Extended Coffee Break

It’s official. My desire to focus on the study of end things is dwindling, and I think it’s time a take a break until I have true motivation that drives me to write out of correct motives rather than feeling motivated to write out of duty to keep my readers happy. It’s been fun to back here for the past year after a year break due to the same reasons, but while my desire for God’s word is never simply focused on end times, it is cyclical, meaning there are times when I have drive to focus on certain aspects of truth more than others.

I would never say that the study of prophecy is all about timing, maps and the rapture, and that it has nothing to do with knowing God. In fact, I try to make sure that truth about God, Himself, is included within this blog and that prophecy is shown to be an aspect of God’s character, and that understanding prophetic truth is most definitely applicable in the here and now and is actually a part of communion with Him.

But I feel like I’m being led to put it on the shelf for the time being and to simply spend quality time knowing Him and seeking scripture more deeply to apply to my daily life and to those around me without spending so much time pondering the future and things to write about concerning it.

Some feel an urgency to continue to write about news events and prophetic topics because of their belief that the WEU is the beast empire, that a certain individual is the Antichrist and that the final week of Daniel has begun. While I would never say that this scenario is untrue, I will say that at this point in time it is only speculation, one should not be dogmatic about it and we can’t know for sure until clear, undeniable signs take place. If these signs take place, believe me, I will be back with a vengeance.

This break of mine may last a month, or it may last a year. I don’t know, and only time will tell, but I think that there’s enough content here for new readers to ponder as they accidentally drop by or are directed here by you, my regular reader. I hope I haven’t disappointed too many of you, and I hope I’m articulating this so that you understand my perspective.

Thanks for all of your great comments, questions and thoughts over the last year! And thanks even to those of you that disagree with me. Life would be boring without disagreements or issues to wrestle with. And feel free to continue to make comments or to ask questions because I’m certain that I will still keep up that portion of the Tribune during my little sabbatical.

Dave

New Pre-wrath Novel

Robert Van Kampen's daughter, Kristen Wisen, has written an end-times novel. I have not read it, so I can't tell you if it's good, but I'm willing to bet that it is. You may read a little about Kristen and her book here.

Matthew 24 Isn't Literal?

I am confident that Matthew 24 is a black and white, meat and potatoes passage that is unlike other prophetic passages given to us by old and new testament prophets. Those that have been influenced by Amillennialism and Postmillennialism have told us repeatedly that apocalyptic imagery isn’t fulfilled in any sort of literal fashion due to the nature of it, but I say that this is missing a very important fact.

Matthew 24 is not apocalyptic imagery! Other prophecies have been given to us by a prophet that either had a dream or a vision, or they were moved by the Spirit within them. These prophets didn’t understand much of what they were seeing and had to do their best to describe these events to us. I’m sure that this was especially difficult when we consider that they were not only seeing symbolic dreams and visions (leopard beasts, etc), but some, such as John, were seeing things that involved futuristic qualities that they couldn’t begin to fathom.

But Jesus was not speaking from a dream or a vision when He spoke to His disciples on the Mount of Olives. He was not interpreting what He didn’t understand, and He was not trying to communicate something to His followers that was given to Him in symbolic form. He simply told them a story of what was going to happen because He knew the story firsthand from His Father. He had the inside scoop.

I think we can put our minds at ease and know that Matthew 24 is a simple story that displays real events that will literally take place in the future. We don’t need to be dogmatic about how every detail will take place, but I think it’s safe to say that there will be an abomination of desolation, we will be persecuted and He will come to rescue us after the signs in the sun, moon and stars indicate that He is on His way to deal out retribution to His enemies.