The Fruits of Eschatology
In spite of the instability and fluidity of prophesy, many Christian preachers spend a significant amount of time calculating the end and explaining their interpretations of prophecies to their congregations and churches. They highlight various world events and use them as evidence for their conclusions. They develop ‘Bible Codes’ and eschatological charts apparently to expose God’s timetable and, in essence, steal the information that God has refused to voluntarily reveal.
But is it reasonable to believe that God would plant codes in the Bible to reveal information that Jesus emphatically said God would not reveal? Is it reasonable to believe that Jesus mis-spoke about the Father’s decision not to reveal that information? Can man out-think or out-maneuver God? Hardly! Yet this is exactly what the study of eschatology presumes. And it is exactly this type of gamesmanship that colors the Bible as a puzzle or an enigma, instead of what it is, a straightforward revelation of the highest truth of the day.
But why the obsession with end times rather than with the plain and open teachings? We believe it is because many Christians leaders equate prophecy with ‘the deep things of God’ (1 Corinthians 2:10; Romans 11:33), and believe that those who understand prophecy are those who have received personal divine revelation. Interpreters of prophecy manufacture in people a crippling need to continue coming to such ‘prophets’ for information, insight and salvation, and pledging to them their loyalty and material resources. The plain and open teachings cannot be manipulated for that purpose. So, they brush past the plain and open teachings, seeing them as elementary doctrines suitable for spiritual babes, and unsuitable for their purposes.
However, the plain and open teachings empower the individual. They emphasize that we are sons of God and heirs to the heavenly kingdom. (Galatians 3:26; Romans 8:17) Once we realize and accept our anointing as sons, we are no longer under the tutelage and control of men:
“What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.”
– Galatians 4:1-7
Once we accept the plain and open teachings, the Spirit of Truth takes over our education:
“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.”
– John 16:13
“As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.”
– 1 John 2:27
Unfortunately, there are many so-called Christian teachers and preachers who are making a name for themselves as would merchants and businessmen. The diluted ministry of today is a watered down approach to the greatness of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. His magnificence is pushed aside in favor of self-glorifying prophetic interpretations. Instead of promoting the surpassing love of the Christ and the glorious heavenly career, they promote fear of the future and anoint themselves as the only means for salvation. Instead of reaching out to their brothers in loving and faithful service, they separate themselves as a special chosen people, judging all others who do not share their views as deserving of destruction.
Focusing on prophetic interpretations causes one to become overly concerned about preserving their physical lives. Jesus counseled against that:
“So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
– Matthew 6:31-34
It causes one to be fearful of the future and the symbolic characters depicted in the prophecy. But Jesus said:
“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
- Matthew 10:28
These people have forgotten the significance of their baptism. They forget that by their baptism, they have already died as to this world and have given up their earthly life so that they may attain to the heavenly resurrection:
“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
– Romans 6:3-5
This is why Paul counseled:
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”
– Colossians 3:1-3
Our secular life on earth may be concerned with physical things, but when we come together in a Christian fellowship, our focus should be on our spiritual lives and things that will help us to attain our heavenly goals. That is the purpose of the plain and open teachings. The Christian writings provide the foundation for the plain and open teachings, but the spirit expands and deepens our understanding by adding meanings and values to those simple concepts.
“What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”
– 1 Corinthians 2:12-16
As we have demonstrated time and time again on this site, the plain and open teachings have tremendous depth of which modern man has only scratched the surface. There are so many things that need to be discussed in a Christian fellowship to build up our most holy faith that there is no need to resort to the ever changing, unreliable prophetic interpretations of men. Rather than spending our time on matters that we simply cannot know for a certainty, or resting our eternal future to the vacillating interpretations of men, we should be focusing on the things we can know – the actual, factual matters contained in the plain and open teachings of Jesus.
