The
Link Between Prophecy and Evangelism
Today there is a major
push to bring the gospel of salvation to the entire world,
to all the language groups in the world.
By reading the documented accounts of the field
work of the major international evangelistic organizations
it becomes totally obvious that the Holy Spirit is behind
and fueling this drive to promote the gospel of salvation
in today's "modern" times. But support and funding of
these excellent international evangelistic organizations
is insufficient and sporadic at best. Some Christian groups and denominations don't necessarily think
this worldwide push of evangelism is Biblical, or necessary,
while others do. What
did Jesus Christ have to say on this subject? It's time
to take a hard look at what Jesus actually said and determine
that what he said should govern our actions and beliefs
in this important area.
First let's note that he said there would be a
major push to promote the gospel of the kingdom
to the entire world just before the end of this evil age
and his 2nd coming.
Matthew 24:14, "And this gospel of the kingdom
shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto
all nations; and then shall the end come."
What end? Verse
15-16, "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of
desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in
the holy place (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then
let them which be in Judea flee unto the mountains." To those who understand Bible prophecy, verse 15 of Matthew 24 marks
the beginning of World War III, called the great tribulation
in Bible language. But
in Jesus' own words, he said that there would be this
huge push to promote the gospel of salvation around the
world, and that when this was accomplished, then the end
of this evil age would come, and ultimately, if you keep
reading Matthew 24 through to verse 31, the 2nd
coming of Jesus himself. These are all Jesus Christ's own words, directly quoted and not
taken out of context.
The very first commission Jesus gave to the 500
or so disciples (students) who had faithfully followed
him, and by extension, all Christians from then on, is
found in Matthew 28:18-20.
It's the only major job assignment Jesus gave Christians
to perform until he comes again. Let's read it. Matthew 28:18-20, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even
unto the end of the world. Amen."
There are two parts to this assignment: 1) Preach,
teach the gospel to all nations, and 2) obviously, to
those who respond favorably, baptize them and teach them
to observe all things, whatsoever Jesus had commanded
them (and now recorded in Scripture).
This was spoken in similar time sequence to Acts
1:8-9, where Jesus said this, "But ye shall receive
the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you: and ye shall
be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea,
and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
That is basically the only job assignment Jesus
gave his disciples (disciples: archaic king James
language for students), and by extension all Christians
born of the Holy Spirit.
That job entails preaching the gospel of salvation,
which is called in some places, the gospel of the kingdom--and
to teach those who respond favorably (obviously one can't
do much teaching to those who don't respond favorably,
their minds are closed) the details of how to be a Christian
or believer in Jesus.
This job can be broken down into two areas, one
is promoting and preaching the gospel to everyone, and
the other is nourishing and supporting the body of Christ--made
up of those who respond favorably to the gospel message--believers,
nourishing them in the Word of God.
Some Christians have been blessed with talents
in the nourishment end of this assignment, while others
are good at evangelism. Let each of us use the talents God gave us in the area of this assignment
where we best fit.
But
now what is the connection between prophecy and evangelism? As we have just seen in Matthew 24, Jesus predicted
(prophecied) that there would be such a large push to
promote the gospel of the kingdom just before the start
of World War III, the tribulation, and that this gospel
would go around the world and reach all nations and peoples.
Then right after that is accomplished the end of
this evil age would come. Also in Matthew 24 a great persecution of Christians takes place,
which Jesus also predicted in Matthew 10, tied right to
this "end time" push of the gospel message.
Could it be that this push of the gospel message
is going to be so powerful and so extensive that it stirs
up a hatred aimed at Christians? It appears so. But it hasn't happened yet, not in this country yet (the United
States). Why? Because the gospel of the kingdom isn't going out to the world in
sufficient power to cause this hatred and persecution
of Christians on a worldwide scale that would include
the United States. Doesn't that tell us something?
Roughly a third of the Bible is prophecy, some
already fulfilled, but a lot of prophecy is 2nd
coming of the Messiah prophecy, yet to be fulfilled.
Then about a third of the Bible is historical in
nature, and about a third is instructive in nature, showing
how we ought to live spiritually, growing in the grace
and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
But prophecy does show that when this major push
to evangelize the world is accomplished a lot of the world
will reject the message.
If we are to believe Jesus, immediately following
this worldwide dissemination of the gospel (and its rejection
by the world), World War III starts. In this war, God totally gives this world over
to Satan for a 3.5 year span of time (Dispensational Pre-Millennialists
believe it's a 7 year span--no matter, we'll see when
it occurs {if we're still alive}).
But God's major lesson to mankind is this:
Look and see what you get when you reject God's
invitation to a better way of life and Eternal Life at
the end--you get destruction and annihilation. Then when the world has had it's fill of destruction
and annihilation, Jesus comes and stops the war, locks
up Satan and the demons and brings salvation to all who
are left alive. The start of a whole new world without Satan
begins and lasts for 1,000 years-a world where the knowledge
of salvation and of God fills the earth as the seas cover
the earth--salvation freely offered to everyone with no
more blinding influence coming from Satan, everyone's
eyes will be opened to the truth of God (cf. Revelation
19:1-21; 20:1-6; Zechariah 14:1-19; Isaiah 35:1-10; Isaiah
11:1-16; Ezekiel 36, whole chapter). That's the connection between Evangelism and
prophecy. Both
are part of God's lesson plan for mankind.
And as things get close to the beginning of verse
15 of Matthew 24, we as Christians must be about the job
Jesus gave for us to accomplish, the job he said would
be accomplished before the start
of World War III, the tribulation.
So when you read these prophecies, understand,
this is God's lesson plan for mankind. And we Christians have been given a very important
teaching job within that lesson plan of God to the world. Ask yourself this, why did God leave Satan
and the demons on this planet when he created mankind
through Adam and Eve? God is the ultimate teacher. Jesus was called Rabbi, Teacher, by his students
(disciples). God
is teaching the whole of mankind a lesson He doesn't want
forgotten--not just what His way of life brings--but what
Satan's way of life brings--death. There's a positive and negative side to God's
lesson plan. Some
like to avoid the teaching of all prophecy and stick entirely
to teaching about Christianity.
They avoid some of the central lessons God has
to teach about what happens when you follow Satan's way
of life. The whole
gospel is a full-bodied message with a positive element
and a negative element. Even the apostle Paul in his thorough description
of the gospel of Christ in the book of Romans points out
the problem of mankind that the gospel is meant to address
(cf. Romans 1). And prophecy clearly shows the negative side
of the lesson plan--if you ignore the gospel offer from
God, destruction and annihilation will be the end result.
So we see that prophecy, the balanced teaching
of it, is a vital part of God's lesson plan for mankind
and Christians alike.
And as we see things getting close to the end,
prophecy should make us want to redouble our efforts to
support worldwide evangelism, and evangelism at all levels.
Don't lose sight of the job God has given you to do as
a Christian or Messianic believer in Yeshua.
If you wonder how you could do anything to support
evangelism, that you're just not cut out for that--that's
fine. Your talents
may be in the area of nourishing and support of other
Christians and new-believers.
But you can always lend support to those who are
doing the job in the international areas of evangelism,
and doing it quite effectively.
The one thing that they do need is steady contributions.
(And it doesn't have to be much.
A steady habit of giving is far more important
to the international evangelistic organizations than the
amount you can afford to give.)
And that is something we can all do.
This site has a whole section on evangelism, and
the Mission Statement at the bottom of the Homepage shows
some of the ways international evangelism can be supported
(http://www.UNITYINCHRIST.COM/missionstatement.htm ). You can make a difference in
how many people are given an opportunity to chose life
instead of death--eternal life!
God says that he places life and death before us,
and commands us to chose life. Deuteronomy 30:15, "See, I have set before
thee this day life and good, and death and evil."
That lesson is spelled out in prophecy and evangelism,
when they are properly coupled together as they should
be.
Prophecies of Jesus Christ's 2nd
Coming.
Introduction
I am reproducing some introductory comments from John
F. Walvoord's book "ARMAGEDDON, OIL and the MIDDLE
EAST CRISIS" that are most appropriate for this study
of prophecy. Mr. Walvoord says, "The study of prophecy, however, has been
plagued by two extremes.
The one extreme is to disregard prophecy or to
interpret it in a non-literal sense.
About half of the prophecies in the Bible have
been fulfilled. The
study of these demonstrates that when prophecy is fulfilled,
it is fulfilled literally.
Brushing aside prophecies or doubting that they
will be literally fulfilled is not supported by the pattern
of fulfillment in the past.
Another
extreme, however, is to go beyond Scripture, taking what
it says literally and then interpreting this in dramatic
and contemporary style. There is no scriptural ground for setting dates
for the Lord's return or the end of the world. The student of prophecy must be careful on the one hand, to observe
carefully what God has revealed and, on the other hand,
to recognize that the Bible does not answer every question.
As
students of the Bible observe proper interpretation principles,
they are becoming increasingly aware of the remarkable
correspondence between the obvious trend of world events
and what the Bible predicted centuries ago. People of all walks of life and of all religious
faiths are asking the question--What does the future hold?
Unlike
the self-willed prophets of today, the prophets of the
Bible did not peddle vague and general predictions that
could be adjusted to any situation. The prophecies recorded in the Bible are detailed
and intricately interwoven.
Although interpretation of minor points may vary,
the overall picture is frighteningly clear.
The Bible does not simply speak of a final destructive
world war but of a whole series of carefully timed events
on a doomsday calendar leading to Armageddon...[Armageddon]
is the final act in a terrifying series of events that
are very much related to today's headlines..."
So says Mr. Walvoord.
And considering recent headlines while I'm writing
this down on the 12th of September 2001, I'd
say we are getting a little closer to that final event. This should be a great motivator for us Christians
to want to evangelize to the world and our neighbors,
showing them they can be a part of God's kingdom right
now--that they don't have to wait for the Lord's arrival
on earth. For
some of these events that lead to his glorious coming
are so frightening and horrible that most of the population
in this world may not survive to witness the Lord's arrival.
This should be a great motivator for us Christians,
causing us to want to reach everyone with the Good News
of Salvation, and yes, perhaps a strong warning of what's
to come (wouldn't you want to be warned?).
Those that just died in the Twin Trade Towers were
only a very tiny foretaste of what's to come.
And these are facts which you will come to understand
as you read this study taken directly out of the Bible.
They aren't my words.
These prophecies reproduced here are God's Words.
This study is in three parts:
Part I: General Survey of Old Testament 2nd
Coming Prophecies;
Part II: Daniel 2 & 7, Revelation 13 & 17;
Part III: Revelation 16 & 19, The Seven Last Plagues.
