MORALITY & THE LORD’S RETURN

by George C Stewart

Is the Lord’s timing for His return based on the morality of man? Dispensationalists seem to think so. Let’s take a serious look at that premise.

David Reagan equates immorality to “signs” that Jesus is returning soon. All of these are unsupported biblically or logically. But they are typical of all dispensational writers.

Join me in a little journey as I take you through some of the predictions of the past, based on immorality of the day. There are two favorite Scriptures for those who seek to prove that the immorality of their particular generation is a sign that Jesus will soon return.

One is Matthew 24:34, where Jesus said, “this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” The other is Matthew 24:37, where Jesus said, “the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.” I will first take you through a few past predictions based on these texts. Then I will explain the texts in their context—something dispensationalists never do.

CALVARY PROPHECY SURVIVAL

From the “Calvary Prophecy Survival” web site (August 27, 1999) I learn that “Just as in Noah’s day” describes our day. Thus “one day, very soon, Jesus will come.” Although the writer never quotes Matthew, it is obvious that he is alluding to Matthew 24:37. Then he refers to Matthew 24:34, without mentioning it or quoting it. He writes: “Only one generation witnessed the flood, only one generation witnessed the parting of the Red Sea, and only one generation will witness the Rapture.”

Such statements would seem obvious to most people. Noah was in the Ark for only one year and the Red Sea separated only long enough for the Israelites to cross. By the nature of Christ’s return we wouldn’t expect it to last more than one generation. So what is his point?

Apparently he thinks he has provided a special revelation, for then he leaps to this conclusion: “This is that generation,” (meaning the one to witness the rapture). How does he know that this is the generation to witness the Lord’s return? Because, he says, the nation of Israel was reborn in 1948. He never tells us how long a generation is. Only this is the generation. Remember that Hal Lindsey added 40 years (a generation) to 1948 and guessed that the rapture would occur in 1988. This fellow needs to read some of Lindsey’s more recent books. It won’t get him to the truth, but it will help him to avoid some embarrassing questions.

MORRIS CERULLO

The Morris Cerullo web site (January 16, 1999) reviews a series of sins and concludes that Jesus must come soon.

He mentions adultery, homosexuality, lying, stealing and murder, and warns that “the Bible predicted that the world would become more pervaded by sin in the last days.” Where does the Bible predict this? In Second Timothy 3:1-5, according to Cerullo. In that text we read: “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these.”

As with all dispensationalists, Cerullo fails to acknowledge that the Scriptures teach that the last days began at Pentecost (e. g., Acts 2:16-21; Hebrews 1:1-2). Likewise, dispensationalists fail to recognize the historical setting of New Testament writings. Paul was giving helpful instructions to Timothy—for his ministry. Paul predicted that these sins would be prevalent in Timothy’s day. To project this prophecy into the 21^st century denies the relevance for Timothy and denies the wisdom of Paul. Paul was writing to help Timothy. For him to tell Timothy about some abstract event 2,000 years in the future would have defeated his purpose. This sort of dispensational Scripture-bending does dishonor to the God-breathed word.

Maybe Cerullo thinks he has a higher authority than the written word. On this same web site he claims that “In 1947, God took Morris into the heavens and revealed His literal glory to him in a significant appearance of His Presence where God asked Morris for his life.” Dispensationalists do get carried away.

CHRISTIAN LIFE SERVICES

Time warp back to 1986. I received a newsletter article in August of 1986 by Bob Fraley (brother of a Christian church minister), entitled; “The Last Days in America.” Fraley lists the following immoral activities in America as signs of the Lord’s soon return: witchcraft, drugs, sexual immorality, family breakdown, abortion, crime and child abuse. While all of these sins were abundant in 1986, they were also serious problems in the first century AD.

Homosexuality was prevalent among the Greeks and Romans. William Barclay says that fourteen of the first fifteen Roman Emperors were homosexuals. Paul addresses this issue in his letter to the Roman church (chapter 1).

Sexual immorality is nothing new. The Greek goddess, Aphrodite, was the goddess of sexual love. In the first century the temple of Aphrodite at Corinth housed 1,000 female religious prostitutes. A study of First Corinthians will show the moral environment of that city. Child abandonment was common among the Romans of the first century.

Fraley proves nothing!

RALDO W. COOK

The late Christian Church preacher, Raldo Cook, published two “White Papers” in 1977 confessing, “Why I believe Christ is coming again in the next ten years.” He begins on the first page of “White Paper” number one with this acknowledgment: “Now...I am fully aware that the Bible says.. ‘No man knows the day...nor the hour when the Son of Man cometh.’” Then he proceeds in the next 37 pages (including both “Papers”) to tell us when Jesus is coming.

Cook uses the old “day-age” theory in an attempt to convince his readers that the Lord’s return would be 2,000 years after Christ’s first coming. (Unfortunately he didn’t live long enough to see the fallacy of this theory.) He also uses the dispensational hypotheses that 40 years after Israel became a state in 1948 a great event will take place. For Cook 1988 was to be the beginning of the “millennium,” with the “rapture” in 1980 or 1981.

More to our present discussion, Cook believed that the immorality of his day was a harbinger of the Lord’s return.

THE LAST TIMES & THE GREAT CONSUMMATION

Lest you think the morality/second coming equation is limited to the last 100 years, I now refer you to some excerpts from a book published in 1863: The Last Times and the Great Consummation,” by Joseph A. Seiss. Over 140 years ago Seiss believed that one sign of the Lord’s return was the immorality of his day. He states: “I have not only maintained that Christ will come again to this world to judge, subdue, renovate and reign in it forever, but that he will come very soon.”

Seiss lists four major areas of society that he believes points to the soon return of Christ: 1) Apostasy, skepticism and wickedness; 2) revolutionary troubles, political perplexities and vast national agitation; 3) a stir and inquiry among many respecting the subject, leading to the conclusion that Christ is at hand; and 4) the general shaking and crumbling of social order. Sounds like something from two of our present “prophets,” Hal Lindsey and David Reagan.

Seiss quotes from several authors of his day who concur with his opinions concerning the Lord’s soon return. One whom he quotes said, “that all the lines of prophecy meet in this designated year 1868.”

One can go as far back as many centuries and read of those who predicted the Lord’s soon return based on the immorality of their day. In 1519 Martin Luther wrote of “these evil latter times,” and fours years later declared that “The end of the world is not far away.”

In the latter part of the second century AD a man by the name of Montanus, from Phrygia (in Asia Minor), began a movement that took on the name Montanists. They saw a laxity of morality creeping into the community of believers and began to stress a high standard of holy living. Connected with this strong desire for holy living was their belief in the soon return of the Lord and the establishment of an earthly kingdom.

THE BIBLICAL TRUTH

As I stated at the beginning of my discussion on the relationship of immorality and the Lord’s return, many use Matthew 24:34 and 37 as “proof” that their particular generation is the most immoral since the days of the Flood, and thus destined to be the one to experience the second coming of Christ. But when these two verses are viewed in their context, the dispensational arguments dissolve and the Scriptures turn against them.

Matthew 24:34 concludes the Lord’s answer to the first part of the Apostles’ question: When will the temple be destroyed? In the previous verses Christ discusses the events leading up to, and including, the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Although the dispensationalists project those events to some future time, it is obvious that Jesus is saying that they will take place during that generation. To understand this Scripture otherwise requires twisting it beyond recognition.

Matthew 24:36 begins the Lord’s answer to the second part of the Apostles’ question: The sign of His coming. He informs them that only the Father knows when He will return. In the following verses (as well as in Matthew 25:1-13) Jesus makes it very clear that no signs will be given. Note that there were many signs relating to the destruction of Jerusalem (Matthew 24:4-34) but none relating to His Second Coming.

The prophecy of our Lord, given in Matthew 24:5-33, is absolutely consistent with the actual events which took place before the destruction of Jerusalem. There were many false christs (vv. 5, 24);  “wars and rumors and wars” (v. 6); “famines and earthquakes” (v. 7); “false prophets” (vv. 11, 24); and the “gospel of the kingdom” was “preached to the whole world” (see v. 14; Colossians 1:5-6, 23). For further study on this text, see my book, Our Reigning King and Returning Lord, pages 158-165.

When dispensationalists quote from Matthew 24:37 only, ignoring the context, and when they attempt to use current events as a sign of Christ’s return, they actually reverse the meaning which Jesus intended. Christ goes on to say that conditions will be rather normal when He returns: Eating, drinking and marrying (v. 38). In verse 39 Jesus says His Second Coming will be just like that: Without signs.

There have always been evil times. In fact, we could return to the Garden of Eden and find that 100% of the population of the earth had rebelled against God. Or—go back to the days before the Flood. Only the eight members of Noah’s family honored God.

Certainly we live in an evil time, but the Lord has never told us that that is a sign of His return. Instead, He has told us many times to trust Him—and be ready!