End-Times Craziness Happening

Some of the teachings about the Second Coming of Christ have spawned fanatism during this COVAD-19 Shutdown. Click here to see an op-ed article about it.

I never preached the popular End-Times theories when I was a local church pastor. That was because I could find holes in them. And I studied them all--all the ones that were on the bookshelves and being espoused.

Gateway Seminary did not offer a course on End-Times when I was there. And most pastors I knew had a preferred End Times interpretation in which they were totally invested. If a pastor has boldly proclaimed an End Times theory, it takes humility to admit any error. And with church politics rampant in so many mature congregations, admitting error becomes a risk to the pastor. Have you ever been a member of a church that always wants to fire the pastor? Spiritual strongholds are alive and well in many American churches.

Much of the teaching I read about End-Times was clearly fabricated. Key Scriptures were ignored and irrelevant Scriptures were seen as End-Times Scriptures. Yet we have fanatics about certain theories. They argue and fight. This is nothing but ego: "I know something you don't know and I'm right and you're not!"

I believe that Jesus is coming again in person to judge humanity and the fallen angels. Then comes the Kingdom and the New Heavens and New Earth. I was taught this by my dad. My dad was an amillennialist, a theory of the end times that did not believe that the thousand-year earthly kingdom was talking about a literal, physical government. Amillennialism taught that the Millenium was symbolic of the reign of Christ on Earth through the Church, which Scriptures refer to as The Body of Christ. Yet, I never called myself an Amillennialist either. It did not cover all the bases for my questions, either.

There was just something missing in my knowledge. Therefore, instead of preaching my theory on the end-times, I would teach what the popular views of the day believed. I especially taught those that had become bestselling books. I made it clear that each one ignored key Scriptures that did not fit perfectly all the Scriptures. I did it as a lesson on Sunday evenings. No one was offended and enjoyed learning the differences in these popular theories.

One day, several years later, as I sat in my office at the Sacramento Region Baptist Network, a person (sorry, I cannot remember who) knocked on the door. I invited him in. He carried a typed manuscript, typed on the front and back of the pages that had definitely been read many times. He laid it on my desk and sat. He told me he had been on a mission trip to South America and missionaries there were excited about the manuscript. They were copying it and passing it out. It was a different End Times interpretation from the common ones. He said I could have it and that I should read it.

I promised him I would, yet I was skeptical. I laid it on top of a row of books on the bookshelf and forgot about it.

Two years later I was sitting again in the office caught up with paperwork. I was wondering what else I needed to do when my eyes fell on the manuscript. I felt guilty. I promised I would read it so I guess I need to do it, I thought.

I could not put it down. I studied it all week. The man had answered every question in detail with Scripture. And the Scriptures tell a different End Times story than any of the popular views.

Oddly enough, while talking to Chaplain Bill Bibbin, the pastor of New Hope Southern Baptist Church in Citrus Heights, CA, he surprised me. He said he had a printed copy of the book that he would give me. The author, E.H. Skolfield (no relation to the popular Scholfield of the Scholfield Bible fame) had stopped by his church, talked to him, and given him a book. Skolfield had told Chaplain Bill that he was usually thrown out of churches when he shared his End Times interpretation.

You can now read it for free. It was written by a E. H. Skolfield, who was raised in a Christian family on the mission field. He came to the states to go to college and stopped going to church. Years later he came back to faith and began studying the End Times. His last will and testament said that when he died his books were to be given away free. He died about five years ago.

Now you and find his books online. I hope you will read the End Times book with the weird name Hidden Beast 2. The "2" is there because it is the second edition. The name will make sense when you read the book.

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