Christian Prophecy Tells Us That
Judgment Purifies God’s People
and Purges The Wicked

But how does an optimistic, long-range view of Christian prophecy square with the present darkness and distress that envelopes America? Isn't this just whistling in the dark?

The certainty of the earthly victory of the kingdom of God does not exclude the possibility of temporary periods of judgment and an apparent lost cause.

The Bible often describes this as God coming in judgment. These are historical judgments and in many cases it is not referring to the final coming in judgment.

These historical judgments are the result of the corporate disobedience of the people of God. The blessings and cursings are laid out in Deuteronomy 28.

God warned His people: "If thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee" (Deut. 28:15).

Then follows nearly two pages of holy writ in which the seven-fold curse of God is spelled out in graphic detail. When God’s people lapse into disobedience, Christian prophecy informs us that God takes them to the "woodshed." He often uses the "paddle" of oppressive civil government to bring them to repentance.

This was the burden of Habakkuk, who lamented that "the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth, for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth" (Hab. 1:4). Today even church leaders are under attack from seemingly every quarter.

When we are tempted to think that ours is the terminal generation we should consider the words of Solomon, "Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this" (Eccl. 7:10, RSV). Consider the desperate straights and the depth of despair into which the people of God have been driven in times past.

Consider the four hundred years of cruel bondage under the Egyptian taskmasters. Surely this was a lost cause. Consider the days of Gideon when the children of Israel dwelt in caves and dens of the mountains because of the Midianite oppression (see Judg. 6:2). Surely this was a lost cause. Consider the ruthless reign of Ahab and Jezebel, when the righteous were again forced to retreat to the caves and desert fastnesses. Here indeed was a lost cause.

Church history since the cross has added scores of examples. We must not fail to remember the Christians in the Coliseum (Rome), "The Church in the Desert" (France), and the underground church in the Soviet Union and China. These are but a small sampling from the "Hard-Times" handbook of the people of God. These were the people of the lost cause.

In the face of great difficulty, John Owen could write: "Though our persons fall, our cause shall be as truly, certainly, and infallibly victorious, as that Christ sits at the right hand of God. The gospel shall be victorious. This greatly comforts and refreshes me."(12.9) The promise of Christian prophecy was his strength.

Not long before his death, Francis Schaeffer asked this critical question in the title of one of his books: How Shall We Then Live? More than anything else, our view of history...optimistic or pessimistic...determines how we will answer that question. It is critical that our view of history...past, present, and future...be shaped by the optimistic promises of the Word of God.

Thus, to Schaeffer Christian prophecy is our sure foundation in times of historical darkness. It does not mean the end of the world.