Question
Dear Pastor Lance: I absolutely love the study of the end times and how the world will come to a close. I love studying Revelation and I love scanning YouTube for all the people who talk about blood moons, world events, Israel timelines and things like that. I would consider myself a ‘watchman,’ watching for the return of Jesus Christ and wanting to be alert for what He’s doing in the world. I would love to connect with other ‘watchmen’ and make a whole group of us who do this. What do you think about that?
Answer
My friend, that’s a tough one for me. Here’s why:
I love your passion to want to know the deep things of God. I love that you want to keep and eye out on Truth and I love that you take the Lord’s return so seriously that you would consider yourself a ‘watchman.’
Here’s my concern.
I have never seen a ‘watchman’ be healthy.
The minute you place yourself in the watchman category (without God audibly forcing you into that role like Ezekiel had in the Old Testament), you automatically consider yourself a harbinger of truth and that slips into a ‘keeper of truth’ or ‘decider of truth,’ and those are slippery slopes.
Pride comes in. Resistance comes in. Assumption of authority that God never gave you, comes in.
The whole idea of having a group of them sounds unhealthy to me.
Here’s what I would suggest.
I would suggest that you find other like-minded folks in the church who love to study the end times and love to examine what God may be doing, and then be the ‘watchman’ of that group to make sure it stays humble, where people realize that they are only sharing opinions and not facts. They are seeing things one way and not every way. That God’s ways are higher than our ways and that we cannot track on what He’s doing completely. Humility and love will keep any watchman in the right role.
I wish I had more positive feedback for you, but people get really obsessed about end times and start getting weird really fast. Everyone starts becoming passionate about blood moons and distorting historical and current-event timings. They start making radical predictions and see things where God never intended things to be seen. There’s far too much room for speculation becoming a ‘truth’ when it shouldn’t be.
I’ve watched many a good man and woman be led astray into passions about these areas.
Be careful who you link with and watch on YouTube and who you follow, there’s a lot of odd folks out there.
However, studying God’s Word and having fun watching His movement and His creation is fun and exciting and super healthy.
He wants us to be alert, just not paranoid or arrogant.
