Israel and the End Times...What Should Christians Think?

I was supposed to be leaving today for a trip to Israel, instead I found myself scrolling through YouTube as there is a now a war in Israel that means I can’t go. This morning’s trip through YouTube revealed several thumbnails of pastors and other believers that I follow making statements about how the end is near, and Christians should be looking out for the return of Christ. I thought with all the noise that we are hearing these days, I should probably briefly weigh in on the matter.

End times theology, called eschatology, is complex and detailed, and if theologians are honest, filled with the unknown. The reality is that we don’t know what the future holds, though some things that will happen in the future are revealed to us. So what are Christians to think with all that is going on in Israel right now? I’d like to try an answer that question…maybe with some untypical answers. My intent here is to be brief, and as such I won’t be very detailed. But I will do my best to be biblical. You should weigh these things against Scripture and see if you can come up with some answers, but may be I can get the ball rolling.

Here are the questions I would like to address:

• What will be the signs that we are near to Jesus return?

• What needs to happen before Jesus removes the church from the world (a.k.a. rapture)?

• Are we in the end times now?

• Should Christians be in support of the state of Israel?

• Does Jesus know when he will return?

What will be the signs that we are near to Jesus return?

If you are curious about this, then you are not alone. And I would refer you to the gospel of Matthew, particularly chapters 24-25. In Matt. 24:3, the disciples ask Jesus the same thing. How will we know when you are coming back to set up the kingdom? At Jesus first coming he was full of grace and laid down his life, but the disciples wanted to know when he was going to come and establish order. When there is disorder and chaos in the world, when tragic things happen like what has gone on in Israel over the last week, we often wonder when Jesus will come and establish order. Jesus doesn’t tells us, but he does tell us what to look for.

He uses a couple different analogies, that of the pains of childbirth and of vultures circling. What does Jesus mean by using these two analogies? I think what he is trying to communicate is that while you cannot pinpoint the exact time, you can see some signs of what is coming. As many a mom knows, you can get pretty close to a due date, but when that baby is actually coming is anyone’s guess, unless a doctor has scheduled induction. So how do you know when the baby is on the way? When the contractions begin. In a very different analogy, Jesus mentions vultures. When you see vultures circling, you can be sure that something there is dead. Where exactly is the corpse? Usually that is unknown, but the very presence of circling vultures can tell you that something happened near there. Jesus uses these two pictures to show us that we can see some signs that something is coming, but pinpointing the exact time is impossible.

Jesus then goes on to give us what the signs are that we should be looking for. He lists, wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, persecution, false prophets, people turning away from the faith, an abomination that is to take place in the temple according to Daniel, and a great tribulation…and even that is not an exhaustive list. Sadly, as Jesus begins to list the things to watch for, in verse 8 of Matt. 24 he says that all of these signs are just the beginning.

Christians can expect the start of the end times to be chaos, lawlessness, and godlessness. It’s not a very good picture, but in the middle of it all Jesus says “See that you are not alarmed…” (Matt. 24:6). Even when it looks like a mess down here, he is in control!

What needs to happen before Jesus removes the church from the world (a.k.a. rapture)?

There are many views in Christian theological circles about when the church will be removed from the world and taken to heaven to be with the Lord, the big debate is on when. In order to be brief, and I would again encourage you to look at the books of Matthew and 2 Thessalonians for yourself, I would say that the answer is nothing. Nothing needs to happen in order for Jesus to return. The Bible has a clear theme in it that believers should be ready for Jesus to take them to heaven at any point! The parables of Matthew 25 are all Jesus’ illustration of this truth, be ready to go, for Jesus could come for you at any time!

At this point, some may ask, “Didn’t you just say that Jesus wasn’t returning until after a bunch of things happen?” Yes, and no. There are things that need to happen before Jesus is going to come and set up his kingdom on earth, and that comes at the end of the tribulation. At the beginning of great tribulation he come for you and me, and that may come at any moment. Jesus wants us all to live today like he is coming to get us today!

Are we in the end times now?

This is always the big question that people want to know…are we living in the end times? The only honest answer is this: I don’t know. If anyone else tells you otherwise, I would encourage you not to listen to them too closely. Why would I make such a strong statement about this? Because of what Jesus said in Matt. 24:36. There Jesus tells us that no one knows when he will return to set up his kingdom…not people, not angels, not the Son (more on that in a minute).

But Jesus does tell us something about the end times in the verses following Matthew 24:36, that life will seem very normal when the time comes. Jesus compares it to the days of Noah, when people didn’t expect a flood because they had never even seen rain before. Jesus tells us that like in the days of Noah people will be eating and drinking, marrying one another, grinding grain at a mill, walking down a path, etc. Jesus’ point is that when he returns neither believer nor unbeliever will be expecting it. How I do I know that both unbelievers and believers will not expect it? Because he says that as we grind flour and walk down the path, one will be taken and one will be left. The believers will be removed, unbelievers will not.

It is at this point that Jesus gives us the famous “thief in the night” analogy. If someone knew when they were going to be broken into, they would make preparations. But as it is, the thief comes when no one expects him to. So it will be when Jesus comes to take those who are his home.

Should Christians be in support of the state of Israel?

The short answer here is yes, and I am not going to elaborate on this at length, but let me share a few brief thoughts with you concerning this matter…

1. There can be no abomination that causes desolation as referenced in Daniel, Matthew, and Revelation if there is no temple. I think we should expect Israel to be a nation and for it to regain control of the Temple Mount at some point.

2. Scripture commands us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. I believe this reference to Jerusalem in Psalm 122 is a synecdoche, the figure of speech where a whole is referred to by a part. E.g., Washington, D.C. as a reference to the whole of the United States. Bottom line, you can’t pray for a nation that doesn’t exist.

3. Romans 11 speaks of a remnant of Jews that are being preserved by God for salvation until God has fully brought salvation to the Gentiles, then he will restore Israel to himself by grace through faith in Jesus. Clearly the Jewish people are still part of God’s plan.

4. The land that is called Israel today is a the land that was promised to the nation millennia ago. God’s covenant to them includes land, and if God is not done with Israel, the the land is still promised to them.

While believers should see the land as belonging to Israel, we should be for the salvation of all who would believe regardless of ethnicity. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, Gaza, Iran, etc. Pray for the salvation of all!

Does Jesus know when he will return?

I have chosen to leave this question for last so that those who want to split theological hairs can keep reading and those who aren’t concerned, well you can just be done reading at this point. However, this passage is often used by Muslims and others to say that Jesus isn’t God. This is because in Matt. 24:36 Jesus says no one knows the day nor the hour of his return, not even the son, but only the Father. It stands to reason, as some might purport, that if Jesus isn’t omniscient, then he isn’t God. So how are we to understand this statement by Jesus? There are three options…and I will give my opinion on each.

The first option says that even though Jesus doesn’t know, the Father does, and therefore the Trinity remains omniscient. I find this answer unsatisfactory.

The second answer says that Jesus knows, but it wasn’t for the disciples, nor you and I to know, and therefore he just isn’t giving the answer. This argument isn’t without merit. In Acts 1:6, after the disciples again ask Jesus when he will set up his kingdom, Jesus tells the disciples that it is not for them to know the times that the Father has fixed. Notice that he doesn’t say that he doesn’t know, just that it isn’t for them to know. This answer is getting closer, but still doesn’t seem satisfactory to me.

The third answer, and the one that I believe, has to do with the way Jesus lived during the incarnation, during his time in the flesh on earth. When Jesus, the eternal Son of God and second member of the Trinity, took on flesh and became a human, he subjected himself to living by all the rules of humanity. He was tired, hungry, grew, learned, wept, and laughed. But through it all he only allowed himself to live by the same rules that we all do. This is why Paul, in Philippians 2, says that he didn’t grasp at equality with God even though he was God! He didn’t have any advantage over you and I in his struggle against sin, except that he had no sin nature as we do. He successfully lived a perfect life as a human subject to all the same rules, even the rules of humanity under the curse of Genesis 3, but he did it without sinning. So in Acts 1, when he is no longer subject to the rules of humanity because he has died and been resurrected, he tells the disciples it isn’t for them to know. But when they ask in Matthew 24, he says he doesn’t know…not because he stopped being omniscient, but because he didn’t exercise his omniscience. Like a CEO of a company working the lowest position for the TV show Undercover Boss, Jesus didn’t stop being God, he just agreed to live by the rules of the lowest position during his 33 years on earth.

I don’t know when he will return, and neither does anyone else who is theologically honest. But I do that he is in control, that he is good, and that he knows how to care for his own.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

Elders and Deacons, Part 1: What Are Elders?

Questions abound about elders in the life of the church.

Who are they? What do they do? What is the difference between elders and deacons? What is the difference between elders and pastors?

These questions are good and important. I sat next to a swimming pool, eating a hamburger, with some friends last week while we had a wonderful about elders. This series of blogs is a result of that conversation. I pray that it will be helpful to you.

So What Are Elders Anyway?

In order to answer this question we have to understand the terms used for Elders in the Bible. There are three terms that we must understand, and I believe that these three terms all refer to elders. Those three terms are elder, shepherd, and overseer.

Let’s look at each of these terms and what they imply, then we will see why I believe they all refer to the same office in the church.

Elder

The word that occurs in the Greek text is presbuteros (πρεσβύτερος), you can hear this word in the English word Presbyterian. It is not the same word that would be used to refer to someone who is old, that would be presbutes (πρεσβύτης). There isn’t really much to say about this word in terms of the differences between greek and English. It simply means elder.

It does however matter in that it refers to the honor of the position. We have probably all heard the saying that you should respect your elders. This is precisely why the term elder gets used in Scripture. Of course, in English, this is primarily a reference to someone of older age. When the Bible speaks of elders in the church it does not mean that someone must be old in order to be an elder, it does however mean that the person and the office should be respected.

We can be sure that age is not a require meant because in 1 Tim. 4:8 Paul tells Timothy, and elder in Ephesus, “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers and example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” You can see that though Timothy was young, Paul expected him to conduct himself in a way that was honorable.

It is a great honor to be an elder in the church that Jesus has purchased with his own blood. Thus the elder is to live honorably and the church is to treat them with honor.

Shepherd (pastor)

There are two words in the Greek that used here. In reality they are the same word but occur in different places as either a verb or a noun. The noun for “shepherd” is poimen (ποιμήν); the verb is “to shepherd” is poimaino (ποιμαίνω).

Interestingly, this word get’s translated in some versions as “pastor” in Ephesians 4. So the word that we tend to use most for church leaders is the word that the Bible uses the least, namely pastor. And what pastor means is really shepherd.

This term refers to work of the role of an elder. Shepherds led the flock, fed the flock, and protected the flock. These are the main roles that shepherds are given in Scripture. Elders are to preach the Word, protect the church from false doctrine, and lead people to God through his Word. (Rather than siting several passages here I would simply encourage you to read the pastoral epistles: 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus)

Overseer

The third and final term for the elder is “overseer” and comes from the word episcopos (ἐπίσκοπος). It means exactly what it sounds like; the Greek prefix epi means “over” while scopos means “look” or “sight.” You can hear the English word “scope” in this word. It simply means to look over.

The elder is charged to look over the flock. This is a term that refers to the authority of the position. When the church appoints elders it gives them the authority needed to do the work of the ministry. I believe this authority rests in the group of elders and not in the individual elders themselves, but we will deal with that more in another blog.

Putting It All Together

Let me see if I can help you put all of this together. We see all of these terms come together in Acts chapter 20. The context of that chapter is that Paul is trying to get to Jerusalem. On his way, so as not to delay him any longer, he calls the elders in Ephesus to come and see him at Miletus.

“Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him.”

— Acts 20:17

Note first that who he calls to himself are the elders of this church that he cares so much about. Then he gives them some instructions…

“Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.”

— Acts 20:28-30

You can see the confluence of all of these terms in this passage where Paul is speaking to these men. Let me give you these verse again but I will add the Greek words in parentheses so that you can see what is going on in the text.

“Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders (presbuteros/πρεσβύτερος) of the church to come to him...Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock(poimnion/ποίμνιον), in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers (episcopos/ἐπίσκοπος), to care (poimaino/ποιμαίνω) for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock (poimnion/ποίμνιον); 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.”

— Acts 20:17, 28-30

Here is the bottom line… elder=pastor=shepherd=overseer.

What is the difference between these? Nothing.

In coming posts we will look more at the character and work of the elder. We will look at why we pay some and not others. And we will look at deacons and their role in the church.

Stay tuned.