We are coming toward the end of our look at the life of Jesus through scripture. The first section of His life was seen through verses focused on prophecy, arrival, and early life.
The next section of verses looked at Him as the Son, second person of the Trinity.
We proceeded into looking at Jesus as the Son’s preeminence, His works, and His ministry. Under ministry & works, I chose verses showing His attributes and aspects of being servant, teacher, shepherd, intercessor, and compassionate healer; and His attributes of omniscience, having all authority and power, and sinlessness.
We are coming toward the end of our look at the life of Jesus through scripture. The first section of His life was seen through verses focused on prophecy, arrival, and early life.
The next section of verses looked at Him as the Son, second person of the Trinity.
Chris Martin used to write at his blog Millennial/Evangelical, which is now defunct. FYI, Hardcover or paperback books never go defunct, but online essays come and go like milkweed seeds in the wind. OK, old lady rant over, lol.
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In 2015 he wrote a piece called 3 Bad Reasons to Leave Your Church which is in archive mode now. The link works. Mr Martin is currently content director for Moody Radio and keeps a substack instead of a blog now.
I had not read a great quantity of articles at his site, but I did enjoy this piece. At the bottom of it, he has a link to a companion piece called 3 Good Reasons to Leave Your Church. Here is his archived essay ‘3 Bad Reasons’ opening paragraph:
“Stop treating your local church like your high school girlfriend, and start treating it like the bride of Christ.”
“You don’t leave the church when it doesn’t share the same musical interests, when it hurts your feelings, or when a newer, more popular one catches your eye.“
“The people of God, the Church around the world, is the bride of Christ, and the bride of Christ deserves the faithfulness of a bride, not the summer crush you bailed on when you were a jerk in college.“
And in like manner Mr Martin did indeed write about 3 ‘good’ reasons to leave your church. In the former (the bad reasons) they were trivial and self-serving. But sometimes there arises an issue in one’s church which violate one’s conscience, harms the sheep, or otherwise provide a basis for a holy reason to leave. Here are his opening paragraphs about ‘good’ reasons to leave:
On Wednesday I shared “3 Bad Reasons to Leave Your Church.” That sort of piece is common, almost a rite of passage for Christian bloggers these days. As I was brainstorming some blog posts the other day, I realized that I’ve read a bunch of posts on why not to leave your church, but I’ve read very few on reasons why you should leave your church. Allow me a bit of disclaimer as well: even among these “good” reasons to leave your church—it is my hope, as one who deeply cares about the local church, that even these problems wouldn’t cause you to leave. My hope is that somehow you could work through the problems listed below, stay at your church, and see them through to health and new life. However, not everyone is in a position to enact major change in their churches, so leaving may be the best option, unfortunately. Here are three good reasons to leave your church…
I recently left my church. I left in good standing and with recommendations from my elders to the church I’m currently a member of now. It was a plant to which I’d been a member since before the first service when we were praying and organizing. One of the elders who planted it had been my Sunday School teacher for 5 years prior to that. It was very hard to leave. I miss him so much to this day.
EPrata photo. Leaving your church is hard. It SHOULD be hard, anyway.
I left for 3 reasons. I’d had an issue since 2 years into the plant, then another issue cropped up 5 years later, then a final issue which cemented my decision to depart. I’d prayed for the elders and been a submitted member the entire time I was wrestling with my issues, but eventually, the Spirit in me made it clear in the way He makes it clear, that it was acceptable to depart. My first and longest-lasting issue was my church’s eschatology.
This week on Twitter/X I saw a poll and a discussion about eschatology which brought to mind this issue of whether to leave a church over its eschatology. The question was, “If your church required a specific end-times view to become a member, would you agree with that policy, though you held that same view of the end-times?“
I haven’t thought through the part about a membership requirement, but it brought to mind the issue of a church member believing differently on Last Things than their church teaches.
I noticed two things about the replies. Everyone called Eschatology (Doctrine of Last Things) a ‘secondary doctrine’. In purely theological terms a secondary doctrine is one that isn’t salvific, that is, requires a person to believe in if they are to be considered saved. The Deity of Christ is an Essential Doctrine. In addition, most of the Essential Doctrines contain a biblically stated penalty for NOT believing. CARM.org calls them Essential Doctrines and outlines them here.
Then there are Secondary Doctrines, AKA Non-Essential Doctrines that don’t touch on one’s salvation. Believing in the timing of Jesus’ return or the specific sequence of end-time events, isn’t a doctrine that illustrates that a person is unsaved. It’s not that the doctrine isn’t important when we call it ‘Secondary’ or ‘Non-essential’, but that it isn’t a biblical mandate to believe.
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CARM asked this question about secondary doctrines: Women pastors is not an essential doctrine, so why worry about it?Shouldn’t we just let those with whom we disagree go ahead and believe what they do about women pastors and not worry about it? The answer is that we should be concerned – very concerned. The reason is that in order to justify having women pastors and elders, several Scriptures need to be reinterpreted.”
If you’re interested, CARM has a Doctrine Grid here. Last Things is classified on CARM’s page as a secondary non-essential, “Any of them can be denied or affirmed, and regeneration is not questioned.”
But that does not mean these secondary non-essentials are insignificant. They are significant. All doctrines in the Bible are tied together with a thread, all of them touch on all the others. In order to believe certain stances, the interpreter needs to change his interpretive method and/or blatantly discount other clearly stated verses. So though a Last Things doctrine isn’t salvific, it comprises a third of the Bible and are a hinge point for many other interpretations and doctrines. It informs the preacher’s hermeneutic, that is, the WAY they interpret all the scriptures. And the way your pastor interprets the scriptures touches every person under his authority.
The second thing I noticed about the Twitter discussion of Last Things and membership was that though most people said ‘nah, do not require a specific eschatological stance for membership, don’t divide over non-essentials…EXCEPT…’ and then the person would state his exception. ‘Except if they believe preterism…except if they want to become a leader…except if they become divisive over it…’
I agree that Eschatology isn’t salvific, but it’s more important than one would think. The Prophets taught on it. It’s taught in the Gospels, referenced in Corinthians, Thessalonians, 2 Peter, and of course Revelation, among other mentions.
Eschatology informs us as to what to think and how to act when certain things come to pass. Eschatology makes certain demands and commands of us, as in Matthew 24, 2 Peter 3, and 1 Thessalonians.
Also, believing alternately from your elders and your church friends creates difficulties and temptations for the member. Several of the Twitter comments referenced this. When one signs on the dotted line to become a member of a church, often there is a clause with asks the prospective member to submit to the church’s teaching.
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In my case, as some of my friends studied and came to eschatological conclusions different from the teaching of our church, they came to me to ask about it. I always referred them to the elders if they had questions. We had open and approachable elders, a blessing. If they insisted to know my stance, I told them in general, but again strongly referred to the elders. If a member goes around teaching something different behind the Elders’ backs, it is divisive and causes confusion and a stumbling block.
This caused me a temptation to teach differently. My conscience was caught between needing to be a submitted member, which the Bible tells us to be, and my conscience in referring people to a teaching I honestly believe is error. A hard go.
Another issue is that the member who believes alternately from his or her church’s teaching on Last Things is muzzled. I wanted to joyfully shout the doctrines and exult in the Lord’s plan. I could not. Eschatology is a third of the Bible that I could not speak to, proclaim, or even encourage. After a while, this hurt my conscience so much.
Why did I join such a church, you ask? It was a plant by a then-young minister who had not completely cemented his personal reconciliation about the Doctrines of Last Things. Two years into it, he had, coming down on an opposite side of what I believed from my own 10 year study of the Old Testament first then the New Testament. What did I do? I was disappointed, but I focused on all the positive things my church did well, and there was a lot to be joyful about.
Until some other issues piled up. Until my conscience issue about the three issues I was having made it impossible and it as clear that I needed to go, not just for myself but for my church family. Let them be joyful in their interpretation, and I’ll go somewhere else and be joyful in mine.
Our church family is family. I know that blood ties feel strong, but they are only fleshly ties. Emotional, yes. Long lasting, yes. But the church family is eternal. It’s a family that is united not by our blood but by the infinitely holy blood of Jesus. Our union is with Him, through Him, and with Him. Leaving one’s church should not be a trivial matter, nor should it be casual.
Here are a few ‘church search’ sites that help you find a church according to the search directory.
TMS church search lists churches led by or planted by The Master’s Seminary Graduates. If you know the doctrinal stances of TMS then you fairly well know the doctrinal stances of these churches. Plug in your zip code or city info and a radius and it brings up a map and a listing. There are links for each search result that bring you to their website with contacts so you can check further:
There are good reasons for leaving a church and there are good reasons for staying. Pray it through, don’t be hasty, honor the Head of the Church and the under-shepherds (your pastors), and may the Lord bless your decision.
A post on Instagram by the ever-solid Doreen Virtue (it’s here) about channeling reminded me that in 2011 I had written a series of essays examining what channeling is (AKA ‘automatic writing’), and had examined three highly popular books that these allegedly Christian authors had published. I revived and updated those essays, I also shortened them splitting them up to examine each author in turn.
Neale Donald Walsch wrote “Conversations with God” (1995), William P. Young wrote “The Shack” (2007), and Beth Moore wrote “When Godly People Do Ungodly Things” (2002). All three were Christian bestsellers. All three are unholy and blasphemous.
Automatic writing is when a writer clears his mind, gives his will over to another entity from the supernatural realms, and allows his hand to be used as a transcriber, thereby allowing the entity to produce the work, and not the human writer through his own mind or consciousness. Not even the scriptures were generated in this manner. The Bible’s authors received inspiration but were mentally and emotionally present. The Holy Spirit inspired their own minds and personalities to write. The authors didn’t zone out and become robots as another entity produced the works.
The point of the 2011 essays was not so much to examine the content of what these writers wrote about. Though discernment lacks in many a Christian heart these days, the ungodly moments in those books eventually become apparent to the readers who call upon the Spirit for light and illumination.
Turning to the point of this essay, I noticed similarities in the emotional lives of today’s ‘Christian’ automatic writers used by spirit or a ‘force’ from the other side. Hopefully I will provide an understanding of how satan works in the emotionally vulnerable.
One thing these automatic writers who channel these supernatural entities people all have in common is they all had a Christian-ish background. The second thing they all had in common was sexual abuse, parents who were distant either physically or emotionally, and/or trauma of severe kinds that usually resulted in a deep depression through to adulthood. It was in the depths of their depressions at the bottom of their turmoil that they began to experience the “call” from the other side. Here are their stories. Today, we look at Neale Donald Walsch.
Neale Donald Walsch, 81 years old. Photo Source- Facebook
Neale Donald Walsch was brought up as a Roman Catholic, he was an altar boy, actually. Born Again Christians know that Roman Catholicism is not Christianity. It is a false religion. However, in a conference on ‘God and Love’ at the Fort Collins Lincoln Center, Colorado in what looks to be about twenty years ago, Walsch described his growing disillusionment with the rigidity and minutiae of Catholic traditions as a youth and mocked it cynically in a ‘humorous’ speech at the conference.
His family encouraged his quest for spiritual truth and eventually he wound up informally studying comparative theology for many years. In that quest, Walsch sadly did not turn to the Bible but to himself.
He was at an incredible low point in his life. A fire had destroyed everything he owned, his marriage had broken up, he was in a car crash and suffered a broken neck, then became unemployed and homeless. Living in a tent, Walsch picked up cans in order to eat.
He had no faith to cling to, and no way to resolve his anger. In 1995 Neale Donald Walsch realized his life was a mess. He said, “I woke up one night just angry, really frustrated, and wrote down what was on my mind” in an angry letter to God. God ‘answered’.
As described here, Walsch has said, “After writing down all of his questions, he heard a voice over his right shoulder say: “Do you really want an answer to all these questions or are you just venting?” When Walsch turned around, he saw no one there, yet Walsch felt answers to his questions filling his mind and decided to write them down. The ensuing automatic writing became the Conversations with God books.
Walsch’s own words, “To my surprise, as I scribbled out the last of my bitter, unanswerable questions and prepared to toss my pen aside, my hand remained poised over the paper, as if held there by some invisible force. Abruptly, the pen began moving on its own. I had no idea what I was about to write….Out came….Do you really want an answer to all these questions, or are you just venting? … Before I knew it, I had begun a conversation.” (New York Times article).
From Amazon
Walsch’s spiritual stance is that we are all one with God and that helping people is the satisfaction to life.
No. Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy HIM forever.
What resulted from Walsch is a cottage industry of false religion permeating the world. Wikipedia states that “Conversations with God, was published in 1995 and became an international bestseller. It remained on the New York Times Bestseller List for 135 weeks. Six of his other books have made the Times list in the years since. He has published 28 books and his works have been translated into 37 languages.” His books are not a small problem.
Screen shot from his book 1, chapter 1.
“In the spring of 1992 an extraordinary phenomenon occurred in my life. God began talking with you. Through me.” ~Neale Donald Walsch No, God doesn’t talk to me thru Walsch. God talks to me thru His Son! (Hebrews 1:1-2)
God is not speaking today. True, in the past He has spoken directly to several people in the Bible (not as many as you’d think) and in various ways, too. But He has spoken in His word, which is complete and sufficient for all training. (Hebrews 1:1-2; 2 Timothy 3:16).
Neale Donald Walsch’s Conversations with God contributed to the New Age religion and its growth. The counterculture hippie movement of the 1960s had by the 1970s morphed into the New Age movement containing elements of the early twentieth century Victorian Theosophy spiritism, 1050s UFO mania, and Helen Schucman’s 1975 A Course in Miracles. Shirley MacLaine’s 1983 book Out on a Limb added much fuel to the fire of fervency for a holistic spiritualism devoid of God. I remember that book, it caused a huge stir.
What has been, it is what will be, And what has been done, it is what will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9).
Satan from before the beginning of human history through to now and beyond, will try to poison God’s Gospel. In some people, man’s inherent pride will click with this notion that God selected them specially to speak directly to them and they will be used in this way to pervert the Gospel. Some who seek a man-made religion will pick up these wrong theories and philosophies and connect through these unfortunate authors and their books. Millions.
When I was on the path toward the cross but not there yet, I was curious about religion. But my pagan mind didn’t know which religion to choose. I did not know at the time the God chooses us, we do not choose God. I bought the trilogy Conversations with God and I read book 1. The book did not make sense to me. It meandered, it was internally contradictory, and it was boring. I didn’t even bother to read Walsch’s book 2 and 3, they stayed on my shelf, unread, until I was born again and I then threw them all out. I thank God for preserving me until the time He appointed the moment of justification.
Sisters, when an author says that God spoke the book to him or her, run. The only book God spoke in is the Bible, and the only authors who had a conversation with God are the 66 authors who were inspired by the Spirit, not possessed by a spirit.
Tim Challies is a reader and a book reviewer. He is the author and promoter of the Annual Christian Reading Challenge, in which I have participated in the past.
I was glad to see this article by by Jon Dykstra linked from Tim Challies’ site. I’d add the eerily prescient 1914 novella from EM Forster, “The Machine Stops“, which predicted, well, pretty much where we are now regarding media, internet, imagination, ideas, social contact and more. Pretty amazing for a hundred-year-old novella.
Dystopian is a word from Greek meaning ‘bad place’ according to the article. It’s the opposite of Utopian, meaning ‘perfect place’.
Dystopian fiction is a genre that describes people surviving or trying to, after a holocaust of some kind, or a societal collapse, or a nuclear war, and the like. The article speaks of this kind of fiction being worthwhile because it helps us in predictive prophecy of the secular kind, in connecting the dots to see a current credible future threat. The author Dykstra’s point was that this kind of fiction spins a credible threat into scenarios that help us understand where these threats may lead us.
This is a genre well worth exploring, though with care and caution. It’s a big blank canvas that insightful writers can use to paint pictures of grim futures, all in the hopes that they, and we, will ensure such futures never come to be.
Of course, the mightiest and truest prediction of all is what God has said will come, via His word in scripture. Nothing outsmarts, outpaces, outdoes God’s prophecies.
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I enjoy this fiction but had felt mildly guilty about it, as though I needed to be doing something more productive. I’d wonder, ‘Am I a ghoul?’ ‘Why do I find this absorbing?’
Mr Dykstra helped me see my interest in it was to go where my own imagination lacked facility, to ‘see’ a future that is all too real in some cases, and to develop opinions and thoughts to guard against it. EM Forster’s The Machine Stops is a future that is practically already here, as is Stephen King’s The Running Man. Chilling.
The most famous work of dystopian fiction is George Orwell’s 1984, which the article mentions. That work was published in 1949. Another famous work of dystopian fiction is Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Other classic dystopian books are PD James’s Children of Men, which discusses the childlessness of all the nations and certain doom as the already born die off with no new births coming up to replace them. In fact, birth rates are ranging from declining to collapsing all over the world right now.
Of course there’s the famous Canadian book The Handmaid’s Tale. Dystopian fiction is good where it helps us see ahead and cope with credible current or near current threats and that book’s twisted version of Christianity isn’t a credible threat.
I mentioned I’ve participated in the Challies’ Christian Reading Challenge, at the “Avid Level” (26 books to read in a year.) I added several others of my own choosing to Challies’ list, making myself a separate genre nook of dystopian books I wanted to read. They included The Running Man, The Machine Stops, and It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis about the rise of fascism in the US.
FYI, in Stephen King’s The Running Man (1982)- The end is absolutely chilling, because the final action the main character takes has already come to pass. Remember, in Dykstra’s essay, dystopian fiction that presents credible threats help us formulate our own reactions and imaginations, and that ne came true, for sure.
William Forschen’s book One Second After (2009) depicted the effect upon America from an EMP, (electro-magnetic pulse), and the nation’s societal collapse and resulting high death rate. The author consulted with psychologists, economists, and sociologists to base his fiction on real scenarios those experts stated would most likely happen if we suffered an EMP. It was well written and horrible to think of it occurring, as the Bible hints in some form, it will.
-was one of the first apocalyptic novels of the nuclear age and has remained popular more than half century after it was first published, consistently ranking in Amazon.com’s Top 20 Science Fiction Short Stories list. The novel deals with the effects of a nuclear war on the fictional small town of Fort Repose, Florida, which is based upon the actual city of Mount Dora, Florida. The novel’s title is derived from the Book of Revelation: “Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.”
Nuclear winter wasn’t a very known or understood event back then, so the survival rate of the population in Alas, Babylon, this initial entry into the American dystopian nuclear fiction isn’t realistic, but most of the rest of the book is.
As predictive or as absorbing as dystopian fiction might be for some people, the only true prediction is what the prophetic books of the Bible tell us will happen in the future, in God’s timing.
With the US election mere days away, many on both sides are saying ‘if the other side wins it will be the end of us’… Maybe, maybe not. It might tell us a bit about God’s judgment, though, or it might just tell us that we go on living long after the thrill of living is gone, as John Cougar Mellencamp sang.
People, the Tribulation is unthinkable. But we must think on it, the Lord’s wrath already hangs over the unsaved. Thoughts of the dystopian future and reading it now in His word should should spur us to witness with eagerness and fervor.
I don’t think a steady diet of this kind of material should be on our plates, but books like this can be a legitimate addition to our bookshelves or movie queue, for the reasons stated above. Happy reading…or in this case, unhappy reading.
The Lord has plans to prosper His children. He makes continual promises that we should not fear, because He knows our needs, and He will supply them. Matthew 6:31-34 is one example. The verses say, “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
The People were wandering in the desert and had gotten mighty hungry. (Exodus 16) They began longing for the time of their captivity because at least then, they had bread and meat (Exodus 16:3). They began to grumble against Moses and against the LORD.
So, “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction.” (Exodus 16:4)
The economic situation these days has been long, hard, and painful. Many people, Christians included, have lost jobs, have faced foreclosure, and have had to undergo extreme austerity measures (voluntarily or involuntarily). Americans have been so used to prosperity that we have planned for it in the long-term with retirement accounts that we expected to remain full and fuller as time went on. We expected that after ten or twenty or thirty years that we would of course sell our houses and reap a comfortable profit. We were used to corporate loyalty and lengthy terms of employment, if not permanent ones, if we obtain tenure or have a strong union to back us. Long-term perspectives of our own personal wealth was the norm.
Yet, God said He would supply us. ‘My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.’ (Philippians 4:19).
It is in Matthew 6 and it is in Exodus 16. “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself.” and “the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day.” God IS supplying you, faithful one. He just may be doing it in a manna situation, a one-day supply instead of extra, like before. He sent the Israelites a one day portion delivered, on time, every time. He even made it so that their clothes did not wear out. (Deuteronomy 29:5).
The LORD told Moses that He was doing it to test them. Not that God didn’t know the outcome of the test, like He needed to learn something, but that He wanted to restrict their supply so that they would learn to more faithfully depend on Him. Is that your situation? It is my situation for sure.
Could you be undergoing a test so that you will learn to depend on Him to greater degree and be strengthened for trials?
Do not worry about what you will eat nor what you shall wear. Do not worry about tomorrow. He provides. Think of the Israelites. Think on His promises to keep us and provide for us. If you only have enough today, do not fret, for you are blessed with bread from heaven!
A ladybug traversing the concrete walkway meets up with a bird feather but keeps going despite the hindrance. EPrata photo
I am “holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.” (Philippians 2:16)
Are you running well, or toiling in vain? Christian, when at the end of your life are you able to say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;”? (2 Timothy 4:7)
The journey is long and we are small, only humble servants and wretched sinners. There are obstacles and there are hindrances to our course. Some stumble when hindrances are met. “You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?” (Galatians 5:7).
Keep running! Keep one step in front of the other! The time is but a vapor, so short, and what is hunger or cold or discomfort to us when we have an eternity of peace and joy to look forward to?
Martyn Lloyd Jones, a noted Welsh preacher from the mid 1900s, preached a series on holiness from 1 John. He said,
[Holiness] “is not some mystical experience that suddenly comes to us, but the outworking of the doctrine and the truth which we claim to believe.”
…”holiness is not something we are called upon to do in order that we may become something; it is something we are to do because of what we already are. . . . I am not to live a good and holy life in order that I may become a Christian; I am to live the holy life because I am a Christian.”
The first thing a Christian does to run the race well, in practical terms is:
“…that I try to separate myself from the sins which I have committed in the past; it includes that, but it goes well beyond it. It means that with the whole of my being I shun sin, I avoid it.”
Actively avoid all sins, big ones, little ones. In fact, it’s the little ones that get us. Why? Because little sins open the door to incrementalism. In the Good News Club, (evangelism for children program) we would teach the children that sin is “anything we think, say, or do that angers God.” It begins with a thought. Thinking about your favorite pub. Thinking about the next swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated. Wondering what that secretary will be wearing today. Musing about your easy access tot he boss’s business checkbook. They’re just thoughts, right? Nothing harmful, nothing active.
But the thoughts are active. Next, you buy the swimsuit edition, you open the drawer to see if the checkbook is there, you go out of your way to see the secretary, you drive by the pub ‘to see who’s there’.
Soon the sin grabs hold and you are doing what you though you would never to. Porn, adultery, embezzlement… it all began with a thought you did not hold captive.
It’s our pride. We think ourselves capable, strong. But we are weak, pitiful, and stupid. We are sheep needing guidance every moment. Apart from Christ we can do nothing.
Run your race well. Pray, stay close to Jesus in His word, immediately banish sinful thoughts when they occur. Congregate with the saints, building them up and being built up.
Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let’s cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. (2 Corinthians 7:1).
And we desire that each one of you demonstrate the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and endurance inherit the promises, (Hebrews 6:11-12).
Therefore, treat the parts of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. (Colossians 3:5)
The Bible tells us that earth will pass away and then be remade. Did you even wonder what it will be like in the New Heaven and the New Earth? I do. But first, the verses:
“A New Heaven and Earth“ “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!”” 2 Peter 3:12
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.” Rev 21:1
So I often wonder about whether we as resurrected saints will be allowed to watch God in His Glory renew the earth, what the new earth will be like in form, and looks, and smells, and sights, and of course about the new heaven.
“And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze, Their young will lie down together, And the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.” – (Is 11:6-9)
There is a proverb/curse of alleged Chinese origin, “May you live in interesting times.” The implication is that a life lived in interesting times is less desirable than one lived in peace and tranquility. To be sure, the danger and uncertainty and lack and want of these years are difficult to manage sometimes, but surely it is better to live in interesting times than uninteresting. Why? Jesus.
We could change that phrase to “May you live in prophetic times” and it would be a better application for the believer. For those who are IN the Lord, believers in Jesus and saved by His grace, we know that though difficult, the times that are more “interesting” offer more growth in sanctification than times when everything is going along peacefully.
The tremendous opportunity we have to actually watch God at work in the world in such an interesting and visible way fuels my love for Him and my amazement at His sovereignty. Yes, a life in a previous time might well have been more peaceful, but less astonishing. And the difficult times offer us the opportunity to grow in Jesus. He is the Potter. He sanctifies us and shapes us through trials and challenges. And my, what challenges these times offer. Therefore the growth in Christlikeness should be even greater than when living in uninteresting times.
In interesting times comes difficulty. These difficulties are large and small. Sin rises, people around us become more futile in their thinking (Romans 1), more immoral (2 Timothy 3:3), more impatient with us ‘Jesus freaks’.
So I agree, the times are hard. No one likes living in the era when our beloved nation America is failing, collapsing, and imploding. Instead, let’s focus on what God is doing. He is so high above us, yet He told us ages ago what He would do. And He is doing it. This is cause for praise and celebration.
What is God doing on earth? He said He would judge nations, set up kings and take them down.
“but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another.” (Psalm 75:11. Also see Daniel 2:21)
Imagine being in heaven where we can recount His mighty deeds from our own generation!
Keep that Psalms & Daniel verse in mind as election season approaches. A Pastor wrote: “Our vote does not determine who will be elected to serve in any political office. God ordains and appoints who will serve and for how long. … Our vote reveals our convictions and value system; what we believe.”
We can be mindful and diligent in our voting but if the outcome seems drastic or is not your preferred outcome, then just remember He is doing a work! We get to see it! And then we get to praise Him!
“A Psalm of Asaph. God takes His stand in His own congregation; He judges in the midst of the rulers.” (Psalm 82:1).
Matthew Henry explains, “Good princes and good judges, who mean well, are under Divine direction; and bad ones, who mean ill, are under Divine restraint.“
The world really does feel like it is out of control. But it isn’t. See, this verse comforts:
“We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks, for your name is near. We recount your wondrous deeds. “At the set time that I appoint I will judge with equity. When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants, it is I who keep steady its pillars.” (Psalm 75:1-3).
The LORD will steady its pillars. May you live in interesting times! (and enjoy them!)
I wish prophecy wasn’t so manhandled and misused. I love it. It is an amazingly perfect display of God’s sovereignty, mercy, and wrath. Prophecy sparks hope that His future promises will come true, because His past promises did.
It is noteworthy that in no other religious writings in the world do we find any specific predictive prophecies like we find in the Scripture. You will find no predictive prophecies whatsoever in the writings of Buddha, Confucius, Mohammed, Lao-Tse, or Hinduism. Yet in the Scripture there are well over two thousand prophecies, most of which have already been fulfilled.
Though the Bible has been attacked at every other place, the one place where God rests His inspiration is that the things He foretells come infallibly to pass.
The Bible prophecies are altogether unexpected! I know of no one ever prophesying that any other human being would rise from the dead and ascend into heaven. That is exceedingly improbable. The chance of it happening by coincidence is incalculable. No, the Bible is not merely a book written by men; it is a book written by God through men, and the heart of its prophetic message is Jesus Christ.
Kennedy, D. J., T. Cabal (2007). Christ: The Fulfillment of Prophecy.
Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, I will certainly do it. (Isaiah 46:11b)
“God is not a man, that He would lie, Nor a son of man, that He would change His mind; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19)
He has said he will never leave us, that He will comfort us, that He will provide for us, that He will bring us to His home in heaven, that He will hear our prayers, that we may approach the throne of God without fear or hesitation, that we will be blessed with the presence of Jesus all our days in eternity – and so much more!
the-end-time.org 