End Times, According to Paul

We may think to ourselves that Paul was not into end-times stuff as much as John or Peter or Daniel. By thinking this, we cut ourselves loose from the plain teaching of the New Testament that there is a judgment  after death, and that’s the final wrap. In his usual clever methods of deception, Satan uses the holy scriptures as a smoke screen for his real intents. He just wants our attention off salvation and onto something else. He assures us we are saved no matter what and that it’s time to go onto bigger and better things, like eschatology (end-times stuff). By doing this, he makes our salvation unsteady and we focus on things other than godliness in Christ Jesus. This has been proven over and over again by various sects and cults that pop up whenever a thousand years goes by, or a big meteor shower or comet shows up unexpectedly, or somebody gets a message from God.

Paul says to the Thessalonians, "Let no one deceive you in any way, for the Day of the Lord will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction." He does not go on to speak of Hal Lindsey-type prophesies or other pop theology, but he explains very carefully that God will send upon them (those who are perishing) a deluding influence in order that they might believe what is false. We may think to ourselves that we know what 2 Thess. 2:7 means where it says "until he is taken out of the way." Pop theology says that this is the secret rapture of the church. The holy scriptures in no wise say this. This is a fabrication using wishful thinking and several scriptures relating to the visible, only, coming of Christ. That’s why the Greek text calls the second coming the "appearance" and not the "disappearance."

But let’s say you just don’t believe any of this and want to hope that you will be raptured out of here before anything bad starts to happen. On what are you placing your hope? Are you ready? Are you of those who think they are saved and yet they are so locked into this world that even if there were a rapture, the Lord himself couldn’t drag you up into the sky because you got your arms locked around the things of this world? And why do you find yourself in this fashion? Isn’t it precisely because of the doctrines you hold about the end times?

You probably find yourself absorbed in things that are totally unrelated to salvation in Jesus Christ, and yet you feel that God has called you to do them anyway. Let’s say you go around trying to sell your fellow Christians life insurance, or annuities, or legal advice, or real estate, or automobiles, or automobile insurance, or...you get the drift. You are a modern-day American Christian whose hope lies in the things of the earth and you focus others’ attention on you and your false hopes. You run the youth groups and are active in organizing all the church’s activities. You are a Sunday school teacher and the pastor lets you preach whenever he is on his vacations to Tahiti and Barbados. You can really shine.

But you hate the gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh sure, you believe in the four spiritual laws. You know that Jesus came into the world to save sinners and that God loves you. You even believe that Jesus died on the cross and that he rose again on the third day. You know all of this, but you still hate the gospel. If you really thought that you were saved by the gospel, then why are you so angry when someone presents it to you in a Biblical form that shows you that you must repent in order to be saved? That’s the gospel that Jesus Christ himself preached. No, you want to give intellectual assent to a few things that Christ did for you because he thinks so highly of you. Or, if you like the gospel so much, why do you spend a fortune making yourself comfortable here and pleasing your flesh, and then giving a pittance to the Lord’s work? You base your entire life on this misunderstanding. And in order to remove the true gospel of repentance from your mind, you think a lot about the rapture and everything that happens after you are out of here. You can be a distant observer and judge of events then, even as you are now, engrossed with holy entertainment.

Now you may say to yourself, this man is brutal and crude. He should be tender and gentle with my conscience, like Robert Schuller or Pope what’s-his-name. Let me speedily add that I trust you are not a follower of either of these men, but if you are, please reconsider your salvation. Tenderness and gentleness await those who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart. But, as Paul says, "If any man does not love the Lord Jesus, let him be accursed." Not all men have faith, even though they take great pains to assure themselves they do. They spend their days on theological issues that they cannot prove and that lead to doubtful disputations. They are ever anxious to tell you about some new accomplishment their church has accomplished (like winning the inner-city basketball championship). They will tell you that 500 people were saved during that conference (they have signed cards to prove it). And, they are very nice.

The end times are upon us, brethren. Of course, this has been said since the inception of the church, but it is the way it is. One or two thousand years to the Lord is like a couple of days to us. But the end could come suddenly, once the apostasy has reached its fullness. One after another of the big-name churches have fallen away. The best indicator is their acceptance of homosexuals. It starts with ordaining women, then goes to lesbians. By default, male homosexuals are also included. Mark those churches who love wickedness and have nothing to do with them. If they ask you, tell them to repent. Don’t even attend their end-times conferences or their plays or their spin-the-bottle fellowships. That’s why the end-times scriptures were given to us. So we could know when things are happening and what to do. If we can’t repent, then we are of the class: "in order that they may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness."

But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. And it was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word. Finally, brethren, pray for us that we may spread the word of the Lord rapidly, and that it be glorified, just as it was with you. 2 Thess. 2.

- Chris Simonson

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