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Jesus returned to earth in 70 A.D.?

· by · In: Basic Christianity, Current events, Insights, The Future and Endtime

Did Jesus of Nazareth’s 2nd coming happen in 70 A.D? Did the fulfillments of dozens of prophecies reach their final climax then? Don’t laugh. Sadly there has been a ripple in the community of those who believe in the Lord’s return, somehow gazing toward this view that the return of Jesus to reign and rule happened in 70 AD.

Instead of sharing thoughts I have on this, I think it would be best to just share what the Early Church Fathers said on this subject. Several of these men died a martyr’s death. And they lived and led the Christians at the time when the vehement fires of Christian discipleship were at their strongest, in the first one to three hundred years after the ascension of the Lord.

If anyone had a close understanding of the original mindset of the “church” that Jesus left behind on earth, it would be these men and women. Did they believe the Lord had come back in 70 AD? Were they looking to that date as the time of the fulfillment of most all prophecies?

Of course you know the answer. None of them talked or taught that way. They all looked forward to the future, yet-to-be-fulfilled return of the Lord, after 42 months of great tribulation and the revelation of the endtime antichrist spoken of in prophecy throughout Scripture. Here’s what they said.

Barnabas, who  traveled with the Apostle Paul,  wrote: “The final stumbling block approaches…for the whole past time of your faith will profit you nothing, unless now in this wicked time we also withstand coming sources of danger….then the evil one Antichrist may find no means of entrance….” (Epistle of Barnabas, chp.4)

Justin Martyr (100-165) wrote: “The man of apostasy, [Antichrist] who speaks strange things
against the Most High, shall venture to do unlawful deeds on the earth against us the Christians..” (Dialogue with Trypho, chp.110)

Irenaeus (138-202)  a contemporary of  Justin Martyr, wrote: “And they, the ten kings who will arise, shall lay Babylon waste, and burn her with fire, and shall give their kingdom to the beast antichrist and put the church to flight” (Against Heresies, V, chp.26)

Tertullian (150-220)  a contemporary of  Irenaeus,  wrote: “The souls of the martyrs are taught to wait [Rev.6:9-10] that the beast Antichrist with his false prophet may wage war on the Church of God…” (On the Resurrection of the Flesh, chp.25)

Cyprian (200-258)  a contemporary of  Tertullian,  wrote: “The day of affliction has begun to hang over our heads, and the end of the world and the time of the Antichrist to draw near, so that we must all stand prepared for the battle…” (Epistle, 55, 1)

Cyril of Jerusalem (315-386),  wrote: “The church declares to you the things concerning Antichrist before they arrive…it is well that, knowing these things, thou shouldest make thyself ready beforehand.” (Catechetical Lectures, 15,9)

And there is much more than this, from the pillars of Christianity from the Early Church Fathers to modern times, pointing towards the future coming of the Lord as well as the end time events that the Bible says will happen in the very final days before His return. If you have an interest in these things and want to read more on this, you could go to this link, https://earlychurchbelief.blogspot.com/2008/08/early-church-fathers.html

But certainly some will ask, “Why does any of this matter?”

If the enemy of God can get us to drop our spiritual sword and shield, then he gains victory over us. And it can be a very disarming thought that virtually all Bible prophecy was fulfilled in 70 AD, that the climactic, world-shattering prophecies of Daniel, Revelation and many others in the Bible, not to mention the words of Jesus Himself, were all drained of their significance at the time of the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

It’s like that cartoon I put in another article on this subject, which I’ll add again here. “Relax, it all happened in 70 AD.” Exactly, if that’s the conclusion you come to. Relax.

Except that that’s not the voice of the Lord and the doctrine isn’t either.

I’ve tried to make this article short enough so that folks will feel they can read it without getting bogged down. If you’ve somehow come in contact with this doctrine, it’s technical name is “preterism”, I hope that these quotes on the subject from the Early Church Fathers will persuade you that the earliest Christians did not at all look at 70 AD as “the end”. But they looked forward, as many of us now do, to a coming return of the Lord to establish His Kingdom on earth. God bless you.

Perplexed in Texas

· by · In: Basic Christianity, Current events, Insights, My past

It’s perplexing to be an American right now. It’s difficult to express. There’s so much to be outraged about. Then also, there seem to be so few legitimate avenues to make things better here.

Part of it has to do with identity. Usually we’re not just “Americans”. There will be a word or two in front of that. It could be “Democrat”, “Republican”, “Conservative”, “Progressive”, “Christian”, “Gay”, “Male”, “Female”, “Trans” or “Straight”. Or African American, Hispanic American, Asian American or Native American. Once upon a time these secondary delineations were in subjection to the first sense of identity, of being citizens of this country. But no more.

Jesus said, “A nation divided against itself cannot stand.” (Mark 3:24) And most likely not since the 1860’s has that thought rung so ominously true for the USA. At the time of the final fall of Israel to Babylon around 586 BC, the foremost prophet of doom back then, Jeremiah, said to the Jews, “Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our hearts in our hands unto God in the heavens.” (Lamentations 3:40 & 41)

Now and for recent years, there’s been a time of deep heart-searching for many Americans. I can make this personal. What’s my identity? I could say “Christian” but that leads into another of the perplexities of these times, “What do you mean by ‘Christian’?” The basic fabric of our language has been so skewered by competing narratives that our very vocabulary has to be explained nearly every time we try to say something.

For me, “Christian” has been within what can be called Christian discipleship. Specifically, I lived 37 years of my adult life abroad as a missionary in dozens of countries. So immediately most folks would conclude that I’m a Conservative, Republican, straight male. They’d be right about being a straight male. But then it really gets into the tall grass with the subject of “Conservative Republican”.

Some are already bristling. On the right hand and on the left. I probably already lost those on the left when I said I was a Christian disciple and a missionary, a straight white male. What could be worse, right? Hasn’t Christianity been the fount and fountainhead of all that’s gone wrong in the last few hundred years? Racist, misogynist, colonialist, patriarchal bigotry is the overriding evaluation of Christian influence on the world from a Progressive viewpoint. And that’s the predominate paradigm within the present Democratic party in the USA.

Ironically, I grew up in a deeply liberal (for those times) Democratic family in Texas. I actually planned on a career as a Democratic politician up until I was nearly 21.  Then a powerful near-death experience propelled me out of atheism and into an embryonic acknowledgement that there actually is a spiritual world, both here and in eternity, that is inhabited by both good and bad spirits. I wanted to be with the good ones. A few months later some teenage Christian “Jesus People” showed me the plan of salvation through Jesus from the New Testament. That was the beginning of my life as a Christian disciple.

But as I’ve had to ask my still-Democratic relatives today, “How can I be a Democrat in these times?” I’m not pro-abortion, I’m not gay and these have become the litmus test and gate passes to the present Democratic Party.

Because of my Christian faith and world view, I’ve begun working in the past months with some teachers and parents locally who’ve become appalled at the present condition of schools in the greater Austin area, which are reflected in many other schools across the USA.

Under the guise of “SEL”, (social emotional learning) an indoctrination is being brought into the curriculum of schools across American that comes from a far leftist, gender-fluid, virulently anti-Christian foundation. Just giving some highlights of the utter vileness that I’ve seen going on in local schools would be a whole article in itself and I won’t go further about it here. But I have been speaking at local school board meetings and trying to do what I can.

My friends are almost all Christians, not all white but extremely determined to try to do what they can to turn the tide of perversion and indoctrination that’s going on in schools just a few miles from me. So the conclusion? “Mark, you’ve become a Conservative Republican!” Well in these matters, my views and heart certainly correspond to their view on this subject.

Except, most of you know what just happened three days ago at a school in Uvalde, Texas, 200 miles from me. An 18 year old Hispanic male bought an assault rifle on his 18th birthday and ended up killing over 20 people at a Uvalde elementary school.

Shocking? Sadly, not overwhelmingly so for most Americans. This kind of thing has pretty much come to be the order of the day in our times. Is there outrage? Of course. But for many there also has come a growing sense of impotence and resignation against this kind of recurring holocaust.

And the perplexity grows. Can I turn now to my new Conservative Christian friends to share my grief, my outrage and to band together with them to try to change things?! Well, no. Why not?! Well, um… the official line of the Republican Party is basically utterly pro gun. This is one of the most entrenched positions that is held by Conservative Republicans across America. No gun laws, no gun restrictions, just nothing.

The screaming irony is hard to match with words. Christian, conservative Republicans hold the views I do that sexuality should be the realm of parents to teach their children, not the prerogative of Progressive doyens of multigender confusion. But then when it comes to free and open immediate access to assault rifles which have no other use at all besides killing people [not rabbits, not deer; just people], then my Christian conservative companions are instant in voicing their view that there is nothing that can be done or should be done to limit guns. That’s just all there is to it.

Do I turn back to the Democrats then? In this case, centrist Democrats as well as the Progressives unitedly and for decades have called for some kind of legislation and initiative to try to make gun violence not as easy has it has been.

So it’s a real dilemma. My first allegiance as far as I am concerned is to the Lord and His rule which will ultimately come to this earth. But I really don’t find any political group here and now that has a monopoly on the justice and judgment of Jesus of Nazareth.

As for my country, state and community, I often just feel checkmated as to what direction to take. It reminds me of what I have read of World War I, where the troops were extremely dug in on both sides of no man’s land and this lasted for years in a stalemate of the armies while daily 10’s of thousands of young men died in battle. Today we have deaths through abortion on the one side, allowed by the Leftists and Progressives. But also we have deaths through gun violence which the Christian Conservative Right continues to ignore with all their strength. And while Left and Right enhance their intransigence, the killings continue on year after year.

Well, I like to end things on a happy note. But I’m finding that difficult. I don’t want to come across with some trite, shallow Pollyanna-isms. This whole situation is a real Gordian Knot, an enigma for minds and hearts small and great in these times.

If nothing else we can pray. We can stand on the certainties we have in the Lord and the values that were the foundations of this country over many decades, which served us well for so long. Maybe an ending thought could be what an ancient king prayed in his nation’s great dilemma, “Lord, neither know we what to do. But our eyes are unto thee.” (II Chronicles 20:12)

 

Living end time exploits, now

· by · In: Basic Christianity, Current events, The Future and Endtime

Sometimes it’s hard to keep the vision of the last days. The enemy of our souls wants to exhaust you with distractions, vanities, “rabbit trails” and meaninglessness. Without God, you ultimately crumble, surrender to the fog and become numb within the mists you’ve come to live in. Certainly, this is not the will of God.

But then tonight, it was like a fresh wind from God that blew through the house. We watched the movie about the “Free Burma Rangers”.  It’s the story of a man from Texas who was raised on the mission field of Thailand but then felt led to become a soldier. After having become an elite “Rangers” member of the US military, he felt the call of God to use his training and Christian/military background to help the marginalized peoples of Burma.

I realized, watching it, that this documentary/movie about real people in these times could be a glimpse of how reality will be for some Christians in the very final years, during the time of Antichrist rule. Some parts of the world are experiencing extreme “great tribulation” right now and God’s presence is being strongly seen and felt by those who continue to serve Him in those times and places.

It specially spoke to me as this man, with his wife and 3 children beside him, has lived a life of zealous Christian discipleship which has been similar to what I’ve experienced at times in my life on the mission field. What this couple has been doing in the last few years is very much like what I believe Christians, some at least, will be experiencing in the final 42 months of Great Tribulation before the return of the Lord.

The three and a half years before the return of Jesus is a period of time that is amazingly shown repeatedly in Scripture. I certainly can’t in this article get into all the aspects of it. But if you’re interested in the subject, here is a link to an article I did when I was in a remote part of Bulgaria some years ago, where I was struck by how that area could be like what it says about the Christians of the last days that they “flee into the wilderness” where they are protected during that time. It’s called “Fleeing into the Wilderness… in Bulgaria”.

I firmly believe there is no “pre-tribulation” rapture or gathering of the saved, before the coming of the Lord. In fact, I believe there are several verses that clearly tell what Christians will be doing during that time. Two from Daniel chapter 11 are “The people who do know their God will be strong and do exploits. And they that understand among the people shall instruct many.”

This movie touched me on so many levels. While I‘ve not had exactly the same life as this man and his family, I could very much relate to their commitment to the Lord and their willingness to put their lives on the line for Him in very extreme situations in the hinterland of Myanmar (Burma) for years and then in northern Iraq at the height of the ISIS threat there.

This dedicated family at the front of Christian discipleship in Burma and Iraq helped remind me to not “sit at ease in Zion” (Amos 6:1), as is so normal and acceptable to do here in Christian circles in America. It was a reminded to me of my calling and background, my experience and all that the Lord has invested in me and all I can still be used by Him to do, if I will be cautious to not get comfortable and settled in this present situation I’m in.

Desperation often brings on a clarity that comfort and ease really doesn’t. There’s so much confusion and vanity that every person here in my country is mightily assailed by every day. It’s like living in mists that effectively obscure spiritual realties. So we can end up quibbling about trifles while the starkest realities of the spiritual world mostly escape us in all the Babylonian chatter of our daily lives.

But watching these dear ones who were going all out for the Lord at the forefront of some of the worst conflicts in the world of our times reminded me of how it is going to be in the future where Christians are going to be laying down their lives, utterly involved with humanity around them and being burning and shining lights to multitudes of the lost and oppressed.  This was all a bit of a shakeup and a reminder for me of my calling and life up to this time.

One of the greatest dangers to Christians in my country is the incredible surge of sickening swill and sludge that flows at us night and day through every organ of the media. It’s virtually all tainted, brackish and deeply polluted by any number of agendas and outlets, trying to sell you their viewpoint or product.

Strange as it may seem, counter-intuitive as you might think it to be, those dear people in the jungles of Burma or the poor souls who were assailed for years by ISIS in Iraq and Syria had a leg up on many of us here. Because they didn’t have to try to sort out reality from fiction. The enemy was right there, real and clear and in their faces, ready to literally kill them physically right then.

We don’t hear much about Christian activists at the forefront of the worst conflicts of our time. But for them, it’s like they are already living in conditions much like the final last days will be. So this movie was very much like a look into the future for dedicated Christians. And although it was totally and utterly real and true, not a bit of fiction to it, it also had an element of Biblical futurism to it to see how these horrific conditions brought out the very best of Christian character and love for others in this dear man and his wife and kids.

It wonderfully concentrates the mind in situations like that. I haven’t experienced it a lot but I definitely have from time to time in my encounters on some far flung mission fields. It quickens you, clears your mind and mostly gets you very desperate as you are face to face with forces greater than you. And you realize perhaps as much as ever before how very much you desperately need at that moment the presence and power of God. Or you may die in the next minute. [Here’s an article I wrote about when I was about to venture into a city on the Syrian border when ISIS was at its peak and how desperate prayer was a life or death matter.]

If you want to see what the final days before the Lord may be like and how you and yours can be victors and “more than conquers”, even during the time that “the woman fled into the wilderness”, then I suggest you watch “Free Burma Rangers”. “And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death.” (Revelation 12:11)

Fog

· by · In: Basic Christianity, Current events, Insights

Winston Churchill, writing about 1940 said, “Although it was a fine September, I was frightened of the fog.” Why? Because he knew that the fog was the best cover the enemy could have for a German invasion of Britain at that time. And that’s in many ways where we are now: in a fog.

Admittedly, some think they are seeing utterly clearly and can emphatically tell you who the good guys are and who are the bad. But sometimes, the wrong people have the right message and the right people have the wrong message. It’s rather like great confusion.

Have you ever looked up at the sky and seen some clouds going one direction but others going another at the same time? In one place in the Bible it says, “The winds were contrary.” (Acts 27:4) A bit like it is now, it seems to me. And it’s the easiest time for the enemy to invade the land or our own hearts: when we are in a fog and can’t really see as clearly many things that seemed clear not so long ago.

It’s like that to some degree for me now and perhaps for many people. A dear friend said something to me a few days ago that was profound, although he didn’t probably intend it that way. He simply said that he was looking at individual issues rather than choosing one side or the other in the big picture.

I think that might hold a lot of wisdom for the Christian people of faith right now. For me it’s been a help. If I look at individual issues affecting the world right now, I can feel a leading of the Lord on them, if I just look at them one at a time. But forming some composite big picture, some “unified field” as they say in the realm of physics, I’m not really able to do that right now.

And maybe as a Christian disciple, I don’t need to. Maybe I don’t need to identify with the various yardsticks that are so prevalent and demanding right now. No, I don’t at all swear allegiance to one political party or the other, “left” or “right”. I just feel vehemently that my loyalty and allegiance should continue to be to the Son of God Who will ultimately return to establish the Kingdom of God on earth, as He clearly said He would.

Should I move away from that? Should any of us come off the wall of Christian discipleship to become embroiled with “the course of this world” and “the affairs of this life”?  (Ephesians 2:2, II Tim. 2:4) No matter how loud the clamor is between one worldly faction and the other right now?

I just can’t, or at least shouldn’t. But there is a strong pull and I do have long-time Christian disciple friends who’ve now engaged themselves almost totally within those controversies and have, in so doing, moved away from their original calling to an allegiance with Christ and His service within this present evil world.

But the enemy can attack most easily when there is a fog. That may be why Paul said, “God is not the author of confusion but of peace.” (I Corinthians 14:33) If I let present contrary winds and an inability to as easily discern things as it seemed possible in the past, then I can allow that wedge to be a device of the enemy to move in heavily, as he always attempts to do, and to overwhelm me with uncertainty, perplexity and confusion. Before you know it, as Churchill feared the Germans would do in 1940, the enemy is landing troops upon your land and is advancing in a blitzkrieg war while you pause in perplexity, with your guard dropped.

The solution? Remain vigilant. “Strengthen the things that remain.”  (Revelation 3:2) “Be sober, be vigilant, for your adversary the devil as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour.” (I Peter 5:8)

Having perfect understanding and being able to see clearly the horizon in every direction is not guaranteed for Christian discipleship. Sometimes we simply don’t have that. We have to “walk by faith and not by sight.” (I Corinthians 5:8) But the enemy is always there to cast fiery darts into our hearts and minds, sowing fear, uncertainty, questions and doing all he can to reverse the polarity so that he can launch an attack on God’s homeland, which is our souls, especially when the overall outlook seems foggy.

I’ll have to admit, it has bothered me that I have not been able to feel I see things as clearly as I did until very recently. But on the other hand, I have more than enough of the Lord’s grace to handle all that is before me on the short term. So while the fog clears, I’m going to concentrate on the short term goals and vision which is still just fine. And perhaps before long, other things will become clearer. Still, I am going to remain vigilant against the attacks of the enemy who has already tried to attack me in this present somewhat foggy time.

The enemy is always threatening, broadcasting his woes and contrary confusion, all the much more when it is foggy. But the Lord’s directional systems still work just as well in fog as they do in clear skies.  Meanwhile, when it comes to the enemy of our souls, “We are not ignorant of his devices.” (II Corinthians 2:11)

Judgment begins at the house of God

· by · In: Basic Christianity, Current events, Insights, My past

The Bible says, “Judgment must begin at the house of God”. (I Peter 4:17) What does that mean? God holds the standard the highest for those who proclaim that they are His. It’s like how Jesus castigated the Pharisees rather than the drunks. In fact He told the self-righteous religious leaders of His day, “The tax collectors and harlots enter into the kingdom of God before you.” (Matthew 21:31) The same principle that Jesus espoused 2000 years ago is still valid today.

The recent pandemic that’s swept America, as well as the world, had a major, transformative effect on the elections of 2020 in the USA. The national government here was seen by many to be aloof and distracted by other things as the Corona virus hit America as hard as any disease has in the last 100 years.

Was this an example of judgment beginning at the house of God? Well, it sure had an effect on the elections last November. And America voted for a new administration and government which it was hoped would take more action and really get to grips with this vast, deadly emergency that has virtually overwhelmed the country.

And now this major historic cold and snow that has just hit here in Texas has had a similar effect. Both the cold in Texas and the Corona virus nationally have been ”natural disasters”, as we call them. Insurance companies actually call them, “acts of God”. But judgment must begin at the house of God. The Lord has ways to intervene in the affairs of humanity, even in our times. And thank God for that.

The Lord has always had ways to bring judgment first upon His own people, rather than on the so-called worldly or the unsaved. That’s why, in God’s eyes, His own saved Christians are so much more accountable than are the unsaved worldly who don’t know His Word or ways.

I often feel that it is a pitiful, fearful time for America. Will they be able to muddle through for a few more years, as they have for so long? Maybe; they’ve gone on a long time, coasting on the momentum of the righteousness of former generations. But, like Israel of old, there comes  time when God requires an accounting. It says in the Bible, “In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short”. (II Kings 10:32) I fear this is now happening to America as well.

The Lord has consistently held a higher standard for His own people than He does for the ignorant and unsaved of this world. But you seldom hear this message from the pulpit here or much less from the opportunistic politicos of our times.

A former US President from Texas once talked about “compassionate conservatism”. I wish I could say I have seen more of that here. In Texas there is a predominance of conservatives; but each of us will have to answer to God if we have truly been compassionate. I could go off on a tangent here, trying to apportion blame and take sides. But instead, maybe I’ll just try to keep seeing what the Lord is doing. I will add that I have certainly known personally some very humble and compassionate conservative Christians here in Texas.

The Lord brings crisis into our lives. He can, in His love and nurturing of us, even expose our sins, both to individuals and to nations. And almost no one really ever likes that, individually or nationally. Still, the Lord does it to purge and purify and to try to bring us out of “the sins that so easily beset us.” (Hebrews 12:1)

And how we react to that, individually or nationally, will really tell the tale of how our life goes. Almost everyone is very prone to “justifying themselves” (Luke 10:29). I wrote a blog article about justifying yourself which can be found here.

But God’s hope must be that, individually and nationally, we won’t justify ourselves and thwart the working of God in our lives. Instead, we will see the hand of God working when events that He sends expose our unpreparedness, our aloofness, our pride and arrogance. Then the hope must be that we will see it, acknowledge it, repent of it and be the better for the judgment the Lord sometimes brings. So often, it really comes down to that.

How’s this all going to end? Will the leadership of Texas confess their mistakes, ask for forgiveness and make the changes that are so desperately needed? We can hope so. Virtually every major leader in Texas is strongly a Christian conservative. May the Lord have mercy upon us all. May we all, individually and nationally, see the chastening, purifying hand of God in our lives.

“Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them which are exercised thereby.”  (Hebrews 12:11)