I’ve not been one to get excited about prophecy and dire warnings from Biblical doomsayers. I am not easily lured to the edge of eternity.

Why?

Well, there was the Mayan apocalypse of 2012. Before that, there was Y2K, a looming catastrophe that passed largely unnoticed. (That one inspired a friend of mine  to fill his basement with cases of toilet paper so when the world ran out he could be front and center distributing rolls to the desperate masses, presumably with a copy of the four spiritual laws). And who can forget 88 Reasons the Rapture Will Be in 1988? (You can still get the book at Amazon for only $42.50 —it’s a real treasure).

I could go on, but you get the picture. In each case, the evangelical world, some of it at least, yielded to what I call “sanctified hysteria.” Discussion gets heated. Fears are awakened. Books are sold.

What’s Shakin’?

Does this mean we should always reject such rumblings? I think not. It would be wiser, I think, to see past apocalypses as fire drills, practice for the real thing. One day, the “stars will align” so to speak. It says so in The Book. One day, the world will shake, not just the earth beneath our feet, but the powers and principalities. Some day, as the Lord, Himself said, “the reader will understand” (Matthew 24:15).

The mistake that we have made in the past is to wave our arms about and signal that we are insiders and have discovered the hidden truth of the Bible. As I said in a previous post, we have looked proud and foolish. Better that we be diligent students and alert observers; be prepared to look back on events and connect the dots. Perhaps that was what Jesus was getting at. If we are paying attention, we won’t be caught off guard, blinded by ignorance and complacency.

I will continue to resist sanctified hysteria. I don’t know if there is anything in the four blood moons or the Shemitah year. But I am paying attention. One day, it won’t be a drill. The house will be on fire.

Let the reader understand.