7 Reasons Why Some Pastors Don’t Preach on End-Time Prophecies
5) A minister is not willing to be an avid reader. A good preacher must be an avid reader. The apostle Paul advised the young preacher Timothy, his son in the faith, to give attention to reading so he could make good use of his preaching gift and be a good example for the believers (1 Tim. 4:9-16). That pastoral advice from the well-traveled church builder and experienced apostle Paul is very appropriate for all pastors today.
While it is important that we read extensively today, it is doubly important for pastors and teachers to not only read the writings of Spirit-filled men but more importantly, God’s Word. If you read the Bible regularly and memorize those passages that particularly speak to you, or those that answer specific questions you might have, the Holy Spirit can bring them to your remembrance when you need them most.
6) A minister is misguided by charlatans, zealots and date setters. Another reason pulpits are often silent on prophecy is because of the abuse by some charlatans, misguided zealots and even founders of well-known false cults. Many of these have disregarded true prophecy teaching by setting dates that proved to be untrue and was forbidden by our Lord and His apostles outright. This is even more reason why pulpits should be used to teach the truth about the end times and future prophecy, so Christians won’t be deceived as we approach the Lord’s coming and the end of the age.
7) A minister believes people are not interested in Bible prophecy. Some pastors believe the false idea that Christians are not interested in Bible prophecy. That notion may have been popular after World War II when peace was prominent, but that is long gone. We are living when “wars and rumors of wars” are on almost everyone’s mind (Matt. 24:6). It doesn’t look like peace in our lifetime is close to being on the horizon any time soon. In addition, rogue nations now have the atomic and neutron bombs, and Iran is rapidly on the march to get both of them and a delivery system that could reach the whole world in the next decade—hardly the stuff that promotes a good night’s sleep.
Actually, the notion that people are not interested in Bible prophecy is a tool of Satan to lull the church and evangelistic-minded Christians to sleep. Nothing energizes the body of Christ to soul-winning evangelism like teaching about the soon coming of Christ and the end of the age.
For example, one of the prime reasons we know that Jesus is the one and only Messiah sent by God to this world is because He fulfilled more than 109 prophecies of the Old Testament during His brief 33 years of life. No other person even comes close to that kind of fulfillment. Yet Bible scholars tell us there are 321 prophecies of His Second Coming to rapture His church before the seven-year Tribulation and the setting up of His 1,000-year millennial kingdom. Since we know His first coming is a historical fact, we can be confident that His Second Coming will be true too.
I personally know many of the pastors of growing churches and megachurches throughout this country. It is not surprising to me that many of them preach often on Bible prophecy. People are eager to hear about the end times and what God has to say about it.
If you will excuse the personal illustration, I pastored a good church in San Diego for 25 years. Dr. David Jeremiah was called as my replacement in 1981. This year on Easter Sunday, 34 years later, that same church had 13,000 people in attendance at their multiple worship services, overflows and several extension campuses. Interestingly enough, both Dr. Jeremiah and I often preached on Bible prophecy. In fact, during the nearly 60 years that the two of us pastored that church, we both preached through the book of Revelation twice. And this is the one Bible book many pastors never teach because they were taught in seminary that “it is too difficult for God’s people to understand,” or even worse, “church people are not interested in prophecy.” I think both excuses are a lie from the devil himself.
Preaching fulfilled prophecy proves God’s faithfulness to His people in the past. Future end-time prophecies teach us about the wonderful plan He has for our incredible future. I trust you attend a church where your pastor preaches on Bible prophecy. After all, the apostle Paul called it “the blessed hope.” If you hear it in your church, read about it in your Bible, study it like the Bereans in the early church, memorize it and meditate on it, the apostle John and our Lord promised you a “blessing”: “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it, for the time is near” (Rev. 1:3).
Tim LaHaye is the best-selling author of the Left Behind series and more than 70 other books. He is a nationally recognized speaker on Bible prophecy, a minister and the founder of Tim LaHaye Ministries, the PreTrib Research Center and Liberty University’s Tim LaHaye School of Prophecy. His latest book is Target Israel: Caught in the Crosshairs of the End Times.
Watch Tim LaHaye share the true foundation of all Bible end-time prophecy at lahaye.charismamag.com.
