“Get Ready Because Jesus Is Coming Soon” Is Bad Theology
Have we not learned our lesson as a church? It makes me want to hang my head in shame every time I see one of our churches advertising an end-time prophecy seminar.
Here’s something I want you to notice: 100% of end-time predictions over the last 2,000 years, supposedly based on careful Bible study, have failed. 100%.
Please—just stop it!
I hear it proclaimed from the top of our organization right down to the pews in the local church, “Get ready because Jesus is coming soon!” What bad theology! And before you call me a heretic or un-Adventist, consider what we are saying when we say that.
Implications
If we are to get ready because Jesus is coming soon, what does it mean if Jesus isn’t coming soon? We don’t have to get ready? If we are to get ready because Jesus is coming soon, isn’t that like the bride asking the groom to let her know when he is coming to the wedding so that she knows when to start being faithful?
Like I said, bad theology.
Decades ago, I was asked by some church members if I thought Jesus would come in the next 20 years. I said, “No.” I didn’t see it happening. Because of that answer, I was branded as unspiritual and not trustworthy as a pastor. It’s now at least three decades since that time, and as it turns out, I wasn’t unspiritual—I was right.
Lots of horrible things happened in the three decades since, and not a one of them turned out to be a sign of the end.
- 9/11? Not a sign of the end.
- 2008 global financial crisis? Not a sign of the end.
- Continued conflict in the Middle East? Not a sign of the end.
- 2011 Japanese tsunami and nuclear disaster? Not a sign of the end.
- Russian invasion of Ukraine? Not a sign of the end
- Three different popes? Not a sign of the end.
Many insist that it is important to keep giving the message to get ready that Jesus is coming soon, because what happens if they walk out of here and get hit by a truck? We need to keep preaching that message so people will be saved if they die from some horrible or natural cause.
Again, bad theology.
If we need to urge people to make a decision for Jesus because they might die in the next few minutes, what are we really saying? If we get ready to meet Jesus just so that we avoid hell, is that really what Jesus is looking for? “I chose you, Jesus, because I didn’t want to get stuck with the devil.” I’m sure He’s impressed. Is that how you proposed to your spouse, or were proposed to by your spouse? Can you imagine? “Honey, will you marry me, because I don’t want to get stuck with the ugly one?”
But there are wars and rumors of wars—isn’t that a sign? If it is a sign, then it has to be the dumbest of all the dumb signs that have ever been given in the history of mankind. Let’s give God some credit—God is smarter than that. Consider that in the 3,400 years or so that we have of fairly accurately recorded history, only 268 of those years have been without war. And my suspicion is that the absence of recorded wars in those 268 years is more due to poor record keeping than an actual lack of war.
Let’s admit it: that would have been a lousy sign.
So if wars and rumors of wars are a sign of the second coming of Jesus, it was a sign of the second coming for centuries before He came the first time. As I said, let’s give God some credit.
Will there be wars going on when Jesus comes again? Probably. If history tells us anything, we will still be fighting when Jesus comes again. But that war won’t be a sign. It will be a coincidence.
Well, yes, there is one sign
Notice Jesus doesn’t even say that these wars and rumors of wars will increase, or that increase in frequency is to be a sign. Because it’s just not a sign. War is horrible, it’s hurtful, it causes great suffering—but it’s not a sign. The devil delights in our trying to make it to be a sign, because it makes God look dumb (which He isn’t), and for another thing, it causes us to get alarmed, which is the exact opposite of what Jesus wanted. Notice what He says in Matthew 24:6:
“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.” (emphasis mine)
Go ahead. Read all the way through Matthew 24. Jesus lists a bunch of events that end up not being signs. That hasn’t stopped our evangelists and church leaders from claiming that they are signs, even though Jesus keeps saying that they aren’t.
But the disciples don’t give up. They are like us. They want a sign. Finally, Jesus gives in, and gives them a sign.
Do you want to know what the sign is? So, you’ll know when to expect Him? Here it is.
“Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see ‘the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven’ with power and great glory.” (emphasis mine)
I find that rather funny. I have laughed out loud over Jesus’ sense of humor here. He keeps telling them, not a sign, not a sign, not a sign. And when he gives them a sign, it’s this: “When you see me, you will know that I have returned.”
So, if you’re going to hold an end-time prophecy seminar and you’re wanting to give people a sign of the end, at least tell them to look for the Son of Man coming in the clouds. Nothing else is a sign.
Take it up with Jesus. He said it, not me.
How to get ready
The next question is, what does it take to be ready? What should people do to be ready when Jesus comes? Study our Bibles more? Pray more? Here is the bad news on that.
You will never be able to read your Bibles enough or pray enough to be ready for Jesus to come. You just can’t. You could read your Bible and pray 24 hours a day and it wouldn’t be enough.
That’s the bad news—and that’s the good news.
If you want to know what to do to be ready, read the next chapter in Matthew—chapter 25. I’ll summarize it for you.
Love God. Love His people.
You see, there is no getting ready for Jesus to come—that’s just plain bad theology. Jesus told the rich young ruler that if he wanted to inherit eternal life there were just two things to do. Love God and love people.
It turns out that getting ready is a whole lot easier than we have tried to make it out to be. When you love God and you love His people, it doesn’t matter if Jesus comes this year, two decades, or two centuries from now. We will be helping fulfill Jesus’ desire to establish God’s kingdom here on earth just as it is in heaven.
Adventists, let’s stop the insanity. And let’s stop the end-time prophecy seminars and focus on preaching a message of loving God and loving His people. I know it won’t draw the crowds, but it will at least be doing what Jesus asked us to do instead of turning His words upside down to cry wolf once again.
“Get ready because Jesus is coming soon”? Bad theology.
Love God and love His people? Good theology.
So let’s do that.
Ron Hessel is a retired pastor in the Pacific Northwest.
