One of the most-mentioned laments among those of us who have Bible
prophecy as our calling is that seminaries are not teaching prophecy and
pastors are not preaching and teaching prophecy today. We refer to the
majority of the seminary instructors and preachers who otherwise preach
and teach God’s Word as inerrant truth.
Those who view the Bible as merely a book with good suggestions for how
to live, but don’t consider it the literal Word of God, can’t be
expected to understand the crucial necessity of preaching and teaching
the whole Word of God. These pick and choose verses, applicable or not,
to put forth their ear-tickling homilies, which by their very nature
avoid doctrinal truth. So, we aren’t pointing a finger of admonishment
at these.
Sadly, however, this description fits a growing number of seminaries and
their graduates. It is getting harder to tell the genuine from the
pretenders. More and more the words are sugar-coated, the points
supposedly made trailing off into the ether of mumbo-jumbo irrelevance. When one gently probes one or the other of the Bible-believing/preaching
pastors with the question: "Do you preach prophecy?” the answers are
along the same line. It’s my experience and that of others who ask the
question that 95 percent of those asked say something akin to the
following:
"Prophecy is just too hard for people to understand."
"I just don’t know about the subject, because we just barely touched on
it in seminary."
"Teaching people how to live as a Christians is more pressing."
"It scares people, so I just don’t want to worry them unnecessarily."
"People have been saying the Second Coming is here for years, and we are
still here. We need to deal with the here and now, not pie in the sky."
And my personal favorite:
"Some preachers are premillennial, some postmillennial, or whatever. I’m
'pan'-millennial. I believe it will just all pan out in the end." I have
to tell you–confess, I guess—that this last one always presents a
personal test of my temperament. Whenever I hear it, I see red, even
though I’ve been as physically blind as the proverbial bat since 1993.
Some of these preachers–a few--become a bit defensive and get rather
exercised, launching into tirades, arguing that we prophecy types read
far too much into the headlines as they might relate to biblical
prophecy. And I readily admit that this has and continues to happen more
often than it should.
The many episodes of date-settings for the rapture over the years, for
example, have done disservice to God’s prophetic Word. Too often I
receive formulas from all sorts of angles and configurations that claim
to give the precise time of Christ’s coming in the Rapture, or that
propose to have the answers to other prophetic events.
Despite the fact that there are those who are overly speculative in
their views of Bible prophecy, the following must be said.
To the
pastors of America who claim the Bible as the inspired, inerrant Word of
the Living God but callously ignore its prophetic content—be forewarned.
Your excuses/arguments won’t stand the test at the bema–the judgment
seat of Christ. You will be held accountable by the very Lord you
proclaim you love so much–the same Lord about whom the angel told John:
“for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Revelation
19:10b).
That same Jesus gave us the Olivet discourse, during which He laid out
general and specific things to come. The Gospel accounts give Christ’s
commandment of what to do about the many prophesied things He had just
foretold: “And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch” (Mark 13:37).
Prophecy makes up at least 27 percent of the Bible. Half of that 27
percent has been fulfilled, with half yet to be fulfilled. Anyone with
spiritual ears to hear and spiritual eyes to see is capable of following
the Lord’s command: “And when these things begin to come to pass, then
look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke
21: 28).
Certainly, if God calls people to be pastors–shepherds of His flock—He
equips them to feed the flock His whole Word, not just the parts the
pastor selects as important, while summarily dismissing the other parts
of God’s Word. Jesus said to “watch” for prophetic developments. And,
spiritually attuned eyes and ears–a condition all pastors should seek to
appropriate and maintain—can hear and see that we are at the very end of
the Church Age.
Just this week, the entire world, not just the Middle East, exploded
with rage. From Cairo and the capitals of Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan, Libya,
Bahrain, and Iran to the U.S. capital emulating the austerity cuts
tumult in Europe, the seas and waves of humanity are roaring with
distress and perplexity. From Juarez, Mexico, and the deadly drug wars
to the seas off Somalia and the murderous pirates who prey on their
victims, violence fills the whole earth.
Israel stands alone in the global spotlight as the most-hated nation on
planet earth. The world is in economic chaos, headed for total collapse.
All the while, technology is progressing geometrically in ways that will
one day provide earth’s last tyrant with the satanically endowed ability
to enslave most all people on this fallen sphere.
Yet many pastors of America are into building bigger, more beautiful
edifices in order to more spectacularly entertain their audiences. They
make claims that they are telling of God’s love. But, they are stressing
how to tap into that love in order to gain favor for acquiring material
things; they are not teaching how to share the message that Jesus’ love
is shown in that He died to save us from our sins. Too many pastors are
moving farther from teaching doctrinal truth. One such truth being
assiduously avoided is that of Christ’s Second Coming.
Thankfully, this Laodicean model doesn’t apply to all megachurches in
America today. Some genuinely preach and teach truth from the Bible,
although most, I’m sorry to have to say, continue to push aside Bible
prophecy in favor of sticking exclusively to life-lesson theology. The
responsibility to “watch” must, by the Bible’s very definition of the
word “preacher,” fall first and foremost on those who are called to
shepherd God’s people. The Word of God warns specifically about keeping
the flock informed, and about those commissioned to do so who fail in
that responsibility: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:
because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou
shalt be no priest to me” (Hosea 4: 6a,b). Paul’s admonition applies to
pastors and teachers even more, perhaps, than to those whom they
shepherd and instruct.
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to
be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2: 15). These
are perilous times, dear pastors and teachers. Bible prophecy at this
juncture in human history isn’t frivolous or an elective to be chosen
according to the pastor’s whim. The hour is late, and God’s people
haven’t a clue. It is critical that you begin giving them biblically
prophetic nourishment.