Most of us remember the admittedly trite query as to where Moses was when the lights went out - the answer, of course, being that he was "in the dark."
While thus indulging ourselves in the dull and pedestrian, we also recall the parody of "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" with which we similarly entertained ourselves in times long past. Finding herself likewise in the dark, "My Bonnie bent over the gas tank, the height of its contents to see. She lighted a match to assist her; O bring back my Bonnie to me." In the words of old Hans, "Enough already."
We would, nonetheless, address a point here. That we live in significant times is readily acknowledged by the perceptive. Among those of faith this predictably inclines to concerns of the prophetically related - whatever one's eschatological persuasion. Yet for all the heat and motion generated, it is not always difficult to find oneself "in the dark" as well.
For example: Christ was to return during the "eighties" - right? That was, of course, before we came to understand that his coming would take place forty years after the Israeli war of 1967 rather than the 1948 reestablishment of national autonomy. Then there was 1994, followed again by the year 2000 (Y2K) at which time the Tribulation would be initiated - and on and on. In a somewhat eschatological version of "Bonnie," it eventually became inescapable that some among us were more adept at predictive fiasco than edifying enlightenment.
Does this then sanction one's jettisoning of prophetic interests? Permit us rather to suggest a revising of focus along these lines: If, indeed, we are in the final stages of the "Church Age" (a time, as per Christ's Olivet Discourse, that will not only witness troublesome times but require the believer's endurance "unto the end," Matt. 24:13) and if, as per the apostle Paul, the believing Church is destined to a state of completion (Eph. 4:11-13; the reality of which is yet to be fully attained), a special outpouring of divine grace within the Body of Christ during a concluding time of purifying test is to be anticipated. Importance here can little be overstated.
What will it entail? Paul envisions divine purpose at work within the Church "until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining the full measure of perfection found in Christ" (Eph. 4:11-13, leading to 5:27). Viewed within this frame of reference, prophetic inquiry - particularly in relation to the believing community - takes on a broader sense of meaning than the escapist emphasis to which it has oftentimes been subjected.
We need to think about it.
Burl Ratzsch
