Back in 1970, a little book came out entitled The Late, Great, Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey.  It was viewed by many as the ultimate blueprint of the end times.  Of course, the beginning of the countdown to the return of Christ was the establishment of Israel in 1948.  Lindsey took all kinds of Old Testament prophecies as well as the book of Revelation and some prophetic statements by Christ in the gospels to connect nations, leaders, and world events to a seven-year tribulation of terrible plagues and natural disasters on the earth. 

Then, either before or in the middle of this great tribulation, the rapture of the church would occur when Jesus would evacuate every believer from the face of the earth to avoid what was coming.  Then, after the tribulation Christ would return to begin a thousand-year reign on the earth during which Satan would be bound and then released for a final confrontation. Then would come the end of time when Christ would destroy all his enemies and the eternal heaven would be ushered in on a renewed earth.

This book had a profound impact on the church in the coming decades.  Lindsey was not the first to develop this theology but he was the first to popularize it in such a way.  For me, the discouraging part of this view of the end times was that all of the earth would plunge into an inevitable spiritual darkness that no efforts of the church could forestall.  It suggested that no matter how hard the church prayed or evangelized, this inevitable triumph of darkness over light would transpire until things were so bad that Jesus “raptured” every believer from the face of the earth.

As a result, an attitude developed that any great efforts of the church at redeeming nations and cultures were doomed to fail.  Some believers simply took on the notion that we could no longer be world changers, but simply needed to bunker in until Jesus returned.  That mindset still exists in many believers today. I believe that some of this theology crept into churches to the extent that Christians began to pull back and isolate themselves from our culture with the sense that our involvement could actually make no difference. We handed over politics, education, science, and the arts to relative unbelievers – an expanded version of separation of church and state. 

This separation has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Someone prophesied that culture would continue to inevitably deteriorate in spite of our best efforts and so Christians abandoned it.  Because we withdrew from these cultural playing fields, of course it is deteriorating.  My objection to this view is that it inadvertently presents the power of Christ and his church to be insufficient to withstand the power of evil for decades while billions of people that Jesus died for are funneled into hell.  

And yet, Jesus demonstrated his power over evil through preaching, healing, and deliverance during his entire ministry on the earth.  His greatest demonstration of power came through the resurrection. He then sent his Spirit to empower believers to do what he had been doing.  Jesus himself declared that the gates of hell would not prevail against his church.  We are also told in Isaiah, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this” (Isa.9:6-7). 

This prophetic passage declares that the increase of his government will have no end.  In other words, his kingdom will continue to advance until the end of the age.  Jesus stands for victory rather than defeat. He taught us to pray…thy kingdom come…on earth as it is in heaven.  There is no place for a sense of inevitable failure, defeat or impotence in the kingdom of God.  Every election cycle, it feels like many Christians believe that their involvement in the political process is either futile or unbiblical…because they refuse to vote.  It seems that many believing parents discourage their children from academia or politics or involvement in the arts because those systems have been heavily infiltrated by the enemy.  

The questions is whether we should withdraw or retake those influential systems of culture for the kingdom of God?  To do so will require a theology of victory rather than defeat, power rather than weakness, and engagement rather than abandonment.  That is the Spirit of Christ. No matter how the end times roll out, we should remain committed to taking back the world from the enemy until Jesus appears again. God commanded Adam and Eve to subdue the earth for his purposes. That command was restated in the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations. We may want to begin right here in America to reclaim what belongs to God.