This weekend marks fourteen years since two airplanes careened into the World Trade towers in downtown New York City. It’s been seven years since the Great Recession impacted our economy. There is a lot of speculation among Christian communities about what might take place this year.
Was God sending America a message back in 2001, and again in 2008? If so, what will it be this year? Will America finally collapse? And if America collapses, does that mark the beginning of Christ’s return?
Failed Prophecies and Scoffing Onlookers
For years, now, people have tried to predict the return of Christ. 1976, 1988, 1994, 2000, 2011, and now they are suggesting Christ will return sometime between 2018 and 2028.
Every single one of these previous dates were obviously false and we are still waiting for Christ’s return. People are beginning to mock anyone who claims that Christ will come again, especially when they put a date on it. It kind of reminds of 2 Peter 3.
Could it be that we have everything mixed up? That watching for Christ’s return has less to do with knowing how the events will unfold and more to do with faithfully serving Christ, today?
Peter exhorts us to “remember the prediction of the prophets” (2 Peter 3:2). Does that mean we’re supposed to spend our time and energy figuring out what exactly John’s vision means? I know not everyone who studies end times prophecies try to predict an exact date that Christ will return, but enormous amounts of resources still get poured into figuring out the details of the last days. Could we be missing the point?
End times and prophecy is one of the largest money making schemes of our day. I’ve spent five years working in the book industry and it is unbelievable how many books are out there about this subject, and how many of them sell. I also lived in Southern California, where they put on prophecy conferences and gather their seminary brainpowers and talk about who’s right: premillennials, amillennials or postmillennials. Is that what Peter was meaning when he penned remember the predictions of the prophets?
What if knowledge is distracting us . . . puffing us up?
Peter goes on to talk about how scoffers will come saying that God has failed his promise and how they forget that the Heavens existed long ago and that God is not slow in fulfilling his promise, but patient, not wanting anyone to perish. And then he says this:
“Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
“Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation. . . You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” (2 Peter 3:11-18 ESV emphasis added)
I don’t think remembering the predictions has anything to do with getting the details exact. It has to do with remembering that there is an end coming and so it is absolutely crucial that we live a certain way.
What if God is sending America a message? But what if it’s not to the government or secular society, but to the church? What if the message God is sending is about our failure to live in holiness and peace? Could God be calling the church to repent rather than figure everything out?
The Mocking Church of America
The American church is consumed with getting things right: having right theology, right understanding of all the prophecies, right way of evangelizing, right way of doing church—the list is endless. Satan has so preoccupied us with searching the Scriptures for eternal life that we’ve missed Eternal Life Himself.
While we are busy refining our doctrine, we have also been deceived into believing that we can follow Christ and build kingdoms of this world. We spend more time and energy arguing over politics, building wealth, worrying about our health and following our favorite sports teams than we do giving God glory.
We are selfish Christians. Concerned only about our well-being—eternally or temporally. Whatever level of spirituality we do have is merely for our own salvation and not the glory of God.
What if God’s judgment is not on us as a nation, but as a church?
Could it be that God has turned His face from the church of America?
Because of monetary prosperity we have enjoyed and the political freedoms we received at the founding of our nation, we became a spiritually egotistical church, assuming that God is always going to listen to us and jump at our every move.
Did you know that one can actually be at a place where God ignores his prayers?
Proverbs speaks of three kinds of people who lack wisdom: the simple, the fool, and the mocker.
“Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: ‘How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?’” (Prov. 1:20-22 ESV)
The simple person is someone who just doesn’t know any better. It’s not necessarily that they intentionally do wrong, they just don’t know.
“The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth. . .” (Prov. 1:1-4 ESV)
The fool knows better. He tried it, and discovered it ended in failure and corruption and he knows he shouldn’t do it again, but does anyway. He’s a fool!
“Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.” (Prov. 26:11 ESV)
The mocker not only knows better and still chooses foolishness, but if anyone dare to remind him of the outcome last time he made that choice—if anyone seeks to help him—he hates them. He wants foolishness and despises wisdom.
“Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury. Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you.” (Prov. 9:7-8 ESV)
Does God hear everyone when they pray? No. He will not hear the cry of mockers. He turns away and scorns them. Listen to what Proverbs says about wise people and mockers:
“If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you, when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD, would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices. For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them; but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.” (Prov. 1:23-33 ESV emphasis added)
Have we become mockers as the American church? We can’t call sin for what it is. We prop ourselves up under a mask of “knowledge of God’s word” (theology), but have no experience of true transformation in our lives.
I see a great divide in our churches that has been there for centuries and seems to only accentuate with time. The divide is between those caught up in the knowledge of Scripture and having sound doctrine and those caught up in experiencing “life” and “freedom.” What if both are a form of mockery?
When we have become so consumed with the details of prediction that we miss the point of living lives of holiness and making disciples we have become mockers of God.
When we are at a place where any time someone inquires about the direction of our lives we despise them in our hearts we have become mockers of wisdom.
Now is a time for repentance. To quit looking at the wicked filth of society, trying to straighten them out and instead acknowledge the pride and self-protection in our hearts. Now is a time to stop analyzing every church and doctrine and boxing people into “right” or “wrong” categories as if whether or not we agree with them has any eternal value.
Now is a time to start living spotless with peace and the grace of Jesus Christ. To quit comparing sins and begin confessing anything in our hearts that is contrary to the will and character and glory of God. Now is the time for repentance, not for dancing and rejoicing lest God turn from us forever.
We have a form of godliness, but no power! The Spirit of God is not free to move among us in transforming our lives or the lives of those we disciple because either we’re too busy getting our ducks in a row or becoming just like them. We aren’t at peace and we aren’t living lives of holiness.
Do you care about your unsaved neighbors? Do you long for society to be moral not just because a law requires them to, but because they have God’s law written on their hearts? Do you want to see God’s glory manifested once again in America? Then we, the church, must repent!
We try converting people through accurately explaining the doctrine of salvation. Or we test out cool ways of doing church to increase attendance. But everywhere in the American church, whether Anabaptist or Evangelical, Charismatic or Episcopalian, Holiness or Baptist we are losing sincere faith in following Jesus Christ.
In churches all across America and every denomination people are distracted from giving God glory. Leaders play politics. Immorality is rampant. Relationships split. Money is priority. Health is necessity. Comfort, entertainment and individuality is an entitlement. In the meantime, our prayer lives are dying.
All this knowledge is doing diddlysquat. Neither are we free or filled with life.
It’s All So Negative!
I know this sounds negative, I want to give hope.
But that’s the problem. We want hope aside from the hard road of following Christ. We want a hope that makes us feel good as we are. But we can’t stay as we are. We need change! We need the Lord! We need His transformation in our lives. And to receive that, we need to humble ourselves, acknowledge our hidden sin and cry out for Jesus.
God is sending us message, He is wanting to do something among us, to be greatly glorified in and through us. But we must decrease. We must lay aside our theological guns. We must put aside our libertarian piety. And we must repent, committing to and walking in the radical footsteps of Jesus.
The question is, are we willing?
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