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FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS: Why Revelation Is The Bible's Greatest Book Of Hope
By Troy Anderson
The book of Revelation is the Bible's greatest book of hope. It's a sneak preview. In the end, God wins. That's the great hope of our faith. And it's certainly encouraging to know that God is working through all the chaos in today's world to ultimately bring about what Revelation 21:1-2 describes as the new heaven, new earth and new Jerusalem.
In a recent sermon, Central Christian Church Pastor Jud Wilhite said God is "working a bigger plan that we don't understand. He is large and in charge. He's working and He's moving, and all of history is marching toward the culmination of what God ultimately has prepared."
As you'll discover in this issue of Charisma, dozens of faith leaders and prophecy experts believe end-time signs are converging. In an interview, evangelist Billy Graham said signs of the end of the age are "converging now for the first time since Jesus made those predictions."
Amid the last of the four blood moons and the biblical Shemitah, Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, author of The Harbinger and The Mystery of the Shemitah, and others believe an event of prophetic significance could occur between now and September 2016—the end of the "Super Shemitah," which is the Year of Jubilee that comes at the end of seven cycles of the seven-year Shemitah.
While both the blood moons and the Shemitah prophecies have generated controversy, dozens of prophecy experts told Charisma they believe the world is in the run-up to the end-time events predicted in the Bible. Whether an event of prophetic significance—economic calamity, war in the Middle East or the fulfillment of prophecies related to Israel—occurs soon is something only God knows. Mark 13:32 says God alone knows the "day or hour" when these things will occur. As we await Christ's return, our primary mission is to spread the gospel. What greater motivation could we have to share our faith than what many believe are the gathering signs of Jesus' return?
People are inherently fascinated with what the Bible has to say about the future. Often, the first book many unbelievers read is one about Bible prophecy. Many are inspired to not only turn to God, but also to tell others what they've learned. Yet, even as the world becomes increasingly interested in Bible prophecy as demonstrated by widespread media coverage of the blood moons phenomenon, the church is oddly quiet. In a sermon he gave in the late 1980s, Graham said: "The most neglected teaching in the church today is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ."
This is one of the great paradoxes of our age. At a time when Graham, Cahn, Dr. Tim LaHaye, Joel Rosenberg and dozens of other faith leaders say end-time signs are converging, the pulpits are largely silent. Polls reveal 4 in 10 Americans—and 77 percent of evangelical Christians—believe the "world is now living in the biblical end times," yet experts estimate less than 10 percent of ministers are teaching their congregations about Bible prophecy.
This is troubling given that more than a quarter of the Bible is prophetic in nature and the apostle Paul admonished ministers in Acts 20:27 to preach the "whole counsel of God" to their congregations. God embedded thousands of prophecies in the Bible to reveal that Scripture is accurate and to give us hope.
In a recent "Daily Hope" newsletter, Pastor Rick Warren wrote: "One of the reasons I can know that the Bible is true and trustworthy is that it has thousands and thousands of prophecies that have come true and will come true in history."
In The End, Bible prophecy scholar Dr. Mark Hitchcock wrote there are more than 1,800 references to the Second Coming in the Bible and for every prophecy about Christ's first coming there are eight regarding His Second Coming. People are exhorted more than 50 times to be ready for Christ's return. In light of present world conditions, we need to not only prepare for Jesus' return, but to tell others about it too. Their eternal destinies are at stake.
Based on the pattern of economic shocks and Israel-related events that have occurred at the end of past Shemitah cycles, Cahn believes something significant could happen again, but he cautions "you cannot put God in a box."
"Brothers and sisters, we are witnessing things that are unprecedented not just in American history, but human history," Cahn says. "These are the days of apostasy. All these things are coming together."
We could very well be on the verge of a mighty last days' revival and the greatest "harvest" of souls the world has ever seen.
Let's not miss the final, triumphant act in the great biblical drama and our chance to help fulfill the Great Commission by taking the Good News to the ends of the earth.
Troy Anderson is the executive editor of Charisma, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist and co-author of The Babylon Code. Follow him on Twitter (TroyMAnderson), Facebook (troyandersonwriter) or online at troyanderson.us.
