We Will All Give An Account To God

I started this current series of Blogs by promising to discuss a Lutheran view of prophecy. In general, that refers to the Lutheran understanding that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and offers many spiritual blessings to those who ponder and meditate upon God's revealed Word (2 Timothy 3:14-17). I also emphasized that we can know nothing about God's true nature and being without His revelation to us (Isaiah 45:1-7; Deut.4:32-40). In other words, He is a hidden God. On the other hand, He has revealed Himself in a variety of ways, most especially through His prophets and now in these last days of this present era in His Son Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1-14).

Finally, Lutherans emphasize that all of the Bible is properly divided into God's Law and the Gospel or Good News of Christ. The central teaching (known also as the material principle) is that we are justified in God's eyes and saved only by the unmerited grace of God in Christ and our faith in Him (John 5:36-40). The Old Testament, written before Christ's coming in human form, is certainly not merely a library of ancient writings teaching that men were saved by fulfilling God's commands and laws, even as the New Testament is not a series of writings by Jesus' apostles and their disciples teaching that the Law of God is now irrelevant. It is rather critical that we see that all Scripture contains both Law and Gospel. Therefore it is our task carefully and properly to divide and distinguish between the Law and the Gospel when interpreting any portion of the Bible.

Having said that, I return to the topic at hand and particularly the End Times, that time or times before Christ returns to overthrow the powers of darkness and evil completely and to renew all of His creation as the eternal home for His elect children (Romans 8:14-25). What does God reveal about these days and times in which we now live and what is to happen before our Lord returns? I hesitate to open this can, because there is SO MUCH that has been and is being written and taught about these matters. The Left Behind series of novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins (1995-2007) for instance, addresses these issues in story format. In addition to more than 65 million books in this series sold, Tyndale House has sold more than 10 million related items, such as computer screen-savers. Over 11 million copies of the Kids series have also been sold. So what can I say? LaHaye and those who follow him must be right? Those who teach about end-times prophecy, millennialism, dispensationalism, rapture and post or pre-tribulation must be the correct interpreters of Holy Scripture? One certainly would think so, given the vast interest these teachers and their writings are receiving. I shall have to leave that in your hands to decide. After all, as the Apostle Paul teaches,

If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God"(Isaiah 45:22-25). So then each of us will given an account of himself to God" (Romans 14:8-12). 

 We must all be aware of this warning and speak carefully about Christ's return. For today, I shall simply invite you to turn to a fine study done by the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and the Commission on Theology and Church Relations back some 20 years ago: "The End Times, A Study on Eschatology and Millennialism." If this topic is of concern to you, that is a good place to start.

In a future day, I'll try to add to what these teachers have written.

Heaven's Gate and Christ's Return

This past week I tried in vain to send a photo of last weekend's hot air balloon rise here in Pagosa Springs. The photo is owned by the Pagosa Sun and is indeed beautiful. Sylvia and I enjoyed the cool, bright morning and the bright balloons against the deep blue mountain skies of the Colorado Rockies.

Rhonda, a friend and fellow writer, suggested that I comment upon the serenity and contentment of the photo and the mountains. That got me to thinking about the experience of the ancient patriarch Jacob recorded in Genesis 28. Jacob was following his father Isaac's wishes to find a wife among members of the family who lived in the far northern plains. He went on his journey with God's blessings. As he went, he had a strange, wondrous dream about a stairway reaching from earth to heaven. Somehow he knew that angels were going up and down. When he awoke he said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." He responded with a prayer, committing himself to the Lord God. Then he erected a pillar and called the place Beth-El, Hebrew for House of God.

Many places of worship, colleges and seminaries, hotels, high schools, towns and villages, even marinas and flower shops from that day to now have been named Bethel. A Google search comes up with over eleven million sites. Do all these places believe they are the house of God? Probably not.

Enter into Google a search for 'Gate of heaven' instead and you come up with an even stranger list. First on the list are some cemeteries. These are followed by a reference to the cult named Heaven's Gate. Remember them from ten years ago? They were 40 people radically devoted to their leader, a former psychiatric hospital patient by the name of Marshall Herff Applewhite. He changed his name, simply calling himself DO. Over the years he gathered a small group to himself in a 9,000-square-foot mansion in Rancho Santa Fe that they called "the Monastery" and "the Craft." Members paid for it doing Web design and other technical services. You can read the details in the link provided above.

The Heaven's Gate cult committed suicide when the Hale-Bopp comet, the brightest celestial visitor to our solar system in a millennium, made, on March 22, 1997, its closest approach to Earth at 122 million miles. This was the sign they were waiting for, DO believed. Their alien spaceship was coming to pick them up. They were now to pass to the next evolutionary level. So they all helped one another wash down phenobarbital-laced helpings of applesauce and pudding with vodka and laid down to die. The lethal combination did its work painlessly and soon all were dead--except one.

A cult member by the name of Rio DiAngelo had been instructed by DO to stay behind. Rio left the group to work in Beverly Hills, CA. Five days after their mass suicide he received a FedEx package with a letter addressed to him, a press release, two videotapes on which were recorded DO's and the students' "Exit Videos," and a map to the house indicating which door they'd left unlocked. Rio found the decaying bodies in the house and reported the incident to the authorities. He was later interviewed by Diane Sawyer on Prime Time Live. DiAngelo remains a firm believer in DO's teachings to this day.

Over the centuries comets appearing in the skies have been connected to all kinds of tragic events. They have often been seen as signs. The background history of modern Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists tells of the influence of comets appearing in the sky as signs foreshadowing Christ's return.

What does a believer in Jesus Christ do with all this bazaar information? The Bible's answer is clear. Be extremely wary of prophets who tell you to come here and go there. Jesus himself made it quite clear to his disciples when they too were tempted by the messianic fervor of their day. Many Jews were waiting for a sign to rebel against the Romans and start a movement that would lead to Israel's restoration as God's mighty kingdom on the earth. "What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" they pressed. "No one knows," Jesus replied. He then went on to say that the angels don't know. He did not know. "Only the Father knows," he said. (Matthew 24). Rather than getting all worked up about this, Jesus instructed his disciples and us to keep our eyes open, watch and wait. In the meantime we are to go about our duties, fulfilling our responsibilities and trusting in his sacrificial death and resurrection. The time of his return, the judgment of all mankind and the beginning of the new age will be revealed when the Father wills it.