“First of all, let me say this: I was wrong.”
John Bevier recently appeared on CBN’s “Faith in Culture” podcast and opened up about his past avoidance of teachings about the second coming of Jesus.
Years ago, the famous author and Bible teacher said, and even boasted, from his pulpit that he didn’t talk about the end times or the second coming of Jesus, an odd boast for someone who had just written a book on the very topic.
But when he explained the change of heart that took place in 2021, it made sense.
Mr. Bevier, author of “The King Is Coming: It’s Time to Prepare for the Christ of Christ,” said he believed that spending time poring over the Bible about the end times and the second coming of Jesus fostered an “escape mentality,” in which people “stop planning for the future” and “become lazy and rational.”
That was until four years ago, when a Texas-based pastor felt convicted and began researching the end times and the second coming of Christ in depth.
“What I noticed, the outcomes I noticed, were different than what I expected,” he said. “First of all, I became more passionate about ministry. I started crying just seeing souls being saved. I’ve never done it so passionately before.”
But that wasn’t all, he said. Bevere’s family began to notice a change in his overall demeanor.
“My family started saying, ‘Dad, I notice you’re calmer. You don’t get upset easily,'” he recalled. “My wife started saying, ‘You’re my favorite husband,’ and I said, ‘What does that mean?’ she said: “Well, I like this version 2.0 better than 1.0.”
He said he spent “thousands of hours” studying what the Bible says about Jesus’ return and the end times, and it bore “good fruit” in him.
The key, he explained in “Faith in Culture,” is to have the right view of Jesus’ return, a view filled with hope and expectation.
“There’s only one thing that gets talked about more than (the second coming of Jesus) and that’s salvation,” Bevier said. “In the New Testament alone, 318 verses speak of the Second Coming of Christ, which is 1 in 30 verses. This topic…is the second most frequently written about by the early church fathers of the first three centuries.”
Mr. Bevere cited a passage from Luke 2 of the New Testament, which describes Simeon and Anna in the Koine Greek word “prosdechomai,” which means they were looking forward to the coming of the Messiah.
Check out the latest CBN podcast, “Radical Revelations.”
“Keeping the lamp lit means living a pious and holy life,” he explained. “We keep ourselves dressed for service, the fear of the Lord moves us, we take God’s word seriously, and we gird our loins with the truth.”
Bevia continued, “[W]ould that create eager anticipation? It’s something we look forward to. Think about when you got engaged. Think about when you were a kid and it was December 1st and mom and dad put up the Christmas tree.”
At another point in the conversation, he added, “As a believer, I believe this with all my heart, but we should live today as if Jesus would come back, but we should plan for Jesus not to come back for 200 years. Why would you say that? Because Es Himself commanded us: Occupy now means we are occupying territory. I believe it takes a plan, a smart plan.”
Listen to our full conversation with Bevia in the “Faith in Culture” episode above.
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