Evangelism and Eschatology
Almost sixty years ago, a little nine-year-old boy walked down the aisle of a tiny Baptist church, responding to the minister's altar call. His awareness of the love of God was so overwhelming he could hardly walk. He was rather dramatically born again that day.
I was that little boy, and while my experience was genuine, I have to admit that throughout my business career, I did not always feel a sincere urge to evangelize others. Occasionally circumstances would align and I would "witness," and at those times I felt good. Duty accomplished. But I felt no real, persistent urge to do so on a regular basis—until a number of years ago when I started studying Biblical eschatology (the study of end time events) from a Pretribulational and Premillennial perspective.
Why would that be? Why would studying prophecies about the Rapture and the Second Advent motivate me to share the Gospel of Christ with others? After all, do not many (if not most) Christians see everything required for effective evangelism in the First Advent—a known historical event which provided the foundation of our salvation? And do they not consider the doctrines surrounding the Second Advent—such as the Rapture and the Millennium—to be fraught with interpretive controversy and therefore something which would only distract from evangelistic work?
According to a commentary on First and Second Thessalonians by John E. Walvoord and Mark Hitchcock (part of the John F. Walvoord Prophecy Commentary series, edited by Philip Rawley), the Apostle Paul certainly did not see eschatology as something which distracted from evangelistic work.
Paul and Silas founded the church at Thessalonica on Paul's second missionary trip in spite of significant persecution against himself and his Thessalonian converts. Because of that persecution he did not have a long and leisurely opportunity to preach to them. He needed to get right to the point. And yet despite the urgency of the situation Paul preached the Rapture and the Second Advent.
In A.D. 50 or 51, only weeks after founding the church, Paul wrote First and Second Thessalonians from Corinth. In those letters Paul extolled the Thessalonian church as a model, writing that in Macedonia and Achaia he had no need to mention their acceptance of the Gospel because in their evangelical zeal they had already made their faith obvious throughout the whole region. So what had Paul taught these Thessalonians that was so effective?
Paul's extraordinarily fruitful message rested on three pillars: (1) that the Old Testament prophesied that the Messiah would suffer and rise again from the dead (Acts 17:3); (2) that the promised Old Testament Messiah is Jesus (Acts 17:3); and (3) that Jesus as Messiah and King would return at the end of the age to reign (Acts 17:7). Thus eschatology provided one of the three pillars of his message.
Paul's emphasis on eschatology is most clearly revealed in 1 Th. 4:13–5:11. In this passage Paul summarizes the basics of everyday living so as to be pleasing to the Lord. He ends by summarizing his previous teaching about the Rapture and reminds them that the Lord's own words had promised them a resurrection of the dead in Christ and a translation of those living in Christ when he came to take them to the father's house (John 14:1-4). Paul twice exhorts his readers to "comfort one another" with these teachings. The Greek word for comfort in the KJV, "parakaleo," carries the meaning of "to invite." Paul is telling them "to invite" one another (and therefore newcomers) to have faith not only in the First Advent, but also in Christianity's central eschatological expectation—the Rapture of the Church and the Second Advent to follow.
Paul obviously considered eschatology to be an essential part of the Gospel of grace and that Christians grounded in this complete Gospel would possess the spiritual equipment and the motivation necessary to evangelize others.
Fast forward two thousand years. As Christians we may clearly see that at the First Advent the perfect Sacrifice was accomplished, that God was thereafter righteously free within Himself to lavish grace upon those who in themselves deserve only condemnation. But without grasping the Rapture and the Second Advent which follows, we remain blind to God's whole redemptive work. Without a clear revelation of those two vital end time events we in effect balance precariously on only two of Paul's three Gospel pillars—and are therefore only two-thirds prepared to be ambassadors for Christ.
Studied systematically the Bible reveals God's whole redemptive work from its first chapter to its last. Beginning at Genesis 3:15, God began speaking of a redemption to come through the seed of the woman. Later, God spoke to Abraham of a final glorious state for his physical seed (Israel) and for his spiritual seed (Christ along with His Body and Bride). Later still, through Moses, God gave a Law which not only tutored the Israelites toward redemption in Christ, but which provided interim sacrifices typical of the once-for-all Sacrifice which He Himself would provide. Through the Gospel of grace taught by Paul and his fellow apostles, the Body and Bride of Christ is now being called out. And, as we can see in the book of Revelation, when the Body and Bride of Christ is complete, God will turn again to His elect nation Israel. From the sixth chapter of Revelation on, we see God dealing only with Jews and with Gentiles (not the Church). Following its dramatic account of the time of Jacob's trouble, the book of Revelations depicts the Second Advent of Christ, through Whom God finishes His full redemptive work in the earth. Only then, when the Greater David reigns, will the earth finally be recovered from its ancient rebellion.
That constitutes the whole Gospel message in brief. It is one in which evangelism and eschatology are intimately joined and one about which any Christian can get excited.
It certainly has that effect on me. Feeding on that whole Gospel message, that little-boy Christian from sixty years ago has finally grown up!
— Steven Ira, as a college undergraduate in English, intended to be an English teacher. He changed his mind, earned an MBA and spent his entire career as a small businessman. Having retired from active business he has returned to his first love, writing.
Throughout most of those business years he regularly studied the Bible, including the works of several well-known theologians: Lewis Sperry Chafer, John Walvoord, Dwight Pentecost, Charles Ryrie, Mark Hitchcock and others. His first three novels in the Daniel Goldman series, "Voices," "Babylonian Harlot" and "The Last Prophet,"are based on Tribulation era prophecies, especially those revealed in the Biblical books of Daniel and Revelation. The vision for this series was to write stories about people caught up in the perilous times following the Rapture of the Christian Church. The stories are primarily about those people, yet they carefully follow Bible prophecies about the times themselves.
The Bible offers many specifics about the social and geopolitical circumstances in the period between the Rapture of the Church and the Second Advent of Christ. The series remains faithful to those details. Yet even in this area the Bible allows wide latitude for imagination since it describes only the essences of those circumstances.
In short, Ira's novels seek to show possible, plausible ways in which Bible prophecies of the end times might be literally fulfilled.
Find out more about Steven on his website: https://stevenira.com/ and find his books on his Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/Steven-Ira/e/B01M7RGMOG