According to recent Lifeway Research, many pastors are apparently having an “aha” moment due to the tide of our times. They are at last seeing current events today as things the Bible forecast for the end-of-days. The big question is; how will this affect what they preach and how they do church?
Numerous biblical texts speak of disturbances in the creation. These disturbances have quite a range: earthquakes wars, famines and plagues or pestilence explicitly in Luke 21.
Three out of four pastors in the survey have noted that world and church events have meaning today. They include the rise in apostasy, the love of believers growing cold, the decline in traditional morals, national conflicts, natural disasters, famines, and even the rise in anti-Semitism. So is a new day in the church approaching thanks to some kind of a wake-up call?
Almost 25 years ago, the church-growth movement said teaching any kind of eschatology would not grow the church. Pastors were encouraged to keep quiet about the soon return of the Lord. Pastor Rick Warren even said in his Purpose Driven Life book that teaching Bible prophecy would distract you from your purpose and make you unfit for the Kingdom of God. Pastors listened to him!
In the information produced by Lifeway Research, Joel Rosenberg states, “For too long, many pastors have shied away from teaching on birth pangs and events leading up to the Second Coming of the Lord, but the current pandemic demonstrates the need for solid, non-sensational preaching done in a biblical manner.”
