthquakes than anytime on record;
whispers in dark corners of economic collapse;
would-be potentates and pretenders rise and fall;
false prophets deceiving even the very elect of God.
As this is being re-written story of the hour is a pandemic attacking every nation on earth to some degree. I’ve heard enough on TV to think the rest of this story is yet to be told. Sooner or later Christian evangelical types will get another go-around of how all this fits into the newest interpretation of End Time Prophecy. Maybe I’ve become jaded, though, by all the go-around which has gone-around before about how current events portend the future event.
In the 1950’s my older brother had a recording of a big-name evangelist of our denomination detailing the events which were to unfold. Memory includes conflict between America and Russia over Israel, leading (once again) to the war-to-end-all-wars. He confidently predicted the End would come in his lifetime. I Googled him, he died in 2004.
I always worry about Bible scholars who pin the Second Coming of Christ on some specific, physical, historically documented event happening before He returns. For me, basing any interpretation on something which ain’t happened yet is a position which ought be defended. Such a position seems to go against the general thought of Scripture and historical Christian scholarship; these generally propose all has been fulfilled and we ought to be ready every second (even if neither FOX nor CNN cover it).
There was a time in my life when there was a certain level of expectation I’d teach on ‘End Time Prophecy’. “Teach” should be read as expecting me to endorse whatever teaching was popular at that moment.
Never one to accept the acceptable, I came up with guidelines which I -- and apparently I alone -- thought useful:
The Bible, Old & New Testaments, as we have received it in English translations is directed solely to edification and instruction of the believer. If the reader does not class their self as such, I have written on more interesting topics which you are encouraged to pursue.
Starting with assumption of the veracity of Scripture, which I do, then there is only one way to know when a prophecy has been fulfilled – when the Book says so. If it says, “this is in fulfillment of the prophesy…”, then you know it is fulfillment of that prophecy.
Whatever the signs of the End really are, written and historical records indicate the Clergy will miss or misinterpret said signs. From Pharisees of Jesus day and throughout history, the Clergy always seem to be looking at stuff with “preconceived” conceptions. Being of the Clergy at one time in my life, I chose to not perpetuate possible misinterpretations.
My very limited understanding of the written word leads me to suspect there is a very deliberate and impenetrable spiritual fog surrounding the whole subject. As it says, “now we know in part”.
Best guess is that when all is said and done everyone will be surprised by how bad were our best guesses, and how many current events we failed to recognize as part of a bigger picture.+
So, maybe a closer look as we watch TV is in order. Somebody might be trying to tell us something, even if it’s only Greenpeace. Just saying.
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