The Middle East and the End-Times

Are the current events in the Middle East signs of the end-times? This question is posed way too often and receives too much attention in evangelical churches. In my opinion, and I will write about this in the future, the question is the result of a very faulty hermeneutic (how one reads the Bible). A far more important question is, 'what does all this mean for the Church?'--both the Church in the Middle East and the Church around the world. We will directly address this question at our conference on Christianity and the Middle East (Nov 18-19, 2011 in Livermore, Ca. at Cornerstone Fellowship--see our website . During my opening presentation at this conference I will contend that the Bible does not give us a roadmap of events that will transpire immediately prior to Jesus' return. Instead, we are told that 'no one knows' the time of Jesus' return (note Matt 24:42-44 says we do not know the 'hour', 'time', or 'day'). After all, if Jesus didn't know the time of His return, then I doubt seriously that He was giving us indications as to when it was going to occur! Instead, Jesus tells us to 'be ready!' (Matt 24:44). But what does 'be ready' mean? I will suggest that 'being ready' means 'caring for the least of these brothers of mine' (Matt 25:40). Interestingly, most people don't notice the connection with the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matt 25:31-46) to Jesus' sermon of Matt 24 (actually the sermon likely begins in Matt 23:2). That Matt 25 is included in the same sermon of Jesus is evidenced by two features of Matthew's Gospel: First, Matthew has five distinct sermons of Jesus each of which end with 'And it happened, when Jesus finished all these words' (my translation). This expression occurs in Matt 26:1 (see also: 7:28; 11:1; 13:53; 19:1). Therefore, we conclude that this speech of Jesus, which began in 23:2 or 24:4, continues through all of chapter 25. Secondly, there is no other break in the message of Matt 24-25 in which one could say that the speech ends here. The only break is found in 26:1. Therefore, the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats is the conclusion to Jesus' famed 'end-times' sermon of Matt 24-25 (or 23-25). This parable informs us that when He returns He will judge between the sheep and the goats and the basis for this judgment is how have we treated the people of God? (note: the phrase ‘Least of these' refers without exception to disciples of Jesus in Matt: cf 10:42; 18:6, 10, 14; 5:19; 11:11; and the phrase ‘brothers of mine’: throughout Matt this indicates followers of Christ: cf 5:22-24, 47; 7:3-5; 12:48-50; 18:15, 21, 35; 23:8; 28:10; cp Matt 12:50: ‘Whoever does the will of my Father . . . He is my brother, and sister, and mother’). So, instead of watching the news with excitement over the events of the Middle East as though they are portents of Jesus' return, we should heed the words of Christ to 'be ready'. Since being ready means caring for those in the body of Christ as our first duty, we must become informed of the well-being of the body of Christ, both locally and globally! Pray for the Church. Pray for our conference! See you there!