Look—I’ve never done this before—but then again, no one has responded to the previous week’s blog like this before.

For the last three weeks, Karen and I have had a delightful, I-really-enjoy-shedding-my-shiny-black-coat-all-over-your-carpet house guest named Kora, the favorite dog of our favorite granddaughters, who are frolicking by the lake of their other favorite grandparents. Wonderful girls, sweet dog.

Which needs to go out at night for obvious reasons. But alas, I broke my last flashlight and was looking for a replacement. Well, God bless one of our readers (from where I don’t know), who immediately ordered a brand new halogen flashlight that arrived two days after the blog with this note tucked inside: “I have a flashlight exactly like it—it is Great! I hope you enjoy it!” Signed with her name. Fortunately, Amazon included an email address so I could express my joyful gratitude to this kind stranger.

And oh boy, this flashlight is way more than “great!” It not only has a halogen light—but it also comes with a super-duper zoom lens (that can adjust its beam from blinding pinpoint to wide-area circle)—and on top of all that, it also can switch from low beam to high beam to blinking beam to a beam that actually blinks the morse code letters for S-O-S. You will never be able to lose me now!

Reminds me of Peter’s prescient observation about prophecy: “And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:19).

Because that is what prophecy is—a halogen light peering into the dark uncharted future and exposing what we would never have seen lurking in our pathway. But they are much more than flashlights for the future. They are divine halogens that can supernaturally pierce the dark lair of the apocalyptic dragon and expose his deadly modus operandi with the Light of the world.

“I am the Light of the world” (John 8:12; 9:5)—and “I am the bright Morning Star” (Revelation 22:16)—Jesus still declares. And He is the one Light we need now more than ever before, as we attempt to navigate the dark shadows of this pandemic landscape now our home. 

For the last few weeks, I’ve been pouring over those apocalyptic halogen snapshots of uneasy weirdness and terrible implication. Is there an interface between what we are living through on the cusp of a new school year and those dusty, long-forgotten, prophecies? Do they speak with decipherable clarity? Does the light of Christ and the Word of God expose the dark mastermind behind what we endure right now? From prophecy can we see with greater clarity the direction today’s stunning trends are headed?

Rhetorical questions, all four of them. This is why I am inviting you (and the friends and family you have) to join us Sabbath mornings, beginning next Sabbat, August 22, the eve of a new school year on all three of our campuses. Join us, join me as we seek to shine the halogen of prophetic light on what lies ahead. “American Apocalypse: ‘What Is Past Is Prologue’”—because if Shakespeare is right and the past is but prologue, then we have every somber need to be armed with the light of Holy Scripture at this critical time. Period.

And if we can decipher the beauty of God’s character and the face of our Lord Jesus in these ancient words—and if it is true that “when we as a people understand what this book [Revelation] means to us, there will be seen among us a great revival” (TM 113)—then can you think of a more essential, opportune moment in history to discover or rediscover all God has embedded in these ancient prophecies for His endgame friends?