In Mark 13 (and Matt. 24 1-51 and Luke 21:5-36) Jesus spoke of all these issues which left a very deep impression on His followers. In this story the disciples made comments on the strength of the stones the buildings were made of and Jesus replied that not one stone shall be left upon another. The Lord was teaching them how temporary such structures actually are. Then some time later He went into more detail with them how things would be in the end times. He spoke of: deception, wars, earthquakes, famines and other signs. In Mark 13:32-37, He stressed to them that no one would know the day or the hour of the end [of the age], but to be watchful and faithful in serving God.

As believers we must stand firm in our faith and look for His coming. The term “Doomsday” should not make us afraid, but instead bring us hope. We are not to put our trust in the things of this world for they are temporary. When we see these things (Mk. 13: 32-37), we are to look up for our redemption draws nigh!

Image: Jared Murray

Are you waiting for Jesus, the Uptaker or for the Mortician, the Undertaker? Regardless of whether we live to see our Lord return in the sky with glory [and take us up with Him], or whether we go down by way of the grave, we shall be victorious so long as we have put our trust in Him, Jesus [the] Christ.

From September 2023 edition of The Grapevine. Used with permission.

“… the prophet makes clear that [Amos’ audience] celebrate a different god, one they might call Yahweh but one who was nevertheless a deity of their own making. It was a god of blessing and goodness, with no rough edges.

“Theirs was worship disconnected from reality and the living God.”

“Prophetic Anticipation Builds: Unblemished Red Heifers for Temple Ceremony Soon Come of Age” CBN (March 17, 2023).

Messianic teacher Kevin Williams writes: “In case you follow such things, it looks like we are about a year away from a potential Red Heifer update. The article says during the spring of 2024, but based on the other things in the article, I think the fall feasts are more likely. The article is intriguing though, regarding nine pure priests, the secured location, and the notion that the next temple will be ‘a house of prayer for all nations.’”

Richard R. Hammar, “Expanding Abuse Victims’ Rights and What It Means for Churches” Church Law & Tax.

From this landing page, Attorney and CPA, Richard Hammar launches a 4-part series on what the expansion of abuse victims’ rights means for churches.

“50,000 mosques have closed in Iran – Are Iranians seeking truth outside of Islam?” AllArab.News (August 16, 2023).

Here is exciting confirmation that God is doing something in Iran. Thanks to Iran Alive Ministries for pointing out this story of how 50,000 out of Iran’s 75,000 mosques have closed.

Image: Steven Coffey

Sam Storms, “Why Are Charismatics So Weird?” Enjoying God Blog (August 21, 2023).

No thinking Pentecostal/charismatic has ever denied that some that identify with that label do bizarre things and teach strange doctrines. Retired pastor and scholar Sam Storms argues that when cessationists (those who say the miraculous ministry of the Holy Spirit has ceased) hold up these undeniably bizarre examples as if they represent all Pentecostal/charismatics they are being deceitful and not acting like Christ.

Daniel K. Williams, “Evangelicals’ Theology of the Church Must Be Born Again: The ‘Great Dechurching’ is an opportunity for our tradition to rediscover a more enduring ecclesiology” Christianity Today (August 24, 2023).

PR

In recent years, there have been several books from Pentecostal/Charismatic scholars challenging what has been the traditional—or default—pre-Tribulation, pre-millennial view of the end times within many P/C circles. Among these are Daniel Isgrigg’s Imagining the Future, and Not Afraid of the Antichrist by Michael Brown and Craig Keener [Editor’s note: See Brian Roden’s review]. Assemblies of God missionary scholar Robert P. Menzies adds to this discussion with his 2022 book, The End of History: Pentecostals and a Fresh Approach to the Apocalypse. While Brown and Keener mainly focus on the exegetical deficiencies of the pre-Trib position, and Isgrigg focuses on the historical development of A/G eschatology to show that the pre-Trib view should not be the only acceptable option for that denomination’s ministers, Menzies goes a step further and actively advocates for an amillennial stance.

The book is divided into two main parts and includes seven appendices containing various Pentecostal statements of faith as well as shorter excurses that did not warrant chapter-length treatment. Part One of the book consists of two chapters, the first of which addresses problems with dispensationalism, with the second dealing with issues regarding premillennialism in general. Part Two consists of four chapters, each one presenting two theological affirmations Menzies sees as important for the Pentecostal movement. The eight theological affirmations in Part Two are interspersed with expository sermons drawn from the book of Revelation that address each pair of affirmations. Much of the content of the sermons reflects Menzies’ experience working with persecuted believers in eastern Asia.

In this chapter, the author also touches on the issues of whether Revelation’s chronology is one of linear progression or recapitulation; literal versus typological fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies; continuity and discontinuity regarding Israel and the Church; and whether Revelation’s prophecies extend and add to other New Testament prophecies about the end times or reaffirms them in a new context.

Chapter Two, “Premillennial Problems,” raises issues the author encounters with premillennialist interpretation in general (including historical or classical premillennialism). First, Menzies points out the “thousand years” of the Millennium is only mentioned in one place: Revelation 20:1–7. No other New Testament writer, nor the other books attributed to John, make any reference to it. Menzies, who finds himself more in the amillennial camp, encounters difficulty in dogmatically affirming a literal one thousand year reign based solely on a seven-verse passage. For his second objection to the premillennialist view, the author again raises the question of chronology in the Apocalypse, opting for a recapitulation pattern rather than a linear recounting of events. Menzies next deals with the binding of Satan, the question of two resurrections, and whether the nature of Christ’s reign is physical and political or spiritual. But even after arguing strongly against general premillennialist interpretations, he concludes the chapter saying, “The hermeneutical approach and theological perspective of historic premillennialists are actually much closer to those of most amillenialists than to those advocated by dispensational premillennialists” (84).

Part Two of the book is titled “A Fresh Approach,” and gets into the more practical outworkings of Pentecostal eschatology. Menzies here proposes eight affirmations to which Pentecostals should hold, while avoiding disputable minutiae:

• We believe in the personal, visible, and bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ.
• We believe that Christ’s return is imminent—that it could happen at any time.
• When Christ returns, he will judge all people: the righteous, his faithful followers, will enjoy eternal and perfect fellowship with him; the unrighteous will experience eternal separation from him and his wrath.
• God will consummate his redemptive plan in response to the prayers of his people.
• In these “last days” the church is called to bear bold witness for Jesus in the power of the Spirit.
• With his first coming, Jesus inaugurates God’s kingdom by decisively defeating the power of Satan, sin, and death. With his second coming, Jesus consummates God’s kingdom by destroying evil and redeeming his creation.
• The culmination of God’s redemptive plan includes the transformation of our world and the resurrection of our bodies.
• In these “last days” Christ calls his followers to pursue holiness by persevering and remaining faithful, even unto death.

The expositions of Revelation that accompany each pair of affirmations could easily be turned into sermons to be utilized in local churches. In regard to preaching and teaching the Apocalypse, Menzies writes, “We desperately need to highlight the central truths of the book of Revelation and other key New Testament texts that speak of Christ’s second coming, the ‘blessed hope.’ But we need to do so in a manner that avoids sensationalism and exaggeration and which is rooted in sober-minded and clear exposition of the biblical text” (p. 94).

The book concludes with seven appendices, three of which list the statements of faith of the Pentecostal World Fellowship, the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, and the U.S Assemblies of God, which provides a helpful comparison of the varying levels of specificity in the statements concerning the last things.

The fourth appendix compares and contrasts the eschatological stances of two major contributors to Assemblies of God theology: Menzies’ father, the late William W. Menzies, and the late Stanley M. Horton. The author points out that his father’s stance was premillennial but not dispensational, while it was Horton’s revision and expansion of the elder Menzies’ 1971 book Understanding Our Doctrine in the 1993 volume Bible Doctrines: A Pentecostal Perspective that greatly expanded the material on eschatology, going from one paragraph on the Rapture in William Menzies’ book to over three pages focused on a defense of the pre-Tribulation Rapture.

The fifth appendix gives a brief comparison of varying interpretations of “the kingdom of God,” while the sixth proposes two new categories for interpreting Revelation (the picture puzzle approach and the stained-glass window approach) the author feels work better than the traditional categories of preterist, historicist, idealist, and futurist. The seventh and final appendix restates in one location Menzies’ eight affirmations developed in chapters three through six.

Overall, I found the book an enjoyable read, even though I did not come away convinced by Menzies’ arguments for amillennialism. Perhaps it is my own leanings and bias in favor of historic premillennialism that keep me from understanding his line of reasoning, but I personally found the arguments unconvincing, though much better stated than I found Stanley Horton’s arguments for a pre-Tribulation view confusing in his book Our Destiny: Biblical Teachings on the Last Things, which I read for a class on eschatology many years ago.

The King is returning to judge, and He will reward the faithful and punish the evildoers. Knowing all the details of how that plays out is not as important as making sure as many people as possible are among the sheep that will receive rewards and the crown of eternal life. Therefore, we should not be quick to dismiss (or seek to disfellowship) someone who holds an end times view different from our own, but rather work together with all believers of good will who are seeking to carry the gospel message to the ends of the earth.

Reviewed by Brian Roden

Note from the Editor: On November 26, 2022, (after Brian Roden submitted this review) Robert Menzies wrote to friends and colleagues: “On November 16 Bob received news from the U.S. Assemblies of God Executive Presbyters (EPs) that they had determined he should be dismissed as an Assemblies of God (AG) minister in response to eschatological views expressed in his recent book, The End of History: Pentecostals and a Fresh Approach to the Apocalypse. This concluded a process that began some months ago.” If you would like more information about the on-going missionary work of Bob and Joanne Menzies in China, please Contact Us.

For a sample from The End of History: https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=Xr1dEAAAQBAJ

Introduction

This research is to evaluate the following hypothesis:  “That the Holy Spirit has an active role in the end times.”

The argument commences that God is eternal. He is, He always was and He always will be. When commissioning Moses to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, He tells Moses, “I am who I am” (Ex 3:14). To God there are no ‘end times’.  In His goodness, He created the cosmos, and all living things, including humanity. Out of His being He has created, a time bound earth.  Earth has a beginning (the creation), a set time duration (known only to God) and an end[1].  For the purpose of this essay “end times”  means the period of time leading up to the second coming of Jesus, and the time when He instigates His eternal “new heavens and new earth” (Rev 21:1-5, 22).

The Trinity has also actively guided creation through to humanity’s redemption by Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. At the launching of Jesus ministry, recorded by Luke at His baptism, the presence of the three persons of the Trinity are again described (Luke 3:21). Here the Spirit was portrayed as a dove. Subsequently Luke presents the active roles of the three persons in the Trinity in the development of the church. (Acts 1:7-11, 2:1-4). Here, the Spirit was both a violent wind and tongues of fire.

The Father and the Son have explicit roles in the end times. In his description of the beginning of eternity, John received a revelation from the Holy Spirit in which he saw the end of the old world and the dawn of a new order where God makes everything new (Rev 1:10). He describes,” Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”… I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Rev 21:1-5, 22).