By Eric Stogner – January 2024
Enough gloom and doom!
Are you often left wondering why a small handful of church people are always talking about gloom and doom topics? These folks seem stuck in the book of Revelation, or they find passages elsewhere in scripture that just cause alarm. They never tire of banging on and on about signs of the end times. Why can’t they see that most people don’t really want to be turned-off by that kind of scary talk? Can’t we just focus on the love and kindness of God, and push to the side all that other stuff? That would be a lot more seeker-friendly and encourage people to read the bible or go to church, as opposed to all that prophesy talk. Why dump more concerns on people who are already pretty stressed-out these days?
That IS how a lot of people feel – wouldn’t you agree? This includes many within the church, where there is little appetite for eschatology (the study of end times) perhaps because that might disturb the collective slumber in the pews. In the secular world, there is a term for these folks – conspiracy theorists. That phrase was designed to cast doubt on whoever it is referring to, and to also get people to ignore what they are saying. Within the church these people are sometimes called gloom and doom-ers, and the effect is much the same. It shuts down people’s minds to what they are saying. The question on the table remains, ‘Why should believers worry about eschatology? Doesn’t scripture say that ‘no man knows about that day or hour’?
Even though I am one of those eschatology geeks, I do understand the resistance to this subject. No one tells new believers to begin their study of the bible by starting out in the book of Revelation. These words of judgement and destruction do not sound like the good news – they are not happy topics, like say the promises of God or the salvation found in the gospels. New believers are often advised to read the book of John, and any of the gospel books, and then perhaps Acts or Romans, But we cannot cherry-pick the bible and only read the books that initially seem appealing. We have to accept the bitter with the sweet, but we can remember that the entire bible is still called the good news, so even the parts that don’t seem as good, are there for a reason that is ultimately good. So, lets unpack this, because studying prophesy has really gotten a bad rap. And once you understand God’s purposes and plan, it actually can be seen in the proper light – that it is all a part of God’s larger story and his glorious plan for his children.
Let’s first admit that, indeed, these are trying times, especially for people who are awake, alert, and oriented (See my prior article titled AAOx4) to what all is actually happening. Part of the reason people avoid gloom and doom topics, is that they are already bombarded and worn down by the gloom and doom that the media hammers them with on a daily basis. Surely you have noticed how the news shows are always telling you more worldly things to worry about, and how even the visuals they use add to the sense of unease. They employ scrolling alerts at the bottom of the screen, and sound effects that sound like a blade slicing through the air, and graphics that constantly move with words in red like “Alert” or “Breaking”? This is not by accident; it is by design. The ‘news’ is not designed to calm or soothe, or even inform the audience – just the opposite, It is designed to stir us up, to cause unrest and keep the population in a constant state of anxiety. People that are filled with anxiety are easy to manipulate and control via fear and deception. That is the purpose of most of our media and the news in particular. (I plan to do an article on the media soon enough) Lots of wise people have limited or stopped consuming or even exposing themselves to this constant drumbeat of negativity. And I don’t blame anyone who has. In fact, I applaud and recommend it. Tuning out the secular news is a wise and health thing to do. A couple generations ago, this would have been frowned upon, with the instruction that it is important to be an informed citizen of the democracy, or of the world. But really, does the daily dose of murder and mayhem really help you to be a better citizen or human being? The news stopped being news that edified the people a long time ago. Shut it off and start feeling some relief.
Then, there are those who are Christian but who don’t know much about prophesy or could be said to ‘know enough to be dangerous’. A limited or surface-level familiarity with prophesy can actually add to that sense of unrest. Unless you know the whole story, much of what you read in prophesy can be disconcerting to say the least. Hearing about horses with deadly angel riders, bringing about war and famine, and seal and bowl judgements, and the conditions that will exist during the last years before Christ returns are not happy topics. So, I think a lot of people end up avoiding prophesy and thinking that ignorance is bliss. They think – just stop focusing on it and you will feel better. And at one level, it is true. And I won’t deny that there are times that I also become overwhelmed by what I see happening and by the things that I am aware are going on behind the scenes that I just can’t seem to ‘un-see’. At times like that, I too want to just check out and shut off all the sources of information that I follow. We are living in a world at war – and the closer you are to the fighting at the front lines, the more weary you become. So, it is natural to be weary from time to time and it is a good thing to recognize when you need some rest. But this is not the answer – to ignore things and remain afraid of prophecy. And besides that, what I find is – the more you become aware of end-times signs, the harder it is to just sit back and pretend that everything is OK in the world. Once you see things for what they are, it is hard to ‘un-see’ them.
These days, things are getting so intense that even the secular media is starting to use prophetic and apocalyptic language in their reporting. In an interesting article titled “Swan Dive or Snare” published on Jan 9, 2024 by Terry James of https://terryjamesprophecyline.com Terry writes that:
“Mainstream news people – I am reluctant to call most of them journalists these days—have gotten the sniff…of the present state of decay in culture and societal interplay, and a prophecy of sort has emerged from among their ranks.” Apparently, the mainstream media is starting to report a “collective dystopian narrative – It is, to be certain, an unusual forewarning coming from the American propagandist cabal, among whom reside deception and deceivers, the likes of which I believe the Lord Jesus spoke of in the Olivet Discourse in answer to His disciples’ question: “What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Obviously, he is refereeing to the fact that mainstream media is full of deception, but he also goes on to point out the recent example of CBS News investigative reporter, Catherine Herridge, who made a “dark” prediction that 2024 will produce a “Black Swan Event” which will shock the world.
The dilemma remains.
So, there you have it, even mainstream media is sounding a lot like ‘doom and gloom’. And the dilemma of whether people should be paying attention or just sitting back and relaxing remains. If you choose to stay alert, the question becomes: Who should you be listening to? – the mainstream purveyors or murder and mayhem, or the prophesy watchers who are always sounding the alarm. This is what the choice appears to be, even among Christian believers.
Quick aside: Are any of you fans of the 1990’s comedy series “Seinfeld?” If so, do you remember the show where we are introduced to the phrase “Serenity Now!”? This episode that originally aired in 1997, featured the cantankerous character of Frank Constanza who, whenever he feels his own feelings of stress or anger start to build, he yells out the words “Serenity Now!”. It seems like a way to release stress, but the act of yelling the phrase also seems to add to the tension. That line became a funny catch phrase that eventually appeared on T-shirts and coffee mugs. Researching it, I learned that this humorous and somewhat bizarre behavior was based on the real-life experience of one of the show’s writers. As a child, he became bewildered when in an argument between his parents, his own father would suddenly shout “Serenity Now!” at the top of his lungs as part of a ‘rage controlling exercise’ recommended by his doctor, though he wondered whether or not the phrase was meant to be yelled.
I think this is what we all want to shout these days – “Serenity now!”. Guess what? Prophesy watchers have their own similar phrase. We shout “Maranatha, Lord Jesus”. Which means – come quickly, Lord Jesus.
So, its similar, but also quite different. Both groups are struggling under the stress, both groups seek relief, but ‘Serenity Now’ is a call for ignorant bliss in this world, while ‘Maranatha, Lord Jesus’ is a call to the Lord to come and bring peace that passes understanding, or better yet a plea to call his saints up and out of this world that is decaying into darkness.
Why study prophesy? Because is offers authentic hope.
This is the essential difference that matters. Unbelievers who have no knowledge or hope of heaven will seek a human solution to their unrest from the world. They still look to their governments, to science and they will eagerly embrace a man or leader who will offer them a worldly solution that brings them a sense of prosperity again. These people will never have solutions that work – especially when the problems emanate from flawed human leaders to begin with. Most people just want things to go back to normal – remember the sentiment after months and months of lockdowns? People who are in pain and chaos just want it to stop. And when this is at a global level, this is how the masses will accept an anti-Christ. Perhaps you have heard the famous quote by Paul-Henri Spaak (1899 – 1972). He was the former Belgian Prime Minister and one of the principal architects of what became the European Union. He spoke more truth than perhaps even he realized when he said”
“We do not want another committee, we have too many already. What we want is a man of sufficient stature to hold the allegiance of all people, and to lift us out of the economic morass into which we are sinking. Send us such a man, and be he god or devil, we will receive him.”
Truly, that is what the majority of the people think, or they will feel soon as the events of the world continue to unfold. That is the choice the majority of people WILL make when those who remain are so desperate from the challenges of life that they will be eager to accept the rule of the Anti-Christ. He will look like a Mr. Fix-it who will offer solutions to the problems that beset the world. Only his solutions will be a trap.
Authentic hope for the future comes from the Lord. Steadfast believers understand this and it undergirds their cries of Maranatha! – because, indeed, Jesus is the only solution to what is coming upon the world. Believers will be the ones who find the narrow path that leads to life. Whether they are caught up in the rapture before the great tribulation begins or come to faith after the rapture during the tribulation years, believers will experience the only solution to the evil that is prophesized to take down the world. And when we look around us, we are able to see it in motion already.
So, how much gloom and doom are we to endure from the prophesy geeks? How about none? Meaning – none of it should be gloom and doom. If you will dig deeper into prophesy and eschatology you will discover the blessings, comfort, and peace it actually is designed to provide. The problem is that people haven’t really read the bible enough or sat under good teaching to understand God’s ways and his heart. If they did, they would have eyes to see that this all ends well for believers. Instead, lots of people, have either not learned about these things, or learned them wrongly – hence, why they perceive prophesy as all gloom and doom.
Morgan Snyder, in his book “Becoming Good Soil”, makes this point when he asks the question: “How have you learned the Father?” He points out that “it may be better to have not known of God, then to have learned of him wrongly”. That speaks a deep truth that few give voice to. A distorted or twisted view of God may be worse than not knowing about him at all. And isn’t that Satan’s agenda – to twist and malign the truth about God, so that he might draw as many as possible away from God?! This is no small issue.
When Jesus came to earth, he was so very compassionate toward almost every person of every background – whether jew or gentile, slave or free, prostitute or physician, he was always seeking to teach and help everyone he encountered. Except one group – the Pharisees. Remember how he dealt with them. He called them a brood of vipers and described them as white-washed tombs. That is a completely different attitude than he took with anyone else – even against those who crucified him where he plead to the Father saying “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”. Why the strident position against the Pharisees? Because they were representing the Father wrongly, they were teaching the people wrongly, he said that they put burdens on the people that they themselves could not bear, and that they took a new learner and made him a worse son of hell than when he started. Learning about God wrongly is a really really big problem. One that Jesus came himself to address and set right.
So, what of prophesy and eschatology? If it comes from God, it must be a blessing. So, when people are afraid of it, or shun it as scary or problematic – what we are seeing is people who have learned of it wrongly.
Prophesy is not meant to scare us, but to prepare us:
I want to repeat a quote that Jan Markell uses often. She points out that, “Prophesy is not meant to scare us but to prepare us”. If we can understand that reality, we can face the future with peace and confidence because we can trust that the one who holds the future and who has foreseen all that is and will unfold and He will see us through it, come what may, to a wonderful future. Prophesy, when the Lord fulfills that which was prophesized in the past, is an important way that the Lord reassures us that he is large and in charge, that nothing that happens is outside of His knowledge and His will and that we can be at peace because we know that this all ends very well for the true people of God.
How is that? In its simplest form, prophesy means that someone tells you what will happen before it happens. That’s all it is. Wikipedia describes it this way: ”In religion, a prophecy is a message that has been communicated to a person by a supernatural entity. Prophecies … usually contain divine will or law, or preternatural knowledge, for example of future events.” This supernatural entity is outside of nature, and the insights provided by prophesy is information from that is beyond the knowledge and capacity of those living in that natural world to imagine, or to manipulate and control.
It turns out that if you research the prophetic content of the bible, about 27% is predictive and there are over 1800 prophecies contained in scripture. The accuracy of the prophecies that have already occurred is astounding. About half of all biblical predictions have already been fulfilled precisely as God declared. Because of God’s faithfulness, we can be assured that he will fulfill the rest of the prophecies without fault or exception. The vast majority of prophecies in the Old Testament point to the coming of Jesus the Christ as the Messiah. Most of them have been fulfilled, but not all. Not the ones that describe his second coming. Those are the ones we would do well to watch for.
Surprise parties are a nice event, but most other surprises are not that pleasant. Having a heads up about what is going to happen, from an accurate source, is always a help and a blessing. No one wants to be caught by surprise. All of scripture is about helping us to avoid surprises. It teaches us things so we can be prepared before an event happens. The wise virgins were taught to be prepared before the bridegroom was to arrive. Jesus was constantly telling his disciples what was going to happen to him, so that when it did, they could better accept and understand it and not be caught by surprise.
Prophesy also is to reveal God’s heart toward us:
Being prepared, and not taken by surprise (like a thief who comes to break in during the middle of the night) is a really good thing, but prophesy also does more. It reveals some of the plans and ways of the Lord. While his ways are not our ways, he does sometimes reveal his plans to his children. The entire story of Joseph begins with him having detailed prophetic dreams that, in essence, revealed what God was going to do and how he would save his people over the course of Joseph’s lifetime. Such a dream may have been difficult to understand at the time it is received, but over Joseph’s lifetime, the implications of the dream became more and more clear.
Why would the Lord reveal his plans to his creation? In scripture the nature of the relationship between God and humans is described along an ever-increasing spectrum of intimacy. At first, we are described merely his creation – like clay to a potter. Next, we are described as living creatures when we are called sheep, and He is our shepherd. Eventually, we are described as servants, and He is the master. From there we can become his disciples and He is our teacher – and so we grow into a deeper relationship with Him. But finally in John 15;15 it says: “ I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you my friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you”. And elsewhere, believers are called children of God. We have risen a long way from being just a lump of clay. Children are the most valuable to a parent and enjoy an even more intimate relationship with the father than even his friends. A father grants his children the keys to his kingdom, and they become heirs to his estate.
So, it stands to reason that our Father in heaven would indeed tell us of things to come, especially if we ask and seek him with our whole heart. And by so doing, He also reveals some of his plans and his purposes. Even though they are higher and better than anything we could possibly conceive, God sometimes gives us insight. And when you follow the narrative of most prophetic writings, they reveals things like: What God hates and how he will deal with his enemies. It teaches us how he wants us to live and what the purposes is of life and our existence in heaven. He foretells what we will experience in heaven.
Prophesy is also designed to Comfort us.
Prophetic information is actually designed to bring us comfort. How so? We can trust the events that will happen in the future because we trust the one who holds and created the future. What better way to prove or demonstrate his trustworthiness than for God to make some impossible predictions and then for Him to come through and fulfill those very predictions. That is the hallmark of true biblical predictions. God’s true prophets are not merely accurate some of the time, like a modern weatherman, they must be 100% accurate. The events of Passion week and, frankly all the recorded events in Jesus’s life, were in 100% complete fulfillment of the prophesies about him written centuries before he came. You could say that Jesus knew all he had to do because he already knew what had been written in scripture, but that doesn’t change the fact that it would be too complex for a mere man to fulfill so many prophesies. God set the bar very high by making so many prophetic elements in the description of the life of Christ, precisely so that people would recognize that Jesus must be of God. No mere mortal could fit every prophetic qualification. Therefore, the track record of fulfilling prophesy should give us great comfort because it reaffirms or validates that the Lord is indeed who he says he is; and He has the power to accomplish all he sets out to do.
There is it. That is the comfort that eschatology and prophesy should provide. When things are falling apart in our world, we can consult scripture and realize that things are not falling apart, they are actually falling in place – into God’s overall plan.
It is already a fantastic enough gift that God offers salvation to whosoever would come to a saving knowledge and trust in him as their savior. But that is only the beginning of what he offers. Once you are a believer, he wants to bless you by teaching you his ways and revealing things to you that only his friends and children are privileged to receive. I want to receive all the blessings and benefits of sonship that are available. I don’t want to live as an orphan or as an unbeliever.
Let’s ground all this in scripture:
This should give us hope. Read both the gloom and the assurance of blessing: It says in Luke 21: 25-31
“There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time, they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. He told them this parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.
See what this prophesy is revealing? There will be great anguish and perplexity, people will be afraid, but Jesus will be coming in the cloud with power and great glory. And the key thing for right now in our time…. When these things begin to take place (as they already are taking place) we should not be scared, but we who are believers should lift up our heads because our redemption is drawing near. And he repeats it saying – when you see signs appearing, like leaves that sprout in the Spring, know that the kingdom of God is near. That is the bottom line – we are seeing the signs and we share this, not to scare, but to prepare and comfort. Perhaps is is scary to those who don’t see and understand and believe – so the warnings to them are designed to jolt them awake and encourage them to dig deeper and become believers – so that they will be able to live in peace and hope as these last days unfold. Not in gloom and doom. Gloom and doom will be coming whether we like it or not. But, peace and hope is only available to believers. That is why we share these things.
Finally, how do we respond to those who say this is pointless, because no man knows the day or the hour? OK, let’s look at that scripture passage as well. That comes from Mathew 23:36 where, indeed, it says “about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. But, this is the danger of taking one verse out of context. Keep reading. Here is the larger passage: Matther 23: 26-44
“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him
See what is actually says? The specific time is not going to be revealed, but none the less it says Therefore, keep watch, precisely because you don’t know the day the Lord will come, So, we must also be ready, because it does say the son of man will come at a time when we do not expect him. Therefore, we should all be watchmen, we should all be wise virgins that have a full flask of oil because we are told, by prophesy that it will come as a surprise. This is why we remain awake, alert, and oriented to the times we are in. We are told to do so! Warned to do so! Why would anyone ignore this instruction designed to bless us and prepare us? And for those that want to busy themselves with the trivial pursuits in life, scripture mentions that as well. Note that is says that the end times will be as in the days of Noah. The masses are mostly asleep and engaged in evil, and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. The masses only focused on eating, drinking, and marrying. How sad that they didn’t heed the warnings. And we are seeing and living in the same situation today! These are the days of Noah. (In fact, one of my favorite YouTube channels that shares truth like this is called ‘DayzofNoah’). It’s like people think they are on a lovely cruise ship through life. But they don’t realize that the cruise ship we are all on is named the Titanic. And most will just keep eating at the buffet and drinking at the bars and having a good old time, while the ship is taking on water and the wise are grabbing their life jackets and assembling at the muster stations near their lifeboat. Wake up people! Jesus is your lifeboat, the church is your muster station, the bible is your life jacket. Put them on and be prepared. And take heart and keep looking up, for your redemption is drawing near.
Maranatha, Lord Jesus.
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