What In the World Is Going On?
A lot has happened since my last post almost 4 years ago. Our family has grown by another grandchild (that's 7 boys, 7 girls), our first great-grandchild, and another great on the way. We bought land, designed and built a house, and just celebrated our 2nd year here. My wife has a new and challenging job as high school/junior high principal and assistant head of a Christian school where 6 of our grands are enrolled. And oh yes, Covid happened.
Finally, my son Ben and I recently self-published Antichrist Revealed, the first book in a fictional adventure trilogy that spans the Tribulation and Millennium. Thanks to Ben, it is exciting, imaginative, and illustrates how to navigate end times prophecy, depending entirely on the Holy Spirit for guidance as the Scriptures are fulfilled in unexpected ways.
In my previous book, The Present and Millennial Kingdom of God, I had pulled together a number of new (to me) thoughts from a few authors and how these had impacted my end times worldview. Well, the past 3 or 4 years have expanded that in ways I could have never imagined. Here are just a few of the key points, which I hope to incorporate into a revised edition of the Kingdom book next year. Most of these have come from listening (especially on my morning walks) to a number of prophetic voices that arose to prominence in 2020 and later.
Heaven is real, complex, fun, divinely edifying, and full of intense adventure. Doing God's will on earth as it is being done in heaven has a whole new meaning. As an example of the principle of continuity (who we are continues in heaven), our heavenly mansions are designed to fulfill our deepest and even unspoken desires. For me, I can see a championship golf course on my estate grounds, even though I was always a duffer and had to quit years ago due to back issues. This time I'm going to take lessons! Maybe from Arnie himself.
When I started the draft of the first book of the trilogy (pre-Covid) it seemed likely that we were near the edge of the 7-year Tribulation period. But with the ensuing events and the multiplicity of unrelated prophetic voices saying the same thing, I now am looking forward to the exposure and defeat of the extensive evil that has oppressed the world for centuries, accompanied by a great awakening of God’s people and the global harvest of a billion souls. This will undoubtedly be a strong foretaste of the Millennium and could last generations. The tough part is that it will probably take much longer than expected to first remove the evil structures throughout society. With this totally unexpected revelation, we obviously had to rewrite portions of the draft accordingly. What a lesson in being open to adjusting our ideas about prophecy in light of actual events and fresh words from the Lord.
This also shifted my understanding about the near/far aspect of prophetic fulfillment. Our focus should not be on the ultimate fulfillment to the point that we miss what God is doing in the many cyclical expressions of a prophetic narrative. Yes, for example, there is a time when the final antichrist beast will be revealed. But we are hearing that this is not that time. Instead, this is the time to use the weapons of our spiritual warfare to not just resist, but to tear down demonic strongholds. We are at a time to see God's glory fill the whole earth. His glory is seen in the earth through His creation, but this is the time to manifest it throughout the earth as His church, His sons and daughters. The many scriptures that talk of this global glory are often thought to apply to His millennial reign. But those scriptures are also meant to empower us, in God's mercy and His grace, to see that happen as a foretaste, for as long as possible, so that many more will be saved and discipled. This is an example of always being eager to see God's word come alive, now, here on earth, as it is in heaven.
In drafting portions of the final book of the Millennium Reimagined trilogy, I have envisioned how things can work during the Millennium without demonic interference and with saints having resurrection bodies, able to go back and forth between heaven and the transformed earth. It’s an amazing thought experiment. But if we are about to experience a marvelous foretaste of that period, why not start now? Why not use the authority Christ has given us to deal with greatly weakened demonic forces? Why not boldly influence every aspect of society as others realize the global deception that is being removed, but have no idea what to replace it with? And why not think ahead and have proposals ready for reforming, even transforming, society along Biblical principles such as righteousness and love for God and for one another?
The rest of this year and next are critical, even epic, times in history. Never has so much been at stake. Never has there been so much evil and deception. But as we call out to Him, God's grace and mercy are available in even greater measure. He is awakening and equipping us for such a time as this!