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?
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I watched a video this week of christian missionaries, pastors, and laypeople being literally beaten to death by angry mobs in India. It was watching this that made me realize Revelation was not written for comfortable, safe, American Christians. It was written because those who face death daily for his sake, need to know the ending of their story. We look for predictions, signs and wonders, they look for hope made certain and strength to stay the course. I've always thought something was amiss about the way we looked at Revelation and end times prophecy, but this helped me pinpoint it this week. It's written for Christians who suffer for Christ, and we too rarely number among them. Here's the link to the video (it is graphic) http://ow.ly/1at2A
ReplyDeleteI found studying end times extremely frustrating. So many opinions and understandings and everyone claims they have the correct view. It was extremely difficult to grasp the imagery of Revelations, Daniel and Ezekiel and come to a conclusion. I opted to listen and take in information. Surely God can tell it like it is in a way I can understand. The one thing I know for sure is Jesus is coming back, I don't think that is in question or is it?
ReplyDeleteAlexis,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughts! I think you are right that as Revelation was written to persecuted believers, it is hard to grasp its power in a comfortable context. The challenge for us is avoiding our ivory tower tendency to speculate about dates and signs, and instead to actually allow the text to engender the hope and perseverance that is was always meant to give!
Anonymous Commenter,
ReplyDeleteThe imagery of these books is certainly the greatest hinderance to immediate understanding. I am not sure what you mean by "I opted to listen and take in information." But I agree that if we know nothing else about the return of Christ, we know that Christ will return!