There was a time when I was contented to meander down pretty much any road in life on the magic carpet of creative writing – using words like a paintbrush to turn basic stories into visual and visceral experiences – each one laced with an element of redemption, revealing a shadow of the Redeemer.[1] My biggest challenge in those days: learning how to make my mental drive for conveying scripturally accurate concepts interface with my helplessly artsy heart language. As practice over time brought these two seemingly opposing attributes together and I began to find my voice, imagine my shock and mortification when, in the fall of 2021, I was faced with the brutal realization that my voracious and meticulous study of the Bible was full of holes…
In October of 2021, I hopped a plane from Montana to Tennessee to attend a Frontier Alliance International (FAI) conference[2] – or as they preferred to call it, a family gathering. My knowledge of the organization at that time was scant. Nonetheless, I was full of anticipation as I punched through the clouds sitting between two giant, aluminum-alloy wings. The decision to go in the first place was made a few months after a friend recommended the FAI App to me.[3] Considering who recommended it, I enthusiastically downloaded it to my phone and began exploring… and never stopped.
My reaction to the app took me completely off guard. It wasn’t just the innovation that struck me – Christ-pursuing millennials employing a cutting-edge tech-method to put a video library full of bible studies, documentaries, music, news, and more into the hands of anyone on the globe who wanted to peruse them. Clever enough. But the truly jolting part for me was that they were digging deep into parts of Scripture that, in my conservative experiences, had been deemed (by somebody…) to be too dangerous for the average Christian to look at too closely.
More specifically, this bunch of cheeky, status-quo up-setters (millennials -- you know...) were studying and presenting the future-pointing parts of the Prophets in the Old (First) Testament, parts of the Psalms, Jesus’ and other New Testament authors’ statements pointing into the future, and the book of Revelation. In sum, they were talking about the future-pointing “thread” that runs through the entire bible and weaving them into the traditionally taught parts of Scripture. No sensational predictions. No fearmongering. No passing of the proverbial hat. In fact, they were, and still are, giving all their resources away for free.
Regardless, I can feel the red flags on the brink of shooting up as some of you read the last paragraph, if nothing else, because the subject of the future as described in Scripture tends to evoke some uncomfortable, and perhaps even distressing, emotional responses. In defense of these flag-wavers, there is a long list of examples to hold up of eschatology[4] “enthusiasts” who have run off the narrow road into the money-making, fearmongering, sensationalist weeds and taken a lot of unsuspecting Christians with them. Rest assured, you are safe from any and all of those tactical motivations here. Bear with me a bit longer.
Having landed in Tennessee, as I sat in a session taught by Pastor and Director Jeff Henderson, I felt the “hand-buzzer” sensation in my heart that lets me know whenever the Holy Spirit is trying to get me to pay attention to something important.[5] You know the one. It went off while Jeff was sharing a quote from a story of William Carey and Andrew Fuller’s late eighteenth-century mission partnership to India. It is said that Fuller declared to Carey, “There is a gold mine in India; but it seems as deep as the center of the earth; who will venture to explore it?” To this, Carey replied, “I will go down, but remember that you must hold the rope."[6] It was meant that Carey would go into India to take the gospel to the East Indian people while Fuller did the equally vital work of supporting and advocating from home.[7] The quote planted itself in my heart, waiting for the right moment to sprout.
A few weeks after the gathering, standing in front of the bathroom mirror, the quote did sprout, spreading itself out into a full mental picture: Fuller standing on the peak of a tall mountain holding a rope for Carey who was working at the bottom amongst the unreached and unengaged people who resided there.[8] It was essentially a picture of two spiritually mature disciples of Christ carrying out the last thing they were commanded to do out of love for their Master – playing their respective roles in taking the good news of the kingdom of Christ to unreached peoples in the farthest parts of the globe.[9]
Engaging in the Great Commandment[10] is another subject for another day. But there was more to the image. An element that sparked this post, and perhaps even the birth of this space. Behind Fuller, on the back side of the mountain, I saw myself and others hanging motionless partway up, making no progress toward the top. I knew that the mountain itself represented spiritual maturity, and the fact that I was dangling precariously partway up it was not good news. The relevance: that reality had much to do with the parts of the biblical books I had been shallowly scanning but not mining to the depth they demanded. The foundation of my faith was wobbling unsteadily on three legs. I was missing a leg!
Obviously, this is not the kind of news that makes a person squeal with delight. But it was the kind of news that moved my spiritual maturation off the back burner where it had been cooling for quite a while. And that’s good news. Several years later, I am still diligently mining, captivated by all the finds that were previously missed. My tippy foundation is getting stronger everyday with a deepening knowledge of all that God provided to help us understand how his plan for the future impacts the way we live today, not to mention helping us navigate the narrow road forward toward Jesus’ return.
A final thought. We’ve reached a point in human history when it would be nearly impossible for anyone to miss the signs of the times.[11] (How each person interprets them is another story.) Every sincere disciple of Christ is grappling right now with where creation is headed, where humanity is headed, who to listen to, who to run away from, and who to follow. But we have a good God who gave us his indwelling Spirit, his trustworthy Word (all of it), and the promise of the return of his Son. We can choose to listen with our spirit eyes and spirit ears over what we see and hear around us. We can learn to trust what the Bible tells us – how to live and walk in faith when it doesn’t make sense. We can have peace and joy in the midst of the promised suffering.[12]
There are a lot of camps around the subject of eschatology, aggressively pumping their positions and coming at each other like junkyard dogs. It would be really easy to just pick the one that sounds the best and check it off your list, hoping they’re right. But here are some questions to consider:
Why would we put off reading for ourselves what God has to say about the future when we are pressing up against the very veil that separates us from it?
Why would we relinquish our right to step into the throne room of God, climb up next to him, and let him explain it to us in his own words?[13]
Why would we be content to let someone else give us a watered down, secondhand interpretation, that may or may not be accurate, when we can go directly to the source?
“It’s all in the past.” “It’s all symbolic.” “It’s too complicated for us common folk.” “Only highly educated scholars are qualified to read this.” “It will cause you to take your eyes off what we’re supposed to be focused on.” “You’ll turn into a crazy person.” “The devil will lead you astray.” Are any of these statements (fears) true? How do you know? Are you willing to bet your life on it? I’ve been testing these eschatological waters for quite a while now. I’m still sane. Centered. Circumspect. Living in the light. Abiding in the vine. Embracing the whole of Scripture. Walking out my faith. Taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. Worshipping and serving God. Of course, you should watch out for potential misunderstandings and pitfalls. But read! Turn off the talking heads, pick a comfortable spot, and read until you've read it all! Then read it again. And again...
These days, my creative meandering has taken on a direction and a purpose. I’m a sojourner just like you, following Jesus down the narrow road, with the whole story now at my disposal, toward the day of his return – constantly captivated by the previously unseen sights and revelations and delighting in illuminating them in vivid color for those traveling the same way who may perhaps be struggling in the fading light. Maranatha.[14]
[1] Ephesians 1:3-10
[2] Frontier Alliance International is “an organization and spiritual family [committed]: to resource those who have the Gospel as we labor to reach those who do not have the Gospel, until the Son of Man comes on the clouds in power and glory.” https://fai.online/about
[4] “Eschatology.” : a branch of theology concerned with the final events in the history of the world or of humankind. Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eschatology . Accessed 2 Nov. 2024.
[5] John 16:12-15; Ephesians 1:13-14
[6] Walsh, Pakenham W. Modern Heroes of the Mission Field. New York: Fleming H. Revell. As presented by Missionary Biographies: Wholesome Words Home. https://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/bcarey9.html. Accessed 2 January 2022.
[7] Ibid, 1.
[8] “An unreached or least-reached people is a people group among which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize this people group without outside assistance.” “An unengaged unreached people group (UUPG) has no known active church planting underway.” https://joshuaproject.net/help/definitions. Accessed November 9, 2024.
[9] Matthew 28:18-20
[10] Matthew 28:18-20
[11] Matthew 24 (v. 33); Mark 13 (v. 29); Luke 21:5-36 (vv. 29-31)
[12] 1 Peter 4:12-19; John 14:26-27; John 15:9-12
[13] Hebrews 4:14-16
[14] Maranatha is an Aramaic word that means “the Lord is coming” or “come, O Lord.” https://www.gotquestions.org/maranatha.html. Accessed November 10, 2024
Amazing! So excited!
Just wow, Sonia! It spoke to my soul and conveyed what I have tried to share with others.