The Final Stretch

Where we are, where we’re going, and how this series will end

Folks, Lord willing, we are in the home stretch. Forty-six posts ago we started at “In the beginning”and we have walked together through the Law, the history books, the poets, the prophets, the four Gospels, Acts, and Paul’s letters to Rome and Corinth. Eighteen books remain in this series, from Galatians through Jude. Most of them are short letters, and a few of them fit on a single page.

I want to finish this strong. Not for my own sake, but because the One we have been tracing from Genesis forward deserves a finished work. Paul said near the end of his life, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith”(2 Timothy 4:7). That is the goal here. “If the Lord will” (James 4:15), we will finish this course, and I can close this chapter and move on to whatever He has next.

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A Spoiler Up Front: Revelation

I will not be writing a post on Revelation, and I want you to know that now so nobody is waiting on it.

Revelation opens with a promise that no other book in the Bible makes in quite the same way: “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand” (1:3). And it closes with a solemn warning against anyone who would add to or take away from the words of that prophecy (22:18–19). I take both of those seriously. That blessing is promised to the one who reads it, and I want you to have it firsthand, not secondhand through me.

So this one is yours. Read it yourself, slowly and prayerfully. Keep Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Isaiah open beside you, because Revelation leans on them on nearly every page, and we have already walked through every one of them together. You have the tools now. Go do that work yourself. I’ve done enough of the chewing for you.

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How This Blog Will Close

After Jude, there will be one final post, and then this blog will be complete. It will be an overview of fraud in the clergy: its history, its impact on the lives of God’s children, and where it stands as we head out of 2026 and into the years ahead.

This is not new. Eli’s sons took the best of the sacrifices for themselves while the people watched (1 Samuel 2:12–17). Ezekiel thundered against shepherds who fed themselves and not the flock (Ezekiel 34:2). Jesus drove the money changers out of His Father’s house. Paul warned the elders at Ephesus that “grievous wolves” would come in among them, “not sparing the flock” (Acts 20:29). Peter said they would come “through covetousness”and “with feigned words make merchandise of you” (2 Peter 2:3). The pattern is as old as the priesthood, and the damage it does to sincere believers is real.

Let me be clear about one thing ahead of time. That post is not an attack on faithful shepherds. There are many of them, and Scripture says the elders who rule well are worthy of double honor (1 Timothy 5:17). But Jesus also told us, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing… Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:15–16). God’s people deserve to know how to tell the difference.

Thank you to every one of you who has read along, shared these posts, and sent a word of encouragement. Let’s finish this together.

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY · MARANATHA

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