Copyright 2024 by Shea Oakley
Here in United States the events of the mid 2020’s has caused some Evangelicals with an interest in the “End Times” to take eschatological matters more seriously than ever.
As the world simultaneously focuses on strife in both Israel and Ukraine unprecedented in recent times those of us who take a Pre-Millennial theological perspective here in America sometimes only hear the ticking of the Biblical countdown clock grow louder. Add to these “wars and rumors of wars” the ongoing and dangerous socio-cultural and political polarization we see happening here in our own nation and surely, it seems, the return of our Redeemer to take us to meet Him in the skies is just around the temporal corner.
Of course, events like these and much worse have plagued parts of the world during the past century. Unprecedented disasters, manmade and otherwise, claimed the lives of over 100 million human beings. In a sense the entire 20th Century was apocalyptic. What, some might be tempted to ask, are the lives lost in Ukraine and Israel today compared to the bloodbaths of Hiroshima and the Holocaust?
Also, it may be asked, what does this have to do specifically with eschatology? It’s more a question of what it has to do with American eschatology. Will the ratcheting up of prophetical speculation cause the Church here to adopt a “circle the wagons” mentality? This term refers to the pioneer days of our nation when a westward-bound wagon train under assault would cease moving forward and instead create a temporary circular “fort” of wagons to try to hold on until help came. The spiritual equivalent in the 21st Century sometimes appears to be the section of the American Church which has seemingly decided to “dig in and wait” for the heavenly cavalry to arrive, with Jesus on the lead horse.
But there is a danger here.
The primary mission of the Church in this present age is to engage the world around it and move ever forward in the evangelization of the lost everywhere on the planet. Today Christianity is on the move in Africa, Asia and South America. Cultures that never received the Word of God are embracing the Faith in ways unique to them. The Body of Christ is changing as the fulcrum of global Christianity continues to move from the West to the East and from the North to the South. Just look at the vibrancy of the Korean Church. Today the largest church in the world isn’t in New York or London, it is in Seoul. Meanwhile the rapidly rising conflict between the democratic West and a “New Axis” of Russia, China, and Iran, all three of which are opposed to biblical Christianity, is developing into a divide negatively affecting the evangelization of the several billion human beings who have yet to hear of the biblical Jesus.
For now, the center of funding for missionary recruiting and activity remains largely in the United States. As the wealthiest, most powerful nation on Earth we still export missionaries, and the financial and technical support they need, to the rest of the world. On a more secular level America also, despite the moral rot in our culture in recent decades, continues to lead (along with Europe and some other nations) in maintaining basic democratic values around the world. Such values, even when to some degree debased by a post-Judeo-Christian mindset, remain a far better option for both believers and non-believers than a new and expansionist Russian hyper-nationalism, an increasing Chinese authoritarianism, or the machinations of a radical Iranian theocracy.
It can be argued that both global evangelism and the survival of the democratic societies which support it will only continue to move forward if the American Church, still an immensely powerful political force in the United States, does not decide to “dig in” and wait for a Rapture that may come next week or may not come for another half-century. What God does in the world is, to some degree, paced by what His children are doing in the world. Also, God’s timing and ours are often radically different from each other. Yes, the signs of the times seem to indicate that He is coming soon, but we’d do well to define a bit more loosely what “soon” is in the light of a God to whom “a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day.” Exciting things are happening all over the world as Christ continues to “call all men to Himself.” We, in this country, who identify ourselves with His Name dare not miss out on doing our part in promoting global evangelism (or preserving the international democracy which supports it) in the name of a self-serving “New Isolationism.”
We must not “circle the wagons” and wait but instead courageously keep moving forward, with the Holy Spirit of our soon-coming King as our only Guide.