Family Values

An American Scripture scholar who had spent two years teaching in a West African Bible College was extremely impressed with his students’ ability to ask penetrating questions about minute details of Scripture. One such question had to do with something the Apostle Paul wrote about the Second Coming of Christ. “At the trumpet of God,” Paul said, “the voice of the archangel will call out the command, and the Lord Himself will come down from Heaven” (I Thess. 4:16). The question the West African student asked was this: “What will that command be?” At first, the professor was inclined to simply brush off the question. In his words:

I wanted to leave the question unanswered. I wanted to tell that student that we must try not to go beyond what Scripture has revealed. But my mind wandered off. I got to thinking about the sorry condition of mankind, of a world filled with hate and violence and mistrust. I got to thinking about the…