Don’t ever let someone put you down because you believe in the literal fulfillment of biblical promises and prophecy.
Many of the people who spiritualize everything away eventually drift into a pseudo-Gnostic spirituality, where Christ is no longer coming to establish a real Kingdom or raise the dead into glorified, incorruptible bodies.
That habit of hyper-spiritualizing is exactly what will lead to the persecution of the saints and the war on the Lamb.
In that framework, believers who hold to Christ’s literal return and reign will be recast as followers of an evil “matrix” and its grand architect.
You can already see the groundwork being laid for this. They’ll label you a “Christian Zionist,” then lock arms with the world to justify violence against you.
Jesus warned about this in Matthew 24. He called them wicked servants, people who get drunk with the world and beat their fellow servants. That spirit is already rising.
Because they spiritualize Christ’s return and Kingdom, and believe they’ve superseded the literal promises made to physical Israel, still in unbelief and hardened for a time, they’ll claim the land for themselves.
They’ll march on the holy city for 42 months under the leadership of the beast, calling him God’s anointed.
In the end, they’ll come face to face with the returning Christ, convinced they’re defeating evil, only to encounter judgment instead.
Judah will cry out to God during Jacob’s trouble, and the true Messiah will appear. They’ll recognize the One they pierced. (Zech 12:10)
It’s an incredibly ironic story, and it’s unfolding right in front of us.