With this Word for Wednesday, I”m starting a new series about what we need to know about the End-times to be in the center of God’s will.
When writing my most recent book, Prepare for the Harvest! Confidence in God’s End-Time Promises, I found there are two dominant positions concerning the end-times. One is based on sound eschatology. The other is 
based on exitology. Those in the eschatology camp are, for the most part, optimistic concerning the events of our day and the days to come. Those in the exitology camp are burdened with current events and seek to be separatists, protecting themselves and families from impeding doom.
I was in elementary school when I quipped, “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” Not an original thought, but profound for a child of my age. However, what is first needed is to properly identify the problem–emphasis on the word properly. Jesus was very clear when He provided instruction about the end-times, that he did not want His followers to be unaware. Learning of the many people today who are ignorant of the end-times, and the ill-preparedness of the Church at large, motivates me to address the topic wherever possible. Where do you stand? Do you have a confident and hope-filled faith in God’s plan for you and the future? Or, have you been influenced by dooms-day-sayers who promote fear concerning the last-days?
Many Pastors teach world events will continue to get worse, and promote the idea of simply waiting to be rescued. The doctrine of a pre-tribulation rapture, where the Church, (meaning all followers of Jesus Christ) will be supernaturally removed from the earth and spared the terrible tragedies of the end-times, is actually one of the newer positions. Bill Johnson Senior Pastor at Bethel Church, Redding, CA states it this way, “We have a bad habit of taking most of the good promises of the Bible and sweeping them under the mysterious rug called “the millennium.” It is inconsistency to say the last days began with Pentecost in Acts 2, and say that the wonderful promises of the prophets about the last days refer to the millennium. The error is clearly realized in the fact that what is believed actually requires little or no faith to get what most of the Church is waiting for–the world to get worse and the Church to get rescued. This is an irresponsible way to respond to great promise.”1 I couldn’t agree more.
Have we entered the last days? Technically the last days began with the first Pentecost. Pentecost places focus on the power of the Holy Spirit and the tremendous promises followers of Christ can live in today. However, because of faulty doctrine, we don’t see many Christians living in the power and promises of God that are for today. June 9, 2019 is our next upcoming day of Pentecost–and one I believe that has significant meaning in these last days. Because of the universal truth that we all experience life based on our beliefs, I will explore the promises of God for us in these last days, so we can be part of the solution and not the problem.
We can escape the Tribulation by not by being separatists, will be the focus of my next post.
As always, I welcome your comments in the section below.
- Bill Johnson, A Life of Miracles: A 365-day guide to prayer and miracles. (Treasure House, an imprint of Destiny Image, 2008), Day 360.
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