There is, of course, a great deal of discussion about “end times” right now.  Interestingly those discussions were going on even in the days of Paul. Writing to the church at Thessalonica he said, “Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God” (2 Thess. 2:1-4).

Jesus was clear that we could know the season of his return but not even he knew the day or the hour.  There are indicators that we are certainly in the season of the Lord’s return.  The most significant was Israel’s return in 1948 to the land God had promised them in the days of Abraham.  We sometimes forget that the world does not revolve around the United States, but in God’s mind, it revolves around the little nation of Israel that he chose millennia ago to be his special people. Believing Gentiles have been grafted into spiritual Israel, but God still has plans for the physical nation.  In due time, Jesus will return to Jerusalem and the veil of unbelief will be lifted from the physical descendants of Abraham.  

A second major indicator will be the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem from which the anti-Christ or the man of lawlessness will make his proclamations.  Orthodox Jews are on the verge of rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem, restoring the priesthood, and the sacrifices of the temple once again. We can expect animal rights activists to have a meltdown over those sacrifices.  But when the temple is rebuilt, another solid indicator that the Day of the Lord is near will be imminent.

A third indicator is what Paul called “the rebellion.”  The Greek word is apostasia from which we get apostasy.  Paul seems to be prophesying a time when the church would experience a great falling away and a rejection of essential doctrines and truths of the church. That’s where we come in.  We have seen such a falling away in American and European churches over the last fifty years. Over that time, increasing numbers of theologians in our universities began to deny the miracles of the Bible. They began to frame them as only mythological stories that carried cultural values much like fables.  Because miracles were not “scientific” and were not being witnessed today (by them), these men and women simply declared they didn’t happen.  

I remember one commentary on the gospels regarding the account in which Peter and Jesus needed to pay a temple tax.  Jesus told Peter to go fishing and when he caught the first fish it had money in its mouth that covered the tax.  The commentator boldly proclaimed such a miracle would never happen and that Peter caught the fish and sold it for the amount needed to pay the tax.  He wasn’t there, he didn’t witness the event, but spoke as if he had been.  In the name of higher education and science, these theologians have denied the flood, the plagues on Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, the fall of Jericho, giants in the land, the healings of Jesus, the feeding of the five thousand, the virgin birth and ultimately the resurrection.  But if you take the miraculous out of the Bible, you have stripped it of any intervention by God in the affairs of men and the essential proofs that Jesus was, in fact, the Son of God.  You have stripped our faith of any personal relationship with God and, thus,  of our salvation.

Once theologians starting taking liberties with the Word of God, the trickle-down effect was that pastors and denominations felt they could also modify it as they saw fit.  So, in the past few decades, the “church” has felt free to change the definition of marriage, approve homosexuality, support transgenderism, question whether Jesus is the only way to heaven, and stand up for abortion on demand…even though scripture clearly calls these issues sin and even abominations. Once you deny the authority of scripture in any area, you deny it in every area. 

This has likely been the great rebellion or apostasy that Paul spoke about in 2 Thessalonians.  The church has compromised Biblical standards by giving into cultural pressures and a desire to be “intellectually acceptable” to the world.  John, however, warns us about such a move. He says, “Do not love the world or anything in the world.  If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them” (1 Jn. 2:15).  He defines the world in this context as the cultures, systems, and values of the world that Satan promotes contrary to God’s truth.  If we deny the Word of God then we deny the one who spoke it.

As this “apostasy” continues in many places, we must accept the fact that we must speak out in order to be faithful representatives of Jesus and his truth. We must also accept that when we speak out, those who love the world will hate us.  We can speak the truth in love and still be hated because the spirit in them hates the Spirit in us. This is an “end times” reality we must embrace.  To be silent or compromise with the world opens the door for the enemy to establish a stronghold in our families, our nation, and our churches. We may have little to do with Jerusalem or the third temple, but we are those who are called to push back against the great falling away of the church.  

Our role is to be personally clear about biblical truth and to speak out when others want to deny it or compromise with the world.  We must avoid any arrogance or self-righteousness in our push back, but our silence will seem to them as agreement and so we must speak to city councils, school boards, church leaders, business leaders, and even family members.  If we love God we must speak up for his truth and his standards.  

To fail to speak up will be a form of denial, but we can take heart.  Jesus promised, “you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. This will result in your being witnesses to them. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist God’s truth to those who are not prepared to receive it.  As we move toward the return of Jesus, we need to ground ourselves in biblical truth and pray that God will prepare our hearts to speak when the time comes.

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.

How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth…You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” Isa. 14:12-14

You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you…Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. You were anointed as a guardian cherub, or so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth.   Ezek. 28:12-17

These two passages from the Old Testament are considered by most to be descriptions of Satan before his fall and the reasons that he was driven from heaven and cast down to planet earth.  One is found as part of a prophecy against Babylon and the other against the King of Tyre.  The point is that, in the same way that Satan was strong and powerful once, but lost his elevated position in heaven because of pride and a desire to take the throne himself, these kings would also be judged because of pride and a heart that exalted themselves above God. 

What we need to notice is that Satan, in his corrupted pride and wisdom, desired to take the place of God in heaven where he would then receive praise and worship.  He was created as a guardian cherub who constantly ministered around the throne of God.  Some believe that he was even the worship leader of heaven.  In his beauty and exalted status, he became jealous of the worship God received and wanted it for himself.  He hasn’t changed. Ultimately, his desire is to be worshipped as God himself, although he is a created being.  

In Matthew 4, when Satan appeared to tempt Christ after 40 days of fasting in the wilderness, his final temptation was that he would give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if Christ would worship him.  In Revelation 13, the dragon (Satan) raises up a beast that all people are amazed at and we are told that all the people of the earth worshipped the dragon.  Satan’s deepest desire is to redirect worship from God to himself.  Scripture reveals that behind every idol is a demon and so demons receive the worship that men give to idols.  Since demons represent Satan, I’m sure he accepts that as worship to himself.

Worship can be a subtle thing.  It doesn’t have to be men and women cloaked in robes in a candle lit room chanting, “Hail Satan.”  It can be as simple as loving the things he loves.  It can be as simple has agreeing with him about values, priorities, and contorted views of God.  It is as simple as calling evil things good and good things evil.  It can be as simple as pursuing the desires of the flesh rather than the desires of the Spirit.  When we love what God loves and hate what God hates, it is an expression of worship because we have aligned our hearts with His.  When we love what Satan loves and hate what he hates, we also are worshipping him. 

We live in a world that constantly exalts and practices the things of Satan – money, power, illicit sex, homosexuality, transgenderism, abortion, theft, violence, atheism, racism, witchcraft, etc.  We hear the constant drum beat that these things are part of an enlightened, sophisticated culture.  Those who would push back against these new cultural “norms” are labelled unenlightened, bigoted haters.  

Let’s face it, things that shocked and disgusted the average American fifty years ago, hardly raise an eye brow now.  We have been exposed to these things so often by the media, that our sensitivities are dulled.  What was considered gross sin fifty years ago is now “cute” and is, at least, a subplot in every movie or television series. 

This is all designed to normalize such behaviors and, over time, align our values with the enemy’s. After years of conditioning, our hearts start to compromise and, perhaps, begin to give some credibility to the arguments that these things are actually normal and healthy.  It is all a great strategy to align our hearts, values, and priorities with the enemy’s.  His goal is to pervert every holy thing that God created and to draw disciples after himself.  All this is to draw worship to himself.  Service is a form of worship and when we serve Satan by agreeing with him in word or actions, then we are worshipping.

In the arena of spiritual warfare, agreement is a huge issue.  Whomever we agree with, we empower in our lives and invite to come in and sit down.  We live in an age when we must evaluate constantly which direction our heart is leaning.  When you survey scriptures that speak about end times, a major theme is that people, even God’s people, will be deceived by the evil one and drawn away from the kingdom of heaven.  

We must evaluate, on a regular basis, who or what we are worshipping.  What are we pursuing with the most passion? To whom or what are we giving our time and finances?  What are we thinking about, dreaming about, or imagining when we are alone? What offends us or what no longer offends us?  

What in our lives are out of sync with the Word of God and the holiness of God?  These are serious matters.  God may not be as casual about our sin and agreement with Satan as we are.  Let me encourage you to evaluate your worship…not just on Sunday mornings, but on the other six days of the week as well.  We must worship God and him only and lets encourage one another to do so as the return of Jesus draws closer.