An article on the Christian Post deals with
deception and the end times. I agree, there’s a great deal of deception out
there. The deception has been going on for a long time because of a
misreading of prophetic texts and the timing of their fulfillment.
The author quotes the following:
But
you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the
apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, “In the
last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts (Jude 17-18).
What were they mocking? They were mocking the
words of Jesus that He would come in judgment before their generation passed
away, something you will find in the three synoptic gospels (Matt. 24:34; Mark 13:30; Luke 21:31:32). This event, the destruction of
Jerusalem, took place in AD 70 when the Romans destroyed the temple, taking it
apart stone-by-stone just as Jesus predicted (Matt. 24:1-3).
The 40-year generation was about to pass away
when Jude wrote. The temple was still standing. There was no hint that Jesus’
prediction would happen. That’s what the mockers were mocking.
But the events Jesus did predict came to pass
just like He said they would.
If what Jesus said about “this generation” —
their generation — did not take place within a generation of when the prophecy
was given and still hasn’t taken place after 2000 years, then the mockers would
have a right to mock.
The same is true of Peter’s language about the
mockers (2 Pet. 3:3). The question is, who’s doing the
deceiving? The real deception is coming from prophecy writers who have
misapplied prophetic texts to a period of time still in our future.
The author criticizes The Purpose Driven
Life and Unraptured. He says they “trash end-time
Bible prophecy … because … they contradict what Jesus, the apostles, and the
prophets said about it.
When
the disciples asked Jesus about his coming and the close of the age in Matthew
24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, He told them to be alert, stay awake, and be ready.
In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Paul affirms the
rapture and tells us to be informed and encouraged. In 2 Timothy 3:1-9, Paul warns of spiritual
conditions in the last days and affirms all scripture. Finally, in 2 Peter 3:11, he exhorts us to holy living,
waiting for and hasten the coming Day of God.
As I mentioned, Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke
21 are about events that happened to the generation of Jesus’ day. Jesus’ use
of “this generation” refers to their generation, not some distant generation.
Every time “this generation” is used by Jesus it refers to the generation then
living.
“This generation” does not mean “this kind of
generation.” If Jesus wanted to say “this kind” (γένος) of generation, then
He would have said it. See Matthew 17:21.
The author, Howard Green, writes, “I’m not here
to attack these men but to warn you about them and their deceptive teachings.
We live in a day when almost everything passes for sound doctrine if it seems
spiritual enough. But our standard can’t be man’s opinions, no matter how
popular, hip, or relevant they may seem.”
Literally, for hundreds of years prophecy
writers have claimed that their generation was the last generation when all
along it was a past generation that underwent a “great tribulation,” of which
the apostle John said he was a “fellow partaker” (Rev. 1:9).
This isn’t to say that there is no longer any
tribulation. Christians around the world are experiencing it. In the world, “Jesus
told His disciples, you will have tribulation (John 16:33; Acts 14:22).
The “last days” refers to the last days of the
Old Covenant, not the end of the world or the so-called “rapture of the
church.”
How do we know? Because the Bible says so:
God,
after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in
many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He
appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world (Heb. 1:1-2).
The writer of Hebrews is not talking about some
distant period of time. He was writing about his time. The Old Covenant was in
the process of passing away:
When
He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever
is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear (Heb. 8:13).
That word “ready” is actually the Greek word
for “near” (ἐγγὺς). “Near” does not translate into 2000 years of history.
I haven’t read Rick Warren’s The Purpose
Driven Life or Zack Hunt’s Unraptured, but if they are not dealing
with Bible prophecy as fulfilled prophecy based on the time texts, then they
are just as wrong as Mr. Green.
