I think there is a ubiquitous “rapture mentality” that is making the Church much less effective than it might otherwise be and therefore harming the world around us. This rapture mentality manifests itself in this type of sentiment: “Jesus, the world is getting so evil, please just come and get us out of here, NOW!”
I have heard many Christians during these past few years claiming that the end must be very near because of all the evil in the world today. This viewpoint, I believe, is based on the eschatology that is common amongst today’s evangelicals that believes the world will get more and more evil until the rapture takes us all away and the tribulation turns the rest of the unbelieving world to toast.
I categorically do not believe that this is God’s heart toward humankind.
In fact, I would go so far as to state that the book of Revelation is not actually about future tribulation, and that Matthew 24 is not about events parallel to the book of Revelation, and that the world is not about to end in fiery punishment.
The actual content and message of Revelation is not the subject of this post (that will come at another time), but regardless of how the world is going to end, the Christian response to the things we see happening in the world today should not be “just get us out of here and send the rest of the world to hell.” That’s not the heart of God, because all human beings are God’s children, and He is not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9).
I also do not believe that a tiny minority of human beings will find Jesus and be saved while the majority of people go to hell. This belief comes from the words of Jesus “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).
First of all, this is a contradiction to the promise of God to Abraham that his seed would be too numerous to count (Genesis 16:10). We are all Abraham’s descendants. “Too numerous to count” is not the same thing as “there are few who find it.” So, either Jesus was lying or he meant something different than we have been taught.
I believe that Jesus is simply making an analogy to those followers of His at the time he was walking the earth. The majority of people around Him did not accept Him as the Messiah, and therefore the true Believers were in the minority. But that would all change after His death and resurrection. Paul and the other apostles turned the world right side up as they saw the gospel spread quickly and miraculously across the known world.
Perhaps we should consider the prophecy in Isaiah 60. It begins like this:
“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. “For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples.”
“See?” one might say. “The bible says that darkness will cover the earth!” Well, let’s keep reading:
“But the Lord will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes round about and see; they all gather together, they come to you. Your sons will come from afar, and your daughters will be carried in the arms. Then you will see and be radiant, and your heart will thrill and rejoice; because the abundance of the sea will be turned to you, the wealth of the nations will come to you.”
And it goes on and on. Doesn’t sound so much like horrific rapture theology does it?
Bottom line is, we just don’t know exactly how it’s all going to end, or when. But I believe that the blood of Jesus is far more powerful than “there are few who find it.” That’s not a very glowing recommendation for the sacrifice of Jesus.
There are many prophetic voices who are talking about the “billion soul revival,” and that we have already begun the “Third Great Awakening.” I am firmly in that camp. Sure, things look dark now and they could very well get darker, but only from a certain perspective. Remember, Isaiah prophesied that “darkness would cover the people” but for us who know God, “His glory will appear upon you” and “nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.”
The rapture mentality tends to cause us to hunker down and just wait for the rapture, which may very well be 300 years from now. Abraham’s descendants will be innumerable, but as of today their number is quite finite. What if the world goes on for another 1000 years and Abraham’s descendants truly become “like the sand of the sea?” It could happen.
Think of this: in America, we see certain aspects of our constitutional republic going down in flames (which I believe will soon be reversed), but remember that in other countries they are experiencing miraculous revival. I read where experts expect Africa to be 90% Christian within the next decade or two.
We Americans tend to judge biblical eschatology from our own limited viewpoint, forgetting that we comprise only 4.1% of the world’s population. I don’t think we have the right to judge the fate of all humanity based on our own political or social problems.
An army planning to withdraw will never win another battle. That’s not the way it works. In order to win, in battle, in sports, in life, we must believe that we can indeed win. The rapture mentality is a loser’s perspective. We can’t win against the evil, so we need to escape and let God destroy everyone else.
Nope. That’s not the way it works, because God appointed us to be His hands and feet on this planet. He’s not going to miraculously solve every problem, heal every disease, calm every storm, without our input. WE ARE THE ONES who are supposed to be doing all that. WE ARE THE ONES who are supposed to be fighting to win. WE ARE THE ONES God chose to reign on this earth, and I believe that is what’s going to happen.
Let’s fight together. Let’s fight for truth, for freedom, for love, for purity, for righteousness. Let’s take the words of Jesus to heart: “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and ALL THESE THINGS will be freely given to you.”
God handed over the dominion of this earth to Adam and Eve, who lost that authority to the devil. But Jesus won it back and took back the keys of heaven and gave them to us: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:19).
We are here to fight for the kingdom of God, and our battle is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12). Let us not lose faith because of some stupid social ills that are plaguing us for the moment, but let us remain faithful to the promises of God that we will “overwhelmingly conquer” (Romans 8:37).
Think about that term “overwhelmingly conquer.” That’s an amazing promise! Who’s with me?
It’s interesting that our planet is currently perfectly positioned in a place that allows for an abundance of life to thrive including humankind. I can’t remember off-hand exactly how much longer that ideal position is expected to last, but it’s been there for millions of years and will be for many more millions of years. As long as some catastrophic event doesn’t radically alter it, which is possible, for sure.
On the other hand, it does sometimes feel like we could easily destroy ourselves, especially the way things are currently going, but we’ve been down these types of roads before and have come out even better on the other side. In fact, that has been the arc of known human history. Greater justice seems to emerge from great trying times of injustice and tyranny.
With all that in mind who is to say how much longer humankind will go on existing on earth? We don’t really know and interpreting the Bible in such a way as to believe the end is most certainly be at hand is questionable at best. I mean we may be only a few years or even moments from the end of the world, but do we have any definitive reasons to believe that?
Maybe we should try thinking differently. Maybe God is trying to get us to think in ways that put the redemptive work of Christ through us as widely culturally transformative? Maybe his plan is to create an environment on earth where God’s will is done more frequently than not, becoming more closely aligned with the way it is in heaven? Why else would Jesus leave us with such a prayer? Maybe the condition of the earth is actually our fault because we have, over the last 100 to 200 years had an escapist mentality rather than an occupying one.