I hear what you're saying, but here's what I see happening with folks who put inordinate amounts of time into studying end times prophecies. The focus on the whens, hows, and whos, tend to lead to a propensity for 'prepping'. Depending on one's eschatological view, 'preppers' prepare for either a pre-rapture 'judgement' of the USA or for strapping in until a mid or post-trib rapture. These preparations go beyond simple food and water needs to stockpiling weapons and some buying land and choosing to live in isolated areas for when the time comes to 'bug out'. Some have primary homes and 'BOBs', 'Bug Out Bags', all ready to make flight to their rural retreats to ride out the Tribulation.
Please don't misunderstand me here - I believe that there is wisdom in preparing for natural disasters, political unrest, and disruptions in supplies of food, water, and medical needs. As parents of a Type 1 Diabetic (without insulin, she dies), we've thought through different scenarios and how we would deal with them. Mostly, we have built up several months of insulin, insulin pump supplies, and testing supplies. As a family of nine we also try to keep a full pantry and have extra drinking water on hand. That's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about folks who are thinking they will be fleeing God's judgement of the wicked around them.
I have to ask myself a few questions regarding believers who think they're 'preparing' for 'what's coming':
- Have these people actually read the Revelation? If the things described there are literal, future events, do they really thing that their water-purification tablets are going to un-foul that which God Almighty fouls? Or that they may somehow escape the plagues described by applying or inhaling their essential oils (again, don't get me wrong here - I have essential oils in our home for cleaning and minor health care)? Do they think that being buried alive in a tomb of their own creation is better than to be taken Home in some apocalyptic event (if, indeed, that is how things go down)?
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- Are those 'guarding' their caches of supplies with arms thinking through the implications of arming themselves? How does 'If your neighbor asks for your coat give him your cloak also' translate into, 'shoot anyone who tries to steal your supplies'? Are you prepared to shoot those who may not be believers and send them prematurely to hell? Are you prepared to shoot your brothers/sisters in Christ to ensure your own survival? Do you shoot their children too so that yours have a better chance at survival? Those with the biggest guns get the food? Again, please don't misunderstand - I'm not even anti-gun - I think we have a right to defend ourselves from intruders with ill-intent, and I'm a Mama Bear, but if I have to shoot, I'm shooting to disable, not to kill, and then I'm going to tell What's-his-name about Jesus and His Good News when I get the chance! That's simply not an option to the prepper mentality, because to wound means the wounded person will not only take food, but also precious medical supplies and time that could be better spent tending to one's hydroponic garden. It's better to kill and bury, yes? Reconcile that with the Gospel - OR the Law, for those so inclined!
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- Back to a more spiritual view - how does focusing on the 'coming judgement of the wicked', which is AN interpretation of the Final Things (see Hebrews 9:28 - " . . . so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him."), going to affect how you view those around you who don't know Christ? Are you going out and loving them into the Kingdom, sharing the Good News of the finished Work of Christ and what He did to redeem them or are you looking at them more as enemies and just wishing that Jesus 'would come already and deal with these people'?
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- Lastly, I see where one's focus becomes very introspective - what must I do to 'get ready'? Scripture does call for a degree of self-examination ('examine yourselves to see if you're in the faith'), but those who become preoccupied with apocalyptic scenarios are often driven by a combination of religious zeal and fear. The focus goes off of Christ, Who He is and who we are in Him, and goes on ourselves and what we must 'do', combined with a growing judgementalism of those who don't yet know Christ. They start holding those who are not in Christ to a unreasonable righteous standard. Instead of showing the 'lost' how to be 'found', they judge them and isolate themselves from them. "God's gonna judge this country for its sin!" Well, God already judged sin at the Cross in His own flesh, Christ Jesus and Scripture says this about that and what our response is supposed to be:
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.
And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.
We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (from 2 Cor. 5)
So are we the kind of ambassadors of the message of reconciliation that God desires and envisions for us to be?
Or are we just wanting to hide, trying to figure out for how much longer we'll have to 'endure' until Jesus comes back for us and God judges 'all those wicked people out there'?
-JGIG
