Don English spent more than four and a half decades as a pastor on mission, taking more than 50 volunteer mission trips to 14 countries.
After being turned down by what was then the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board because of their age, English and his wife Nancy served three years in Ukraine and made 22 trips to Armenia in a dozen years.
Now in their 80s, they still are as committed as ever to mission work, opening their Dallas home to exchange students.
“I always wanted to go to Mongolia. Then Mongolia came to us,” English said.
But now, English feels like God has given him another mission. He wants to share with others what he believes God taught him through an exhaustive verse-by-verse study of Revelation, referring only to other Scriptures — not any commentaries — for guidance.
Bible study, not speculation
Since his early years growing up on a Texas dairy farm, English heard preachers speculate about the End Times.
Many predicted Jesus would return on or before 1988 — 40 years after the birth of the modern nation of Israel. They were wrong.
Others speculated about the identity of the Anti-Christ, using “666” as their guide and trying to apply it to the names of prominent individuals. They were mistaken.
Some even set dates for Christ’s return, linking current events directly to what they saw as signs of the times in Scripture. Each was proven wrong.
“Some of it is just plumb crazy,” English said.
Nevertheless, he was convinced God gave Revelation for a reason. So, beginning in May 1986, he set out to discover what God revealed in the New Testament’s final book. He was interested in “Bible study, not speculation,” he said.
English — who was pastor of three Texas churches and one in the Pacific Northwest — set aside the charts, the timelines and the speculation.
Instead, he concentrated solely on the biblical text of Revelation, and then compared it to other prophetic passages in the Old Testament.
After unsuccessful attempts to find a professional writer to record his insights, he finally committed to write a book himself, producing “The Message: Mankind’s Final Destiny.”
Approach defies easy categorization
“It’s controversial,” English said.
His analysis of Revelation doesn’t fit neatly into any of the typical approaches to understanding the End Times. His perspective is premillennial but not dispensational.
English believes in a Rapture of the church — although he acknowledges the term is not found in Scripture — and a seven-year Tribulation. However, he tends to think Christians will be “caught up” to be with Jesus halfway through the seven years, not prior to its beginning.
He completely rejects the notion of trying to connect the dots between current events and biblical signs in an effort to determine the date of Christ’s return.
“It’s not about calendar dates but about conditions,” he said.
When the family of God — the people of God in the Old Testament era and believers since the time of Jesus who have been redeemed by Christ — is complete, that’s when Christ will return, he concluded.
So, the mission enterprise to which English devoted most of his life and the mission of studying Revelation are more closely linked than they might seem at first glance.
And in spite of its symbols and signs that believers view differently, the final word of Revelation is a message of assurance for Christians in any age.
“Satan and his fallen angels are on death row,” English said. “And God is on the throne.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Ken Camp and originally published by Baptist Standard.
