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Is there Value in Studying Eschatology in Times of Crisis?
By Jay Wegter
There is an important reason why in I and II Thessalonians the apostle Paul spelled out the sequence of events which will occur at the end of the age. He desired to protect the Thessalonian believers from the instability, panic, and fear that can arise from rumors, counterfeit letters of communication, satanic temptation, and severe persecution. In several places in the Thessalonian correspondence Paul sets forth a clear eschatology in order to protect his converts from rash conclusions (see 1 Thess 3:3; 4:13-18; 5:1-10; 2 Thess 1:5-12; 2:1-12).
Today in light of the virus pandemic, it is common especially for those in conservative circles to ask, “Will these rights that have been taken from us be restored in full, or, will the ‘deep state’ utilize this crisis to begin instituting a new kind of order?” That is a legitimate question. We know from history that once governments have removed the rights of its citizens, those governments can be very reluctant to restore those freedoms.
Even faithful, Bible-believing Christians can be subject to fears during times of national and global crisis. Thus, the intent of this article is to briefly explore a few of the ‘big picture’ themes in eschatology which the Apostles have expounded in order to stabilize and prepare the saints for the consummation of the age. For, this author is convinced that God wants His people to grasp the ‘why’ behind the events which lead up to the Day of the Lord. For, redemptive history is about two kingdoms locked in conflict (the kingdoms of light and the kingdom of darkness), and about two ultimate destinies (glory and damnation). (By way of example, here is one of the puzzling ‘why’s’. The Bible indicates that God ‘put it in the hearts of national leaders’ to relinquish their countries’ sovereignty and give it to the Antichrist—an action which actually helps accomplish the Beast’s global agenda! See Revelation 17:17.)
Christians rightly regard the tribulation period to be a time of unimaginable carnage and suffering (Mt 24:21; Rev 9:15). But, what professed believers tend to consider to a lesser degree is that the tribulation period will be a time of unparalleled ‘spiritual holocaust’. In other words, the global apostasy will reach its fever pitch when the Beast demands the worship of the whole world. “He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed” (Rev 13:12).
One of the purposes of this article is to show that the march toward this global spiritual holocaust is taking place through a long sequence of apostate actions and philosophies. In the last half millennium of history countless unbelieving thinkers, teachers, and leaders have each contributed their deadly errors to the cumulative flow of apostasy. They have mixed their lies into a toxic cocktail of plausibility structures and damnable heresies that has been eagerly embraced by the West. The mass acceptance of this poisonous philosophic stew will prove to be the kind of preparation which ‘rolls out the red carpet’ for the Antichrist.
Scripture tells us in 2 Thessalonians and in the book of Revelation that the magnitude of this spiritual holocaust will be beyond the powers of our conception (see use of ‘whole world’ in Revelation 12:9; 14:3, etc.). We are told in 2 Thessalonians 2 that because men have not received the love of the truth, the gospel, so as to be saved, God will send upon them a strong delusion (a lie) so that they might be judged (2 Thess 2:11-12). I am finding that many Christians do not realize why God would permit the powers of darkness to work through wicked political leaders to fulfill their delusion so as to install a totalitarian world order.
Of course believers are hoping and praying that things will improve and eventually go well and that they will not have to see the kind of horrors which accompany the Day of the Lord. But, a respite may only be temporary, for the Lord tells us precisely how the end of this age will reach a climax of indescribable destruction.
What can easily escape our focus is that God fully intends to publicly demonstrate the wickedness and absurdity of the religion of man. This means that this idolatrous form of worship (of the creature and the creation) will be accompanied by tragic consequences (see the plagues described in Revelation). Scripture is clear on this matter, God’s fury will be poured out on the nations (Zeph 1:18; 3:8). You and I live in an apostate culture which God is going to judge—His holiness and justice require that (see the 12 uses of the word ‘vengeance’ in the book of Jeremiah alone).
The term, the Day of the Lord refers to decisive judgment from God that is concentrated in a series of destructive climactic events. Because fallen man is in league with the devil, there must be a very public crushing of the kingdom of darkness before God’s everlasting kingdom is installed (Zech 14:1-21). God is justly filled with vengeance at the pride and arrogance of the nations. The destruction of ‘political/economic’ and ‘religious’ Babylon is described in Revelation as a very visible event which will affect the whole world (Rev 18).
‘Babel’ and ‘Babylon’ are fitting terms to depict man’s rebellion.
Consider for a moment that what took place at the Tower of Babel (Gen 11:3-6). In terms of defiant motive, the spirit of Babel has taken place throughout human history—men have rejected God’s transcendent rule and in its place have desired a perfect state. Is it any wonder that God allows these utopian dreams to backfire? These arrogant social engineers imagine that they are getting their own way and are therefore reaching their sought after goals of governance. But, God is setting them up for destruction.
We could refer to this self-willed, self-deception as the Armageddon paradigm. In that mindset of self-delusion, nations imagine that through their wisdom and the strength, they will finally be able to usher in a utopian existence. Or, closely related, as our term suggests, they imagine that through their military coalitions they will be able to exterminate Israel (as in the Battle of Armageddon). But, Scripture tells us that the very idea they have hatched to invade and destroy Israel was actually fostered or assisted by God Himself. God removes all restraint in terms of their plan to destroy Israel. But, the arrival of their armies’ in Israel actually initiates their own slaughter. Micah states this perfectly:
And now many nations have been assembled against you
Who say, ‘Let her be polluted,
And let our eyes gloat over Zion.’
“But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD,
And they do not understand His purpose;
For He has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.
“Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion,
For your horn I will make iron
And your hoofs I will make bronze,
That you may pulverize many peoples,
That you may devote to the LORD their unjust gain
And their wealth to the Lord of all the earth (Mic 4:11-13).
This Armageddon paradigm is repeated over and over again in redemptive history. We even see this paradigm in Romans chapter one in which the judgment God sends comes through the vehicle of self-willed men being allowed to have their own way (“God gave them over” Rom 1:24, 26, 28). This is a dominant theme throughout the Scriptures that God sets traps for the proud. He turns the tables on them and they fall into the very pit that they have dug (Ps 7:15).
The greatest ‘pride trap’ in all of redemptive history is going to be sprung during the Tribulation period. For the delusion that God will send will trap billions, not just millions. This fills believers with mixed emotion; we long for the coming Kingdom of Christ, but we know that it will be immediately preceded by the awful Day of the Lord in which God will vindicate His Name over the destruction of countless people (Is 24:1-23; Rev 16; 14; 19).
Many Christians I speak with seem to have little interest in this big picture theme of Eschatology—of God vindicating His great Name in the judgment of the nations at the Day of the Lord. And, I must personally admit that like many of my brethren, I find myself focused more upon the welfare of my brethren, upon my immediate wellbeing; upon the freedoms and health I still enjoy, and upon the hope of tranquility in the near future. Yet, I cannot escape the big picture truth concerning the Armageddon paradigm. If I am to live in light of the eschaton and the coming Kingdom of God, then certain edifying behaviors are required of me.
Is our main focus as Christians the building up of one another unto endurance and perseverance? Are we prepared at all to step into local leadership if our neighborhoods and communities become characterized by chaos and anarchy? Or, have we placed all of our eggs in the Rapture basket, as if no preparation for opposition is needed?
When I study Scripture, these are the kind of verbs I see which describe what believers will have to endure. They will be: worn down, arrested, flogged, killed, betrayed, taken before magistrates, assaulted with falsehood, imprisoned, falsely accused, abandoned by brethren, refined, and purified (see Mt 10; Mk 13; Lu 17; 21; Jn 16 etc.)
I am convinced that Christian ministry must become a more intense form of preparation for battle readiness. We are not really helping our brethren if our gatherings have merely socializing and friendship as the bottom line. A sweet little Bible study with three points, a poem, and a song will not do. We need utter deliberateness in preparing our brethren for what is to come. As the perilous times spoken of in 2 Timothy 3:1ff., the pressure to compromise in order to have ‘security’ will be overwhelming. The strength to stand for gospel truth when the majority is ridiculing you must come from very intentional preparation—from daily loyalty to Christ, the Lord.
Lest we forget, one of the reasons Jeremiah’s ministry was hated so bitterly was because he dared to preach that the nation’s ‘status quo’ ‘normal’ behaviors would result in God sending the sword to slay Jerusalem’s inhabitants (see Jeremiah 15). Our hearts can so easily fall into truancy. One may accurately say that the affections of the heart truly comprise ‘disputed territory’. In other words, the loyalties of the heart are frequently tried and tested under affliction. Therefore, the spiritually mature must major in cultivating ‘spiritual sight’ among Christian listeners and disciples. For, no man will suffer for what he cannot ‘see’—he will not suffer and sacrifice for what he does not behold enough to treasure and desire.
Our Savior warned that right up to the day of Noah’s flood and right up to the day of the burning destruction of Sodom, society was characterized by ‘normalcy’ and routine:
And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed (Lu 17:26-30).
Our functional loyalties in tranquil times shall be graphically revealed in trying times. Consider that the irreconcilable distance between the two kingdoms is also illustrated by the chasm between believer and unbeliever—it is a distance more vast than we can imagine (2 Cor 6:14-18). For, only a person who has been regenerated can perceive the glory of Christ and His coming Kingdom (2 Cor 4:6). And, only a person who has been born again is able to hear and heed the words of the Good Shepherd (Jn 10:4, 16, 27).
Paul the apostle seamlessly joins the eschatological promises made to believers with the godly behaviors that are to characterize those who walk in fellowship with God:
Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as ᵇothers do, but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing (1 Thess 5:1-11).
Our training and equipping of believers must incorporate the same eschatological dimensions exemplified by the apostles and by our Lord if we are to be faithful to the whole counsel of God.