The 10 Reasons Christ is Coming Back in 2010

That list would be a lot easier to assemble than the 88 reason list assembled by Edgar Whisenant about why Christ would return on Rosh Hashanna 1988. End times obsession has been a major feature of fundamentalist/evangelical Christianity for the last couple of centuries. It has given us such delights as Hal Lindsay's Late Great Planet Earth, the atrocious Omega Code, and the ever popular Left Behind series.

End times obsession was a key note of my upbringing. I remember 1988. I remember my pastor giving us the highlights of the 88 reasons and my mother copying them down on a scrap of paper from her purse. The first book of the Bible I ever read on my own was the Revelation. I had one of those small Gideon New Testaments that I would sit and read. When I was a teenager we spent the better part of a year going through Revelation as a youth group. That was good times.

All of this end times focus had a very odd effect on me. I found that I regarded the return of my Lord with some mixture of fear and morbid curiosity. The book of Revelation was like a horror movie that I did not want to watch but could not look away from. As I have grown, I have learned that I am not alone in this response.

Should this be the case? Shouldn't the our response to the return of Christ be some mixture of joy and hope rather than fear and morbid curiosity? 

What do you think? What is your experience with end time obsession? How do you think we should engage matters of the end times?

The Secret Key That No One Has Ever Told You...Now Revealed!

This is a portion of a talk I will be giving to some Moody Bible Institute students this week.

I want to address the question for you all, ‘What does it take to sustain a life of mission?’Now I don’t mean what does it take to have success in ministry, or what does it take to see fruit in mission. No, I mean what does it take for me, for you to fulfill the calling to a life of mission. What does it take to sustain a life dedicated to mission over long days and weeks, and months, and years. 

In seminary, we were required to attend 3-4 chapels per week. And different people would come and tell us all about the things we needed to know when we got out into the real world. All the secret “keys” they don’t teach you school. By the time I graduated, I had a key chain full, and I’m not talking about normal key chain, I mean one of those janitorial staff key chains that looks like an impossible knot of like 400 keys. Keys to being a good minister.

But I have found that there really is no “key.” There is not some special practice that no one has ever told you about, it’s not some magical ratio of the time spent in prayer to the number of hours spent with people that will sustain you. The only “key” is the most ancient, most widely practiced, most fundamental, simplest, clearest, and well-known thing you can imagine.

I have found that sustaining a life of mission takes an unyielding commitment to the centrality of the person of Jesus Christ. That’s right folks, the answer is Jesus. Now don’t confuse what I am saying here. We are not talking about the doctrine of Christ, although that is extremely important.  And we are not talking about the text of the Gospels, although they are some of the most important documents in the history of our world. We are not even talking about the veracity of the historical Jesus, although the fact that the apostles give us reliable witness to the real Jesus is of crucial importance. None of those things is what I truly central. Sustaining a life of mission takes an unyielding commitment to the centrality of Jesus, himself, the living savior, the risen Lord, to his person, to him.

Now why do I say we must have an unyielding commitment? The problem that we face is our own tendency in ministry or mission of any kind, to confuse the means with the end.It should be clear from what I have said that the end I speak of is the very person of Jesus Christ himself. He is true end, or goal, or purpose, of everything we do in ministry and mission. What I am saying is that the means by which we reach this end are easily viewed as ends in themselves.

Probably the most insidious confusion of the means for the end happens with the Bible itself. Make no mistake about it, the Bible is a means, not an end. The Bible is the unique and inerrant witness to God’s actions. It is the specially appointed place where we can meet with the Lord, here his voice, experience his grace and love, and most importantly encounter our savior, Jesus Christ. The Bible is the primary means by which we come to know and commune with the very person of Jesus Christ.

But in my life, the Bible became an end in itself. When I went to seminary, I wanted to master the text of scripture. I don’t mean just to know a lot about it, I mean I wanted to be an exegete. Through my mastery of Greek and Hebrew, I wanted to become deeply acquainted with every detail of the text. Through my research, I wanted to become well versed in culture and literature of the Biblical world. Through my reading, I wanted to become aware of every possible perspective, interpretation, idea, or argument related to the text. I wanted to master the text. For me, knowing Jesus fundamentally meant knowing the text. It was a complete confusion of the means with the end. 

Making the Bible an end in itself will leave you very knowledgeable about the text, but completely cut off from its living Author. But if we will see the Bible as a means rather than an end, if instead of seeking to master the text, we come seeking to submit to Christ, the Lord himself will meet us there. I will tell you that in sustaining a life of mission, there is no substitute for encountering Jesus Christ himself through the Bible.

The statement that the Bible is a means rather than an end may be striking to some. What do you think about that (or about anything else I said that struck you)?