Reply To: The Lights Are Back On….

  • dana.acker

    Organizer
    January 24, 2023 at 3:33 pm

    Well, thanks to everyone for the vote of confidence. I say that understanding that you haven’t heard me yet. After the broadcast y’all might be getting out the torches and pitchforks😱. The take on Revelation where I land now was hard won. There are many aspects and schools of thought on end time Scriptures, and many Godly, Bible believing Christian people believe very different approaches to deciphering them. Are we in the end of the end times? The beginning of the end times? In the middle? What about the “rapture?” What about the “millennium.” What’s symbolic and what’s literal, or is any or all of it either…or both? So many roads to the end. Whatever one’s beliefs, we are 2000+ years closer to the return of Christ than when John began receiving apocalyptic visions on the isle of Patmos sometime in the 1st century. With so many views afoot, and those views often adhered to (and sometimes argued) fiercely, I believe we, as Christians, must practice charity, over all, towards those with whom we disagree. The people who believe the “rapture” is before “the tribulation,” and the people who believe the “rapture” is in the middle of “the tribulation,” and the people who believe the “rapture” is after “the tribulation,” and the people who aren’t sure about the “rapture” at all, are all our brothers and sisters in Christ. Period. Entrance into Heaven has never been based on, nor will it ever be based on how well someone can articulate eschatology (end times theology) or upon which view(s) they hold. Now is a time when we, who bear Jesus’ name, must come together; not divide over that about which the Scriptures are not clearly dogmatic. Our enemy is the devil; not the person who has a different view of the “millennium” than we might. That Jesus will return is not in question. Just when, and how that plays out (obviously) has been a subject argued about for centuries, as we have so many differing views on those matters. So maybe it’s time for Pre-millennials to hug an A-millennialist, and a Preterist to hug a Historicist, and a Pre-tribulation “rapture” adherent to hug a Post-tribulation “rapture” adherent, and grab an ale or a cup of coffee and act a little more like Jesus instead fighting about how and when He’s going to come back. That said, there are some aspects to eschatology that the end times “systems” either overlook or minimize, that “could” help us all navigate the raging sea that is end times theology. Stay tuned!