"Today's church wants to be raptured from responsibility." Leonard Ravenhill
I'll keep this blog post short. Many of us are worried about the earthquakes in Haiti, Chile, and Japan. Are these signs of the end? Well, I just went to a church today and the preacher there, referencing Matthew 24:7, Mark 13:8, and Luke 21:11, seems to think so. I think not.
There is a short little book I read last summer called "Is Jesus Coming Soon?" by Gary Demar. It builds a positive case that all the scriptures I just referenced dealt with the events leading up to the destruction of the Second Jerusalem Temple in 70 AD. It was so convincing that I immediately dropped my prior eschatological beliefs (I already dropped "the rapture" belief a year before upon reading "Pagan Christianity"; Viola says that the current rapture doctrine was created in the 1800's).
Here are four articles that I think are very helpful in thinking clearly about eschatology and earthquakes, swine flu, and whatever epidemic end-of-the-world doomsayers use to justify their beliefs. Eschatology, by the way, is the study of the end or study of the times of the end. I think you get the point.
Earthquakes and the End Revisited ~Gary Demar
Is the Chilean Earthquake a Sign of the End? ~Gary Demar
Global Warming and the End Times: Is there a Connection? ~Gary Demar
Swine Flu and the End of the World ~Gary Demar
A Fault is Not a Sin ~Christopher Hitchens
Here are some more articles.
Here are two more books you can find on AmericanVision.com dealing with eschatology.
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