The debate over apostasia in this passage stems from the two major options:  a departure from the faith or a departure from the earth as in rapture of the Church.  Of course, if the latter is true, then the debate about the timing of the rapture of the church is over — pre-trib wins.  However, the issue is far from clear as Dr. House shows.  Most dispenstionalists have probably held that it refers to departure from the faith or rebellion or declension.   Some have taught that the great decline of the Christian faith in the West (and in the Western Church) during the 20th century is a fulfilllment of this prophecy.  Both of the two options, if I remember correctly, are listed in the notes of the Old Scofield Reference Bible (1909).

The translation of apostasia as rebellion as found in the NIV was rejected by House.  He suggested that this thought has existed only as a translation of the word in English translations since the King James Version but earlier English versions had favored the simpler idea of departure.  House argued that the word meant departure and that the issue of what the departure was from or what the nature of the departure consisted of was something that only the context of a passage could deliver.  Grammatically, the word does not automatically carry the idea of rebellion by the simple use of the word.   House points to contextual ideas (the general focus of 2 Thess 1-2 on end-time issues and 2 Thess 2:1 talking about the rapture itself.  Thus, he argues the following:  “What makes the most sense in the context, that the Day of the Lord had not come because a rebellion against government or a defection from the faith had not occurred, or that the departure to be with Christ had not occurred? Remember, in 1 Thessalonians 1, the encouragement was that the coming of Christ would rescue believers from the coming wrath”  (page 5 of House paper).”

In my own commentary, First and Second Thessalonians: Looking for Christ’s Return (2009), I respectfully discuss House’s position using his earlier paper that ended up published in When the Trumpet Sounds (1995).  However, I gravitate to the position that the word means apostasy, rebellion, or declension and that it is associated in some way with what follows — the appearance of the man of lawlessness (the anti-Christ figure).  However, I respect the argumentation of Dr. House and must remain open to the possibility that he is right.  Why do I go to the later connection of the man of lawlessness instead of linking to the immediate context given earlier along with the general theme of the book?  In this matter, I cannot be dogmatic.

The December 21, 2012 Mayan Calendar doomsday end to the world readily comes to mind.  One website I saw that was critical of it mentioned various theories for how the end would come:  a celestial body of some kind (asteroid, planet, comet) coming close to earth, solar flares, or my favorite — geomagnetic reversal.  I probably will not lose a lot of sleep on this one.  When you study the details, all you see is a lot of fluff and fog.  Dr. David Mappes, one of my colleagues at Baptist Bible Seminary wrote an article entitled “An Overview and Ananlysis of Apocalyptic Views Relating to the Year 2012 as the End of the World” that was published in our Spring 2011 edition of The Journal of Ministry and Theology.  It is an interesting read.

Environmental zealots often use doomsday language to talk about the future of planet earth if we don’t get our act together.    Global warming advocates, besides using the issue to get grants for educational research for varioius university departments, come across at times as extreme alarmists.  Al Gore comes to mind (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwkR3uuZMIM).  Wasn’t he the one that predicted at some point (2006?) that in ten years we would destroy ourselves if we did not take immediate drastic action?  Such predictions are just as fanciful and speculative as any Christian who says he knows the exact day the Lord Jesus will return. 

These tendencies in our culture to embrace doomsday scenarios I believe reflect something that God has placed in all of us.  There is a dark day coming where there will be accountability.  The world will not continue as it always has.  However, Christians should face such truth as taught in Scripture about these things without the dread that the world often expresses in these zany movements.  The last thing that the world needs to see is Christians expressing fear.  We should face whatever comes with courage.

That is one reason why Christians should not back down from studying prophetic details in Scripture.  Many refuse to do so because it has been so sensationalized.  But why is that a good excuse?  Do evolutionists back down because so many of their former “proofs” like Piltdown Man have turned out to be hoaxes?  Do Global Warming fanatics back down because last winter was a cold one?  We should not be embarrassed by any part of the Bible.  God’s Word is God’s Word.  Study it all and present its statements the best you can.  If you do, you will never set dates because that is the teaching of Scripture, although you might long more for the coming of the Lord in your heart.  That is far more important than selling videos about what you think will happen.

I had learned to appreciate internships during my last year of undergraduate work at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.   A math major, my senior year I took part in a co-op program (internship) where I worked across the street from the University in Research Park at Teledyne Brown Engineering.  There I worked for a group of thermal engineers working on the Space Shuttle back before they ever built one.  My fledgling computer/engineering career started firmly with inside experience which helped me immensely.  At that first church I pastored I started an internship program working with Bible college students because I recognized the need in my own life and had also seen it work in the engineering field.  Why wouldn’t it work in the ministry?

Thus, when I interviewed to teach at Baptist Bible Seminary back in 1994, I was elated when I saw the intense interest in internship training.  At BBS, we still have a one year internship for our standard Master of Divinity degree.  The seminary cooperates with a local church in training the student in both academic content during that year and in practical implementation of ministry efforts.  Both seminary faculty and church staff members evaluate the student in real time ministry.  One great thing about the BBS internship is that it is a FULL TIME PAID POSITION during that year.  No students work at UPS or Walmart during this time.  Their focus is totally on the ministry of that church.  The tuition for the internship courses are also REDUCED BY HALF for that year.  That makes the overall tuition price per credit hour less for the entire program.  But the main benefit of an internship for a student who has never had a full-time position in a church is to learn his way without the pressure of being the lead pastor.  One of my greatest regrets in my own ministry is that I never had such an internship ministry experience.  The people under my ministry in my first church would have been better served.

All men in their innermost being want their lives to matter.  I am no different.  I have, since my earliest recollections, wanted to be someone whose life counted in a significant way.  As I have come to know and understand, a life that really counts is also one that counts for eternity and not just for this life’s journey.  Also, I can never remember a time when I did not believe in the existence of God.  From the time when I was five years old and prayed my first prayer when I had to go to the hospital for surgery to the time I prayed a few years later for God never to let Mom, Dad, my brother Jimmy, or me ever die, I believed I could talk to a heavenly Father.  Where this desire to communicate to the Creator came from I cannot tell.  I never attended a church service except for one occasion before I was twenty years old.  I can only believe that the Scriptures are true and wise when they speak of the innate knowledge of God and eternity that the Maker has placed in every one of us.

It was during my teenage years (late 1960s, early 1970s) that a growing restlessness entered my soul about the Bible and about God.   I had read some Watchtower literature at my grandmother’s house at one point that got my attention as well as talking to religious friends of varying kinds including those who were critical of the Bible and its view of God. However, it was the message of Evangelist Billy Graham on television that riveted me and forced me to confront my own inner shortcomings or sins and to consider a remedy.  During that time I had been under the delusion that by mustering up enough good efforts I could somehow overcome my faults and earn credit with God.  The message I heard was that Jesus died on the Cross to pay the penalty for my sin. I simply had to accept what God had done through Jesus on my behalf. This claim rolled around in my mind during my high school and college years although I did not act upon it right away.  It remained an idea I was willing to consider but left undecided without confidence that I had made peace with God.Another issue confronting me at the time was my scientific nature.  My Dad worked in the Apollo Space program and on Skylab in an engineering town.  I was a good math and science student, eventually becoming a mathematics major and an aerospace engineer working in my first days on the Space Shuttle back before it was even built.  However, in my studies I began to have some intellectual doubts about the teaching of evolution and the so-called sure foundations of science.  On the one hand, my engineering side demanded facts, but my heart longed to see a way to harmonize what I was being taught about the world through science and what the Bible proclaimed.

These and other factors came to a head in my life in the summer of 1974 when my twin brother Jimmy and I started a spiritual search together.  We visited a few different kinds of churches.  While the people were nice and we were open and searching, usually there was nothing concrete in our experience that would nail things down for us.  I believe I was actually looking for a church service that reminded me of Billy Graham’s television crusades.  I can remember, however, the difference when we walked into the West Huntsville Baptist Church in Huntsville, Alabama.  It was early summer.  The music grabbed my thoughtful focus.  The pastor, Sam Wolfe, preached verse by verse through the Bible and explained things clearly, especially the matter of an individual making peace with God through faith and faith alone in what Jesus Christ had done on the Cross. While I could not explain things with scientific precision, the thought and feeling came over me that I was where I was supposed to be.I did not immediately make a decision to trust Christ as my Savior.  My brother and I attended on Sunday mornings for almost two months drinking in what was being sung, prayed, and taught.  We would talk on the way home about what we had heard and what we thought about things while rolling the claims of Christ over and over in our minds.  We would discuss Bible verses throughout the week and wonder about their truth.

Finally, on August 18, 1974, we both went forward during an evangelistic invitation to trust Christ.  On that day I nailed down the fact that I was going to depend upon Christ and Him alone to take away my sin.  Jesus was who He claimed to be.  I was going to quit trusting my own good deeds and behavior (which I had certainly come to believe to be totally inadequate to stand before God).  I was not going to trust any church or preacher or any other teaching with my eternal destiny.  I was going to lean upon Christ and His work for me as the only payment for my sin and the only way that I could have peace with God (Eph. 2:8-10, John 5:24).  In the lingo I would learn from the words of Jesus, I was “born again” on that day (John 3:1-18).  As they presented me before the congregation that day, I kept thinking, “Things are going to be different!”  I was not disappointed.

I have not been a perfect person after receiving Christ as my Savior. No one is. But I have experienced a joy in the trials of life that transcends all other experiences I have ever had. There is a sense of peace with God that has allowed me to focus on others instead of myself. My life has taken a path of fulfillment as a pastor and teacher and trainer of pastors. I have experienced great purpose and meaning in life. I look back to the time I trusted Christ for forgiveness and have no regrets. Both my scientific mind and my yearning heart have been satisfied. I now look forward to the time when Christ will return and begin to make all things right.I am not any more special to God than anyone else. What He has done for me, He can and will do for you. If you would like to discuss my testimony and how you can have peace with God, feel free to respond with a comment.

Within a week, however, one of the Bama stars, a defensive back was arrested for possession of marijuana.  Deflating, yes…unexpected, no.  Our present evil age continues to degenerate all around us (at least in North America) as biblical living grows less attractive to a hedonistic society.  I will always root for the Tide being a graduate from the University of Alabama in Huntsville and having grown up in the state as an Alabama Crimson Tide and Bear Bryant fan.  I also understand the character building that can be in sports.  But students must receive and embrace the lessons for real life.  While I enjoy football as a fan, I refuse to let it become the center of my life.  On the days when BAMA loses, Jesus is still raised from the dead and at the right hand of the Father.  While I always look forward to football season and how my team will do, I am looking ahead far more to the glorious appearing of my God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

However, the mainstay of the holiday in America has come to be family, food, and football.  I do not view those as evils in and of themselves.  They all have a special place in our hearts.  Outside of our relationship to God, there is nothing more significant that our relationship to our families.  Of course, I have always had a special relationship to food!  There has never been a pumpkin pie I did not like.   I could talk about my family with great emotion and remember the family feasts in very positive terms.  But here I want to talk about football, not as a man who loves football, but in a way that shows the connection of football and family.  The big game today between the Packers and the Lions is being heralded as a replay of the 1962 game on November 22 when the two-loss Lions upset the undefeated and champion Packers.  The picture above is from that game — the sacking of Bart Starr which happened often that day.  What makes this a special “football to family connection” is that when I was nine years old my family was staying for a couple of weeks in a motel in Syracuse, New York in November of 1962.  That is where I watched that game.  That is my first memory of watching a professional football game.  My Dad worked for General Electric.  My parents were married in Detroit and became Detroit sports fans.  That’s why I grew up following Al Kaline as my favorite baseball player–and why I was rooting for the Lions that day.  For those two weeks in Syracuse, General Electric was deciding where to send my Dad for his next assignment with the company.   We ended up in Huntsville, Alabama which became my real home for the rest of my life and where I became an Alabama Crimson Tide fan.  Every Thanksgiving I think about those two weeks in Syracuse and how the Providence of God moved so that the course of my life was set.  When I watch the game today, I believe I will think about that more than I usually do.  It will truly be a sentimental Thanksgiving when football reminds me of all of life.  I will thank the God who made me of His blessings in my life.   No matter what the score.  But I will be rooting for the Lions just as I did 49 years ago.

Last Monday (October 24, 2011) I delivered what we call a Faculty Forum Paper during the chapel time at Baptist Bible Seminary.  The topic was “The Biblical Basis of the United States Constitution.”  Although I have made presentations of this topic in Sunday School classes, ABFs, and small groups, this is the first time I have committed my thoughts to a formal paper format.  It is my conviction that the Founding Fathers were steeped deeply in Judeo-Christian ethics and not secular Enlightenment thought.  While they may have adopted a kind of  ”Christian Enlightenment” in the sense of using reason more strongly than past generations, they nonetheless did not erase a predominately Protestant view of the Bible and the world as the underpinning for life.    I would not mind getting feedback from others on my paper.  The link is given below.

Biblical-Basis-of-the-United-States-Constitution

My testimony was for the purpose of showing Baptist views of worship and that the church in question was using its facilities in a way consistent with Baptist theology and tradition.  In doing so, I feel like I not only supported the cause of Christ for the church but also did my civic duty for the community.

What is especially intriguing is that I did not become a Christian until 1974.  Why would I listen to this kind of a song?  I played it over and over and over.  I think the reason was that the Spirit of God was speaking to my heart.  I was listening to Billy Graham whenever he came on television.  I had picked up a Bible to try to understand it.  I was in search mode for my life.  This was one aspect of my search.  The song captivated me and made me think about the fact that the Bible said Jesus was still alive and that he was coming back.  The song told me we would not make it on our own if He did not come back.

I may never get to meet Bobby Goldsboro and I don’t know what he really believes about the Lord.  But I do know I still appreciate his music and I remember this song from time to time having downloaded it on my computer.  Mr. Goldsboro will probably never know the influence his song had in my life.  It is interesting that eschatology became one of my major academic interests and my Ph.D. dissertation was partly in this area.  Goldsboro’s song may then be seen as a harbinger of things to come in more ways than one.  Below are the words to the song:

There’s a man I’ve read about
And they say he lives forever
When the world was filled with sin
He came and brought the world together
Then he left us on our own
Now it’s time again for him to come back home

‘Cause this world is full of hate
He’s got to come before it’s too late
‘Cause we can’t make it on our own
And it’s time again for him to come back home

Come back home
Make the streams flow to the valleys
And take away the clouds that hide the sun
Come back home
Teach each man to love his neighbor
And give us one more chance to right the wrong we’ve done
If only for the children come back home

You gave us trees
We cut them down
Your sky of blue
We’ve make it hazy
Your lakes and streams
They’re dark and cold
And it’s time again for you to come back home

‘Cause our time is running out
And the world is slowly dying
The things we done have all gone wrong
And it’s time again for you to come back home

Yes, it’s time again for you to come back home

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was the only preacher I would give serious attention to.  I do not know why that is the case.  But when he came on television I was riveted and I paid attention and thought about his words. 

Then in June 1974 my twin brother and I began a spiritual search to find a church that “sounded” like Billy Graham.  We were twenty years old and not raised in church.  We began to attend various kinds of churches, listening to see if it sounded like Billy.

When we came to the West Huntsville Baptist Church in Huntsville, Alabama, we knew we had come to the right place.  While mulling over the claims of the gospel of Christ, my brother and I spent two months attending services and studying the Bible’s teachings.  Then on August 18, 1974 through the message and ministry of Dr. Sam Wolfe, the pastor of the church, both my brother and I answered the call to trust Christ.  That day I trusted him as my savior.  I certainly cannot deliver myself from my sin.  I have not gotten over the impact the gospel of Christ had in my life that day.  Much of the credit goes to Dr. Graham.  Because of that, I will never ever be able to express an out of bounds negativity or downright hatred for such a man who has served as a servant of the Lord to bring many to Christ.  When I get to heaven, I will look him up and hug his neck and say “thanks.”