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Endtime Specifics

Some of you, our fellow Family members, wrote asking if Peter and I had any comments on current world events and how they relate to the endtime. When we prayed about how to respond to these questions, rather than giving us explanations about the relevance of these things to specific endtime events, the Lord focused on what He indicated was even more important: dealing with our fear, which we wrote about in “Obliterate Fear with Faith.”
He led us to follow that up with the beautiful article “In Perfect Peace.” Jesus was reminding us of our solid foundation in faith and that He has taught us how to live His spiritual principles in our daily lives and how to help others to do the same.
To strengthen us even further, He has provided a framework of the overall endtime and many specifics about His glorious return that we can share with others when He shows us to. We know that before He comes back, there will be a time of great trouble, preceded by a one-world government run by the Antichrist, who will impose what the Bible calls the Mark of the Beast as he tries to force the world to worship him as if he were God.
We understand that, once certain events take place, we will know the time left until His coming. I believe that He has shown us what we need to know for the time being. If He knows we need more details, then He will show us more. In the meantime, He continues to provide what is most necessary; He prepares us to face and overcome the obstacles ahead.
Each time we’ve asked the Lord what our emphasis should be, He has said to stay focused on reaching the lost, feeding His sheep, and strengthening ourselves and others.
We have so much truth to share with people. We know that the Lord can change hearts day by day to become more like Jesus. There is no chance that we will ever run out of inspiration or guidance from God’s Word or His Spirit. He is also using this time to draw others to Him, reminding people of the brevity and fragility of the earthly life, and leading them to seek answers.
The Lord hasn’t told us specifically what role the present events may play in the bigger picture of the endtime prophecies in the Bible. However, He has already laid out the broader plan in sufficient detail to give us the vision and faith in Him that we will see the wonderful end that God has promised, whether it’s from this earth or from the heavenly realm. God is privileging us to go through this time, right now, in order to grow, progress, learn, and become more what He wants us to be.

Is Knowing Always Best?

In a related vein, while we are here in this life to learn, I believe there could be reasons why not knowing certain details at a given point in time can actually be beneficial. Several questions came to me that I feel bring up some valid points.
What if knowing more details about some endtime events would get me so focused on those things that I wasn’t able to keep my attention on my main job of sharing His love with others?
Could knowing some details cause me to stress or panic or to rush ahead of the Lord, doing things that would seem logical and right to my mind but which could actually be a distraction?
On the other side of the topic, if the Lord told me something wasn’t going to happen for a long time, would it make it much harder for me to endure whatever He knows will prepare me for those more distant times?
Knowledge is information, but knowledge on its own is not always beneficial. What did all that knowledge of good and evil do for Adam and Eve? God knew what was best, and He would have provided them with both the knowledge they needed and the godly wisdom to use it for good if they had chosen to trust and obey Him. But their craving to know more led them to disobey God. They gained all that information, but without the godly wisdom of how to use it rightly, all it brought them was pain and suffering and eventual death.
Consider the apostle Peter, when Jesus told him they were going down to Jerusalem and all that would happen there, including Jesus’ death. Peter had the best of intentions when he rebuked Jesus, telling Him that he wouldn’t let Him go (Matthew 16:21, 23).
What if Peter had been allowed to act on his own conclusions and somehow prevent Jesus from fulfilling His mission? The knowledge he had, without God’s wisdom of the greater plan and purpose, caused Peter to even try to fight against God’s plan in that moment. Peter eventually came to see that what had earlier seemed unthinkable was in fact the victory that overcame evil. But in that moment, based on what he knew, the thought of allowing something so terrible to happen was unimaginable.
I think I would feel the same as Peter did at that point. Without the full understanding of the ultimate results, I think I would have done absolutely anything I could to try to prevent it.
Jesus promised us that He wouldn’t place burdens on us that are more than we can bear. When He chooses not to give us certain details, we need to trust Him that there is a good reason for us not to know those things at the time. When it is His time, and He knows that we are ready to use the information wisely, He will reveal it.
What if He wants us to walk by faith through whatever is next in these times, so that what we experience can grow our trust in Him? God isn’t in a hurry, so why should we be? He knows the perfect time when further knowledge will bring the greatest benefit to us and to others.
If we knew the identity of the Antichrist, what would we be tempted to do with that information? Would we declare it to the world? What would be the advantage to doing that at present? We can’t stop what the Bible says is going to take place.
If we knew now when the seven-year covenant was going to be signed, how would we react? Would we go and demonstrate against it and try to stop it? The endtime events described in Bible prophecy are steps in the process that lead to Jesus’ return.
What if we knew the timing of all the endtime events? If we did, would it cause us to be more humble and dependent on the Lord? Or could it possibly boost our pride that we know things that other people don’t? Would that end up damaging our witness or hindering us from the tasks that we would otherwise be able to be trusted to do?

To Speculate or Not to Speculate …

The Lord has shown Peter and me that it would be wiser for us not to speculate in our posts on the meanings of specific events in relation to the endtime. However, if you personally feel the need to try to associate current events with endtime events, it’s important to do so responsibly. It can make interesting conversation as long as you remember that you won’t know these details for sure at this time.
When speculating (or theorizing or guessing or whatever you choose to call it), it’s important to clarify to others that you are speculating based on what you know now. This is just a possibility that you are offering for consideration.
This is important to remember, because many people who are searching for facts on which to build a foundation can tend to treat speculative guesswork as though it were solid fact, unless we are careful to make the difference very clear.
The risk is that if things don’t work out the way you thought they would, it can cause a serious loss of trust for those you’re ministering to, not only in what was speculated but in the message of the Bible overall.
The Lord gave David insight into the overall endtime order of events, and I believe that the revelations the Lord gave him still hold true. He also speculated over the years about how the specifics could play out. For the most part, he periodically reminded us that he didn’t know for sure about these speculations and that this might or might not come to pass. “What if …”
However, David was a persuasive individual, and when he presented his ideas, he often did so in very definite and enthusiastic ways. He was excited, and he wanted us to be excited too. With the wisdom of hindsight, it’s easy to look back and realize that some of those speculations should have been more strongly qualified. It’s a good lesson that we can all learn from, and hopefully we won’t make the same mistake with those whom we are called to minister to.
So, if you feel the need to speculate on things like the timing of specific endtime events, it’s best to remind others that what you say along those lines is, at best, just an educated guess. Interpretations or applications of Bible prophecy may be partially correct, but they should always be viewed together with the fact that circumstances around us are constantly changing.
As David once said:
Regarding some of these upcoming events and prophetic details, we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, exactly when it’s going to happen, or exactly where it’s going to happen. But God has certainly given us enough information along these lines to have a pretty good idea, or at least a faint hint, if nothing else, of how things are going and where they’re going. But we simply can’t get dogmatic about any of these details right now; it’s not time for that. Right now it’s “wait and see.” Wait and see what happens, because you don’t really know yet. You don’t really know about all the exact dates of the future right now. Only time will tell. Wait and see. But be on the lookout for indications, hints, and signs.
Don’t ever get your eyes so much on the details, doctrines, and dogmas of eschatology that you lose sight of what we are in this business for: to reach the world with the gospel of God’s love. This is our primary purpose for being here, our excuse for existence! Jesus Himself knew all about the future, but His main mission was to love the world and His main message was the good news of God’s love and salvation. (“Interpreting Bible Prophecy”)
New pieces of information develop daily, and specific details of how the endtime will play out may change as time passes. How many times in your own life have you felt certain of what you were going to do in the near future, only to find that some unforeseen event altered what had seemed certain? Perhaps you had a career all planned out, and something you hadn’t expected turned your whole life upside down.
Life often takes such twists and turns. But if your faith and trust is in the Lord, rather than having to see certain events at specific times, you’ll be able to adapt and keep going. This principle applies to our daily lives as much as it does to the endtime.
If we place our faith in what we think will happen instead of in the Lord and His promise to bring greater good in the end, we may be setting ourselves up for a big letdown. But if our faith and trust are in Him to do what He knows is best, and we are letting Him take care of the details that He knows we don’t need to know yet, then our faith can stand strong even in the worst of times.
There’s nothing wrong in finding encouragement in considering ways that the Lord could use to keep us, or how some things might lead up to certain events, as long as those speculations don’t become the basis for your faith and trust in Him. He keeps us in perfect peace when our minds are stayed on Him. That is how you’ll stand strong, whether things work out as you are expecting or God provides a surprise or two.
TFI has a number of publications on the topic of the endtime and related Bible prophecy that are available online. They may be helpful in order to review the overall picture that the Lord has given. I’ll also include the link to an interesting, very short video by a member of Ravi Zacharias’ team that I enjoyed on the topic of the endtime.

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