A ministry supporter in Washington State sent me a flyer that was handed out in his church recently. It is more mocking. The flyer asks if folks have met “End-Times Eddie” in the church. It denigrates “Eddie” and suggests he is so focused on end-times that he has missed all the present opportunities and people in front of him.
“Eddie” is gloom and doom. Why isn’t he looking for Jesus to bring Heaven to earth right now?
Then the flyer suggests some questions for the church’s small groups. Here are a few samples:
What are your emotions when you encounter “End-Times Eddie”?
Is the end-time message one of hope or fear?
Jesus told us to pray for “your will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” What does Heaven on earth look like today?
Who in your life needs Heaven to come to earth right now?
Two things stand out to me:
1) Here is just one more church preaching, “Come, Lord Jesus, but not too soon.”
2) They have embraced the false teaching promoted heavily by the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) that we can have Heaven on earth now. This is called Kingdom Now orDominion Theology.
Show me just one square mile of this planet that can demonstrate a Garden of Eden-like Heaven on earth. You will find only chaos. And the church trying to perfect the world for the next one million years won’t fix it.
Those of us who have promoted the important message that the King is coming are painfully aware that young believers no longer uphold Bible prophecy as a key component of the faith. They would rather focus on social justice, the green agenda, and Christian Palestinianism.
When I was a teenager in my church, we had regular prophecy conferences and I never once heard that Israel was “occupying” her God-given country. I never would have heard the denigrating title of “End-Times Eddie.” I was never taught that we had to “save the planet” because I learned that it was hopelessly lost until Christ’s return. I was never given the delusional teaching that in time my church would be able to “save the planet” by seizing the Genesis mandate of dominion — which is about dominion over animals and not mankind.
Kingdom Now or Dominion Theology tries to humanize God and deify man. Sadly, the world will continue to deteriorate and spiral into chaos, forcing man to consider the hope of Heaven and abandon thoughts of a glorified earth. Only when Jesus Christ returns at the Second Coming will all things be made new!
Dominionist proponent Cindy Jacobs suggests that God showed her that the Lord’s Prayer is a prayer of intercession that will help bring into manifestation the original Genesis Mandate to fill, subdue, multiply and have dominion in the earth. Cindy, sin didn’t come into the world because we didn’t understand our mandate!
As I wrote in a previous article exposing the theology of Dominionism, “The church is not in the business of taking anything away from Satan but the souls of men. The world is a sinking Titanic ripe for judgment, not Garden of Eden perfection. Jesus will take dominion of the cleansed earth. For men to speak of doing that before the judgment of this earth is spiritually arrogant.”
Yet “End-Times Eddie” is the one with unsound theology according to the Washington church, not those preaching this unsound theology that the church can perfect the world.
One of my conference attendees wrote me in 2014. He had been tagged an “End-Times Eddie.” He writes, “I no longer feel safe talking about the issues you deal with in your ministry. I am scorned and ridiculed by friends, family, and co-workers if I talk about the Lord’s imminent return or any headline that is prominent. To suggest that life as we know it may end soon is simply the ultimate in lunacy to all of these folks. I feel so alone.”
I so agree with Pastor David Barnhart in his magazine, The Vine and Branches, “For most Christians, the major strategy in dealing with the doctrine of Christ’s return is to ignore it.For others, the solution is to opt for some kind of socialist utopia here on earth and call it the ‘kingdom of God.'”
He continues, “There is no more important doctrine than the coming again of Jesus Christ. By His coming, Jesus will bring God’s promise of redemption into complete and total fulfillment. We’ll no longer just talk of streets of gold, we’ll walk on them. We will no longer simply talk about Jesus, we’ll talk with Him face to face and His own hand will gently wipe every tear from our eye. We’ll not only talk about seeing our loved ones who have gone on before, we’ll be together with them for eternity without ever again experiencing a single moment of separation.”
Barnhart says, “God’s prophetic clock is counting down to the appointed hour. If you don’t believe it, listen to the latest news reports or read the paper. Scriptures are replete with signs, prophecies and promises of Christ’s return. The signs are everywhere, yet the silence of the churches is deafening when it comes to proclaiming this vital truth of Scripture. Slumbering preachers and sleeping saints need to wake up to the reality that the King is coming and His coming may be sooner than any of us realize.
“In the meantime, millions are perishing without the knowledge of the gospel or the hope of His coming offers. How it must grieve the heart of God to look at a sleeping church in a hell-bound world.”
Bible prophecy is given as a light shining in a dark place (2 Peter 1:19). Talking about it should not instill fear in the Christian; rather, provide confirmation that the “blessed hope” is ever nearer and the time ever shorter to snatch people from the fire.
There are many “End-Time Eddies” around. May their numbers increase. May our pulpits grow bolder and talk about things that really matter. Our message is hardly doom and gloom. It may be about the only good news left. The supposed ‘good news’ that we’re taking the planet back to the Garden of Eden isn’t the truth — it’s end-time delusion.
I’m honored to be among the “End-Times Eddie” crowd. I’ve got the best news there is. This world isn’t it. God believed the topic of eschatology was so important that He devoted one book exclusively to it: Revelation. Almost 30% of the Bible is prophecy-focused.
This message, when coupled with warnings, encourages evangelism and repentance like no other.