Is Russia Fulfilling End-Times Prophecy? Doesn’t Matter.

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Many years ago, a friend of mine in the ministry was applying for credentials with his denomination.

I’ve done this a couple of times, with two different denominations.

It’s typically a lengthy process of the denomination needing to ensure that a minister is aligned with their theological convictions, approach to ministry, core values, etc.

It usually involves writing some papers, attending classes, answering a lot of questions, and having in-person interviews with a committee that will ultimately approve your application for credentials or not.

When my friend went in for his in-person interview, the committee had been going over his papers and his theological answers to their many questions.

One committee member said to him, “You know, I’m a little concerned about some of your answers to end-times stuff. I think your responses were a little confusing.”

Another committee member interrupted him.

“Come on, man,” he said. “Everyone’s thoughts on the end-times are a little confusing!”

I think about that statement regularly. Goodness knows I agree.

When it comes to trying to make sense of the end-times, Christians have wrestled for two thousand years with how to properly understand Scripture in light of real-world circumstances that they are facing.

Pat Robertson recently suggested that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was simply a fulfillment of what the Bible says will happen in the end-times.

This has sparked a new round of conversation about how exactly Christians are interpreting how they think the end-times will unfold.

Are we living in the end-times now? Is Russia part of the “Gog and Magog” nations that some believe will attack Israel as part of the eschaton? (Eze 38-39; Rev 20.7-10)? Is the Ukraine War kicking off the end?

Maybe.

But if we’re being honest, Christians been guessing wrong about this for two thousand years.

The Anti-Christ was obviously Caesar.

Or he was one of the enemies of Rome, after a Roman emperor eventually embraced Christianity.

Or he was one of the Muslim rulers as Islamic empires expanded in the medieval period.

Or he was the Pope, according to the Protestant Reformers, or he was Martin Luther, according to the Catholic Church.

Or he was Hitler, or Stalin, or Mao, or Khrushchev, during times of global conflict.

Or he was bin Laden, or Saddam, or might be Putin, in more recent times.

(Interestingly, the Western Church has rarely considered that the Anti-Christ could come from our own nations or our own ranks – the people we accuse of being the Anti-Christ always line up very neatly with our political enemies of the time).

Christians should be honest about these things – most of our end-times predictions have been wrong, for a very long time.

Now, I do believe that an Anti-Christ-like figure, the “man of lawlessness” (2Th 2.1-12), will arise at the end.

At some point, one of these guesses will be correct.

But we do ourselves no favours with wild speculation, with random and incorrect predictions, and especially with labeling everyone that we perceive as an enemy as also being the human epitome of all evil.

Why would anyone listen to us on this stuff?

Jesus told us that there would be some signs that the end was coming (see Matthew 24).

He also made very clear that no one would know the hour of His return (Mt 24.42).

The point was not that we would spend all our time obsessing over what this certain nation means or that particular leader or trying to “crack the code” of exact timing or details or events.

The point, made explicit in many of Christ’s teachings (e.g. Mt 24.43-51; Mt 25.1-13; Mk 13.33-37; Ac 1.7; etc.), is that we are to live our lives in a constant and ongoing state of readiness, not knowing exactly when the end will unfold, but trusting in His inevitable return, and living our lives with purpose and intentionality to that end.

Is Russia fulfilling end-times prophecy in its invasion of Ukraine?

Maybe.

But it actually shouldn’t matter at all to how we live.

We are always supposed to be living as if the end could come soon.

Such end-times theories also do not absolve us of our responsibilities.

Even if Russia were invading Ukraine as part of God’s great final plans, the Church is still the Church, and our purpose is exactly the same.

We are called to share Jesus, preach the Word, pray, be peacemakers, love our enemies, weep with those who weep, comfort those who mourn, take care of those in need, welcome the stranger, bind up the broken-hearted, and protect the vulnerable.

So we live our lives with this in mind always, regardless of the “wars and rumours of wars” (Mt 24.6-7) that may swirl around us.

We live with a worldview grounded in eternity (Col 3.1-3).

We live with focus and intentionality, knowing that time is short for all of us (1Cor 7.29-31).

We live a life to please the Lord (Col 1.9-11), and to sacrificially love our neighbour and enemy (Mt 5.43-48; 1Jn 3.16).

We live proclaiming peace and peacemaking (Heb 12.14; Mt 5.9).

We live in the hope that this life on earth is actually not the best that God has offered us.

We live in the trust that God holds the nations in His hands, is not capable of worry or fear, and that He is in control, always has been, and always will be (e.g. Isa 46.10; Jn 14.27; Phil 4.6-7; Rev 1,8; etc).

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