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Skepticism That We Are in the Last Days

Sinking sand in hourglass. Skepticism that we are in the last days.

A growing distaste for Bible prophecy is rearing its head in many evangelical circles. This often manifests itself in skepticism when men voice sentiments like  “we are living in the last days” or “Christ is coming soon.” These skeptics point to the failed predictions of the Lord’s soon coming in the past and scoff that today’s sentiments are no different. But their ignorance of history is as profound as their skepticism of the prophetic Scriptures.

 First of all, prior to the 1830s, there was no consistently literal approach to the interpretation of prophecy anywhere in the church. The fears men entertained that the end was near were not reasonable beliefs based on knowledge of the prophetic scriptures, but unreasonable beliefs that were birthed in ignorance of the prophetic scriptures and a superstitious handling of the same — e.g. the year-day theory or identifying the persecutions of the pope with the persecutions of the antichrist.

Secondly, between the 1830s and 1948  prophecy teachers often claimed that the world was on the cusp of the last days on the basis of “wars and rumors of wars” and similar prophetic points.  But this was a crucial mistake. The fact is, there was zero reason for believing that the world was in the last days prior to the rebirth of Israel as a nation, for that event is the foundational point that is assumed by almost the entire body of future prophecy.  Apart from a restored nation of  Israel there can be no last days. Israel is the chief focus of the last days.

Thirdly,  prophecy teachers since 1948 have often been guilty of a superficial treatment of prophecy that strays from straightforward exegesis. A common example is the teaching that the budding of the fig tree in Matthew 24 is the rebirth of the nation of Israel and that the generation which witnessed this event will go up in the rapture of the church. This has resulted in the definition of generation being lengthened many times as the decades rolled by and the rapture failed to happen in the prognosticated time frame. This is inexcusable. The context plainly tells us that the budding of the fig tree represents “all these things,” that is the events that happen during the seventieth week. While “all these things” presupposes the rebirth of Israel, nothing in the context or anywhere else in the Bible tells us how much time might transpire between the rebirth of Israel and “all these things” coming to pass. 

None of these three mistakes — spiritualizing prophecy, last days prognostications that didn’t take Israel into account, and superficial exegesis — are legitimate arguments against thinking that we are in the last days. The prophetic scriptures do enable men to discern the signs of the times. They do enable me to recognize that they are standing on the cusp of the last days and that the coming of the Lord is drawing near. Failure to do the job right is not proof that the job cannot be done.

In part two I shall take up this subject again and present a number of weighty arguments why I believe that we really are standing on the cusp of the last days and why it is not unreasonable to suspect that those of us who are still relatively young are likely to meet the Lord in the air without ever falling asleep in Jesus. There is no legitimate reason to indulge the rampant skepticism that we are in the last days. The signs are evident everywhere unless we intentionally close our eyes. 

“Eyes wide open, brain engaged, heart on fire.”

Lee W. Brainard

 

Make sure you read part two, Skepticism That We are in the Last Days, Part 2

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