Through Stand Firm and my writing, I talk a lot about the end of the age, but it’s not so much about saying we’re at the end of the age, rather it’s about letting the end help us see the trajectory of the current and coming challenges to the faith. One of the major lessons I remember from Sunday School at Central Baptist Church in Ashdown was that a maze was more easily done by starting at the end and working to the beginning. At that time, I didn’t realize that was such a biblical concept but thought it was more about cheating the system.
When it comes to life, we believers, can cheat the system because we know the end of the maze. We know how this age ends, so shouldn’t we be able to follow Mrs. Miller’s Sunday School maze advice and start at the end and work our way to where we are now? Studying the end of the age is more about learning the trajectory of this world than the end-time events themselves.
My grandfather passed away this summer. Several months before he went downhill, he bought each of his grandkids a gun to remember him and, most of all, to continue his hunting legacy. My daughters each got .243 rifles. The guns are a little too big for them now, but after his passing, they were determined to hunt with them so we did lots of shooting.
My daughter could not understand why I was telling her that the group of holes dead center, but an inch and a quarter above the bullseye, was perfect. She replied, “But Daddy it’s not in the bullseye.” I added to the confusion by telling her that she would have been off if she had hit the bullseye at the 100 yards away from where we were shooting. She was puzzled.
I get it because I’m terrible at math and science, but I had printed off a trajectory chart for a 90 grain .243 caliber round. The goal was to be dead on at 200 yards. Since bullets don’t continue in an endless flat plain, but rather rise and drop, we had to be 1.26” inches high at 100 yards. Then, we had to keep in mind if we were going to shoot further, that the bullets would drop. It dropped 6 inches at 300 yards, 17 inches at 400 yards and a whopping 36 inches at 500 yards. Yeah, I think we will stay under 300 yards!
We knew how to sight in the rifle because we knew the trajectory the bullet would travel. That’s the case with end times prophecy. Regardless of what many say, I am convinced if we throw off our presuppositions and read Scripture for what it says, we can get a clear picture of the end of the age. One image — found in Ezekiel 38, Zechariah 14, Psalm 2, Revelation 16 and Revelation 19 — points to the final event of this age. From that one picture, we can know where everything is headed geopolitically. From Gen. 3:15 and Revelation 12, we can see where things are headed in the unseen realm. From Matthew 24 and II Tim. 3:1-5, we can see where things are headed morally and regarding faith.
The prophesied end-time events do precisely matter ultimately to one generation — this age’s final generation — but the trajectory of those events matter to all generations.
The trajectory matters to us. It’s because of the trajectory we can learn from the end of the age that I spend so much time talking about Bible prophecy. It’s because of this miraculous aspect of Scripture that we can be motivated to hold on and know how to stand firm. It’s because Bible prophecy is the end of the maze that I am working hard to mine it out to you and others.
If we know the trajectory of the challenges to our faith, then we can much more easily navigate this life faithfully.
Jake is available for revivals and preaching learn more at standfirmministries.com.
