What difference does it matter if we’re in the end times? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
I’m driving to church yesterday morning and I have the radio on and at the end of one show, one of the speakers comes back to talk about, what else? Biblical prophecy. As an Orthodox Preterist, I groan at this but brace myself for whatever is coming. The speaker goes on to talk about another example of how we’re in the end times. What is it now? Famine. All around the world there’s famine and we’re also seeing food plants being burned down.
I’m not going to dispute that that is happening. However, if you went to any time and wanted to pick out something and say it’s something in prophecy, you could do it. Most every generation have insisted that they were the one and when a new one comes along, well everyone else was wrong, but we’re right this time!
Yet as I thought about it this morning, I wondered why do people even bother? What do they hope to accomplish? Oh! This battle in the Middle East is a fulfillment of prophecy! Okay. So what if you’re right? What can you do about it? What are you going to do about it? You have your marching orders, the Great Commission. We are told Jesus is with us until the end of the age. When that is is none of our business.
So why is it that people today make such a big deal about it?
As an Orthodox Preterist, I just hear what is going on and think “What am I to do about this?” Some things I could do something about. Some things I can’t do anything about. If I can do something, then I should try to do what I can. If I can’t do anything, then I pray and leave it in the hands of God.
If you believe in prophecy in the sense of a more dispensational or futurist position, then something to keep in mind is prophecy is going to happen whatever you do. I find it fascinating to think about all these people who have been trying to breed a red heifer. After all, if God is going to fulfill prophecy, then He needs your help to do it.
Of course, one of the biggest dangers in this is that too often when people act like prophecy experts, they are wrong every time and they embarrass themselves and Christianity as a whole. Would that people who did this would spend as much time studying something like the resurrection as they do end-times prophecy. Note that if you are someone who studies both, I will disagree with you on end-times prophecy still if you are a futurist of any sort, but you are not in mind here.
Ultimately, the main point is that we have the same marching orders regardless. We are to do the Great Commission. We are to love the Lord our God and we are to love our neighbor. Everything else in the hands of God and God will do that.
In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)
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