Click to join the conversation with over 500,000 Pentecostal believers and scholars
Click to get our FREE MOBILE APP and stay connected
| PentecostalTheology.com
The study of the end times is often avoided or heavily debated. On one side, there is a lack of understanding, and this causes some to stay out of the debate, so as to not get sucked away into something they simply are unsure of. Yet, some avoid the debate because they’re afraid. The subjects and depictions of the end times are frightening, and this fear causes some to stay away from what God has declared shall happen. The other side has studied enough to come to their own conclusions, and thus thinks that is all that is necessary to be able to then speak on such issues. I say that these debates are heated, because there are times when brethren tear one another down, in the name of “defending the faith”, all the while showing that something is horribly wrong.
The prophets don’t do this. When you read the prophets, they might tell us what God is planning on doing, but that is the secondary aspect to the oracles. What is more important is communicating the heart of God, and from knowing Him and His character, they proclaim the things that God has spoken to come to pass. For the prophets, the issue wasn’t about pointing out how others were wrong in their interpretation, and how because God has spoken to them, this is how we all need to understand what will happen, when it will happen, and how to prepare for such things. Rather, in their love for the Lord their God, they speak will intensity about the grace of God revealed through judgment and mercy.
Gary Micheal Epping
The Lord Jesus told us when, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other (MAT 24:29-31).”
Varnel Watson
The study of the end times is often avoided or heavily debated. On one side, there is a lack of understanding, and this causes some to stay out of the debate, so as to not get sucked away into something they simply are unsure of. Yet, some avoid the debate because they’re afraid. The subjects and depictions of the end times are frightening, and this fear causes some to stay away from what God has declared shall happen. The other side has studied enough to come to their own conclusions, and thus thinks that is all that is necessary to be able to then speak on such issues. I say that these debates are heated, because there are times when brethren tear one another down, in the name of “defending the faith”, all the while showing that something is horribly wrong.
Gary Micheal Epping
I agree. I don’t like to see brothers in the faith tear others down over different views on any biblical issues. We all know what can happen from the debate on Gen 1:2. Debate can be growth promoting when people listen to each other and seek the truth about what the bible is trying to tell us.