Originally published in "The Lord's Coming Herald & Wesleyan Bible Prophecy Advocate," January Edition 2009
Still Looking For The Lord To Come
It is good to report that after forty-years of knowing Jesus as my personal
Saviour I am still looking for the Lord to come--just as fervently now, if not
more so, then I did when I started out in this Christian race as a teenager
“sway back” in the sixties.
I grew up in church connections that were caught up in the dispensational
premillennial theory of end-time Bible prophecy interpretation. What we were
obsessed by at that time was the any-moment secret pre-tribulation rapture of
the church. Such was preached hot and heavy, as I recall, and many church folk
spoke quite freely and quite often about the Lord’s return.
As the years have come and gone, I have heard less and less of Darbyism being
preached fervently and confidently as “the gospel.” Most preachers I know these
days seldom say anything about the second coming. Yes, a few may sometimes
mention it in passing, but never preach a full-fledged sermon on what the Bible
teaches. Many have dried up completely on their former obsession with
dispensational distinctives.
Why should we be hesitant to talk about the second coming hope now? If we
believe that Jesus is coming soon, then why should we be saying less and less
about it the closer--presumably-- that it gets?--that doesn't make sense.
The truth is that the false programming of Scofield/Darbyism--which was so much
the rage back in the sixties--has now put millions to sleep in cognitive
dissonance over end-time Bible prophecy. That’s why preachers aren’t saying much
about the second coming anymore. They are no longer all that confident about the
academic integrity of the Darbyism that once they preached and taught. So now,
rather than to appear vulnerable, they simply keep quiet about the end-time
altogether. Unfortunately, however, a blessed hope that is being thus ignored
is, sadly, soon forgotten.
What is the answer?
It lies in a matter so very do-able as our relearning “the truth of Christ’s return.”
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