It’s easy to expound on one’s interpretation of the end-times time-line—from this side of the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The farther you go out on a limb, the more convinced you become that you are right just by repeating your position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The position becomes more important than what is really important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Classic—increasing emphasis on accepting Jesus in order to escape ‘great’ tribulation, overshadows accepting Jesus to escape hell—indeed, overshadows accepting Jesus because you are a sinner in need of His salvation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pitfall—increasing numbers of speakers (teachers, preachers) spending increasing amounts of time on the end-times, expound with the assumption that their ‘time-line’ interpretation is obvious—and by default obvious to their listeners (preaching to their choir?).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– – –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What about the non-Christian listener?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What about the new listener?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What about the not-so-end-times-savvy listener?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– – –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When does the average person get brought up to speed on foundation steps to arrive at the ‘o b v i o u s’ time-line?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And speaking of speed, I observe end-time speakers literally talking faster each time they go over the sequence again (sounding more and more like everyone believes and agrees).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One ‘little detail’ (BIG DETAIL) where no one offers sufficient or satisfactory answers is to the question, “Why should studying facts of the tribulation matter to Christians—if Christians are not going to be here?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That question is quickly swept away with a cursory response, so focus can get back to the neatly charted time-line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The question does not have a neat answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– – –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We know that percentages and majority do not determine truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only a small percentage of Christians and pastors believe we will escape the tribulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Likewise, a majority among popular scholars today, who teach that we will, does not determine end-time truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– – –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s not easy to write about this, without affirmation, because it may well be unpopular, or worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We see many in the church, many churches, falling into many false and dangerous ways these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The only warning I hear about end-times teaching is the lack of it in most churches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Could it be that the overwhelming, prevailing, current teaching emphasizing an ‘obvious’ time-line may have flaws endangering souls?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s easy to expound on one’s interpretation of the end-times time-line—from this side of the future. The farther you go out on a limb, the more convinced you become that you are right just by repeating your position. The position becomes more important than what is really important. Classic—increasing emphasis on accepting Jesus in order […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational","category-faith_based","category-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4954"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4957,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954\/revisions\/4957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}