Jesus' Return: the Oldest, and yet Newest fad on the block???

[FaithGuyX]

I've noticed a trend on Christian Forums in some circles that the subject of Christ's imminent return is a hot topic.
I ask why?
I was always taught not to fool with that stuff(ie, not worry about it) and to concentrate on my walk with our Lord day to day. I love studying the book of the Revelation as much as the next guy but wow it seems out of control now a days.
Is this a fad? A trend due to our "hardship" if you can call it that in the United States?
I do see that it's a mega trend within the Western church, it's all over CBN, TBN, etc.
I see a lot of people being misled with messages of this sort. Is it just me, and should I not worry about this? It's like the entire "rapture is going to happen any day now" attitude of the past.
An end times fad within the church it seems to me.
Does my attitude come from me being amillennial in "end times" theolgy?
I've never been one to hold "end times" stuff as the focus of theology. Perhaps I am wrong.
I am a presbyterian, but I've been to a lot of churches in the past that give a great sermon, yet then end it with an altar call comprised of a warning to "get saved now before it's too late". That makes me cringe in a way. I'm all for people coming to the Lord, but not for reasons such as just stated, being based in a nightmare scenerio for the unsaved "coming soon to the earth you live on."
See what I am getting at? I sometimes get confused myself typing things up here.


"Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again!" That's all I need.


To me this is all folly, and a distraction to the body of Christ.


What do you guys think?

 

[BobW188]

My own thought is that, sometime in the next thirty or forty years, (note my age,) either:

1. He's going to meet me down here; or,

2. I'm going to meet Him up there.

Given what's going to happen in either scenario, I can't for the life of me (and that is, after all, what's at stake) see where it matters which happens.

 

[kenrapoza]

Yeah it's pretty crazy, but it's really not new. This type of preoccupation has been circling around the church forever. The medeival church had it's own times of "last days madness." Think of the "black death" for example. Can you imagine living at that time, I wonder what we would have thought.

Even the great Jonathan Edwards was prone to wild speculation about the end times. It seems kind of strange. But yeah, I definitely think there is a current preoccupation about that stuff right now. Christians easily lose their focus, sheep tend to stray and wander.

The interesting thing about your amil eschatology though...it is the ammillennialists who actualy have the most to say about eschatology, not the least. But we don't restrict our eschatology to end times events surrounding national Israel or the second coming. We see eschatology as an unfolding theme of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. And guess what the center of our eschatology is...Israel?...nope...it's Christ! Most of the time when we talk about eschatology, the dispensationalists don't even know it because they have trouble conceiving of it apart from the Middle East. I have trouble of conceiving it apart from Christ!

 

[FaithGuyX]

The interesting thing about your amil eschatology though...it is the ammillennialists who actualy have the most to say about eschatology, not the least. But we don't restrict our eschatology to end times events surrounding national Israel or the second coming. We see eschatology as an unfolding theme of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. And guess what the center of our eschatology is...Israel?...nope...it's Christ! Most of the time when we talk about eschatology, the dispensationalists don't even know it because they have trouble conceiving of it apart from the Middle East. I have trouble of conceiving it apart from Christ!

I couldn't have said this any better!!!