"I would not recommend my book on The Antichrist that I wrote twenty years ago."
These words were written by Arthur W. Pink to a friend on December 20, 1943. They caught my eye as I read the second-to-the-last chapter of his biography, because I myself had been studying Paul's teaching on the Antichrist ("the man of lawlessness") in Second Thessalonians chapter two. This chapter is, admittedly, one of the most difficult chapters to interpret in all of the New Testament. Frankly, it is challenging many of my eschatological views, most of which were developed through my formal education at Bible college and seminary. I've been doing a lot of reading, a lot of praying (though I'm sure not nearly enough), to try to reach a conclusive stance regarding the precise order of end-time events. So far my study has raised more questions than answers.
I'll say more about this in a minute, but first I want to get back to Arthur Pink. After writing the above comment to a friend in 1943, he made these additional remarks in his publication, Studies in the Scriptures, four years later in 1947:
"If any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know" (1 Cor. 8:2). To the very end of his earthly pilgrimage the best instructed Christian has reason to pray, "That which I see not teach thou me" (Job 34:32). Even the theologian and the Bible-teacher is but a learner and, like all his companions in the school of Christ, acquires his knowledge of the truth gradually - "here a little, there a little" (Isa. 28:10). He too advances slowly, as one great theme after another is studied by him and opened up to him, requiring him to revise or correct his earlier apprehensions and adjust his views on other portions of the truth, as fuller light is granted him on any one branch thereof.
I am coming to see, now more than ever before, the veracity and relevance of Pink's perception, as derived from the Scripture verses he quotes above. The inquisitive side of me wants an answer to everything. The pastoral side of me - and ironically the beast of pride in me as well - wants to have all the answers for anyone who asks. But I do myself and others a terrible injustice if I am not honest with God's Word and honest with myself. The fact is, I don't have all the answers. Nobody does. "The secret things belong to the Lord" (Deut. 29:29a). "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter" (Prov. 25:2).
Yes, one of the glories of this life is to swim in the infinite depths of God's revealed truth, all the while knowing that the glory of His secrets are greater than the glory of our searching. But herein is where we find the divinely crafted joy and delight of it all. For as we humbly and honestly search out God's truth, we discover God Himself. We come to know Him in an ever more intimate way. Is this not what Scripture itself teaches?
But just as it is written, "Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him." For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God." -- 1 Cor. 2:9-10
Amazing! This text is not talking about heaven so much as it is discovering ALL that God has prepared and provided for us in Christ! The Spirit guides us into all truth (John 16:13), and of course Jesus Christ Himself is the Truth! How foolish it would be to stand on our theological high horse, "forcing" certain texts to "fit" our theological grid, rather than to discover in ever-increasing degrees the glory and beauty of our blessed Savior! As Arthur Pink went on to say,
Like the rising of the sun, spiritual light breaks forth upon both preacher and hearer by degrees. The men who have been most used of God in the feeding and building up of his people were not thoroughly furnished for their work at the outset of their careers, but only by dint of prolonged study did they make progress in their own apprehension of the truth. . . . Certainly this writer is no exception. Were he to re-write today some of his earlier articles and pieces, he would make a number of changes in them. Though it may be humiliating unto pride to make corrections, yet it is also ground for thanksgiving to God for the fuller light [graciously granted] which enables him to do so.
God help us always to approach His Word with humility, not simply to get answers to our questions or to find proof texts to support our theological bias, but to KNOW HIM intimately and to help others do the same.