Update

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood Seraphim... And one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory... And so I said, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people with unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. (Isaiah 6)

A year-end look at what the Bible really says about the last days—and why the church should be working, not just waiting.

A Year of End-of-the-World Scenarios

2012 was a momentous year in many ways—in fact, it was supposed to be the final year, but we're still here. Praise God. According to some, the Mayan calendar pointed to the end on December 21st. We've made it past that date, so apparently the Mayans, or at least those reading their calendar, were wrong. Others now claim the calendar pointed not to the end but to a new beginning, the dawn of a new age. I don't know what that means, but it sounds good to some, so no doubt someone's selling a product with it.

Last year it was Harold Camping; this year it was the Mayan calendar; now we're hours away from the "fiscal cliff." Don't you feel the impending doom? It will pass, and before long we'll be talking about something else. And just so you're ready: there are two Friday the 13ths next year, in September and December.

The Bible Is a Prophetic Book

Since we just passed another end-of-the-world event—and more will come—it's worth remembering that the Scriptures we study week in and week out are a prophetic work with very important things to say about what is often called the end times. Every year at this season the tabloids run "the twelve Bible prophecies the government doesn't want you to know." There seems to be an anticipation, as one year ends and another begins, of wondering what it all means. Remember Y2K? We barely escaped.

More than a third of the Bible is predictive prophecy. Some of it has already come to pass exactly as foretold; some is yet future. The last book of the Bible, Revelation, is almost entirely predictive. Because it is also poetic and apocalyptic, it takes work to interpret, and it has spawned plenty of fanciful ideas. Still, I believe it can be rightly divided, even though it has its share of difficulties, as do many prophetic passages.

Are We Living in the Last Days?

Whenever we talk about Bible prophecy, people ask, "Are we living in the last days?" The Bible does say we are. In Hebrews 1:2 the author expressly calls these "the last days." I believe you can build a good case that ever since Jesus ascended into heaven we have been living in the last days—for the last 2,000 years. That may not be the answer some are looking for, but biblically, yes, we are.

The follow-up question is whether the Bible really predicts the world will one day end. It does, and Jesus Himself taught it. In the Great Commission (Matthew 28) He spoke of being with us "even until the end of the age." In Matthew 13, explaining His parables, He spoke of "the end of the age." There will indeed be an end of days, though many false teachings surround the subject.

The Sure Promise of the Second Coming

We hold a futurist position on Bible prophecy: we look at prophetic events as literal in their fulfillment, with some yet to be fulfilled. The most awesome of these is the second coming of Jesus Christ. Just as Jesus came the first time fulfilling hundreds of prophecies, He will come again.

In Acts 1, as Jesus ascended from the Mount of Olives and the disciples stood looking up, two men in white—angels—said, "Why do you stand here looking up into heaven? This same Jesus is going to return in like manner in the same way that He ascended." Jesus Himself promised it: "If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again" (John 14:3). In Matthew 16:27 He said the Son of Man "will come in the glory of His Father with His angels," and in Matthew 24:30 that all will "see the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven... with power and great glory." Revelation 1:7 declares, "Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him."

So He has not come yet. He did not return secretly in 1913 in Brooklyn, as the Jehovah's Witnesses teach, because the Scriptures say every eye will see Him. It will not be a secret coming. Jesus came the first time—history attests it—so when we see the prophecies surrounding His first coming literally fulfilled, we are confident He will come again. Paul anticipated "the glorious appearing of the Lord" twenty centuries ago; we should look forward to it too.

Eschatology and a Humble Approach

Over the last 35 or 40 years, eschatology—the study of the last things—has become a great interest, and big business, in the American church. Best-selling books, conferences, documentaries, and films have appeared, some of them freaky page-turners only loosely related to the Bible. It's commonly said that talking about Bible prophecy, or about sex, is a surefire way to fill a church. We won't be doing the latter this week.

Cross Connection is part of the Calvary Chapel family of churches, and we hold a futurist position. That does not mean the other positions—preterist, idealist, historicist—have no value. I don't necessarily have a problem with those views; they have legitimate things to say. We simply believe there is a literal future fulfillment still to come, possibly in our lifetime, possibly not.

I think it's important to approach this with humility. We don't have the corner on biblical interpretation regarding eschatology. The church across town that teaches a different position is not therefore heretical. I have good friends who hold a preterist position—that all prophecy was fulfilled in the first century—and they have real biblical support; we just agree to disagree. So I hold to a humble eschatology. Where there is considerable disagreement among godly Bible students, we should be humble enough to say, "This is the position we hold, but we could be wrong."

Premillennial and Pre-Tribulational

Calvary Chapel is traditionally premillennial and pre-tribulational. Premillennial means we believe that one day Jesus will return to the earth in His second coming and establish His kingdom, ruling and reigning here for a thousand years—the millennial reign of Christ—and that this has not yet happened. Some good Christians believe Jesus has returned spiritually and reigns within His church now. But the Bible describes a reign of literal righteousness upon the earth, and we don't see that yet.

Isaiah 11 describes it:

There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse... The wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid... and the lion shall eat straw like an ox... and the weaned child shall put his hand in the venomous snake's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

I haven't seen too many lions eating straw, so we believe this is still future.

Pre-tribulational means we believe that seven years before the second coming there will begin a seven-year period of great tribulation, and that before it Jesus will take His church from the earth in an event called the rapture. Even on the rapture there are several views: pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation, post-tribulation, pre-wrath, and the lighthearted "pan-trib"—it'll all just pan out. You can see why people get confused.

Secondary Issues, Not Salvation Issues

I hold a humble eschatology because I know that in this very room there are people who do not hold a pre-tribulational rapture view, and I'm perfectly fine with that. Why? Because it is not essential for salvation. There are people here who hold a post-trib view, and they are welcome to fellowship here, because we believe in Jesus, in His atoning sacrifice for our sins, and in being together with the Lord forever.

These are secondary issues and should not divide the church, though sadly they often have in America. People lead with eschatology instead of leading with the fact that they're saved by Jesus Christ. Our salvation in Christ is more important than our eschatological position, so we simply are not pushy about these things here.

The Olivet Discourse: When Will These Things Be?

So when is the end of the world? Jesus' disciples asked Him the same question 2,000 years ago, and He answered. Turn to Matthew 24, the Olivet Discourse—a teaching Jesus gave His disciples on the Mount of Olives, just east of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Jesus had just left the temple, having called out the religious establishment as hypocrites in Matthew 23. His disciples pointed out the magnificent buildings, and He said, "Truly, I say to you, not one stone will be left upon another that shall not be thrown down." That prophecy was literally fulfilled within forty years: in 70 A.D. the Roman general Titus destroyed Jerusalem, and the Romans pushed the stones down into the valleys to reach the gold melted into the foundation. Not one stone was left upon another.

Then on the Mount of Olives the disciples asked three questions: "When will these things be? What will be the sign of Your coming? And of the end of the age?" They assumed the temple's destruction, Jesus' coming, and the end of the age were all one event. In reality there is an early fulfillment—the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D.—and a latter fulfillment, the second coming and the end of the age.

What Are Not the Signs

Jesus answered, "Take heed that no one deceives you." Underline that, because much deception surrounds these things. "Many will come in My name saying, I am the Christ, and they will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled... but the end is not yet."

Every time there's a rumbling of a great war, people anticipate the end. Jesus says wars and rumors of wars are not the sign. "Nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be famines and pestilence and earthquakes in various places. All these things are the beginning of sorrows"—but the end is not yet. Famines, earthquakes, pestilence, and war are the normal reality of living in a fallen world, not the signs of the end.

He goes further: tribulation, persecution, hatred of the church, betrayal and hatred within the church, false prophets deceiving many, and abounding lawlessness so that the love of many grows cold. "But he that endures to the end shall be saved." None of these are the sign either. In the midst of all this, verse 14 says, "This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, and then will the end come." The work of the kingdom continues until the end.

The Sign: The Abomination of Desolation

The disciples asked for the sign—singular—of His coming. Jesus gives it in verse 15: "When you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place... then let those that be in Judea flee to the mountains... for then there will be great tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of the world." And in verse 29, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days... they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."

So what is the abomination of desolation? Daniel 9 explains it:

Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks... And after sixty-two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself... Then he shall confirm a covenant with the many for one week; and in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to the sacrifice and the offering, and on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate.

Daniel prophesied that from the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem—destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C., when Daniel was taken captive to Babylon—until Messiah the Prince would be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. Scholars such as Sir Robert Anderson, in his book The Coming Prince, show these as seven-year periods—sixty-nine of them, or 483 years—calculated to the very day when Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to cries of "Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." This is not hazy prophecy; it is precise.

The Missing Seventieth Week

But there is a missing seven-year period—the seventieth week of Daniel. Daniel says that after the 483 years, "Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself"—He would die, but for us, five centuries before it happened. "And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary"—the Romans in 70 A.D. After that, war and desolations are determined until the end.

Then verse 27 describes the missing week: one shall confirm a covenant for one week, and in the middle of it bring an end to the sacrifice and the offering and make desolate. Many believe this seven-year period is still future, that there will be a third Jewish temple in Jerusalem with sacrifices, and that in the middle of that period one—whom we believe to be the Antichrist—will stop the sacrifices and desecrate the temple. When Jesus said, "When you shall see that event, then My coming is really soon," He pointed to this.

We Are Not There Yet

So I'm here to tell you this morning: we are not there yet. When I hear about the Mayan calendar, it's "whatever." When Harold Camping says the end is May 21st, then October 21st, 2011—"whatever." Why? Because, based on this Scripture, there appears to need to be a temple in Jerusalem and sacrifices taking place for the abomination of desolation to occur—unless we're misinterpreting it, which some within the church think we are. This is our best educated guess from studying the Scriptures, but since that hasn't happened in Israel, I think we're a little ways off. It's not the end of the world as we know it; it's just the end of 2012.

Last Words: It Is Not for You to Know

Jesus had a word for those of us who get hyped up about end-times things. In Acts 1, His very last words before ascending—and last words carry import:

Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? ... It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put into His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses unto Me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the end of the earth.

Matthew 24:14 says this gospel shall be preached for a witness among all nations, and then shall the end come. So here is my prophecy update for December 30th, 2012: Jesus has not yet come. Therefore, we have work to do.

We Have Work to Do

Jesus will come, and He will come at just the right time, in accordance with His will. Nothing we do will force His coming. Two thousand years ago some Jewish people thought that if all Israel celebrated Passover in Jerusalem, the Messiah would come. Today some in the church say that if we would just be more righteous, Jesus would return. But God has an appointed time, and He has appointed work for us, His workers.

Jesus hasn't come yet. There is much more work to be done.

Closing Prayer

Father, we need Your grace. We need the outpouring of Your Spirit, just as Your early disciples had in Acts chapter two. Equip and fill us and make us ready to be witnesses of You in our Jerusalem here in North County, throughout Southern California, throughout the United States, to the uttermost parts. Enable us by Your grace, Your power, and Your Spirit to be witnesses unto You, and not to be all consumed and freaked out by the reality of Your second coming, but simply to know that You will come because You promised it. Help us to be about Your work, knowing there is coming a day when we will stand before You and long to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Work this into our lives as we step into 2013; may it be a great year for Your glory through us, Your people. We ask in Jesus' name, and all God's people agreed, saying, Amen.