The day after my new birth (fall of 1979)—converted but clueless, utterly —I met three Christians in a health food store. Knowing nothing about them, or their beliefs, I said that I wanted to study the Bible. What do you want to study? I want to study about America. Is America in Bible prophecy?
Picture this: I did not know that they were Seventh-day Adventists. Had I, it would have meant nothing. And, yet, the first thing that I ask them, Seventh-day Adventists, to study with me is—America in prophecy?
If that weren’t enough, the week that we studied this prophecy—in which you first have to go through Rome to get to Washington—was the week that Pope John Paul the Second made this historic visit to the United States, coming (the first invite ever for a Pope) to the White House, where he shook hands with our Southern Baptist president, Jimmy Carter.
Since then, as an Adventist, I have studied, and still study, prophecy. (After all, we are a prophetic movement, right?) And though some (and, perhaps, at times justly) complain about all the winged-lions and 10-horned-dragons and talking-horn and smashed-statue imagery used in our evangelism, all this winged-lion and 10-horned-dragon and talking-horn and smashed-statue imagery have, over the decades, helped affirm me in my faith.
The Love of Jesus
For example, I defy anyone to explain how, without a God knowing the future—Daniel 2 could have predicted, not only the rise of Rome but its breakup into the nations of modern Europe, and so accurately, too (some weak, some strong; cross-breeding among themselves; still divided). To this day, Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 (with its astonishing depiction of papal Rome) remain rational anchors firmly tethering me to my faith.
Meanwhile, besides the complaints about winged-lions and 10-horned-dragons and so forth, there is sometimes bruited about among us the idea that we should not focus so much on prophecy because it’s not that important. Instead, we should be focusing on “the love of Jesus.” Now, please, I am not against the love of Jesus, or even a more focused emphasis on it. In fact, I have a book coming out soon tentatively titled How to Know the Love of God. But it doesn’t have to be one or the other. If done correctly, prophecy is an expression of Christ’s love, because it’s another way of Him revealing truth about Himself, and that is important.
And this importance hit me while reading Desire of Ages and seeing the confusion, including among Jesus’ own followers, about Him and His ministry. And that confusion came, at least partially, because the people didn’t understand Bible prophecy, Bible prophecy about His first coming. They got it wrong, expecting a military and political Messiah who would deliver them from the Romans. What none expected was a meek and humble Messiah with no political pretensions, which helps explain why they rejected Him. Some of the leaders were jealous, fearful for their own power and influence, that’s true. But what helped justify the rejection of Jesus was their gross misreading of Bible prophecy. And so, instead of falling down before their Messiah in humility and repentance, as they should have—had they understood the prophecies—they cursed and mocked and derided the Messiah after they put Him on a cross.
If helping prepare people for the apocalypse is not part of expressing love, what is?
And people say Bible prophecy isn’t important.
And if a misunderstanding of Bible prophecy regarding the first Advent of Jesus brought calamity, what about all the false interpretations today regarding the Second Coming: the Secret Rapture; the rebuilding of the Temple; the seven-year tribulation; antichrist as some unknown personage yet unrevealed; 144,000 Jewish virgins preaching the gospel, to name a few? Between their intransigent ignorance regarding the state of the dead, which leaves them wide open for spiritualism (as all the died-and-gone-to-heaven books and movies reveal); and their blindness to the role of the United States and Rome in final events; their earthly millennium; along with their go-to-church-then-to-Cracker-Barrel-followed-by-shopping-and-then-the-NFL “Sunday-keeping,” which they religiously adhere to—these folks are wide-open for the last-day deceptions. And, even among us, a growing coterie are dissing our eschatology as 19th-century Nativism, an irrelevant anachronism of cobbled apocalyptic poppy-cock. (I suppose whenever Sabbath-Sunday becomes an issue they will wake up. Or will it be too late?)
Clueless
It was 45 years ago that, knowing nothing about the Bible or Seventh-day Adventists, I walked into a health food store and asked to study prophecy, Bible prophecy about America, if there was one. Turned out, there was.
And no matter how convinced I was back then, and remain so (even more so) about what they taught, one thing’s certain: even with me basically understanding last- day events, and for decades now anticipating those events—staying faithful will be hard enough. And, if it will be hard enough for me, or for us, who know what’s coming and who (ideally at least) can prepare—what about those who with their false understanding of Bible prophecy remain clueless, looking to a rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem and the like, or maybe even promoting Sunday sacredness in a misguided attempt to usher in the earthly millennium, instead of seeking to be among those who “keep the commandments of God, and have the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12)?
A false understanding of prophecy brought calamity at the first coming; it will at the Second as well.
So, yes, we need to promote the love of Jesus. But if helping prepare people for the apocalypse is not part of expressing that love, what is?