Ep. 82 - Destined to Win: A More Optimistic View of the What's Going on in the World Right Now and the End of Time

With everything that has happened in the world over the past four to five years, many Christian teachers and laypersons alike have begun to talk about the "end times" and how we're moving into this season of things getting worse and worse, apparently "just as God has planned it."

But has he?

In today's episode, Matt challenges the prevailing mindset that no matter what you and I do, the world will continue to come more and more under the sway of evil. What if you and I are put here to save the world? What if you and I have been given the authority to steer it towards heaven? What if, instead of getting worse all the time....the world is meant to get better as the Kingdom takes up more and more residence here?

What if YOU are destined to win?

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Also, if you're interested in working with Matt one-on-one in the Unshakeable Man coaching program...click here to download the PDF writeup about the program and book a free 30 minute REBUILD coaching call with Matt.

Creators & Guests

Host

Matt Hallock

Founder of Man Warrior King and author of The DNA of a Man

What is The Man Warrior King Podcast?

You want to live a life on fire and on mission.

You want to be filled with such conviction and drive that you stop caring about what ANYone thinks.

You want to face each day alive, authentic, and fully present in every moment: with your wife, kids, on the street, at the gym, at work.

You want to bring yourSELF to the table, and to stop bringing the watered-down, nice, what everyone wants version of you.

You want that self to be a man who is burning in passion for Jesus, unafraid to bring his kingdom to anyone in your path, no matter the cost.

You want to love the one in front of you without fear, without needing love back, and without reserve.

You want to experience God for real, to not just believe, but to KNOW that he’s got you and that he’ll show up on your behalf. That he’ll show up THROUGH you.

You want to get to the end of your race and say, “Yep…I gave it everything. Jesus, you know I’m all in.”

...And you want to know just how to get there.

Welcome to Man Warrior King. Congratulations. You are among the violent taking the kingdom by force. You are among the chosen, answering the call to rise above your self. You are in the forge being stripped down and strengthened—and you WILL rise stronger, solid, unshakeable.

You are a man. You are a warrior. You are a king.

Good afternoon and welcome to another episode of the Man War Your King podcast. Today we're going to talk about something a little bit different than what we normally talk about. So if you're new here, normally we're talking about things regarding marriage, your mindset, how to walk in confidence, how to build sexual attraction in your marriage, how to believe God for everything that he promises, how to pray and get prayers answered, how to heal the sick, doing miracles, things like that, the supernatural. But today we're talking about a topic that is actually more More important to me

than you might think based on the fact that we never really talk about it and it is what in the world is going on today and where are we headed. This topic in my humble but bold opinion is crucial for you to truly be able to thrive in your life. And here's the thing, gentlemen, I buck the system, if you can hear my blinker, it's because I'm recording this while driving today, because I just, I need to get this out there. If you know me, I buck the system on a lot of different things that I

teach, and that I believe because I've seen them in my own life and I see what has worked and what doesn't work and I've seen how the church has inherited some tough ways of thinking that I don't believe are very helpful And I don't think that this topic of where we are heading in the world is exempt from that fact. I'm sorry to say. So if you talk to I would say probably most of the Christians in our nation in the US right now. Most of them would probably ascribe to an interpretation of the end of

the world that says things are going to eventually get worse and worse. They're going to get pretty bad. And right before they get ultra bad, we are going to have this rapture that takes all of the Christians off of the face of the earth. And before the rapture happens, maybe, maybe not this guy who will be the Antichrist will start kind of making moves in the public sphere. He may be around a little bit by then, but definitely after the rapture happens, we're gonna see this rise of the Antichrist, this guy coming into power who's going

to try to basically rule the whole world. He's going to step into a recently or whatever, not so recently, I don't know, but fairly recently rebuilt temple in Jerusalem and defile the temple, all those things. There's a seven-year tribulation. Yeah, you know the drill. That's what most believers have been taught. And then therefore most believers believe it at least loosely. Maybe they've not never looked into it, but they just kind of assume that somebody who teaches it has looked into it and knows that that's that that's the correct biblical interpretation. So if we think this way,

Then and you look at what's happening in the world as we as we speak. We have free speech getting attacked. We have genders being confused. We have elections that aren't necessarily on the up-and-up. We have the rise of communism in a nation like ours that was once like, that was once unheard of. What else do we have? We had the recent, you know, quote unquote, pandemic. We have forced things that you're supposed to be forced to do for your own health into your own body. We have all these things happening. If we look at all those

things and we have this typical end times view of the world, we might think, wow, things, yeah, things are getting worse, and I don't really think they're supposed to get any better because my theology tells me that the world is just supposed to get worse. I want to be honest with you right now. I don't hear what I'm not saying. I don't hate the people who are doing these things, but who are teaching these things. But that theology, that end times story, I hate that story. And that is a strong word, I understand. But I chose

it on purpose. Because I do not think that, well, you know, you have 1 view on the end times and I have mine and it's all fine, nothing, you know, we're good. It doesn't really matter in the end. What matters is saving souls. I don't think that's true. I think what you believe about the end times really shapes how you live your life and it shapes what's possible for you in your life and It decides whether you have a winning mentality or a losing mentality See this normal end times theology says that we as believers eventually

lose and you're like well no it doesn't because, because Jesus comes back and he, he ends it all. And he establishes his reign. There's the thousand year millennium and, and no, we don't lose, we win. I would argue that he wins eventually according to that narrative but you and I we don't we lose as a church we become ineffective at shaping culture We do not experience the effects of the Kingdom of Heaven invading our world and its systems. No, we might save souls, but in the end the world just gets worse and worse as though the

gospel of the kingdom is not powerful enough to overthrow dark rulers and authorities. Throw dark rulers and authorities. And so according to this understanding, it sure seems to me like we, the church lose right up until the rapture happens. And no matter what we do, we can't help it, we can't change it. God has already ordained for the world to get horrible. This is his plan. I'm sorry I don't buy it. And you know what I do believe there are a good number of Christians in our culture today who also don't buy it because you have

you we have a growing movement of political believers or believing politicians or at least believing activists who still have hope for this country, who are out there pushing for the best days to still come. I want to throw my hat in the ring with them. I say amen to that. I am not in favor of pulpits preaching doom. And no matter what we do, we already know it's going to get horrible. If that's the case, then what's then then what basis do we have for trying to win at anything that's going on in our lives right

now. If there's an ultimate defeat already predetermined for us, what does that leave us with? Just trying to succeed in our lives as much as possible until that day comes when all of a sudden it's just it's just inevitable we're all gonna have everything stripped away from us? Is it to you know not try to succeed at anything in life because this world doesn't really matter because it's all going to hell eventually anyway and all we're supposed to be worried about is saving souls. So then you are forced to live in the cognitive dissonance of, well,

none of it matters except for the eternity of someone's soul, and yet I still need to put food on my plate because I don't want my family to starve. And yet I still would love for my marriage to get better because the lack of affection between me and my wife, it hurts so bad. So either that matters or it doesn't. And I don't think if you're honest, I don't think you can honestly say that those things don't matter to you. So now you're stuck in this in between of, well, yeah, I know that none of it

is supposed to matter to me, but it does, and I think that's kind of wrong of me, but I can't get away from it. And so now I'm kind of on my own to try to address these places in my life that are broken because in God's eyes, they don't really matter that much, but they do to me. And so now I'm just all tangled up on the inside and I'm by myself instead of having the support and the partnership of the Holy Spirit to bring kingdom transformation into these places in my life that I care

so deeply about. You see, I have reasons for why I don't buy this narrative beyond just my own preference and my own philosophy. I've studied it and I don't see evidence for this type of interpretation of the end in scripture. I don't see it at all to be honest and there may be people out there will like, but Matt you're 1 of like 2 who don't see it and all the others do. I don't care. I don't care. I don't see it in scripture. Just like I didn't see scripture tell me that if your marriage is

hurting, that's just God's will for your life. And I didn't see scripture tell me that if you're sick, God has a plan for you to be sick. I don't see the rapture in scripture. I don't see a seven-year tribulation and I sure don't see an end times ruler of the world of an Antichrist. So if we allow that this end times theology is really just a theology, but not fact as it's often preached. It's often preached as like, well yeah, this is just the way it's gonna be. Everyone knows that. It's accepted that that's how it

is. If we open the door for a moment to allow for it to be 1 possible opinion among others, then I would like to present to you a varying opinion, which is that according to scripture, I see that the world is destined to get better and better. I see that the believers are the ones who have the authority and the victory over the devil, the dragon, whom he cannot touch, and who are to be instrumental in bringing the world around into connection with God and under the influence of His kingdom. And that as the earth gets

better and better, then we get eventually closer and closer to the point when the bride of Jesus has finally made herself ready. A pure and spotless bride, a victorious bride, a bride who Hic returns for and says yes that's her in all of her splendor not that's the weak powerless timid bride who didn't do what I had set her on the earth to do. If this is possible, if this end times interpretation is possible, then what it does gentlemen is it opens you up to looking at the world with optimism and hope and with this possibility

that the words you speak over your life, over your culture, over your community, over your government, might just carry some spiritual authority to affect change, to bring transformation where it's so badly needed. If the world is destined to get better and better and it's not there yet, then what that means is that we have good to look forward to. And in the words of 1 of my favorites, the best is yet to come. So what's your role in bringing that about? See now, now you don't just sit there with your hands on your, or your, sitting

on your hands, kind of your hands on your butt. You're not just sitting there on your hands, waiting around for the end and making the best on a sinking ship. It's like, well, what can I do to bring this, to bring us closer to that? Let me join in the efforts that are out there already to try to shape this world for the better, to try to put an end to the corruption. Do you understand this? This opens up so much possibility And in your own personal life, it says, hey, you're not, there's not this death

sentence hanging over you, this eventual loss that you have to expect. No, you, you can expect victory. So let's go after it. So let's go after it. Guys, what if we are not seeing the plummeting into the end of all things? What if we are seeing the beginning stages of an awakening that shakes this entire earth to its core and leaves the kingdom standing, leaves good standing, leaves the things that are beautiful standing. And what if life as we know it is about to get so much better than we've ever seen. Guys, what if that's just

biblical? And I know at the moment you might be taking my word for it because you've never heard it and you don't see it, whatever, but what if, What if that's the way it is? Will you join me in believing for that? At least consider it. Bless you, gentlemen.