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We should all be on the same prophetic page, but that isn’t the case. Prophecy “watchers” are attuned to differing wavelengths on a prophetic spectrum. And it’s a man-made rather than a biblically constructed spectrum that is divisive to the point of being a disservice to God’s family here on Earth.

Here I intend to present my thoughts on Bible prophecy yet in the future, which I maintain is based only in truth from God’s Word, in contrast to what I perceive as a falling away from that truth at this late hour of the Church Age.

By this, I’m not in any way intimating that this falling away is the apostasy (departure or falling away) foretold in 2 Thessalonians 2. That sort of departure from the faith denies gospel truth that belief in Jesus Christ alone for salvation is the only way to God the Father and Heaven (John 14:6).

Although some who are truly saved by their belief in Christ say there is no pre-Trib Rapture, I do believe they are misguided to the point of being damaging to the great cause of Christ. These observers of today’s issues and events relative to the anticipation of prophecy to be fulfilled are, as the title has it, “looking out.” But they are not, as the second part of the title says, “looking up.”

They are watching for issues and events that signal fulfillment of things prophesied in God’s Word. But they aren’t anticipating the any-moment call of the Lord Jesus Christ to all believers who have lived and died during the Church Age—this Age of Grace.

These who watch are “looking out”–that is, at things going on around them, but they aren’t “watching” the way Jesus and the Apostle Paul instructed.

Jesus said to “watch” for the signs He gave in His Olivet Discourse:

“What I say unto one, I say unto all. Watch” (Mark 13:37).

The watchers of the first sort–the ones who only “look out” at things happening that appear to be setting the stage for the fulfillment of prophecy—aren’t following through on Jesus’ words in His final instruction about “watching”:

“And when you see all these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your head. For your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28).

Those who only “watch” the signals of prophetic stage-setting miss the true point of the Lord’s instruction. Those of us who are believers–who are saved by His wonderful grace—must be looking for Him, our Redeemer, not for a fulfilled prophecy other than that of the Rapture.

And what these mistaken observers watch for is the start of the Tribulation, that seven-year period–Daniel’s seventieth week—the second half of which Jesus said will be the most horrendous time of all human history. And the first half of the era won’t be much better, according to the twenty-one specific judgments given in the book of Revelation, following Christ’s call to the Church (Revelation 4).

That time of horror will be ruled over for the most part by Antichrist. He will be history’s most vicious tyrant, a dictator indwelt by Satan who will demand worship (Revelation 13).

So those who are in grievous error of watching exclusively for signals of the Tribulation, rather than for the imminent (any-moment) call by Jesus into the clouds of Glory in the Rapture, are looking for Antichrist. This is not what our Lord commanded. This is not what the great Apostle Paul, who was given this mystery by God the Holy Spirit to divulge to believers during this Church Age, told us. We are, Paul said:

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

There is no “blessed hope” in looking for Antichrist and the Tribulation. And there is no comfort in looking for God’s wrath that will befall rebellious humankind during that terrible seven years of judgment upon this fallen planet.

About that comforting blessed hope, Paul writes:

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).

We are to take great comfort–encouragement—as we watch all these things that signal that the Tribulation is very near beginning: things that will bring about the worst time in human history. We who are saved by the precious blood of Christ will not be here to suffer God’s judgment. God’s Word tells us:

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:1).

The Church–all born-again believers in Christ—is mentioned nineteen times in Revelation chapters 1–3. The Church is not in Revelation’s prophetic picture again until chapter 19, where we read that the saints, robed in pure white, accompany King Jesus back to put an end to Armageddon. The Church will be in Heaven, not on Earth, during Daniel’s seventieth week–the Tribulation.

Now there is great comfort in that promise!

So while we look outward at what’s going on—the evil that is so troubling to others—believers should find comfort, even thrilling anticipation, that we are about to see our Lord face to face in Heaven. We are, as instructed by our coming King, to be “Looking up,” as well as watching the issues and events that are setting the prophetic stage, and working to bring others to a saving knowledge of Christ.

Here, again, is how to be saved from the sin that condemns those who have not accepted Christ’s redeeming forgiveness.

“That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

I like to connect dots. Fill in blanks. If we don’t know how we got where we are today in the Church, we can’t see the full picture and therefore can’t make good decisions going forward. I liken what we are experiencing to the call for parents to get their kids out of public schools. Home school, Christian school, whatever you can do. I’m thrilled that my daughter is doing that next year with my young grandchildren. I take them to museums and talk to them about history and current issues. They are able to handle it, and they are no longer exposed to Woke propaganda.

I think things are much the same way with churches today. Look, I don’t make blanket statements. There are plenty of great churches and courageous, biblical pastors out there.

By and large though, the “Big Box” churches, those from the Church Growth Movement, are, at best, “recreation centers,” as a pastor friend likes to say. He’s spot-on. Further, they are not just soft on biblical issues—they are unbiblical.

So it is that I want to talk this week about how we got to be where we are: grotesque “drag queen” “services” in churches across the country. Or from the pulpit, messages that attack Christ’s divinity. Tony Jones at Fuller Seminary years ago saying that he rejected the doctrine of Original Sin. Henry Ward Beecher in the 19^th century claiming hell is a myth. (He found out.)

In Genesis 3, we read about enmity—Total War—that God declared between Satan and Jesus Christ. An age-old war that will culminate in Armageddon, and later, when Satan is thrown into the lake of fire. Everything today has flowed from Genesis 3. I’ll also discuss the scourge of anti-Semitism in the Church today. Here we go.

I trace the modern problems we have to the 19^th century. There are differing views of origins, but I believe Genesis exactly as it’s written. It reads like a news article. We are told where we came from, why we’re here, and where we’re going. These themes are repeated through the rest of the Bible.

During the Enlightenment however, the 16^th to the 19^th centuries, certain men in Europe thought they were too cool for school. They dismissed the “idea” of God as primitive myth. By the middle of the 19^th century, German scholars in seminaries were openly declaring that much of the Bible is myth or Hebrew legend. The Exodus was questioned. Noah’s Flood. Did Abraham really exist? They had no real proof of their claims (check out books by Drs. Robert Dick Wilson and Henry M. Morris for brilliant refutations of the liberalism of this period). Yet these attacks on the Bible took root.

In 1902, German scholar Friedrich Delitzsch gave an address in Berlin (in the audience was the Kaiser), “Babylon and the Bible,” in which he alleged that the Bible was influenced by Sumerian myth rather than the other way around. This stunning attack on Scripture has directly led to where we are today, which is apostasy sweeping across the American landscape.

This concept had been brought out into the open 50 years before with the “Higher Critical” methods of biblical scholarship flourishing in German seminaries. And then…then came the publishing of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. That spawned Darwinian philosophy (and it is philosophy, a big key to understanding the teaching). It is documented that monsters like Mao, Stalin, and Hitler all embraced the tenants of evolution. In Germany, Darwinian philosophy married Luther’s Jew-hatred to bring about a situation where the Old Testament was virtually ignored in the German churches (primarily Lutheran and Catholic). In this way, German officers were able to slaughter Jews by day and read the Christmas story to their children at the holidays in the evenings.

Now, this might surprise you, but what really jazzed British and American clergy in the last half of the 19^th century was Darwin. In fact, it’s almost as if American preachers were waiting for him. When Beecher became enamored of the social Darwinism teachings of Darwin’s colleague, Herbert Spencer, he brought the dour bachelor to the United States for a lecture tour! This happened in 1882.

(Interestingly, this happened at exactly the same time Palestine was seeing a large influx of Jewish immigrants, which was the beginning of the fulfillment of the great prophecies of the ingathering of the Jewish people. So, what was happening in reality was subtly challenged by evolutionary theory and the “myth-makers” in the seminaries.)

You are probably already ahead of me. What I’ve outlined briefly above is the path that has brought us to widespread Jew-hatred in the 21^st century. And I’m just talking about anti-Semitism in the Church. When I was growing up, Bible prophecy and loving the Jewish people were in the air of churches. Conferences, weekly sermons, and resources celebrated the obvious, spectacular prophecies being fulfilled. The Return of the Jewish people is the greatest and biggest prophecy of the last 2,000 years. It is astonishing.

Yet it is not obvious to most professing Christians today. Think about it. My childhood denomination, The Southern Baptist Convention, has been hijacked by Reformed guys that hate prophecy and Israel. Even the Assemblies of God, the other large denomination that was pro-Israel, is slipping, now infiltrated by leftists. Pro-Israel support is slipping dramatically across the board.

It got this way because of the constant attacks on Scripture by millennia-old enemies.

I believe every word of the Bible is true. From the first letter to the last. I believe it by faith, but I have also lived long enough to see it defended successfully time after time. There is limitless evidence that the Bible is true and that the God of the Bible is all-powerful, fully sovereign.

But these beliefs are not shared widely today. Isn’t that wild? It’s incredible! And I mean, in the Church. Read the polling data. A shocking number of pastors and congregants no longer believe in the physical Resurrection. Or the Atonement. Or the Virgin Birth. The list goes on.

Pastors from Beecher to Harry Emerson Fosdick, Norman Vincent Peale, and Robert Schuller heavily influenced what would become the Church Growth Movement (or, if you prefer, Seeker-Driven, launched in 1975 in Chicago by Bill and Lynne Hybels). In the last 30 years, congregational Bible reading is out the window. “Teaching” is choked off by an almost total reliance on books and resources by celebrity pastors (I can’t think of one nationally that I’d endorse). When you have 45,000 SBC churches taking deep dives into The Purpose-Driven Life, you’re not getting much Bible teaching. Does this make sense? In such settings, you also swim in anti-Bible prophecy propaganda. Etc.

Right now, the Church Visible in America is an enemy of the Cross of Christ. I remembered this phrase from a sermon I read by T.T. Shields, a Canadian pastor in 1935. He said that about Fosdick, at the time perhaps the most famous pastor in America, from his New York City perch. Fosdick was even writing children’s books that pulled kids away from simple belief in the Bible.

(In 1925, the infamous Scopes Trial in Tennessee helped mainstream the teaching of evolution in public schools. It took 40 more years to get prayer out of public schools, but this is the progression of progressivism.)

You have Andy Stanley literally attacking the Bible, but crickets from famous pastors. Warren completed his takeover of Evangelicalism, and few people are aware—though Bible-believing Christians are aware that something is off. Read Noah Hutchings’ superb treatment of this, The Dark Side of the Purpose-Driven Church. I also highly recommend Paul Smith’s New Evangelicalism.

Smith’s book, in particular, will answer many questions you have about the state of the American Church now. The brother of Calvary Chapel founder Chuck Smith, Paul, went to the source material, and he exposes the great evil that has crept into the Church (see the book of Jude).

Well, I’ve given you enough to chew on for now. We’ll pick this up again soon.

Jimfletcher761@gmail.com

Looking Out vs. Looking Up :: By Terry James

Apostasy in the Church: A Brief History of the Destroyer :: by Jim Fletcher