Charting the End Times...Day 13

So the last days had come upon me. Errrr ummm...That is the study of the last days had come upon us in the School of Ministry. It was January 2005. My wife was 6 months pregnant and I was beginning the final semester of the School of Ministry. Yesssss...I was almost done. 8)

Now...For a little more background info. I had been working the weekend overnight shifts at the radio station for about six months. For those not familiar with how radio works, the weekend overnights are typically where you cut your teeth on-air. Funny thing though about being on-air only two nights a week. I never really felt like I was making very much progress. But in early 2004, I started doing overnights Monday through Friday. Actually...All of them...Seven shifts a week for a while. Sometimes it's hard to find people to take weekend overnights. Especially at a Christian radio station. Most people have some kind of Sunday morning church obligation that they don't want to give up. And since I was already awake at night I figured I might as well help out and earn a little extra money. And on the upside...Seven shifts a week really helped hone the on air skills.

So what does this have to do with the price of tea in China you ask? No worries...I'm getting there. 8)

I had previously met the morning drive-time guy, Lee Davis, but never really more than just a passing hello while leaving after his shift as I was coming in to do some program loading. But now that my nightly shift would back up against his, we would get to know each other really well. After a short time in passing conversation both Lee and I discovered that we both shared a common interest. The Bible...But more specifically Bible prophecy. The two of us held pretty similar views. We were both futurists and both pre-millenial, but beyond that we were a mixed bag of end times nuts. 8)

We spent many early morning hours going back and forth over different issues. The rapture and when it would take place. I was pre-trib...Lee was not. Which of course made for a lot of heated times of "intense fellowship." Since of course, we brothers in Christ wouldn't dare argue in an unloving manner. 8) Anyhow, Lee and I spent many months going back and forth doing our best to represent our views.

At about that same time, in August of 2004, my family and I took a little road trip up to Oregon to spend some time with friends and family. One of the stops we would be making for a couple of days would be to stay with Boomer and Lisa Reiff and their son Jake. Boomer had been the pastor at Knott Avenue Christian Church where my wife and I had met. This is the same church that I wrote about previously that had been such a jumping off point for my studies that would lead me to where I had come.(<---See Day 2) Earlier in 2003, Boomer and some of the other guys that were apart of Kol Community along with myself had all met together over many weeks to study the book of Revelation. We did this to help Boomer prepare for what would be a teaching series that he would start in the fall of 2003. Boomer was planting a new church and he couldn't think of a better way to kick things off than with a study through Revelation.

Anyways...Back to August 2004. Boomer and his family had just recently moved up to Lake Oswego, up in the north-west corner of Oregon and this is where we were headed. In making arrangements with Boomer, the topic of end-times came up. He suggested that we should set aside some time to discuss the topic more when I got up there. So what did I do...I went to the Chapel Store at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa and got a book called, "The Rapture Question," by John Walvoord. Read through that book rather quickly hi-lighting some things that I thought would be good points to argue. And then I went online and downloaded every mp3 I could find on the subject by Chuck Missler, Chuck Smith and a few others to listen to on the drive up. I wanted to be ready when it came time to slay another non-pre-tribber.

But the more I studied and discussed with friends the futurist view of end times that I had been holding on to so tightly the more I realized that their were other views within the same futurist framework that had equally good arguments. Which would eventually lead me to my own charting of the end-times.

I was hoping that this would clear things up for me...