“The End Is Near” Belief Is Disloyalty to Christ
by Stuart DiNenno
When I see someone saying “I see all the signs that the end is near and that Christ will return very soon,” I don’t assume it is simply a case of an honest man being in error because of a misunderstanding and misapplication of certain biblical teachings.
I believe that in most cases men latch on to the belief that we are near the end because they are pessimistic and faithless, and have given up hope that the wicked can be overcome, and so they convince themselves that we must be near the end and there is nothing left to do, and they begin to imagine that they are seeing “signs of the end” in all the degeneracy and evil around them.
The “end is near” belief is a self-deception that men use to justify throwing up their hands and surrendering to despair and defeat. They convince themselves that there is only a short time before the consummation of the age, and thus no time for Christians to make any real difference, and this becomes an excuse to forsake the unpleasant and costly work of standing against the wicked who are currently destroying our nations and from taking on the difficult and life-long labor of building a better world for future generations, and instead justifies, in their own minds, a slothful inaction and a cowardly retreat from the world.
They want to be saved by the bell, so to speak. That is, they don’t have any heart to fight and have convinced themselves that resistance is futile, so they long for the end to come that they might be spared from the persecution and suffering they believe will come upon Christians if the world continues on its present course.
If they truly feared God and believed their own message, then they diligently would be working overtime to get the gospel out to every person possible before the end comes. But I see the same people carrying on with their vacations, entertainment, and life of leisure as much as any non-Christian, and so it is obvious to me that they do not really believe their own view enough to make any sacrifices for it.
I see this is as the equivalent of the behavior of the fearful and unfaithful servant who hid his talent in the ground rather than putting it to use (Matthew 25:25), and I believe it is going to bring the same condemnation upon them.
We need to call it what it is: disloyalty to the cause of Christ.
Not sure I follow this, brother. Does a belief in imminent consummation necessarily entail such disloyalty? Can’t it just be a scriptural opinion? For instance, when I look at Dan.12 it appears to me to be saying that travel and science will abound at “the time of the end”. So when I see this markedly fulfilled in my times, while never presumptuous, as if having certain knowledge, yet such considerations can produce an opinion, not based in any sort of mere convenience or sloth, but just trying to discern ones own times.
Blessings to you and much appreciation for your site!
“in most cases”
“antichrist is yet in being and is strong; and his end will be, not by conversion, but perdition. So can I not but conceive of the Jewish nation; that although numerous multitudes of them may, at the last, be brought to the gospel, as the Protestant party hath been, yet that, to the end, numerous multitudes also shall continue in the antichristian spirit of unbelief, and opposition, and blaspheming; and both parts of antichrist, the Roman and this, so to perish together.”
John Lightfoot’s words sound to me thoroughly amillenial. I don’t see it as defeatist to be a Spenglerian amillenialist who says it’s ‘optimism (pre-mil rapturist or post-mil triumphalist) that’s cowardice’. Spengler wrote: “Our duty is to hold on to the lost position” (as far as this world is concerned), “without hope, without rescue, like that Roman soldier whose bones were found in front of a door in Pompeii, who … died at his post because they forgot to relieve him.”
I’m not trying to shake it up as regards your postmillennialism. I’ve had this discussion with too many … including my own pastor. Like Charles Church, I very much appreciate your site and agree with you much more often than not.