Dangerous Faith

Don't Be a Loser! #80: Dangerous Faith– One Practical Problem with "Left Behind" Eschatology

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Nate Williams talks about the various views on the Book of Revelation and the Millennial Reign of Christ, and then goes on to discuss one practical issue he has with "Left Behind" eschatology (premillennialism).

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Nate Williams:

Don't be a loser. I don't know about you, but that sounds like good advice to me. Let's talk about it. If you grew up a little bit like me, you know about the left behind eschatology, which is just study of the end times, the left behind view of revelation and how things are going to go down, and you may have grown up with the view that things are going to get really bad. Things are going to get so bad all around the world and eventually the rapture hits and then the Antichrist enters the scene and so on and so forth. I call that shorthand in popular terms. I call that left behind eschatology, left behind revelation. Things are going to get bad. It's hopeless. The economy crashes. There are going to get bad. It's hopeless. The economy crashes, there are wars, plagues, just bad thing after bad thing after bad thing. We are losing and then at some point, according to this view, there's a rapture, the church is taken and then things continue.

Nate Williams:

So what I'm going to talk about in this episode is not really about whether or not that view is true. I'm going to cover some of the details about different views on Revelation, different views on the millennial reign, but I'm not actually here to talk about whether or not I believe that is biblically accurate or if I think that's what's actually going to happen. What I'm going to talk about with the left-behind theology, the left-behind view of Revelation, is one of the practical effects of this view that's harmful, one of the symptoms, so to speak, of the underlying cause. Now, the cause might be true or it might not be true. That's not what I'm addressing here. I'm going to talk about one of the symptoms and how damaging it is to the church. Now one caveat, one asterisk I do want to put in, even though it is a negative of this left behind view of Revelation, even though it is a negative outworking, a negative result. It might not apply to you specifically, so I'm just talking broadly.

Nate Williams:

Let's get into the different views on Revelation itself. If you look at the book, it might be intimidating. I very much understand that. It might be scary if you look at all the charts, the timelines, I get it for sure. But there are different views on the book itself that we'll cover just briefly.

Nate Williams:

One view of the book of Revelation is called the Preterist view and in this view most of Revelation has already happened, it's already been fulfilled, except for maybe the last few chapters give or take, but they see the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. And a lot of these things already happening and they've already been fulfilled. A lot of these things already happening and they've already been fulfilled. So examples of people in this camp might be RC Sproul or NT Wright. That would be an example.

Nate Williams:

The next view of Revelation is the historicist view and I lean towards this view personally. Historicists view the events in Revelation as symbolic representation of the flow of history. So they see things as kind of cyclical. You can see themes and patterns not just at the end of the world but really all throughout recorded history and you can attempt to align specific passages with these historical events or periods. So some of these theologians in this camp would be Martin Luther, john Calvin and they would take a historical view of Revelation.

Nate Williams:

The next view and this is where most American Christians I would say the next view is futurist and futurists interpret the majority of the book of Revelation as yet to be fulfilled. So at some point it'll happen in the future, especially the prophecies related to the end times and the coming of Christ, especially the prophecies related to the end times and the coming of Christ. They view the events as futuristic and there is a literal future period of tribulation. So some people in this camp would be John Nelson, darby, ci, schofield, etc. Etc. And then the last view of Revelation that I'll cover here is called the idealist view or symbolic, allegorical, and that's exactly what it is. They view the book of Revelation as symbolic. It's an ideal, the struggle between good and evil, light and dark, and there are just broader spiritual principles that you can gather from this book. Those are the few views. Oh, and theologians in this camp would be Origen, augustine, maybe Karl Barth, and again, if people need to check me, they can, because I might not be. I don't want to misrepresent anyone, so let me know if I cite someone and you're like, hold on, that's not quite accurate, but those are the main views of Revelation itself. There is the preterist, historicist, futurist, which is most American Christians and idealist. So the left behind people. If you kind of have that view of Revelation, they would be futurists and they would believe a lot of the stuff is still to come Again. Nothing's wrong with that. So let's talk about the next nuance, all right.

Nate Williams:

What do we believe about the millennial reign of Jesus? There are, believe it or not different views there as well. The most popular view again this is left behind eschatology would be premillennialism. And in premillennialism, that's again, you're a futurist reader of Revelation, you're a premillennialist. You believe that Jesus Christ will return before the literal thousand-year reign mentioned in Revelation 20. There's going to be a future period of tribulation, followed by the second coming of Christ and then the establishment of a literal millennial kingdom on earth. And then, within premillennialism there are differences. There's dispensational. Within premillennialism there are differences. There's dispensational, historic, etc. Etc. And so that's one view of the millennial reign of Christ, and I'm getting somewhere with all this. So if this is too technical, if this is over your head, just skip ahead a little bit to my overall point, and we're going somewhere with this. Then so that's the premillennial view of the millennial reign.

Nate Williams:

You have postmillennialism, and what postmillennialism says is that the millennial reign of Christ is not a literal period, it's not a literal thousand years, but it's symbolic of a golden age of Christian influence and righteousness. Through the spread of the gospel, the world will gradually become more and more Christian and then it's going to lead to a time of peace and justice. Christ will then return after this period of human improvement. Okay, post-millennialism the world gets more and more Christian things get better and better and better and eventually Christ returns. It's like a linear line, going not straight up but just diagonally. It's like the graph Diagonally. It's heading upwards and onwards.

Nate Williams:

And then there is amillennialism, which again I lean towards this view, and amillennialists will reject the idea of a literal thousand year reign of Christ, just like the posties will the postmillennials. Instead, we interpret the millennium figuratively, seeing it as the present age between Christ's first and second coming. So right now we're living in the millennium, so to speak, and life is going to continue. Life is going to go on and do your thing, obey God, do the right thing, try to try to do the best you can, by the grace of God, and Jesus comes back. When he comes back, breathe, okay, maybe a lot of this went over your head. Okay, maybe a lot of this went over your head. Just to recap, the first set of positions I talked about the futurist stuff, the preterist historicist, idealist, that has to do with the book of Revelation itself. How do we read it? The next set of positions the premillennial, postmillennial, amillennial, that has to do with the thousand-year reign of Christ and what the world looks like. So just to differentiate between the two.

Nate Williams:

Anyways, now I get to part two of this podcast episode Left behind eschatology. Left behind, people tend to view the world as the revelation excuse me, in a futurist way. So things will happen in the future. Also, they tend to be pre-millennialists. The rapture will happen before the millennial reign of Christ. Maybe this is true, maybe it's not true. Like I said before, I'm not here to talk about the truthfulness of that position. What I'm going to talk about is one of the practical results of a massive amount of people believing this eschatology. What it does? It's called a loser mentality. We lose on earth. Christians gradually lose influence. The world gradually gets worse and worse and worse until the rapture. And what happens with this view is it's kind of like why do we even try? It's a losing battle. It's a losing battle.

Nate Williams:

If I told you the future that things were going to get worse, would you try to make things better now? Would you try to run for political office to try to pass good laws or good bills into laws? Would you try to clean up your streets? Would you try to make your city a better place?

Nate Williams:

And the heartbreaking example here is not having children. There are some couples that they were told growing up Christ is going to return at any moment. Christ is going to return at any moment. And they thought, well, what's the use of having kids? They grew up with this left-behind eschatology and then they chose not to have kids because, dang, jesus is right around the corner. And then they grew older, twenties became thirties, thirties became forties, et cetera. You can do the math To the point where Jesus has tarried and they realize they didn't have kids when they could have. And then they're heartbroken about that. They're heartbroken Now. That is one of the practical results of this loser type mentality.

Nate Williams:

And so again, to all those who have a left behind eschatology, that's fine, do your thing, read your Bible, study Old Testament, new Testament, revelation, Ezekiel, daniel, do all that, no problem. But just remember Jesus could come back tomorrow or he could wait another 500 years, a thousand years. We don't know, because all throughout history, whether it was the fall of I don't know Jerusalem, the fall of the temple, whether it was World War II, whether it was the bubonic plague, whether it was COVID, whether it was all these different things about all the tyrants of the past Stalin, lenin, hitler, I bet a lot of people considered those people the Antichrist. I don't know, I didn't live in those days, but we've always thought Jesus was going to return right around the corner and he's tarried. People thought Jesus was going to return right around the corner and he's tarried. People thought COVID was it. But remember, we also went through the bubonic plague hundreds and hundreds of years ago. That was a devastating plague in Europe. You might think World War II was it, but guess what? There have been wars after that. Every time Israel gets attacked we're thinking oh man, it's happening, it's happening, look. And yet here we are.

Nate Williams:

So what I would tell people is don't adopt a loser mentality. Does is we kind of shrug our shoulders? We shrug and we say why am I fighting? Why am I trying to do the right thing? Why am I trying to build for the future? Why am I trying to make my community a better place? Jesus is going to come rapture us. And then it just like.

Nate Williams:

We say we think it's going to get worse and worse and worse and worse. We adopt a loser. We lose on earth. It's over, it's done. We lose on earth. So why do we even try? And my encouragement, even if you think left behind.

Nate Williams:

Eschatology is true. Just have the humility to admit Jesus could come back tomorrow or a thousand years. So in the meantime, let's get to work. Let's get to work Again. We have our marching orders. Spread the gospel, feed those who are hungry. Clothe those who are naked, visit those in prisons, nursing homes, it don't matter who are lonely. Try to make your community a better place.

Nate Williams:

Run for different positions, different offices you know positions I'm kind of losing my train of thought. Run for different places in society. Legislative, you have senators and representatives. You have library board positions. You get what I'm trying to say. Do what you can for the glory of God to make the world a better place. Act justly, be merciful.

Nate Williams:

Don't have a loser mentality because then we don't do anything, because what's the use? I sometimes hear that when it comes to nature, why bother taking care of nature? Because it's all going to go up in flames? God's going to come and judge. So why take care of nature? Why get rid of trash? Why clean up our rivers? Why care about pollution trash? Why clean up our rivers? Why care about pollution? Again, it's that loser mentality that leads us to say what's the use of even trying? Let's not do that. Again.

Nate Williams:

I walked through the technical terms before of the different positions. Maybe you just roll your eyes, you're like, okay, whatever, that's above my head, that went over my head, I don't care. But I hope you listen to the second half of this episode, where I talked about one of the problems, one of the applied problems outgrowths of a left-behind eschatology. Premillennialism, I guess, would be more of the technical term. We're not losers. Keep fighting, keep doing the right thing. Jesus could come back today. He could come back 500 years from now. So fight the good fight and press on. I'll talk with you later, thank you.