The ANTIPAS PAPERS was not written merely as another book or treatise on the "end of days," or as a book which has set out to discuss the finer issues of eschatology and who's right or wrong on this or that eschatological point - there are already far too many such books! This is not to say, of course, that some points of eschatology are not so important that they should not be surrendered for any reason - but with regard to the rest, arguing over those things (when we might agree on most of the rest) is akin to two soldiers arguing over whether or not the tank that is rumbling down the road straight at them is a M-60 or an Abrams Main Battle Tank. What does it matter? - it's enough that both soldiers agree that a tank is heading towards them and that it's firing as it comes! - all the rest doesn't matter!

Today, Christians are facing a time of crisis, one which all evangelicals - if they really are evangelicals - have long expected, and one which shouldn't come as a surprise - CHURCH APOSTASY: the refusal of the church to see itself any longer as a "citizen" of a heavenly kingdom having nothing to do with this world ["My kingdom is not of this world ... my kingdom ... (comes) not from hence." (John 18:36)] to seeing itself, rather, as a "citizen" or "friend" of this present evil world and all that such a thing portends - from the church's involvement in the world's political affairs, to its rapprochement with the Roman Catholics, to its involvement in death squad activity in the name of God in South and Central America ["...Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God" ( James 4:4)]. But, again, why should we as evangelicals be surprised by all this? - isn't this what the Bible said would happen? - "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day (i.e., the day of the rapture and the resurrection) shall not come, except there come a falling away (i.e., apostasy) first ..." (2 Thess. 2:3)

What then should we do with regard to this crisis? Menachem Begin, the former Prime Minister of Israel, faced a similar crisis in his life and in the life of the Jewish People in the early 1940s. The crisis he faced had to do with whether or not he should wait for the end of World War II and the plodding negotiations of Jewish "mainline moderates" like Dr. Chaim Weizmann and the World Zionist Organization to press the British Mandate Authority to facilitate Jewish immigration to Palestine (all this in addition to having to rely on the maddening timidity of the mainline Jewish defense organization - the Haganah - to secure their safety in Palestine), or whether he should join up with the radicals, Vladimir Jabotinsky, and the Irgun Zvai Leumi - and hang the "niceties of diplomacy." He finally chose Jabotinsky and the Irgun! - and he never looked back. Years later, in remarking on the single-mindedness of the organization he finally joined - i.e., the Irgun - he said: "In times like those, there is no greater force than people who (1) have the ability to see beyond the concerns of daily life, despite the sometimes very pressing nature of those concerns, (2) who possess the capacity for self-sacrifice, and (3) who are willing to get involved!" Begin believed that the rest didn't matter! And so it is with us today, the rest doesn't matter! - one's natural talent, one's standing within the church, one's ability to speak, one's wealth, one's education, one's personality, the number of mistakes one has made in his or her life, one's age, one's sex, etc. - all of that is inconsequential in comparison.

The ANTIPAS PAPERS is first and foremost a call to action to this kind of people; a call to the kind of people who joined themselves to Vladimir Jabotinsky and the Irgun; to the kind of people who possess vision and the capacity for self-sacrifice. It's a call for them to get involved! And to do it NOW! - before it's too late. To wait is to make prophecy of no effect - after all, prophecy is meaningless to those who refuse to do anything about it. Prophecy is nothing more than a roadsign telling us of the danger that's ahead and warning us to take corrective action BEFORE we get to the danger. If we do nothing until we finally get there, it will be too late. Thus, if the only reaction the ANTIPAS PAPERS can elicit from someone who has read the book is "Wow! - what a wonderful book" - then we have utterly failed in what we set out to do, and that person has missed the point of the book altogether. Knowledge which does not produce action is worthless! It is to those persons who possess the willingness to get involved that we now turn and to whom we now direct the following remarks: first, there are many things which will hinder you from getting involved - and sadly, your greatest hindrance will probably be those dear Christian brothers and sisters who claim to see what you see, but who caution "moderation." Those who do, however, are usually people who have a stake in the status quo - in other words, there's a reason behind their so-called "moderation" - they probably have a lot more to lose than you do. The fact of the matter is, not many rich, not many successful, not many "high church officials" will abandon "moderation" - they have too much to lose. This is why Jesus said, "... It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God" (Matt. 19:24) and why Paul said, "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called ..." (1 Cor. 1:26).

Mostly, those who caution "moderation" are people who - while they might see objectively what you're talking about and who might even find it stimulating to sit in the safety of their living rooms for hours on end discussing this or that "end-times scenario" - will go ballistic if you actually suggest doing something about it. That's when the "moderates" panic! That's when people get labelled a "Jim Jones," a "Branch Davidian," a reckless and irresponsible radical, an "Unloving Person." But look beyond the labels and you might see something else at work here! - a selfish effort by the "moderates" to shame you into silence and inaction. Why? - because if such thinking were to really catch on, they will be shown to be what they really are - spiritual cowards who have too much at stake in this world and in the status quo of today's church to get involved - whether it be pastors who have their reputation and pay checks to guard, ministry leaders who depend on "compromised" sources of income, wives who have their "nests" to protect from the "irresponsibility" of a husband who has hit the "nut circuit," Christian business people and professionals who have their "reputations" to protect, etc. - and in order to hide that fact, they are willing to stop at nothing to put the "radicals" to an open shame.

"Moderates" are the people who are given to writing time-consuming memoranda, holding "bigwig" conferences, "reasoning" with the opposition, discussing things endlessly - and not for the purpose of finding out the truth, but of "buying time" and "confusing the issue" - "Did so and so really say such and such? - I don't care whether a thousand witnesses heard him - let's find out what really happened." The object here, of course, is not to get to the bottom of what happened - after all, if a thousand witnesses won't suffice, nothing will - the real object is to get everything so tied up in red tape that by the time it's "sorted out," everyone will have "gone home."

To the "moderates," we would simply say this, What does one do with people who purposefully are leading the church into apostasy and into a rapprochement with the Catholics? - reason with them? What's there to reason about? These people know what they're doing! - and you are not the first to question them on these matters. They've heard all the arguments before. What value is there in meeting with such people? What does one say to a Paul Crouch, for example, when he says that those who are standing against the church's rapprochement with the Catholics should be shot? Discuss with him the kind of gun that is best for such a purpose? Negotiate with him over the ammunition that should be used? What utter nonsense!" - after all, what's at stake here is the church's soul! There is nothing to negotiate about! And if those you love in the church refuse to go along, and you think to stay for their sake, be assured, you'll accomplish nothing - you're "going" will accomplish more than your "staying" ever could by showing them by deeds rather than words how serious matters really are - Remember, what's at stake here is eternity! - your eternity!

Get involved! Don't wait until it's too late!

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