Podcast Transcript: Click HERE to listen to the full episode.
I have recently been reflecting on my life and the spiritual journey I have been on since accepting Christ into my heart as a young adult. So much of the first few years of the journey were connected to learning and discovering many of the things I have been teaching and interviewing others about on this podcast. I can remember thinking if I could just understand Biblical truth and the God who it originated with I would be able to put it into practice in my own life.
However, what I was surprised to discover was that the truth was only the beginning. The journey really wasn’t so much about truth as it was about trusting God as he led me down the straight path to his Kingdom. The purpose of truth wasn’t salvation in it of itself but rather to keep me from going down the wrong path. If I wasn’t willing to walk where the truth was leading me on the path no matter how difficult the way looked at the time, then in practicality the truth was no more valuable to me than ignorance.
In the same way truth that serves no guiding purpose on the path also does me no good. In fact, some truth can actually become a distraction if I am spending so much of my time trying to understand it that serves no practical purpose in my life. Even worse, I might start to believe that intellectually solving the riddle is the same as obeying what it is telling me to do.
Paul acknowledged this danger as well when he said, “Knowledge puffs up but love edifies.” In other words, knowledge without a heartfelt willingness to follow the path where the knowledge is leading is the very essence of Phariseeism.
Unfortunately, when it comes to the doctrine of the Investigative Judgement and the 2300-day Prophecy of Daniel 8:13, 14 many Christians have fallen into the latter category rather than the former. For many the doctrines’ intellectual magnitude has eclipsed its practical purpose in the spiritual journey God has called us all to walk in these last days.
According to the book of Daniel the prophecy was to be sealed until the time of the end and it was at that time that it would serve a practical purpose for God’s people navigating the unique challenges and deceptions of the last days. Unfortunately, in an effort to understand and prove the answer many have forgotten the question. It is taught and yet not understood because we have distanced ourselves to far away from the question of justice. Our prosperity has blinded us to the real hope the investigative judgment applies to those suffering under the abuses of human empire today. In an effort to justify ourselves we forgot to stay on the path by seeking justice for the oppressed.
To talk about this more I invited pastor Marcos Torres to come on the podcast. Marcos is a prolific blogger, podcaster, and author of several books including his latest “The Death and Resurrection of the Investigative Judgment” which he discusses in greater detail on the episode today. Currently Marcos is pastoring in the great outback of Australia with his wife and children. You can keep up with everything he is doing on his website thestorychurchproject.com
I started the interview by asking him what motivated him to write a book about the 2300-day prophecy that many Christians struggle to find practical relevancy with today?