Prophecy and Missions

The Lord has blessed me to write a book about the interpretation of Biblical prophecy. McGahan Publishing House has it on pre-order status and, on August 18, 2020, will make it available for purchase.

Something surprising has happened leading up to this date. While getting the book ready for publication, my underlying reason for writing it changed. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that I now see the reason for this book more clearly. I knew my perspective had changed when a friend recently asked how I would judge the book’s success. My instinctive reply was, This book will be a success if it inspires God’s people to make disciples of the nations through a local church.

This has not always been my goal. I began this writing project to discover a more accurate model for interpreting Biblical prophecies. I wanted to document a model derived from the exposition of key passages of Scripture. As I completed the project, I recognized the critical need for such a prophetic model in the mission enterprise of the churches. I now see an inseparable relationship between eschatology—the study of prophecy—and missions. 

In this post, I want to show that other writers have seen this same connection. I will limit my citations to three sources. The first is the book Salvation to the Ends of the Earth: A Biblical Theology of Mission by Andreas J. Köstenberger and Peter Thomas O’Brien. They say, “Together with Matt 10:23 and Matt 24:14, the concluding commission of Matt 28:16-20 also places the Christian mission firmly within an eschatological framework”;¹ or, as I would say, within a “prophetic model.” 

These writers discuss at length the kingdom parables: “Jesus is the sower of the eschatological harvest … as well as the grain of wheat that falls into the ground and dies, bearing much fruit.… Yet, in eschatological perspective, it is only the age of the Spirit that will see the disciples help gather the eschatological harvest and thus do ‘greater works’ even than Jesus.”² By “eschatological harvest” I understand them to mean the fruit of missions as we “make disciples of all the nations” (Matt 28:19 NKJV).

Speaking of 1 Peter, they say, “A strong eschatological component flavours the entire epistle, especially in light of the church’s suffering and persecution. This pervasive eschatological thrust, in turn, is tied to the notion of mission.”³ In their conclusion to the section on the General Epistles and Revelation, they conclude that “Mission must be understood from an eschatological perspective.”⁴ An inaccurate prophetic model distorts this “eschatological perspective.”

My second source comes from my faith tradition—Baptists descended from the churches who produced the 1689 London Baptist Confession of faith. This tradition includes the first Baptist association in America, the Philadelphia Baptist Association. That association produced an annual “circular letter” and distributed it to the member churches. William Rogers—whom I would love to claim as a forefather but lack proper documentation—wrote the letter for 1806. In it, he encourages the churches to obey the Great Commission:

It animates the heart farther to learn that this way of salvation shall be known in all the earth.

The sacred page is replete with prophecies to this effect. A few may serve as a specimen of many. “It shall come to pass, in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it,” Isa. 2:2. “For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea,” Isa. 11:9. “Living waters shall go out from Jerusalem,”—like an ocean breaking forth on each side,—“half of them towards the former sea, and half of them towards the hinder sea: in summer and winter shall it be. And the Lord shall be King over all the earth, in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one,” Zech 14:8-9. “Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over,” Ezek. 47:5. The progress of Christ’s kingdom will be gradual, like the growth of the mustard tree or the operation of leaven, but at last it will be victorious. The stone which has already smitten the image is becoming a great mountain and must fill the earth.⁵

 I thank Pastor Andy White for reminding me recently of the vision that motivated these Baptists to engage in the missionary enterprise. In my book, Inmillennialism: Redefining the Last Days, I call this vision “kingdom optimism.”

My third and final source is Jonathan Menn’s book, Biblical Eschatology. He, too, sees the impact of prophetic models on missions. In the foreword, Robert Yarbrough says, “Menn’s research indicates that one’s views on eschatology are important not only theologically but also in terms of evangelism and social action.”⁶

Menn’s research regarding this matter particularly interests me because he places great importance on the two passages that form the core of my book: “The Olivet Discourse is Jesus’ longest and most comprehensive discourse on eschatology.… First Cor 15:20–57 is Paul’s longest and most comprehensive discourse on eschatology.”⁷ He understands that we cannot rightly understand Biblical prophecy if we err regarding these two passages. In his conclusion, Menn makes another statement about the importance of eschatology to missions: “Both in the past and present, eschatological views have significantly affected believers’ strategies of evangelism and social action (or social passivity).”⁸ 

Here are three diverse writings that provide a unified witness: one is a book on missions that points to the study of prophecy. One is a book on prophecy that emphasizes its importance to missions. And one is a circular letter that encourages local churches to be active in missions because of the prophetic promises God has made.

I now see that my book, in its own humble way, will be successful if it can convey this message to God’s people and encourage them to take concrete action to achieve that vision. May it be so to the glory of our risen Lord!

1. Andreas J. Köstenberger and Peter Thomas O’Brien, Salvation to the Ends of the Earth: A Biblical Theology of Mission (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2001), 108.
2. Köstenberger and O’Brien, Salvation to the Ends of the Earth, 219.
3. Köstenberger and O’Brien, Salvation to the Ends of the Earth, 238.
4. Köstenberger and O’Brien, Salvation to the Ends of the Earth, 250. Emphasis added.
5. A.D. Gillette, ed., Minutes of the Philadelphia Baptist Association, 1707 to 1807: Being the First One Hundred Years of Its Existence, Tricentennial ed. (Springfield, MO: Particular Baptist Press, 2002), 428.
6. Robert W. Yarbrough, “Foreword,” in Biblical Eschatology (Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2013), xii.
7. Jonathan Menn, Biblical Eschatology (Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2013), 78.
8. Menn, Biblical Eschatology, 333–34.