The Scoffing Spirit

First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation”…But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief…2 Peter 3:3-4,8-10

The Scoffing Spirit
Today at Sanctuary House of Prayer, the message shared began in 2 Peter 3 with a warning about our susceptibility to be influenced by the scoffing spirit of this age. The speaker went on to describe the danger of this spirit’s ability to clutter our fervency and leave us unknowingly dull. This provoked me to write about our need to combat this spirit with a holy violence in our lives.

What I “Knew” About the End-Times
Now, if you have never thought about the Second Coming of Jesus or if you’ve sort of avoided the topic because it seemed too difficult to understand, or perhaps a little scary, then you’re not alone.  Since I was a child, I had a fascination with the topic of the end-times and the book of Revelation, but I had absolutely no understanding on it and nobody around me seemed to either.  The only things I remember ever being taught or hearing about the end-times and the return of Christ to the earth was that:

1. The book of Revelation is far too difficult to interpret so leave it alone.
2. He is going to come when we aren’t expecting it so don’t bother trying to figure out when He might be coming.
3. Everyone who has ever thought Jesus was coming soon was wrong, so basically don’t expect Him to come in your life time (so taking point #2 into consideration, if I’m not expecting Him to come, wouldn’t that mean He’s probably coming? ).
4. If it does happen to occur in your life and for some reason you don’t get raptured with the rest of the saints, all you need to remember is DON’T TAKE THE MARK OF THE BEAST!!

One of Them
Now I don’t have time to refute each of these in this post, but, needless to say, my eschatology (end-times theology) was pretty limited, mostly ignorant and a little fearful.  To add to my struggle, I would often have dreams relating to the end-times and Jesus’ return, and since I believe that God speaks vividly and prophetically through our dreams, I was troubled by them and didn’t know what to make of them.  You can imagine the wrestling match I endured when I found out the man I was dating and knew I was going to marry began to tell me that he believed with all of his heart that Jesus would return in his life time!! I was appalled, confused, offended, angry, afraid, and embarrassed, to mention just a few of the emotions I felt!  I began to argue the four points above with great passion (mostly #2) and at that time in my life, was pretty much one of the scoffers mentioned in 2 Peter 3.

Dull & Slumbering
Sadly, my passionate conviction that we couldn’t know when Jesus was coming and that it was heretical to even think you knew when he might be coming was birthed by a scoffing spirit found not in the world, but within the church herself.  The very bride of Christ who is described in the book of Revelation as partnering with the Holy Spirit and crying out for Jesus to return to the earth, this same bride didn’t seem to believe He was actually coming!  Or at least, not likely in their life time, which is exactly what the speaker meant when he said that this scoffing spirit will leave us “unknowningly dull”.  If we buy into the lie of the enemy – whether it’s coming from the church or from the world – our hearts will become dull and listless and slumbering, for there is little reason to prepare for something you don’t expect to happen.

How then should we live?
Peter goes on in his letter to encourage the body of Christ, that in light of their firm belief in Jesus’ return (he was writing on the assumption that this was so), that it was absolutely vital that they prepare their hearts for what was coming!  Since it was absolutely certain that He was going to come back and that He was coming not just to sweep His bride off the planet, but to also bring judgment upon sin, Peter gave them the answer to the looming question of, “So what kind of people ought we to be?“  We must be asking this same question of ourselves – in light of this knowledge, how should we live our lives?  What kind of bride is He coming back for?  How do we need to prepare?  Peter’s answer was this…”live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming…make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him…be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

On Guard
We need to be on our guard against this spirit that would seek to steal away our hope and belief in the second coming of Jesus.  Yet, let’s take it one step further, and instead of just being on the defensive, take the offense and wage war against it!! If you don’t know what you believe about the end-times and Jesus’ return, then start digging into the scriptures and start asking those hard questions. Wrestle out your beliefs, do your research, argue it out with someone, truly examine the Word!  Then make every effort to firmly stand your ground against anyone who would try to lure you into to being carried away by their unbelief.  Seek understanding, but most importantly, seek to know Jesus and who He is and surrender to His desire to make you into the pure, spotless and blameless bride He is coming back for.

---

For a good place to start researching and asking questions about the end-times, check out the onething forums at the International House of Prayer’s website or check out the book End Times Simplified by David Sliker.