Knowing What’s Coming Will Help You Through What’s Happening

 

In language meant to be clever in the context of his times, Walter Rauschenbusch wrote, “Eschatology is usually loved in inverse proportion to the square of the mental diameter of those who do the loving.”¹ In reality, though, eschatology is usually loved in proportion to the believer’s love of Christ. If we don’t love Christ’s appearing, how can we claim to love Him?

Sometimes pastors may balk at preaching prophecy, thinking that prophecy lacks clear application for their congregations. Still, prophecy is one of the major themes in the Word of God, with almost twenty-seven percent of its verses touching on more than 725 prophetic subjects. Clearly, the mere bulk of prophetic emphasis in the Bible suggests its importance to God’s people. For example, Isaiah, rich in prophetic truth, demonstrates how God’s promises for the future bring blessings in the present.

Prophecy in Isaiah and Daniel

Isaiah 40:1 begins the last half of the book with the words, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.” In their rebellion God’s people had experienced the fulfillment of God’s promised judgment. His condemnation of Israel’s sin had resulted in the fabric of the nation being torn apart. Everything they had in terms of material possession or position was taken from them. All they had left to cling to was the presence of God and His promises. It was enough.

By God’s mercy, Israel also experienced God’s gracious renewal and peace. In this section of Isaiah there is an interplay between God’s creative activities in the past and His promised prophetic fulfillment in the future (Isa. 42:5; 45:11–21; 46:8–10; 48:3–8, 12–16). God was reminding His people that He was present from the very beginning; it was by His power and wisdom that the Word brought forth the created cosmos (Gen. 1:1; John 1:1–3). In the same way that God’s faithful presence inhabits eternity (Isa. 57:15), it will ensure the fulfillment of every prophetic promise in the future.

One reason God has given His people prophetic promises is that their dependence on God’s faithfulness in keeping His Word takes away their fear of the future so they will experience spiritual comfort and peace in present difficulties (Isa. 26:3–4). Even in the midst of the Babylonian captivity Israel could take heart in God’s promise of a glorious future to come (Isa. 58–66). God, the Prophetic Promise Maker, can be trusted to be God, the Prophetic Promise Keeper.

Daniel echoes this same theme of God’s faithfulness in keeping His covenant. In the Book of Daniel we are shown that the Sovereign God of Israel also rules over Gentile kings and kingdoms. The thrust and parry of empires will not hinder God from fulfilling His every promise to the children of Israel. The security of Israel is safe in the hands of God. From God’s throne a river of fire flows out against those who choose to live in spiritual rebellion (Dan. 7:9–11). But for God’s children, the Lord gives access to a river of life (Rev. 22:1).

Prophecy in the New Testament

In the same way, God’s prophetic promises to the church come from the same heart of grace and are no less glorious than the promises of God to Israel. Speaking in Titus 2:13 of Christ’s return, Paul writes, “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” Since Paul first penned those words, almost two thousand years have passed. Although Christ has not yet returned, His promise is still in full force. Anticipation of Christ’s return, as the saints have sung for years, brings “strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.”

At the dawn of creation God walked with man. But man rebelled and chose to walk his own path. Consequently, God shut the door to paradise so that man no longer experienced the intimacy of God’s presence, coming instead to know moral failure and fear as his daily companions. From that day to this, God has moved to bring reconciliation between Himself and mankind. The cross of Calvary is at the foundation of God’s work in salvation, but all along the way prophetic promise has served as God’s blueprint for bridging the gulf between God and man so that man can once more walk in holy fellowship with God. Christ’s return to establish God’s kingdom on earth is the abutment of that prophetic bridge on the far shore of human history.

Today, we wait for the Lord’s return. Until then, we wait in faith, hope and love (Deut. 6:4–5; 1 Cor. 13:13; Heb. 11:1, 6). Faith and love are intertwined: we will not truly have faith in the Lord unless we also love Him; and we won’t love Him if we don’t trust Him. Moreover, it is the settled assurance of hope that sustains our love for God and our trust that He will keep His promises. In part, this is why fear is spiritual poison in a believer’s walk with God. In 1 John 4:18 the apostle writes, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.”

Similarly, the Lord rebuffed the disciples’ fear with the question, “Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?” (Mark 4:40). Earlier in the passage Christ had said, “Let us pass over unto the other side” (Mark 5:35). While Christ rested in the will of God and fell asleep, the disciples focused only on the immediate circumstances surrounding their boat. In doing so, they lost hope in ever reaching the other side. Seeing only the wind and waves, they had forgotten about God’s loving care—that they, too, were actively engaged in fulfilling the will of God in Christ.

Fear and anxiety are two names for the same malady. George Mueller, no stranger to a life of faith, wrote, “The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety.” The disciples were anxious because Christ was asleep while they were in trouble. They feared that God was inattentive to their need. Nevertheless, Christ was equally present with the disciples and no less in control when He rested, as when He rebuked the storm—no less Sovereign when He slept, as when He spoke.

Every Lord’s Day there are people in church who, like the disciples, struggle with the silence of God. Their prayers seem to have gone unanswered. They have become discouraged with personal failure or they feel overwhelmed with the pressures and stresses of life. Spiritually, they may have gotten to the point where all they can see are problems. Yet they know their own resources are insufficient to meet the need.

When God’s people need to hear God speak, we know that there is no place in the Bible that God has not breathed out His Word. The pastor must confidently preach it all, including its prophecies. Prophecy was given to expand our vision of what God is doing in the world. When God gives prophetic promise, His full glory is on display. Prophetic preaching provides a congregation with the opportunity to move its focus away from man-centered thinking and to listen to God’s revelation concerning Himself. Then the pastor is preaching about the God who breathed out that prophetic word—the God who is able and willing to see His Word of promise through to its fulfillment. Preach on prophecy and your people will experience an increasingly confident faith and a spiritual vibrancy in every aspect of their walk with God.

Mike Davidson holds a ThM from Dallas Theological Seminary and received an honorary doctorate from South India Baptist Bible College. He has pastored for over thirty years and has been serving with International Partnership Ministries for seven years in their education department as a Bible and ministry instructor. (As of original publication of this article.)

(Originally published in FrontLine • July/August 2015 37. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.)

1. Walter Rauschenbusch, A Theology for the Social Gospel (p. 209), as cited in J. Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1958), p. vii. [↩]