Thoughts from Revelation

The scene is set in heaven, where God Almighty sits on His throne in complete control of the course of history. John (many believe the Apostle John) is invited to witness something astounding. It’s something that no one has ever been privy to (that we know of) in all of humanity’s existence.

God offers a scroll securely sealed to anyone worthy to take it from His hand and open its contents.

The angelic order draws back, as they grasp the offer, as well as how far they fall short. These are creatures that have never sinned and transgressed God laws, yet they perceive the recipient is not among their ranks.

Suddenly, a man appears before the throne of God. Surely, no man has on the claim. For we know that the human race went wayward long ago. Only a third of the angelic host rebelled against God, but 100% of humanity has preferred their way to God’s.

Except One.

There has only been One who preferred His Father’s way to His, and so fully submitted Himself that He became the sacrifice that reunited the Father with anyone who so desires. This sacrificial Lamb now stands and boldly takes another installment of what He purchased: The title deed to planet Earth. Leadership over all the nations has belonged to Him from the Beginning, but now it’s time  again to act. Now it’s time to enact the plan so that His Kingdom will have it’s fullest impact and expression.

He is coming.

And there are things here that we must deal with.  Being prepared not only corresponds to knowing what Scripture says about His Second Coming, but our heart must be equipped to deal with the questions that accompany it.

Specifically, Why must Jesus do things this way?  Why, when the seals are opened, is there so much calamity upon the Earth?  Why does Jesus do it this way?  Does a loving God really allow such things to come to pass.  Does a loving God actually initiate these things?

We must do this if only to satisfy the questions in our own heart.

If we don’t know this side of Jesus, do we really know Him?  If we refused to know certain aspects of our friends, are they really our friends?

I would enjoy hearing any feedback you may have.

Josh

A Request

Tomorrow night we begin the first of what will be twelve sessions in an overview of the book of Revelation.  I’m excited to do this study for a number of reasons, one of which is to simply brush up myself on all things End Times.  But I do have one request as our group delves into eschatalogical scenarios.

We are listening/watching a series by Mike Bickle from the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Missouri.  We have all been influenced by the teaching and worship that has come from there, and for that I’m grateful.  But during this times, I’m hoping that we’ll cling to something deeper than an affiliation with a ministry, no matter how good they’ve been to exemplify Christ to us, as well as bring us closer to Him.  What I want is truth, no matter the cost.  I want us to challenge each other with a Berean spirit–searching the Scriptures to see if what they say is true.  We don’t want affinity to a ministry, we want to cling the the truth, the Word of God.

So as we endeavor together, let’s commit to each other that we’ll be discerning and thoughtful, as well as kind and gracious.  The whole point isn’t to put a few more pointer in our bag so that we can win arguments, but instead to find truth at any cost.  And to fall more in love with the Lover of our souls.

So for the two of you who check my blog with any regularity (and I’m married to one of them–thanks, babe!), could you help me to pass on my request.  I surely do appreciate it.

Josh

Food for Thought

“If the believer would enter into a better, deeper, fuller knowledge of God he must prayerfully study the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ as revealed in the scriptures! Let this be made our chief business, our great delight, to reverently scrutinize and meditate upon the excellencies of our Divine Savior as they are displayed upon the pages of Holy writ. Then, and only then, shall we ‘increase in the knowledge of God’. The ‘light of the knowledge of the glory of God’ is seen only ‘in the face of Jesus Christ.’”

A.W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, p 23-4.

New Bible Study

Thanks to everyone who was a part of our recent Life of David Bible study. I hope you got as much out of it as I did.

As we discussed, we’ll be starting our next study, Overview of Revelation, next week on a new night, Wednesday. I know that Revelation is a controversial book, but, hey, when has that every stopped us? I’m looking forward to some good discussions (and good coffee–thanks Kelley!).

See you next week.

Josh

Escort to Love

I found this quote from an article John Piper wrote dealing with eschatology:

The longer you meditate on the writings of the apostle Paul, the more clearly you see that genuine, deep spiritual experience depends on genuine, deep biblical knowledge. I mean things like faith and love and peace and joy—these precious subjective experiences of the heart—depend on the mind’s apprehension of objective biblical truth. From a biblical standpoint, studying and thinking and knowing are never ends in themselves; they always stand in the service of feeling and willing and doing. The mind is the servant of the heart. Knowledge exists for the sake of love. And all theology worth its salt produces doxology. (Emphasis mine)

I think we need to especially keep this in mind when discussing the end times.  Most of us–myself included–get really focused on getting our doctrine locked down air-tight so that we can win arguments, and we forget that the whole point is love.  If we leave that out, we’re just a clanging symbol.

Josh

Don’t Be Like Mike

In light of our Bible study on the life of David, I came across this great post by Voddie Baucham contrasting the acceptance speeches from Michael Jordan and David Robinson during their induction to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Enjoy.

Josh

Holiness Remix

Over at Justin Taylor’s blog you’ll find a short blurb from an interview with a church leader who is talking about sanctification (there’s also a link to the entire interview).  He highlights this section:

Sanctification here at The Village begins by answering two questions. What stirs your affections for Jesus Christ? And what robs you of those affections? Many of the things that stifle growth are morally neutral. They’re not bad things. Facebook is not bad. Television and movies are not bad. I enjoy TV, but it doesn’t take long for me to begin to find humorous on TV what the Lord finds heartbreaking.

The same goes for following sports. It’s not wrong, but if I start watching sports, I begin to care too much. I get stupid. If 19-year-old boys are ruining your day because of what they do with a ball, that’s a problem. These things rob my affections for Christ. I want to fill my life with things that stir my affections for him. . . .

We want our people to think beyond simply what’s right and wrong. We want them to fill their lives with things that stir their affections for Jesus Christ and, as best as they can, to walk away from things that rob those affections—even when they’re not immoral.

I thought it was so good I had to quote it here myself.

Contra Calvinism

I really respect the theological implications of Calvinism.  And I appreciate those who hold to its tenets.  I’m just not one of them.  This guy puts it better than I can: Why I Am Not A Calvinist. Enjoy.

Josh

Experiencing God’s Affections

This is one of my all-time favorite messages:  Mike Bickle – Experiencing God’s Affections

Lord, Come Quickly

“Thomas Merton wrote [in his book Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander] that when the church thinks it’s in charge of the direction of history, it changes the essence of the hopeful Christian prayer from “Lord, come quickly” to “Give us more time.”  -Shane Claiborne & Chris Haw, Jesus for President, p. 284

Recently I’ve heard a few different people share their desire for Jesus to delay His Second Coming because their friends and family aren’t saved yet. More than that, they want to see nations come to the saving knowledge of Christ before He steps again onto the world stage. Mostly I’ve smiled and agreed that I hope that Uncle Bill/the neighbor across the street/Rwanda receives the Savor unto salvation, but lately I’m questioning exactly how to respond.

It’s not that I’m not excited about evangelism. To the contrary, I fully expect our generation to see a worldwide harvest of souls that eclipses anything we’ve ever seen before–including the early church that saw 3000 and later 5000 people added to their community in a day. I’m hoping for at least a billion people to be touched by this move of God. And I want to be a laborer sent out into the harvest.

What concerns me is that while this desire sounds very compassionate, it’s not actually biblical.

Let me elaborate a bit. Scripture teaches us that Jesus desires everyone to be saved, however, we know that not all will be. We don’t know who will and who won’t, so it’s our job to work to share the Gospel with everyone we can while being a living witness of God’s love to the fallen world. At the same time, we read that the Holy Spirit inspired John to pen a prayer that goes, “The Spirit and the Bride say ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say ‘Come!’” (Revelation 22:17). This is just one short example of the many times the apostles exhort the Church to anticipate the Lord’s coming. Even Jesus Himself told stories about His Second Advent to prepare the people to wait expectantly for Him.

Now, was this all a giant waste of time? Was Jesus wrong to prepare people to see Him again on the earth very soon after His death? Were the apostles wrong to encourage people to live lives that were ready for the End of the Age at any moment? Of course not. What Jesus and the apostles were doing was instilling a quality of life that can only be lived in the waiting–as opposed to in the settling down and occupying. Many of us live as landowners instead of pilgrims on the earth. We’re busy building huge mansions instead of preparing for His return.

Will Jesus return soon (as in our generation), or will He wait another 2000 years? Who will be right? I don’t know. But what I do know is that it’s better to be obedient more that be right. And we can’t let our compassion be greater than that of Jesus’. We must extend love, grace and mercy up until the very end, but we can’t let our desires and emotions eclipse those of the Lord Himself.

You see, one thing you must realize is that there are those on the earth right now who need a Judge. Young girls sold into human trafficking need someone to intervene on their behalf. And when we say that we want Him to wait to come back, we step into the place of judge to determine the best application of justice and mercy. We put ourselves in His place. And that’s not okay.

I think one underlying reason that some people feel they have to ask the Lord to delay is that they believe a certain amount of people must be saved or that a certain percentage of the nations must come under His leadership before He will return. These are mostly called postmillennialist, which just means a view of end-times events that says the earth must experience a sort of golden age of peace and righteousness before Christ comes again. Again, this sounds nice, but it’s not actually Biblical. In my opinion, it’s more of an assumption based on a line of logic that follows from a certain way to read prophecy. Confused? You’re in good company.

Without going into full detail about conflicting views of eschatology, I’d simply like to recommend that we read our Bibles at face value, pray the inspired prayers in the Bible as the apostles prayed them, look for His coming in anticipation, and trust Him to figure out how exactly everyone who is supposed to get saved will be saved (as we continue to labor with Him in His harvest).

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!