Clear as mud...Day 14

Ok...So, the more I studied the end times the less clear the conclusions that I had been clinging to became. You see...I had been studying the futurist view of eschatology for quite sometime. And quite honestly I thought the more that I polished my understanding the clearer that understanding would get and the opposing views would fade into obscurity. But this was not the case. I know that some people just accept the idea and are o.k. with there being many interpretations of certain biblical doctrines, but quite frankly...I wasn't. It just plain old made me uncomfortable. The Church had come together many times over the years to codify what it is the Church believed on issues like the divinity of Christ. The nature of Christ. The Trinity. Along with other lesser issues. So why hadn't they figured out such an important issue as the end times?

And so at the time that I began digging deeper, the intensity of the debates that were going on between my co-worker, Lee Davis and I really began ramping up. Neither one of us could understand why the other couldn't see the clarity of the others view. 8) And so one morning in early January 2005, Lee comes in to the office where I was working to share a passage with me. He thought for sure that I would understand where he was coming from and that what he was showing me would clear things up. However what it did do was cause a rift between the two of us that ran deep and wide. The disagreement was such that Lee suggested that we not EVER speak to each other about the end times ever again. What began as small talk had grown into discussion that then became heated debate and eventually boiled over into what was clearly sin. And so we barely said hello in passing to one another for about a month or two.

During this time, one of my assignments was to follow the news very closely and record the days current events and categorize them as to how they may be playing out the events leading up to the rapture. Wars, famines, pestilence, possible middle east peace treaties, Christian persecutions, etc. Another one of my assignments was to chart out the end times. That is to make a visual time line of how history leading up to the events found in Revelation. So the first thing I did was go online and google "charting the end times." Holy mackerel!!! was my response. I had seen one or two of these kinds of charts before. But I never knew just how many there were and how complex they could be.

I spent many a night on air designing my own chart, laying out what I believed to be the correct chronological order of events leading up to the rapture. After many hours, a lot of printer toner and much effort...I got an A. Yessss... Problem was, I still wasn't any more sure about why I believed what I did. After looking at all the differing views. After comparing all the proof-texts. After considering the sincerity and scholarly efforts by many Godly men. I was still left scratching my head.

Had I really considered all of the views? I thought so. But as I would find out a short time later...I had not.