Apathetic to the Apocalypse

When Angel and I left the church where we had served in the assistant pastorate for several years, we began a multi-year odyssey that allowed us to survey several churches. The one common theme that seemed to unite all of these churches together was their total avoidance of eschatological themes or the doctrine of the end times.

It is the common consensus of many of the most avant garde churches that studying prophecy is too divisive of an issue. If they do venture into this area, they do so only for immediate life application and dare not foray into any conjecture about future events.

I find this to be very disheartening. These leaders are robbing their people of the anticipation of future events. They are also robbing their flocks of the ultimate culmination of history -- the events that will more fully allow mankind to understand the entire scope of history within its context.

How can you avoid a book that promises a blessing for those that read and understand it? In Revelation 1:3, "Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near." This passage intimates that we can actually understand the book of Revelation!

At times, the fear of prophetic writings is so great among churches that I actually fear for their spiritual descendents. There is a tendency among those that avoid prophecy to also allegorize Genesis 1-3. This seems to be in synch with 2 Peter 3:3-7 which ties together skepticism of the second coming with skepticism in creation and the flood (among unbelievers).

First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come,
scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, "Where is this
`coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has
since the beginning of creation." But they deliberately forget that long
ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and
by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and
destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for
fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

A strong understanding of God's Word can only be amplified by a complete understanding of prophecy. How can we rouse out of this apathy to the apocalypse?