How often through the centuries has our Lord’s prediction of the end-times been misunderstood by able scholars and preachers! Let’s look at some of these unfortunate misunderstandings.

1. Jesus knew that people in every generation would think their times were the worst. They would point to the "wars…famines, pestilences and earthquakes (vss. 6, 7). But he gave an oft-overlooked caution: "See that you are not troubled" (vs. 6). Even before he began his answer to the question regarding the end of the world, he had said: "Take heed that no one deceives you" (vs. 4). Why? Because, all these troubling events were not the end of anything, just "the beginning" (vs. 8).

What have many in almost all Protestant churches done with this wise caution? Roared right by it with evangelistic sermons and books that catalog the latest earthquakes, famines, diseases, wars, and so forth, some even projecting the date when we should expect the "rapture." In other words, they missed the point of Christ’s most helpful answer in Matthew 24 and 25.

2. Jesus said that only those who "endure to the end shall be saved" (vs. 13). Many Christians, because of presuppositions, have turned this text upside down, proclaiming that accepting Jesus as their Saviour in some way fulfills the gospel plan. For some reason, they see no connection between their profession and their practice, in spite of numerous New Testament cautions (Heb. 10:26–36).

3. Jesus connected the end of the world with the end of the world in Noah’s day. After all, if he had a response and an evangelistic baptism, other arks could have been built! What he is saying about this analogy needs our attention: what did that generation "not know"? After all, it thought it knew much, much more than Noah did about the "real world."

a. Noah was a "preacher of righteousness" (2 Pet. 2:5), but was considered irrelevant, old-fashioned, not in touch with the real world.

b. They "knew" on the basis of everything that could be seen or heard or measured that there was no reason to expect doom. True, the world had its troubles, but their brightest minds had always come up with a political or medical fix in the "nick" of time—no problem.

c. They "knew" that their world of constant improvement would go on forever.

What should we make of all this in view of our Lord’s warning that the end-times will parallel Noah’s generation?

a. A violent, morally decadent society is not sufficient argument that the end is at hand.

b. Appealing to fear is not a lasting emotion or a compelling motivation.

c. When probation closes, on the basis of anything that can be seen or heard or measured, this world will look safe enough to last for many years to come (2 Pet. 3:3, 4).1

d. For those living at the end-time, a paradox of horror will flood many minds—repeated doses of outrage and horror inoculates one into sensitivity. After living through decades teetering on the brink of nuclear disasters and numb with statistics that describe tens of millions killed by despots—including but not limited to Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot—or millions dying of starvation, more of the same only anesthetizes our sensibilities further.

e. Thus, it is easy to find hope in the latest promise of medical advance, wherein (for example) cancer is wiped out like polio and smallpox, fuel cells run our vehicles and factories with renewable energy, or unprecedented world peace federations come up with plans that even divided Ireland, the Palestinians and Israelis, the Balkans, the Hindus and Muslims, for starters, will buy into.

We can be both pessimists and optimists about the end-times. Or we can be realists! Realists know that pessimists are wrong: the future will not appear hopeless, ending in either a whimper or a bang—much to the contrary! And the optimists are wrong: the future of this planet is not in the hands of ingenious men and women who will come up with all the solutions that this world may need—just as they have in the past!

The role of Seventh-day Adventists is to tell the truth about the future, even as Noah did. Those who "did not know" when Noah’s door was shut were shut out because they refused to know. They refused his message of "righteousness," precisely that "gospel" that Jesus said would be preached in all the world—"and then the end will come" (Matt. 24:14).

Notes and References

1. See Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan (Oakland, Calif.: Pacific Press, 1890), 38, 338; and Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages (Nashville, Tenn.: Southern Publishing, 1940), 636.

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