Guest post by Justin Alfred
Previous posts in this series:
Last week, we discussed what happens to those who die without Christ.
When it comes to the return of Christ—including the Rapture, the Great Tribulation, His Millennial Reign, the Great White Throne Judgment—what is it that we as believers should be focused on?
If you remember last week when we went through Acts 1:6, the question the disciples were asking Jesus just before His ascension is still being asked today as a primary focus for many believers: “And so when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, ‘Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?’” This is the very same question that I hear persistently being asked all over the United States—as well as outside of the States—by Christians who are anxiously looking at what is happening in the world. And today, just as with the disciples who were speaking to Jesus before His ascension, the answer is the same:
He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8 but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
(Acts 1:7-8)
What Jesus said above, as recorded in the Greek, is the exact same thing in the English: “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority.”
Modern day “prophets”
Over just my lifetime as a believer in Jesus (47 1/2 years), I have witnessed people who have laboriously attempted to determine when Jesus is coming back through their interpretive analysis of biblical prophecy. They conduct and attend conference upon conference those which support and encourage such a pursuit.
Here’s a question:
How does that fit in with Acts 1:7-8?
Or does it?
From a biblical, theological, historical, and practical perspective, it doesn’t fit at all! Sure enough, as we follow through with Jesus’ exhortation in Acts 1:8 to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world, part of that proclamation will unequivocally include telling people about the imminent return of Jesus and all that will follow. However, nowhere in Scripture are we exhorted to be guessing and “hyping people up” at every major event we witness as though each is a sign of His soon return! Instead, what we ought to do is present the Gospel in its entirety and be committed to “stand to the death,” if necessary, for the truth of the Gospel in all venues of our lives where we are today. This includes the political, educational, social, family, national, and constitutional issues facing us, and among those are the First and Second Amendments, without which, you would not be reading this Blog, and I would not be writing on it because there would be no freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and religious freedom, and we would very likely be ruled by dictatorial entity, denying everything we believe biblically, and we would have no way to resist and ultimately defeat such a dictator.
Therefore, what I want to do now is present a perspective on eschatology that is both important and timely for us right now as believers in Jesus Christ in the United States of America, as well as for all other people in the world who desperately want the freedom that is found in Jesus Christ in every area of their lives! Therefore, as we surrender and obey Jesus’ call in Acts 1:6-8, as well as Matthew 28:19-20, God will unhesitatingly take care of the precise millisecond when Jesus will return: “19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
“the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy”
The book of Revelation states that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Rev 19:10). Therefore, as we begin this series, the place to begin is “prophecy” because that is the “testimony of Jesus.” From prophecy, we will go into what is termed as “eschatology,” which is made up of two Greek words: ἔσχατος (eschatos), which means “last or end,” and λόγιον (logion), which means “saying, revelation, or teaching.” Thus, when these two words are put together in “eschatology,” the meaning is “teaching, or revelation, of the end.” So before we begin to study about the “end,” we want to first of all study about the beginning with Jesus, through Whom all of existence came into being according to Scripture (Colossians 1:15-17).
What is different about this study
It is very interesting to note, however, that oftentimes those who focus on “end times” teaching as a major emphasis of their ministry, do so with a de-emphasis of Jesus and a primary emphasis of events happening around them. Indeed, Jesus gave us some rather graphic word pictures of the events that would happen leading to the “eschaton” (i.e., end of time on this earth) both in the Gospels and the Book of Revelation; however, there are two things that Jesus said with reference to “end times” that seem to be consistently forgotten and dismissed by such preachers and teachers, and they are found in the following scripture passages:
But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.
(Matthew 24:36)
And so when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8 but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
(Acts 1:6-8)
Now, in the next few blog posts, we will take a much deeper look at these two passages, as well as the verses and contexts surrounding each of them, but let it suffice to say for the moment that Jesus made it extremely clear that no one knows when He is coming back! He did not equivocate by saying that “no one knows, except some learned and insightful preachers and teachers in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.” No! He said, without any exceptions of time, men, etc., that no one knows when He is coming back!