Recognising the season

The first book of the Bible I read was Revelation. In 2020, during the lockdown, I was seeing posts online about the ‘mark of the beast’ and end times. I got curious and wanted to know what Revelation actually said. Maybe that seems like an unusual choice, but I’m not the only one. I am now connected with other new believers who came out of the COVID times, and many of us read Revelation first. 

I printed my copy of Revelation off the internet, and didn’t really understand what it said. Nevertheless it piqued my interest in reading more because I had a sense that it was true, and that it related to the world events that were unfolding. 

I read the New Testament, and then listened to the Old Testament as an audiobook – I was in a hurry to read it, as I thought I might not have much time before Jesus came back!

Now four years on, we’re all still here. I’ve read the whole Bible a couple of times, and attend a church that keeps me grounded in the real world, so I’m a lot less focused on end times prophecy. 

Nevertheless the question remains, are we in the end times?  

Signs of the times

In Matthew 24, Jesus answers his disciples when they ask him about what signs to look out for to indicate the end of the age. He talks about a time on earth when there will be war, famine and earthquakes. As we look at what is occurring around the world, things are certainly getting darker. 

The murder of Christians globally, along with increasing difficulties to share faith or pray publicly in the UK suggest that there is a ramping up of the persecution against believers. The advancement of technology could make a ‘mark of the beast’ buying and selling system possible, where all purchases can be digitally monitored and controlled. When I hear about the possibility that AI could allow people to become immortal, I think of what it says in Revelation 9:6 about a time when “people will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them”. It does seem as if society is heading rapidly towards the end. 

A lack of certainty

When I first became a believer, I watched lots of online church sermons about end times. I took everything I heard as correct. I was so new to the faith and didn’t realise that there are actually many different interpretations of end times prophecy, and much debate about it. 

When I realised there were different perspectives and started exploring them, I felt like I knew less and less. Now I watch a lot less online sermons, and just keep reading and rereading the Bible, praying that the Holy Spirit will reveal to me what I need to know when I need to know it.

One night just over a year and a half ago I woke up in the middle of the night with two words in my mind: “radical change”. I don’t know what the words refer to, and if it’s a change in my personal life or something that affects the wider world. But when I see the news headlines, it does seem possible that we are poised in a moment before the events prophesied in the Bible. 

When I go online I see a lot of people talking with certainty about Jesus coming back very soon, and I cannot feel certain. There have been many previous historical events that people have felt were the beginning of the end, such as the Second World War or Y2K. We are human and fallible, and the vast number of different interpretations of end times prophecy suggest how often we can get it wrong. 

A right perspective

In the memoir Orphaned Believers (Baker Books), Sara Billups describes her life growing up in an evangelical community that talked a lot about the end times. She grew up thinking that she wouldn’t get to graduate from university before the end came, and it traumatised her. 

At the other end of the spectrum are churches that avoid talking about Revelation entirely. I think this is just as unhealthy an attitude as the church Billups grew up in. It’s an important part of our faith to explore and learn about, even though it is a challenging book. Interestingly, Revelation is the only book in the Bible that we are told we are blessed for reading and hearing (Revelation 1:3). 

As the parable of the ten virgins shows us (Matthew 25), we must be ready at any moment. While no one knows the day or the hour, we can recognise the season.