MISDIRECTION

We have just lived through one of the more embarrassing and degrading moments in recent church history. The travesty of the recent pronouncement that the end of the world would happen on May 21 has taken a precious truth and expectation of the church and trampled it into the mud. For days before and after “the date,” the mainstream media played up the millions of dollars spent by “the prophet” and his followers on the whole tawdry prophecy.

Why bring this up at this point? Why not let the whole affair simply fade away and be forgotten? I believe there are several very strong reasons we must take a good look at this whole situation and the damage that it has done to the church.

Jesus’ disciples were just as curious about the end times as we are today. In fact, they pressed the Lord to know the timing of end-time events. “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3).

“And Jesus answered and said to them: Take heed that no one deceives you” (Matthew 24:4).

Quickly we rush on and make the application that Jesus was talking only about “false Christs who will deceive” and while that certainly is an emphasis, it is wrong to stop there. A key element of deception is “to lead astray” or we could say, to misdirect interest away to something else.

This recent “misdirection prophecy” came from within evangelical Christianity and those who put it forward became deceivers when they assumed a private interpretation of Scripture. A truth that should remain precious to every believer is now being quietly pushed aside and that truth is the “imminent return of Jesus Christ.” Why would I say this? Let me explain.

Many of you reading this post are too young to remember the difficult days of the mid-80’s for the evangelical church. At least two of our leading “stars” were exposed as being adulterers. Both Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart had large TV ministries and the scandal that followed the exposure of both men was huge and embarrassing to the entire church.

In the fall of 1989 I was driving home late one night from an evangelistic meeting in Ontario, California. We lived about an hour to the west. As was often my custom late at night, I was listening to one of the Los Angeles “all news and weather” radio stations. The commentator suddenly started in on the Bakker/Swaggart story and began to rant and rave about the “hypocrisy of Christians.” I reached over to turn off the radio and the Spirit of the Lord rebuked me. “That’s exactly what the enemy is trying to accomplish among believers through this affair!” I understood the Spirit to be saying that a precious truth about righteous living and holiness was being pushed to the side because right at that time it was inconvenient and uncomfortable to talk publicly about such things.

And that is exactly what has happened in the church in the last twenty years. There has been less preaching and teaching on holiness and righteous living in the last two decades than in recent history. Not all of the decline in attention to righteousness can be attributed to the scandals but they heavily contributed to the changing of the moral climate of the church. There has been a corresponding rise in immorality, divorce, adultery and homosexuality within the church. A precious and fundamental truth of the church was misdirected; then deception moved in and the enemy made headway.

We are facing the same scenario right now. Prophecy has always been difficult for the church to handle. The difference of opinion on the end times has always been a “hot button” issue. A lot of believers right now are refusing to talk about any aspect of “the Second Coming” or “Judgment Day”….who wants to go looking for criticism? When we turn off the communication on this important aspect of our Christian life, we open ourselves to falling prey to deception/misdirection.

The Lord’s final instruction on this subject to His disciples in Matthew 24:44 is important for all of us right now. “Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Jesus was saying, “Live your life in the ready mode because when I do come back, it’s going to be a surprise.”

I don’t know about anybody else but I am ready for Him to come! I may be surprised—but I will be ready!