God’s Timing Is Always Perfect, So Go Out & ‘Do’; Don’t Waste Time Waiting For The End Times

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘<The Lord said to Habakkuk,> “For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.”’ (Habakkuk 2:3)

I was in a discussion recently, where we were talking of those preachers who focus on Revelation. The focus is nothing new; for years (even centuries) priests and pundits have all stated ‘we are now in the End Times’. It is admittedly big business as there are a plethora of Biblical scholars and speakers who espouse the deciphering of John’s Revelation of Jesus Christ, as yearly many books, seminars and sermons are given to those who are naturally curious about ‘The End’.

Not all teachings of Revelation are bad. It is an important part of the Bible (as are all 66 books in the Protestant Canon) and needs to be taught and discussed as much and as often as the other books. The danger lies in the imbalanced focus solely on Revelation, as it places a sense of it having greater importance, and this in turn creates a sense of ‘waiting’ for the End to come, rather than taking action to fulfill the Great Commission. This is not unique for current times, this occurs throughout the history of Christianity.

Around 1000 AD the church had those who felt the prophecies lined up with the Tribulation starting. It also ramped up as we approached ‘Y2K’, and I’m certain the Black Plague or the World Wars likely had some thinking it was the End of Days due to all the death that fell upon the people of the Earth. (And let’s not get into the Aztec calendar that ended counting in 2012.)

We have those who firmly are in the camp that we are in the threshold of the Tribulation, and while I won’t dispute that we could be, I would also warn that all that we do know is we are one day closer to the start of the Tribulation than we were yesterday; it could start today, tomorrow, next week, or 100 or even 1,000 years from now. It is not for us to desire to start the End Times, but for us to continue the Lord’s assignment of the Great Commission, and for Him to decide when the timing is right to kick-off the ‘Big-T’ Tribulation period.

Habakkuk is writing in the context of the Babylonian takeover and exile of the Israelites, with the Lord telling Habakkuk (as he did with Jeremiah) of what was going to happen.  But it also speaks to destiny; similar to Christopher Columbus and the discovery of America that was catapulted by his initial voyage.  God is a timeless being, omniscient and omnipresent; He was, He is, and He will be present everywhere in every time, all at once. 

God also has things develop in His timing.  The Norse (Vikings) around 1000 AD, and perhaps the Asians and Polynesians before that, ‘discovered’ the Americas first, and even before that perhaps a nomadic tribe from Mongolia wandered over the frozen Bering Strait during a previous Ice Age (caused no doubt by Abraham’s carbon emissions as he traveled from Ur to Canaan) to populate the Americas with the Native Americans.    

While God allowed the Vikings and others to stay on the shores of America for a short period, they were not the ones that God allowed to begin the great migration of Europe westward into the New World.   The Europeans would go through the Dark Ages and with Asia and Africa suffer the ‘Black Plague’ or ‘Black Death’ in the mid-1300’s which killed between 100 and 200 million people (between 25-50% of the world’s known population). 

This was a step back from progress and set in motion what we see today; the Chinese became xenophobic as they did not want the Plague in their lands, this was further exasperated by the Opium Wars of the 1800’s (the Western powers forced China open to allow trade and subjugated the Chinese to become addicted to opium).  China thus became hostile to the ‘West’. 

Also, science could only be approved by the Catholic Church; the discoveries of Copernicus (the heliocentric solar system and the Earth being spherical) were deemed heretical (and Galileo in the 1500’s when he was persecuted and tortured until he ‘repented’) until the mid-1960’s (just before and due to man landing on the Moon).  Ignorance kills off innovation, and in the 1400’s innovation was at a standstill.    

But God’s timing is perfect; by the late 1400’s, thanks to Columbus’ discovery, the European people were ready to accept there was a ‘New World’, and after that people slowly moved into the Americas.  Obviously, there were many regretful actions (the violent takeover of the Incans and Aztecs, the push of Native Americans from the East Coast, the introduction of the slave trade from Africa) as Europeans moved into the American continents. 

But God also brought religious freedom with the settlers who disavowed the teachings of Catholicism and embraced the open worship of Christ through the edicts of Martin Luther in the early 1500’s, whose writings denouncing the statutes of Catholicism (only priests could read or preach Scripture, Papal edicts sometimes superseded Scriptural doctrines, etc.). 

Martin Luther provided that good works as prescribed by Catholicism was not the path to Salvation, but placed Salvation solely in the acceptance by Faith of Jesus as Lord as written in the Gospels and the Pauline Epistles.   

The Pilgrims, the Quakers, and others came and allowed the freedom of worshipping Jesus as the Bible, and Martin Luther, speaks to.  We can worship God today freely as the Bible teaches (and we can read and keep our own copy of the Bible) by the timing of God allowing the opening of America to settlers in the 1500’s. 

Had God allowed the Vikings to be the catalyst for the New World opening up to expansion around 1000, the Protestant faith may not have ever flourished; Martin Luther, the Pilgrims or the Quakers may never have had the impact as they did. It may have also not allowed the innovation we’ve made in to get to the technological wonders (and scourges) we have today.

In studying the New Testament, in Acts and Romans, Jesus’ Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension in 29 AD was timed perfectly as Christianity and the Gospels spread over the Roman Empire’s logistical maritime and road transportation routes by the time Paul began writing Romans around 60 AD (and Paul himself made three missionary trips in the decade prior that kickstarted much of the spread of the Gospels to the Gentile world).  Anytime other than this, Christianity may never have gotten out of the confines of Jerusalem. 

God knew when the timing was perfect for Christianity to spread, and for Martin Luther’s edict for openness would be accepted and allowed to grow over the whole Earth.   We should not revere or condemn Columbus, or any of the explorers before or after him, but we should recognize that God blessed him to be the catalyst to bring and grow the Gospel of Christ to future generations of people. God’s plans are always perfect!