end times – Almost An Author

Prophecy and End-Times Are Not Dirty Words by Jake McCandless

I’m sane.

I don’t even have a tin-foil hat.

I rarely can even find foil when I need it in the kitchen.

But I did leave the realm of a normal pastorate to write and speak full-time on end-time prophecy, and I find people don’t want to hear what I have to say. Many pastors and church leaders don’t want it shared in their church. I even have friends whispering—Jake’s gone crazy.

I get it. I have been there. As a pastor, I, too, worried about ruffling unnecessary feathers. And prophecy and end-time stuff can seem unnecessary especially when two-thousand years ago Jesus said He would come back soon. Obviously, God’s timing is much slower than ours. But still what the Bible does say has to go down sometime, our people need to know.

I also get that there are so many more immediate needs within our churches and culture, but still prophecy and the end-times are not dirty words. Especially when a quarter to even a third of the Bible includes it.

I also get that there has been some true tin-foil hat-wearers that have abused and are currently abusing the truth of prophecy and the end-times. How many times have we heard the rapture is going to happen on this day? Or so and so must be the Antichrist? But we have all been warned with the cliché, “Don’t let one or a thousand bad apples ruin the whole batch!”

Disaster Nebula Apocalypse Bumm End Time

I also get that there is a lack of consensus (to put it mildly) on the interpretation of Bible prophecy, but that surely doesn’t mean we throw the prophecy out with the bath water. On the contrary, we should be working harder to figure this stuff out.

And one more way that I get it. I get the question, “How do we know this Jake guy is right?” Well, we don’t. I don’t even know. I just know I am going to work just as hard as I do in exegesis of the text like I do in all texts, being careful to follow conservative, trusted methods interpretation.

(Photo credit to: MaxPixel.freegreatpicture.com-Disaster-Nebula-Apocalypse-Bumm-End-Time-22730 69)

The end-times and prophecy are not dirty words, nor are they a subject to avoid. Let me give you three reasons why.

End-time Prophecy Tells Us the Future, and Therefore Our Trajectory Now.

Think how awesome it is that we have an itinerary of the future in our hands. Christians, we are blessed—we can know how this maze of life shakes out. This should cause us to seek to know about the end-times. And regardless of where we are in the prophetic timeline, prophecy reveals the trajectory that we are on. The subject is relevant at any-time.

End-Time Prophecy is How God Proves Himself.

So much Bible prophecy has been fulfilled, and its fulfillment is remarkable. Somehow in God’s infinite wisdom He saw fit to prove Himself by foretelling what would happen, and then fulfilling it precisely. Listen to this passage in Isaiah:

“Present your case,” says the Lord. “Set forth your arguments,” says Jacob’s King. “Bring in your idols to tell us what is going to happen. Tell us what the former things were, so that we may consider them and know their final outcome. Or declare to us the things to come, tell us what the future holds, so we may know that you are gods. Do something, whether good or bad, so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear. But you are less than nothing and your works are utterly worthless; he who chooses you is detestable. – Isaiah 41:21–24

End-time Prophecy Shows that We Don’t Fare to Well in the End-Times.

As confusing as it this sounds, this is the reason I am doing what I do. Bible prophecy does not just tell about political, military, or environmental events at the end, but also tells how we will be in terms of our faith and morality. Two warnings motivate me. The first is from Matthew 24:10, where it says many will turn away. This is talking to us. We need to prepare to hold-on. Secondly, I am motivated from a warning in 2 Thessalonians, where we read that there will be a great deception. We have to know the truth about the end-times so we won’t be deceived.

So, what does this have to do with writers because this is a site for writers? Well, honestly, I was looking for a place to vent and give a shameless plug, but we can always find a moral to a story, so, how about—writers don’t be afraid of the haters keep on doing what God has called you to do. Man, that is good.

And for you who would like to brave and invite this non tin-foil wearing prophecy guy to your church check out my website www.prophecysimplified.com and contact my booking agent Cherrilynn Bisbano at Cherrilynn@seriouswriter.com. And I’d love to come to your church.

And writers, I really do have a point for you. We need to be rightly dividing the Bible even end-time prophecy and including it in our work.

Jake McCandless is the Executive Director and lead speaker for Prophecy Simplified. Jake is an award-winning author and writes for several publications. He has as Bachelor of Arts in Bible from Central Baptist College and a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Previously, he spent twelve years at Mount Vernon (AR) Baptist Church as a lead pastor and directed a seminary extension center. Before that, Jake served as a student pastor and youth evangelist. Jake is married to Amanda. She’s an elementary school teacher. They have two daughters, Andrea and Addison. Jake enjoys time with family, ministry, hunting, bass fishing, coffee, and college football.

We Need to be Spiritual Preppers. The Passion Behind Jake McCandless’ Latest Book

“Pastor, I used to be religious. I’d pray and read my Bible, I don’t know what happened, I just don’t do it anymore.”

“Pastor, I made a profession of faith when I was a kid, I used to go to church, but when my brother died I was so made at God I just couldn’t go back to church…I’m a Christian tough.”

“Pastor, I was faithful to church, even helped with the children, but when my husband left me I just didn’t feel comfortable going back to church. It’s been ten years now.”

Daily these were my conversations in our community. It didn’t matter if I was at a restaurant, visiting door to door, at a ball game, in my office, having my taxes prepared, in a hospital — literally everywhere — this was the conversation.

The reasons were: a family member died and the survivor was mad at God, a loved one had passed and they missed them every-time they were at church, they had faced a health struggle themselves, divorce, financial struggles, grudges with others in the church, just had gotten busy, their kids had too many activities, or maybe they didn’t like the music style of the worship service. Often it was that the individual had his or her feelings hurt at church, and would quit practicing their faith — which is crazy when you have people across the world being killed for their faith.

Through a meticulous study of the condition of churches in America, I found this wasn’t just the case in my community. In all the different studies and statistics I have read through, the most staggering came from author David Sanford. Sanford wrote a 2008 book, If God Disappears, in which he addresses what he saw as an epidemic. His research showed that there was at that time 35 million professed Christians who had once attended church, but no longer did. By 2014, he shared the number was 42 million.

The reality of the conversations I had on almost a daily basis, and the staggering statistic burned in my heart. I preached on the subject. Shared about in conversation, but the message was bigger than a sermon could capture. There had to be a book to share the message. Not simply an informational book, but one that could captivate hearts and bring change.

Now attending church is not the epitome of the Christian faith, but it usually is a telling part of one practicing their faith. In September 2016, the Barna Group shared that only 41% of Christians in America practiced their faith, and their litmus test for practicing one’s faith was rather low.

As Sanford, had written this is an epidemic.

Many other writers had captured this same sentiment in younger generations. President of Lifeway, Thom Rainer, concluded that 70% of all children who grow up in church are gone by the age 22.

This is an absolute tragedy, but the phenomena should not be surprising. Biblical prophecy gives us pictures of how things will be at the end of the age. The trustworthy images given do not only tell us what the geopolitical and environmental scene will be, but Scripture also tells how people, especially Christians, will be at the end.

One of those pictures is recorded in Matthew 24:10 where Jesus states that “many will turn away from the faith.” The original language behind the passage is not so much describing an abandonment of God, but Christians being made to stumble and to temporarily or for the rest of their lives on earth no longer walk faithfully with Christ.

This verse perfectly describes the scene in America. We may not be to the point of the turning away, but we are surely at a turning away. And the possibility breaks this pastor’s heart. I became overwhelmed with this reality that those I stood before each Sunday could possibly turn away. All I could think of in preparing messages and carrying out my pastoral duties was had I prepared them to remain faithful through the difficulties now and especially those coming?

This burning concern led me to write Spiritual Prepper.

Through the book, I feel as if I am running through the halls of churches in America waving my arms saying there is an epidemic of turning away that was prophesized and is happening, but the church and many leaders are oblivious to it.

These overlooked prophecies need to be looked at and proclaimed to all of our believing friends.

All Christians need to realize that spiritual disasters occur in our lives and will come in even greater force in the future. We must prepare. Like a doomsday prepper who fortifies their lives to withstand the possible world ending events, we must first and foremost prep to protect our soul. I’m hoping that you would pick up and copy to check out the message and pass it along to others. I hope we all would heed the warning and be spiritually prepared.

Spiritual Prepper on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2mSuQ1J

Jake McCandless is the executive director and lead speaker for Prophecy Simplified. A long-time pastor, Jake has a B.A. in Bible and Pastoral Studies from Central Baptist College, and an Advanced Masters of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a contributor to WND News, The Baptist Press, Almost an Author, Inspire a Fire, graytotebox.com, and prophecysimplified.com.