There are many false teachers in our lives today. The TV is full of people who will tell you almost anything to convince you to buy something, whether it’s an idea or a product. We are routinely barraged with pronouncements and theories about what the future holds in store for us and where we will end up. There are entire industries built around predicting the future, such as the stock market, investing and insurance. There are preachers throughout the land pronouncing that the end is nigh because they’ve seen the signs. There are politicians pronouncing the end of the world if we don’t change our industries, technologies and lifestyles to suit the latest fad or theory. There are proponents of the supposed impending Mayan apocalypse or the writings of Nostradamus claiming to have new interpretations of things written long ago.
When I hear such things, I am reminded of the history lessons about people in Europe when the year 1,000AD was approaching. Many of them were convinced then that Jesus was due to return because the ‘millennium’ had passed, and the time had come. Now, more than a 1,000 years later, we hear many of the same pronouncements yet again. The obsession with fortune telling and mysticism that consumes some has become the cynical plot of many movies and TV shows.
Jesus warned of such false teachers and their predictions in Matthew:
Matthew 16 (ESV)
1And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. 2He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. 4An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed.
5When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. 6Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 7And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” 8But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? 9Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 10Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 11How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
What do you believe? The world will end, there is no doubt, but when it will happen and how are very much so. Jesus said that we will not know until the time comes. And, though there are descriptions in the Bible of some of what will happen, I’m sure that words on paper can never fully capture what it will be like.
Jesus did not teach that we should obsess about the timing and nature of His return. He taught us what we are to do while we are here on Earth. He told us to love God above all, but also each other. He told us to put our faith and trust in Him. His commission and our mission is to spread His Gospel, the life, love, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ to the ends of the Earth, baptizing and making disciples of men. We are to be His people for His purpose.
In God We Trust
