At the end of every believer’s life, they will stand before Christ and their works will be judged. All of their actions will be laid out on the table and they will be rewarded according to them. This judgement seat is not the same as the Great White Throne judgement, where sinners are cast into the eternal lake of fire, but it is still equally devastating.

At this judgment seat, our salvation is not on the line, but our rewards are. In that day, some will feel deep sorrow and regret for the life they squandered and choices they made. Regret on that day will be a terrible, irreversible pain.

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The question what are we created for has stuck with man-kind since the beginning of time. Our obvious meaning for existence is to glorify God. The Westminster Shorter Catechism states it best: “What is the chief end of man?” And, in response, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” They understood that glorifying God and enjoying Him were one in the same. What if enjoying God was the greatest way to glorify Him? 

In my own experience, I had previously viewed enjoying God as an added bonus to the true duty of a believer: rigorous obedience to Christian duties (eg. praying, evangelizing, serving), even if those duties are emotionless, loveless. But what does Jesus say? “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word” (Jn. 14:23). Love (delight) and obedience are directly related. Delight is not just a spin-off of obedience to God, but it is part of it.  The strongest type of obedience is affection-based obedience.

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I’m not generally one to take advantage of current trending topics around the globe, but this seems like a good opportunity to get our minds thinking about the end times and the rapture. By now I’m sure you’ve heard: today is the end of the world. This group believes today is the day of the rapture and the beginning of a 5-month destruction of the earth. What does the Bible really say—can we know the day or the hour?

Knowing the trends and events related to the generation that the Lord returns. In Matt. 24 Jesus lays out an overview of the global scene in the generation proceeding His return. Jesus rebuked those who did not heed the prophetic signs that pointed to His coming (Mt. 16:1-4; Lk. 19:41-44). Prophetic signs serve the Church in the same way a weather station signals coming trouble so that people can prepare and save lives.

1 ”The Pharisees…came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven…2 Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. 4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign…”  (Mt. 16:1-4)

1 “Concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you…4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness [ignorance] so that this Day should overtake [come on you unexpectantly] you as a thief…6 Therefore…let us watch.” (1 Thes. 5:1-6)

How can we know when Jesus is coming if He says in Matthew 24:36 that “no one knows the day or the hour”?

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I was reading an article in WIRED magazine today from an atheist about how science can point us to better morals than religion or any other ideological thought process. He mainly stayed on the broader spectrum of morals and somewhat ignored ‘personal’ morals. I agree with some points he made, because his ideas morals were just plain common sense: people dying from hunger is obviously wrong, just as terrorist groups are wrong.

What really annoyed me was what he said about Christianity. He is either ignorant as to what Christianity is or he has had it portrayed to him poorly. He said this: 

“The problem is that religion tends to give people bad reasons to be good. Is it better to alleviate famine in Africa because you think Jesus Christ is watching and deciding whether to reward you with an eternity of happiness after death? Or is it better to do that because you actually care about the suffering of your fellow human beings?”

Is that really what he thinks it’s all about? Have Christians done a horrible job at portraying our relationship with Jesus? 

We shouldn’t feed people to ‘gain a reward’, or just because we love human beings (that’s called humanism), but we feed those who are hungry because we love Jesus and we want to love what He loves — and He loves people. We feed the hungry, help the orphan and widows because we love what Jesus loves. But it’s not just enough to feed them food, we must also feed them with the Word of God and the good news of salvation. What good is it to feed someone for a week only to let them spend eternity in hell?

So to respond to his question: Yes, it is better to alleviate famine in Africa because you actually care about the suffering of your fellow human beings. So much so that they be eternally secure in the love of Christ.

The study of the end-times can be daunting, misunderstood and completely overlooked. There is so much confusion as to whether or not it’s meant to be understood as symbolic or literal. Really, what’s with all the beasts with many wings, heads and horns? That’s kinda weird. Is it symbolic? Are there literally dragons? How do I know what’s literal and what’s symbolic? There are so many questions and the answers are usually hidden behind droves of technical names of beliefs that really only confuse. Premillennial Dispensationalism? Amillennialism? Futurism? How can I figure this stuff out without a PhD?

Fear not, reader! The books of the bible that deal with the end times were written to be understood by all. The majority of society in human history have been uneducated farmers, and these books are meant to be understood by them, not just scholars and theologians. 

The biggest question amongst all these is Why study the End Times?

First, because the generation in which the Lord returns will experience vast extremes of darkness and light. Matt. 13:24 speaks of this generations two extremes when it says

“Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

The tares (wickedness) and the wheat (unprecedented revival) will grow up together and this generation will be pressured to choose a side. There will be no room for middle ground.

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