Jesus’ great prophecy
conference would disappoint many Christians today.
Jesus is leaving the temple for the last time as He does so
He has what amounts to His own prophecy conference. The audience was very exclusive, His insights
and explanation are being given to a very select few. Jesus’ teachings are fascinating, powerful
and convicting. But they lack one thing
that most prophesy conferences have and indeed have in abundance. He provides no information, secret material
about dates and times. In fact, in all the “prophecy conferences” Jesus held He
had one consistent theme: “You will never know when.”
Let’s be honest if you were to ask Jesus “when” He would
return He would tell you, “Do not struggle to establish when I will return”. All exertions to figure out when He will
return are wasted efforts. Setting
dates and offering a lot of hype about the latest international events may sell
books and might even grow into a radio/TV show or ministry. (One
televangelist who has made this his focus has a reported network of 2.5 million
dollars and lives in a home valued on the upside of $400,000. Not a bad gig if you can get it.) The problem is that date setters are always
wrong. But in the prophecy conference business
when you are wrong you can always write a new book, based on a newer and better
theory because a new innovative superior secret understanding that explains how
a new insight makes your next set of predictions right on target and worth the
money.
The following statements are not based on scientific
research and exhaustive data. They are
not meant to be universally applicable.
They are, however, the observation I have had in my ministry.
Observation #1 Prophecy aficionados can’t focus on anything
else.
Knowing when, or at least knowing the latest prediction of
the Eschatological Super Stars, is more important than any other part of the
Christian life. Minutiae are the name of
the game, some vague and little known fact is the secret key to great esoteric
knowledge. Their lives as disciples may
be a sham and a shame but they could tell you how the inflation of the price of
goats’ milk in the Himalayas was a sign of the soon coming END.
Observation #2 Prophecy aficionados are all but useless.
Asking a prophecy aficionado to serve in the local church is
like asking a wine snob to do manual labor in a vineyard. Will prophecy aficionados volunteer in the
ministry of the church? Rarely. Will they invite their friends to come to
church? They will only invite other prophecy aficionados and only if you are
hosting a prophecy conference. Will they
help with a service project or volunteer with summer youth camp? No, they are using their vacation time to
attend a prophecy conference, which happens to be at a 4-star resort. Will they teach a Bible class? Yes, but only if they can teach Revelation
and prophecy, over and over again.
Observation #3 Prophecy aficionados do more harm than good.
Can prophecy aficionados make disciples of their friends? They
don’t have friends. Their dogmatism and their
dire warnings about the rapture have alienated everyone in their lives except
other prophecy aficionados. Their shrill
warnings about end times may have a short-term, evangelistic intent, but when
they are wrong so often the new believer will lose confidence and see
Christianity as a scam.
But rather than spend all of my time cursing the darkness
allow me to light a candle. Think of
this volume as a paper prophecy conference. But it will not cover the issues that you
might expect. In addition to saving a lot of money by not going to a big name prophecy
conference at a four star hotel you will actually get something worth your
while. This paper prophecy conference
has two main parts.
Part #1 Do not focus on the signs of when
the Lord Jesus will come again. It is a
waste of time because neither you nor your writer is that smart.
Part #2 Focus on the signs of how
we can remain loyal to Jesus. This
prophecy conference focuses on how He can come into our lives, circumstances
and situations as Lord and Savior. Then
live under His Lordship as if everyday is the day of His return.
When we live every moment as if Jesus is coming in our
conversations, lives, actions and thoughts we will live out His intended
purpose for prophecy.
