“Don’t cry wolf!” Perhaps you heard something similar from your parents growing up, or maybe you have given your children the same type of warning. For those unfamiliar with the idiom, it means “Don’t cry for help if there is no emergency. Otherwise, people won’t believe you when you are in actual danger.” The idea that an alarming cry for help may be ignored or dismissed can be frightening.
I remember when, after an unsanctioned round of jumping on and rolling around in my parents’ bed, I fell off and slammed the back of my head with full force into the metal edge of an old radiator. Lying on the ground in shock, realizing that blood was flowing from my head and imagining the worst, I cried for help. There was no response. This continued for a short while until I was able to get up and stumble into the hallway toward my mother, who hadn’t heard me because she was dealing with some visitors who were leaving. With blood on my hands, I mumbled something along the lines of “I need to go to the hospital,” and off we went.
Thankfully, I just needed some stitches. The experience of sounding the alarm but not being heard was, nonetheless, frightening. That moment taught me something deeper: if we sound the alarm (or a false alarm) too often, or without clarity, we risk not being heard when it matters most.
Part of being an Adventist includes sounding the alarm about the end-times and the fulfillment of prophecies. And rightly so. We are living in the last days; Jesus is coming soon, possibly and hopefully in our lifetime, and time is running out. Whenever I preach evangelistic meetings and present the signs of the times along with the biblical commentary on the political and religious dynamics of the world, I realize anew the urgency of our reality. Finding the right balance of emphasis, sounding the appropriate type of alarm, and not overlooking the main point of prophecy, however, continues to be a challenge for God’s people.
If we sound the alarm (or a false alarm) too often, or without clarity, we risk not being heard when it matters most.
Questionable Alarms
Unfortunately, some people raise what I would call questionable alarms that can easily destroy our credibility. Let me illustrate. When I was a teenager, a high-profile preacher came to our school and announced that Jesus might be coming in about two years. He based this on the fact that he could not renew various ministry-related business contracts beyond that time, concluding that the end was near. He also spoke about secret prisons in Catholic church basements reserved for Sabbathkeepers during the final persecution, among other things. Twenty years have passed since that presentation, and although it did scare my half-converted heart and “wake me up” a bit, it did not strengthen my faith or encourage a love-based surrender to God, especially after the projected two years went by and nothing happened.
Another example: Every time a pope dies, it seems a new version of the idea that the deceased pope, or the next pope, would “definitely” be the last one floats around in certain circles. Speculative “evidence” is presented to support the claim. And while one day there will of course be a final pope, just as there will be a final pastor in my church or a final president in my country, conjecturing on this topic is not going to keep a young person in the church or lead seekers to fall in love with Christ.
I could go on and mention the various self-proclaimed YouTube preachers who seem to have the gift of producing endless amounts of clickbait content, “revealing some hidden agenda” about politicians, religious leaders, actors, and even our own church administrators.
But is this kind of alarmist behavior really helping anyone? Isn’t it mostly damaging to the kind of proclamation we are called to make?
Will people want to listen to us, let alone believe us, when much of what they have heard spoken in our name is speculative, fear-driven, and, over time, proved wrong? I wonder.
The thrill of the alarm can easily replace the joy of salvation and a Christ-centered walk.
Now, is there a “hidden agenda,” a grand meta-level scheme that engages every human on earth to some degree? Absolutely. The devil’s conspiracy to oppose and destroy God and His people is true and very real. It is not a theory; it’s what caused the great controversy. And is Satan, in various shapes or forms, involving people, organizations, and stories to further his (to the Bible student, not-so-hidden) agenda? Yes, of course. And do people need to know about this? Absolutely. But is obsessing over and postulating uncertain details of darkness the gospel? No. No, it’s not.
The Thrill of the Alarm
As a pastor, I have witnessed this repeatedly: members and seekers who build their religious experience and allegiance to the church on the latest sensational headline or claim that fits their curated narrative. That feeling of excitement, of “knowing” what is really going on, is then often subconsciously mistaken for revival or sincerity of faith. The thrill of the alarm can easily replace the joy of salvation and a Christ-centered walk. Sadly, this kind of focus frequently goes hand in hand with judgmental attitudes, legalistic tendencies, and an inability to be corrected. Yes, we must be watchful (Matt. 24:42), but let’s ground our vigilance in faith in Jesus, not questionable sources. Doing so will transform a fear-driven urgency into a thoughtful, hope-filled awareness. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7).
End-time Complacency
On the other side of the coin are those who, for various reasons, don’t seem to anticipate or desire the last days to unfold in their lifetime, or at least not in the traditional Adventist understanding of it.
A few years ago I heard a speaker share from the pulpit how he understood what prophecy foretells in Revelation 13, including the coming persecution, but then concluded by saying, “I hope I’m no longer around then.”
Others resort to problematic hermeneutics to discredit established, foundational interpretations of end-time prophecy, including dismissing the relevance of Ellen White’s writings for today’s church. Being diligent, engaged in traditional evangelistic preaching, and focused on our end-time mission is deemed borderline fanatical, legalistic, or outdated and no longer pertinent for a twenty-first-century church. A certain intellectual pride, possibly because of a fear of having to make personal changes, shimmers through the more “rationalist” outlook on the urgency of our times, echoing the call of mockers throughout history, “Where is the promise of His coming?” (2 Peter 3:4), as well as the blindness of the Laodicean church (see Rev. 3:14-22).
Often we seem more excited to focus on the signs of His coming than on sharing with the world who is coming and why that is good news!
Should Adventists Be Alarmists?
There is a time and place in our preaching for illuminating the darkness, revealing the reality of falsehoods and diversions in our world. “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them” (Eph. 5:11). Nevertheless, this should never come close to eclipsing the central message of all prophecy and proclamation—Jesus.
Likewise, there is certainly a need to point out to people the signs of Jesus’ soon return. Yet often we seem more excited to focus on the signs of His coming than on sharing with the world who is coming and why that is good news! Revelation 14:6 doesn’t call it the “everlasting gospel” for no reason. Jesus’ coming is good news! Why? Not because it means more wars, more violence, more satanic agendas, more dubious religio-political leaders, and suspicious alliances for us to overanalyze. No, it is good news, because it means that He, the Desire of all ages, He, the Redeemer of our sinful hearts, He, the Lover of our souls and Healer of humanity’s fatal brokenness, is about to make His glorious entrance! Not just to save those who believe in Him from the beasts of Revelation 13 and the disasters of Matthew 24. He is coming to bring home His bride, His eternally valued and redeemed friends, and restore them to His heavenly home for unceasing fellowship, joy, and love in holiness and glory!
A Certain Sound
Yes, Seventh-day Adventists must sound the alarm that Jesus is coming soon. If we don’t, we will be denying our name and the prophetic mandate of the three angels’ messages. But we are to give the trumpet a certain sound! One of hope and readiness, not fear and sensationalism. A sound that inspires confidence in Jesus and all of His Word, rather than anxiety about a world that is falling apart and can’t provide any solutions for the restless heart. Play the beautiful and powerful song of Christ! Play it clear and play it well!
The true emergency that calls for a real and loud alarm to be sounded across the globe is not so much that Jesus is coming soon, but the lack of awareness that He is already knocking on the doors of our hearts, waiting to be let in.
