Peter SmytheA Different Kind of Word Preacher

But we request you, brethren, - In behalf of the Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, And our gathering together unto him, - That ye be not quickly tossed from your mind, nor be put in alarm - Either by spirit, or by discourse, or by letter as by us, - As that the day of the Lord hath set in: That no one may cheat you in any one respect. Because that day will not set in - Except the revolt [falling away] come first, and there be revealed the man of lawlessness [sin], the son of destruction - (2 Thessalonians 2.1-3, Rotherham)

In my camp in the Body of Christ, there is a running irony. The preachers state that they preach the “uncompromised Word” in all of their materials and websites, but often their teachings cut against the Word. For instance, I have heard for years of a coming revival that will exceed all prior revivals put together. Frankly, it doesn’t appear that the Word supports that idea.

In 2 Thessalonians, Paul is giving additional instruction about the Day of the Lord - that day when the Lord Jesus Christ returns to the earth. Here in chapter 2, he speaks of a “revolt,” “falling away,” or apostasy occurring before the one known as the Antichrist is revealed. From the context of Paul’s writings, it seems a bit incongruous to hold that a huge revival will sweep the world, the righteous then will be raptured, and a quick apostasy settles in before the Antichrist arrives on the scene. The Pauline context, rather, speaks of a gradual decline of the faith before the entry of the Antichrist.

In this week’s Newsweek, there is an article about the Post-American World. Fareed Zakaria writes how the heyday of America is coming to an end because of the rise of other nations. The article is sobering in that it lays out the case that America is becoming increasingly more irrelevant on the world scene.

Where does Zakaria’s article fit in with Thessalonians? Good question. While America cannot be termed a Christian nation (see Luke 4.6 - “And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.”), the freedoms enjoyed in America have allowed the advancement of the Gospel into all quarters of the world. If Zakaria is right about a post-American world (I believe he is), nationality will continue to grow while the influence of American opinion (and American gospel preaching) wanes.

Over the course of the summer, I plan to write about End Times prophecy. Going through the current slurry of books on the topic, there are two things that stand out. First, American preachers appear to have given us an unduly Americanized-form of theology. Many have manhandled endtimes scriptures in order to squeeze America in as some kind of nation-hero to Israel. The Word, however, shows Israel standing alone. Consequently, in the end times, America has either turned her back on Jerusalem (maybe for its own economic welfare) or is inconsequential to endtime events. It is, no doubt, difficult to face the fact of America becoming another Russia or second-rate power, but we should remember that the Bible is primarily an Eastern book and Jerusalem, not Washington, D.C., is the center of the world.

The second thing is that Jesus is coming back to the planet very soon.