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Transcript 379A — Obsession with End-Time Prophecy
CALLER: Time and time again we've heard questions and discussions about end time prophecy, the rapture, and so on. And I realize that this is a very important part of the Christian's life, looking forward to Christ's return, and all. But surely, at least I used to find myself obsessed with this and nothing else. And I was wondering if perhaps you could discuss putting the end time prophecy into a proper perspective, as far as our daily walk in the Christian life is concerned. And I'll take that on the air.
HC: All right. Fine. Thank you.
We have a very good question that has been asked. How does end time prophecy and its discussion and its pressure on our thinking life interrelate with a Christian perspective of walking uprightly before God? In other words, is it important, really, that we worry about when Christ is going to come, or is it important that we be concerned with the details of Christ's coming again? Does it really make any difference what we believe concerning His return?
Frequently, when we get into these questions, some will tell me, "Well, really it isn't important at all. The important things is that I am a believer."
Let me answer it this way. There are at least two ideas that come to my mind. Number one: The Bible says that all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for correction and training in righteousness, and teaching, and so on. In other words, God has given us a lot of information in the Bible concerning His return. He has not put it in there just as some kind of a curiosity, something for some theologians in their ivory towers to debate over a little bit, wondering just how all this is going to be. God has put everything in the Bible in order that we might be trained in righteousness, in order that we might grow in grace.
And so whether we are studying the origins of this earth from the Bible, that is, we're studying the Book of Genesis, or whether we're studying the activities and experiences of the nation of Israel, or whether we're studying the Gospel concerning the events that occurred when Jesus was on earth, or when we are studying end time prophecy from the Bible, each and every part of this study is equally important.
Now that's something we must understand. Each and every thing is equally important. We must never believe that this is important but that is not so very important. Everything is important.
Now when we begin to reflect on this just a little deeper, we can see why this is so. There is a tremendous interrelationship that exists between every aspect of the teaching of the Bible. We cannot really understand salvation, for example, unless we also begin to understand something about where sin came from, why we are sinners. We cannot really understand God unless we see Him as the Creator, as He's revealed in Genesis 1 and 2. We really cannot understand God's covenant promises unless we carefully read Genesis 12 through 24, and discover how God dealt with Abraham of old, because in the New Testament God, in a number of places, refers to Abraham and to the patriarchs. And if we don't study Genesis, then we won't get the full grasp of how these chapters and verses impinge upon the salvation story.
And by the same token, if we really want to know even more about our salvation, it helps like everything to know about the end times and what is going to happen. Now let me show you how important this is.
There are those today who teach, "Yes, I'm saved by grace." And I think they are saved by grace. I can't judge what's going on in the heart of anyone. That's not my question at all. But then they go on and start talking about how God is going to use the nation of Israel to do a mighty work of bringing the Gospel in this world, and how the nation of Israel are the chosen people, and they will have prior rights somehow, and that Christ is going to set up an earthly throne, a political throne, on this sin-cursed earth.
Well, when I study the Bible apart from the end time, I find that we're saved by grace, we become children of God, we're sons of Abraham, we're of the seed of Abraham, if we're born again. Our heritage is an eternal heritage. We are inheritors of the whole earth, as we read in Romans 4:13. The Holy Spirit is the one who came to evangelize the world. Our focal point is not on creation and this sin-cursed earth. Our focal point is on the Lord Jesus Christ and an everlasting heritage.
And so if we have the wrong thinking on the end times, it will begin to bend our thinking on the nature of salvation. It will begin to warp our thinking as to what our salvation really is. We won't have the full picture that it is altogether eternal, that it is altogether glorious, that it is altogether beyond this sin-cursed earth, and so on and so on. We begin to focus on a salvation that is limited to this sin-cursed earth, limited to a Christ who is going to reign as a man on this sin-cursed earth, limited to a work of bringing the Gospel that no longer is the work of the Holy Spirit but is the work of the nation of Israel. And so we begin to get a warped idea of what salvation really is.
It's imperative that we keep searching the scriptures, that we continue to study these questions about the rapture and the tribulation and the return of Christ, because as we get Biblical answers, we will find that they will begin to tell us more and more about the glorious nature of our salvation, and that our salvation is eternal in character, and that we are the recipients of the highest blessings when we have become born again, and that God did not have to change His program because He was rejected by His countrymen when He came on earth two thousand years ago. And the church of the New Testament is not some kind of an interlude. The church is the working out of God's program.
What I'm trying to say that there is no aspect of theology, that is, the study of God or the study of the Bible, that is unimportant. But it is imperative that the foundation for our study is the Bible. And if we can bring ourselves to this point (and by God's grace only will we arrive there), where we are ready to be open to everything the Bible teaches, ready to compare scripture with scripture, however it's going to take us, then we're going to find a real joy and a real glory in searching the scriptures.
But if we are not ready to be open to everything the Bible teaches, if we have been taught certain things and we don't want to lose any regard for those who have taught us at all, in other words, if we want to maintain our thinking that those who have taught us have taught us absolutely correctly, without error, and therefore we don't really want to look at these questions again in the Bible lest we might be troubled somewhere, then we're not going to grow in grace the way we ought to. Then we're not going to really begin to get a full and wholesome picture of the marvelous salvation that God has provided.
Let me say this again. All scripture, all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for reproof, for correction and training in righteousness, all scripture. Now the Bible is talking about the Bible. It's not talking about a lot of books that have been written. And there are a lot of fine books that have been written. But realize, please realize, when you read a commentary, I don't care how marvelous, what a beautiful Christian the writer was, always read a commentary or a book about the Bible with a grain of salt. Realize that he at times will be speculating. The writer will at times be incorrect. The writer may be correct most of the time, but there are times when he does not have the proper insight. There is no book that has been written, ever written, that is infallible, that's always accurate in every aspect. There is no such book.
And therefore you are not doing a disservice, when you read somebody's book about the end time or about any other subject, and you begin to raise a lot of questions, "I wonder how he can say this. I wonder if this really is what the Bible teaches." You're not doing him a disservice. You're not putting the author of this book down in any way. You're simply doing what is being faithful to God.
The only book that we can read and know that the author knew what he was talking about, and that it's absolutely accurate and trustworthy, is the Bible. That's why on this program I keep saying, "Don't trust me. Don't trust me. Keep asking questions. Keep wondering if I know what I'm talking about. And check me out in the Bible. Let the Bible be the authority, because I am. not infallible, even as no one who has ever written a book about the Bible is infallible."
And if we'll get in the habit of doing this, more and more of us will do this, then we're going to have the joy of discovering that everything the Bible talks about, whether it's the return of Christ or the origins of the earth, or the miracles that Jesus did, or whatever, all have their proper place, and they all add to our understanding of this fantastically marvelous salvation, this incomprehensible salvation, that God has provided for us.