Biblically Speaking

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Richard Kyle, a professor of history and religion at Tabor College, has written an exceptional book regarding various predictions, hypes and hysterias concerning the end of the world. Kyle begins with the early church, but he gets to the Protestant Reformation period very quickly. The bulk of the book is a historical look at end times predictions and hysteria from the Reformation to today. The book is historical not theological.

One particularly interesting point that Kyle makes is found early in the book on page 25. He is writing about the modern apocalyptic ideas about the world getting worse and worse until Christ comes at the end to rescue His own and destroy the world. He says the following:

"The views of the Christian fundamentalists are part of a larger apocalyptic mood that has gripped American society in the late twentieth century. To many Christians, the establishment of the Israeli state in 1948 was confirmation of prophesy. Among the wider public a series of natural and unnatural disasters (Bhopal, Chernobyl, AIDS, earthquakes, global warming, etc.) has heightened an apocalyptic fever. Moreover, the rapid social changes of our day are baffling to many people. They are confused and perplexed. They are uncomfortable with the direction of society, but feel powerless to change it." (emphasis added)

Kyle is saying that many modern Christians feel that society is taking a negative turn. Things are getting worse, and the world around them is becoming more and more evil. Kyle argues that because they don't know how to reverse the trend they adopt an eschatology of the increase of evil and the overrunning of the church until Christ sweeps in to rescue us at the end. Therefore, the eschatology is really based on their inability to influence the world around them.

This brings me to my second point. The tapes from our recent conference on spiritual warfare are available. R.C. Sproul Jr., James Adams, and Steve Schlissel presented excellent material on how to obey God and change the society around us for Christ. We should be making disciples of many nations, and not cowering from those who dislike our message. These messages give us the tools to not feel powerless to change our society. These messages will influence not only your ideas about spiritual warfare, but they will force an examination of every area of life.