Understanding the End Times
“Does the end matter? Does it matter to God? Should it matter to us? I think it matters to God. I think it’s the whole point of history, I know it’s the whole point of history! History is headed to a divinely-designed and revealed end. And if it matters enough to God to reveal it, it should matter enough to us to understand the revelation of it. Did not God fill scripture with end time prophecy? Some say nearly 1/4 of scripture relates to the prophecies of the end. Did God, in this significant volume of revelation, somehow muddle His words so hopelessly that the high ground for theologians is simply to recognize the muddle and abandoned any thought of the perspicuity of scripture with regard to eschatology? Is in fact working hard to understand prophetic passages needless and impossible because they require a spiritualized or allegorized set of interpretations that says the truth is somehow hidden behind the normal meaning of the words, so any idea of what it might mean is as good as any other idea of what it might mean since it doesn’t mean what it says? Are you comfortable with the notion that the hard and fast, tried and true, principles of interpretation have to be set aside any time you come to a prophetic text? There are a number of Amillennialists who feel that way.”
- John MacArthur, 2007 Shepherd’s Conference, General Session #1.
Those Who Never Hear the Gospel
“Assuming that God does damn such persons, why is it [supposedly] unjust of Him to do so simply because they have no opportunity to be saved? If these persons are damned they are damned because they are sinners; they are not damned because they have had opportunity to be saved and have not utilized it. Their opportunity, or the lack of it, has nothing to do with their being damned; they are damned because they are sinners. What is unfair in God’s damning sinners? … Some will say: Granted that God could damn men for the sins they have committed even though they did not hear the Gospel and there would be no injustice in that as such. But, does not God have an obligation to offer a way of salvation to everyone? But, we ask, why? Why does God have any obligation to offer salvation to any sinner? Grace, by definition, is undeserved. If it were deserved, it would not be a gospel; it would not be grace.” - John Gerstner
Divine Truth
The Gospel
“Our theological currency has been debased. Our minds have been conditioned to think of the cross as a redemption which does less than redeem, and of Christ as a Savior who does less than save, and of God’s love as a weak affection which cannot keep anyone from hell without help, and of faith as the human help which God needs for this purpose. As a result, we are no longer free either to believe the biblical gospel or to preach it. We cannot believe it, because our thoughts are caught in the toils of synergism.” – J.I. Packer
