Two Things Christians Need to Stop Saying

Yes, I'm very sure there are more than two, but the two I'm interested in this post have to do specifically with current events.

First, Christians need to stop predicting the end of the world because of naturally occurring and historical events. For two thousand years the church seems to keep producing self-proclaimed eschatological weather forecasters who will take every hurricane, tornado, tsunami, planetary alignment, and blood moon and put it forward as clear evidence that Jesus' second coming is on the doorstep... and yet, after two thousand years we are still here. At some point a reasonable person might begin to think to themselves, "Hey, maybe my approach to the biblical text on this stuff is all wrong?" But, no, they just go back to the drawing board and refigure in order to make new predictions in order to write more books in order to make more money until the next predictions are wrong, so they can go back to the drawing board and refigure in order to make new predictions in order to....


Jesus himself was content to let his Heavenly Father determine when the end would come (Matthew 24:36). At some point, these folks who believe in Jesus just might take their cue from Jesus and stop misusing the biblical text.

The second thing Christians need to stop saying is that the Pope is the antichrist. A certain strain of Protestantism since the sixteenth century, starting with Martin Luther has claimed every Pope to be the antichrist. Unfortunately, they keep dying before they get to fulfill the Great Dragon's (a.k.a Satan's) wishes. Not only is Pope Francis not the antichrist, neither were his predecessors. To make such an assertion not only shows ignorance of the Book of Revelation, it also shows a complete lack of knowledge of Catholicism, and it is an insult to our Catholic sisters and brothers who are in Christ.

If you think the Pope is the real enemy, you sure aren't paying attention to current events.

So, if we can stop predicting the end of history and quit calling other Christians demons in league with Satan, at least on some occasions, we will stop embarrassing ourselves and the church of Jesus Christ...

...at least on some occasions.