“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”
(John 8:32)
Talk about the end times has gone on for centuries. Believers have tried to predict when Christ will return. Some have given all their possessions away to get ready for the Rapture. Back in the 1600s some 20,000 believers in Russia burned themselves to death in order to protect themselves from the Antichrist. And speaking of the Antichrist, there have been so many speculations about who he is, that it has bordered on the bizarre. From people like Franklin Roosevelt, to Prince William, to Henry Kissinger, to Danny DeVito. Yes – Danny DeVito! The church is still obsessed with the end times. But now we have more resources to satisfy our curiosity. The internet gives us thousands of articles, sermons, videos about the signs of the last days. And books! Oh, the books that are filled with eschatology and prophecy regarding the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Seems everyone wants to know what is going to happen in the future. And just how soon is that future anyway?
The great caution we must heed when it comes to our curiosity regarding the end times, is this – be careful who you listen to, or read after. Timothy wrote in his second epistle, “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” Anything, and I do mean anything, that comes from another human being has the potential to be a lie. Even the best preachers and bible teachers can get it wrong at times. I remember telling the women when I taught the book of Revelation, that if I was wrong to not come running up to me in heaven to point it out.
So, this leaves us with the big question – how do we know the truth? How do we know the truth about what is happening in America and in the world today? How are we to know the truth about what is going to happen in the future? The first thing we need an answer is the question – what is truth, anyway? This question was once posed to Christ from a man of bloodshed by the name of Pontius Pilate. He was the Roman governor of Judea, and Christ was his prisoner. During Pilate’s interrogation of Christ, he asked him point blank, “What is truth?” The interesting thing about that encounter was not the question itself, but Christ’s response to the question. For if you read John chapters 18 and 19, you will discover that Jesus never answered it.
By Christ not saying anything, he said everything. By Jesus not answering the question, the question was answered. You see, the idea of truth, of talking about truth, and studying about truth……is not the truth. That which is about truth can blind us from seeing what truth really is. For Pilate, truth wasn’t something about Jesus Christ. Truth was Jesus Christ standing there in front of Pilate’s eyes.
We need not be concerned about the Rapture, the Anti-Christ, or the Second Coming of Christ. God has it all covered. Our focus needs to be on our relationship with the One who is “the way, the truth, and the life.” That should be a relief to us. It means we can stop being afraid of Danny DeVito.
Darlene