What we believe about the End Times will affect the way we live NOW

For many years, I called myself a "Panmillennialist" - I still hear people saying this. A funny way for us who didn't want to get caught up in End Times (Eschatology) debates and/or discussions of saying we think things will all work out somehow, or "pan out" in the End and it is a waste of time to worry too much about such a divisive field of theology. 

Why did I avoid Eschatology for so long? 

I think it was surely because I became a Christian in 1984 in an area where many churches were "obsessed" with the End Times. I still remember listening to cassette tapes by the most well-known pastor giving reasons why Christ will be returning in 1983 or 1985. Thankfully, soon thereafter he stopped with the date-setting. 

This, of course, was right after the 1970s when we saw the publication of The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Linsey and the 1972 movie A Thief in the Night. There was a popular notion that the End was near, a pre-Tribulation Rapture of the Church was imminent and the Great Tribulation was about to begin which would be followed by the Second Coming of Jesus. This End Times viewpoint well-known for its belief in a pre-Tribulation rapture of the Church is known as pre-Millennial Dispensationalism. 

These ideas spilled over into the 80s but the political landscape changed, the Vietnam War was in the past, the Cold War ultimately ended and a new optimism emerged that maybe the end of the world wasn't going to happen so soon after all. 

At the end of the 80s, I moved overseas and ran into an End Time view known as Amillennialism which I was then influenced by for quite a while as I never really understood the 1000-year Millennium and I was happy to not be so focused on the Antichrist, the Mark of the Beast and all the other Great Tribulation dynamics. To this day, many scholars and academics ascribe to some form of Amillennialism. 

I still would joke that I was a "Panmillennialist" as for many years I continued to be largely disinterested in End Times stuff. 

Looking back on the 1970s and the End Times emphasis at that time, a positive outcome was that many people gave their lives to Jesus because Christians shared their faith boldly; they called it "witnessing". They, of course, wanted nobody to get "Left Behind"

More recently, many of the churches that were birthed out of that Eschatological fervor of the 1970s or who held their same viewpoint did a lot better during COVID than those that weren't thinking about the kinds of things that the Scriptures say will happen at the End of the Age. 

They seemed to discern more accurately what was "really" going on and ended up finding ways to gather in person as the Church and largely rejected the so-called "safe & effective" experimental gene therapy shots (as they were NOT vaccines). 

Recognizing the warning in Scripture of widespread deception that will characterize the days preceding Christ's Return, they seemed to discern that all of it was a lie - that COVID wasn't what the governments and the medical profession were saying it was. And then, many of these churches openly rejected the 'programming' that the so-called "vaccines" were anything but "safe & effective".

We now know they were/are in fact UNSAFE and INEFFECTIVE. (of course, there are those who are still under the programming that do not yet believe this. That is genuinely a horrifying reality)

So the End Times views of these pre-Tribulation, pre-Millennial Dispensationalists, such as John MacArthur and/or the Calvary Chapel movement, ended up making a radical difference during and after Covid. In short, they did better than much of the rest of the Church. They did not succumb to fear. They didn't believe the deceptive propaganda. The fact that they were always looking for the types of things Jesus said would happen before His Return, resulted in their having better discernment and I believe their obedience to God was beyond commendable. Jesus would say to them, "Well done, Good and Faithful Servants". 

My criticism of that camp is largely due to their pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine. Why? Because those who believe it will simply not be well-prepared to endure the Tribulation if we are required to go through it, as the earliest Christians all believed. 

As much as I would hope that we get 'airlifted' (raptured) out before the trouble begins, the doctrine is nowhere to be found in the early centuries of Church History. Much like the apostles themselves and the millions of Christian martyrs throughout history, we often "will have Tribulation" (Jn. 16:33) as Jesus Himself promised. 

Another unfortunate belief of that particular Eschatology is a very negative outlook on the days right before Jesus Returns. The belief is that the world will get darker and darker, evil will increase and deception will rule the day, especially with the appearance of the "man of sin" (2 Thes. 2:3) and the great falling away. This often leads Christians to be passive rather than engage the institutions in our societies. 

This is where the Amillennialists and the Postmillennialists step in with a far more positive outlook. These views for the most part view the "tribulation" prophecies of the New Testament as having been fulfilled largely back in the 1st century (or the first few centuries). They believe we are now living in the Millennium and expanding the Kingdom and even according to Postmillennialism, "Christianizing" the world and all spheres of influence more and more as time goes on. 

These positive outlooks will mean Christians don't retreat from society and they won't be expecting only to see things getting worse and worse. I applaud these viewpoints as exercising faith to see God's Kingdom impacting everything it touches. This is simply true. 

So, what caused me to re-think my Eschatology? To stop calling myself a "Panmillennialist" and to rethink the Amillennialism that I had been so influenced by? To even begin studying the topic of the End Times more diligently?

I would say it was 2 things.

One is that a Bible teacher we were listening to said that there are 100 chapters in the Bible about the End Times and therefore it was not something we should ignore. Point taken. 

The other thing was reading a couple of chapters in the late scholar George Eldon Ladd's book The Blessed Hope. Whereas he was arguing for a view known as Historic Premillennialism that has some distinct differences from the pre-Tribulation Rapture position (Premillennial Dispensationalism), it was his work that revealed that the entire ancient church before the late 4th and early 5th century all held to essentially the same doctrines regarding the End Times. This has been called the Ante-Nicene Church - the church BEFORE the Council of Nicea in the 4th century.

I had long before rejected the doctrine of the Pretribulation Rapture, but Ladd's book also revealed the weaknesses of the other views, Amillennialism and Postmillennialism. And like I said, I was pretty much an Amillennialist for many years. 

The most obvious weakness which I have already alluded to of Amillennialism (including Preterist views - the belief that most End Times prophecies and passages were speaking of AD70) and Postmillennialism is that they teach End Times doctrines that stand in direct opposition to what the universal ancient church believed. 

The church at the end of the 1st century and into the 2nd century ALL BELIEVED there would still be a coming Great Tribulation, that there would in fact be a literal future Antichrist, that there would be a great falling away and that there would be a literal 1000-year Millennium AFTER Christ's 2nd Coming. So Amillennialism (a view invented by Augustine in the 5th century) and Postmillennialism contradict the views held by those who actually knew the Apostles personally, such as Papias, Ignatius, Polycarp, and Clement of Rome. And men who were spiritual grandchildren of the Apostles, such as Irenaeus the greatest apologist of the 2nd century.

Note: when I say the Ante-Nicene Church held to the same End Times viewpoint, it isn't that there were different ideas regarding the details. But the general narrative was exactly the same. Future Great Tribulation. Coming/future Antichrist. Great falling away/apostasy. Church going through the Tribulation. The 2nd Coming of Christ. 1000-year literal Millennium where Christ reigns on earth when Satan will be bound. Where did they get these ideas? From the Apostles themselves!

A second great weakness of these views is that similar to the pre-Trib rapture doctrine, Amillennialist and Postmillennialists will be unprepared for the Great Tribulation when it is upon us. Both of these viewpoints, believing that we are somehow now in the Millennium also believe that Satan is currently bound (Rev. 20:3). If Satan has been bound in the bottomless pit and unable to deceive the nations, as the Book of Revelation says he will be during the Millennium, how was Pagan Roman religion able to flourish? What about Gnostic heresies, culminating in Manichaeism? What about the Arian heresy of the 4th century? How in the world did things such as the birth of the religion of Islam take place? How did the Mongols arise? We can't forget all the false religions in Asia - such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism! How did atheistic ideologies/belief systems arise out of post-Enlightenment Europe? How did atheistic Darwinism come about? What about Marxism and Communism? Secular humanism? World War 1 and 2? Genocides? Abortion? The so-called "Sexual Revolution"? The porn industry? Human sex trafficking? Pedophilia? Luciferianism and other occult ideologies? UFOs/Extraterrestrials? What about today's Transhumanism and Artificial Intelligence (AI)? And the list goes on and on and on. All of this happening while Satan is basically incapacitated!?!? Unthinkable. 

I believe the history of the world since the coming of Christ demonstrates that Satan has been as active as possible to deceive the nations, destroy mankind, and keep people away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

There is no possible way he is currently bound in the bottomless pit unable to work on the earth! To believe this constitutes a huge deception.  

Do we know the timing of these End of the Age events? We obviously do not. The Christians in the 1st century thought Emperor Nero might be the Antichrist, others thought it was Emperor Diocletian in the early 4th century. When Islamic armies conquered Jerusalem in the 8th century and built an Islamic shrine on the spot they believed to be the location of the Holy of Holies of the previous Jewish Temple, some Christians viewed that as "the abomination that causes desolation" (Matt. 24:15). Certain Islamic rulers were viewed as candidates for the Antichrist. The Protestant Reformers believed that a Roman Catholic Pope would be the Antichrist. And we can roll down through history up until the modern era and find many other candidates that have been suggested as well - such as Tamerlane, Stalin, Hitler, and Mao.

What I do know is that when the "perilous times" are upon us (2 Tim 3:1) and we are entering into the final fulfillment of the events described in Matthew 24 before the 2nd Coming of Christ, we MUST be able to discern that, in fact, we are in that actual hour. Jesus fully expected His disciples (re-read Matthew 24) to be able to know what time it was when these events began to occur. That we would NOT be deceived. That we would NOT be unprepared. That we would know what to do (and not to do!). 

Many believe these "perilous times" are imminent. And if they are, I am personally going to be prepared. I believe we will be present on Earth during these days and will not be raptured out of them. I will be prepared for that as well. NOTE: I personally do NOT believe we are in that hour for the reason that I believe there are unfulfilled prophecies and promises in God's Word that need to happen before Christ Returns. 

Like the popular Preterist book, A Victorious Eschatology, I too hold to a victorious outlook. Just because I know that great evil will be prevalent doesn't mean that I have a negative, pessimistic outlook.

I believe that our mandate is to "occupy until He comes" (Luke 19:13). I believe the Kingdom will show itself as powerful in those days. I believe the Church will supernaturally come into unity. I believe we will see many of the things the Old Testament prophets spoke of will come to pass - including justice, vindication, and deliverance. In short, I don't push those things out into the Millennium but rather believe God will be doing those things IN TIME before the Son of God returns to Earth. 

Yes, even as great evil and deception will be rampant, Christ's Remnant will be manifesting His glory and power, and bringing in the greatest harvest in the history of the Church. 

So, maybe it is time we make some "adjustments" to our Eschatological views - to ensure that we are ready for whatever happens. If we are going to be here for another 2000 years, we will be ready and faithful throughout our lives. If the Great Tribulation were to begin next week, then we'd be ready to stand and to take ground for the Kingdom even in the midst of the greatest pressure that God's people will have ever known.

For such a time as this...