As discussions around spiritual awakening in the United States gain momentum, religious apologist Frank Turek is urging a focus on discipleship rather than simply seeking spiritual experience. Turek’s comments, made during a recent appearance on the “Quick Start” podcast, also address the perennial human tendency to predict the timing of eschatological events – the ‘end times’ – and the potential pitfalls of such speculation.
Turek’s central argument revolves around a distinction between a superficial “getting saved” and the more demanding path of becoming a disciple. He questions the prevalent notion of obtaining “fire insurance” – a colloquial term for securing salvation – without a corresponding commitment to actively following the teachings of Jesus Christ. “Jesus didn’t say, ‘Come make believers,’” Turek stated. “He said, ‘Come make disciples.’ And that means carrying your cross, and doing things that you might not normally want to do. It means denying yourself and following Him, and that’s hard.”
The conversation unfolded against a backdrop of reported spiritual activity within the U.S., prompting questions about whether a period of both societal upheaval and religious renewal could coexist. This, in turn, led to the inevitable discussion of the Second Coming and attempts to pinpoint its timing. Turek offered a firm rejoinder, grounding his response directly in the New Testament. “I would venture to say that no one knows when Jesus is coming back, and my source on that is Jesus,” he said. He cited Jesus’s own words – that no one knows the day or the hour – and the analogy of the thief in the night, emphasizing the unpredictability of the event.
This uncertainty, Turek argues, is not accidental. He believes the specifics of the end times are deliberately “veiled for a reason,” drawing a parallel to the way the significance of Jesus’s first coming was obscured from those living under the Old Testament covenant. “Just like Jesus’ first coming, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2 that if these things were known, that the forces of this world never would have crucified the Lord of glory,” he explained. “When you look back on Old Testament prophecy in the light of the New Testament, you go, ‘Oh, now I see how all these passages fit together. But looking forward, if you’re in the Old Testament, you don’t really know this is going to happen.”
The apologist posited that if Satan had understood that the crucifixion would ultimately be his defeat, he would not have instigated it. The Lord, Turek contends, intentionally concealed this crucial detail. This deliberate obscurity, he suggests, also serves a practical purpose: preventing complacency. Knowing the exact date of the Second Coming, he argues, would encourage procrastination and a last-minute repentance, rather than a sustained commitment to faith.
Turek shifted the focus from speculative timelines to the immediate reality of human mortality. He pointed out that, statistically, most people alive today will die within the next century, regardless of when Christ returns. “You know your life’s going to end here on earth,” he said. “You better deal with that … instead of worrying about when He’s going to come to end the whole show.” This underscores a call to address existential questions and the need for spiritual preparation, not as a distant concern, but as an urgent personal matter.
Beyond simply urging belief, Turek emphasized the importance of intellectual engagement with Christianity. He challenged the notion of faith as a blind leap, advocating for a reasoned defense of the Christian worldview. “I mean, why should you be a Christian and not an atheist, or a Muslim, or Hindu, or a Buddhist, or make up your own world religion or your own personal religion like so many people do today?” he asked. “The reason you ought to be a Christian is because it’s true, because there’s evidence that God exists, that Jesus rose from the dead, that the Bible is telling the truth, that you’re a fallen human being.”
Turek’s message, delivered amidst a climate of heightened religious discussion, represents a call for both personal accountability and intellectual rigor. It’s a perspective that moves beyond simply anticipating the end of the world to focusing on the quality of life lived *before* that potential event, and the justification for that life’s foundational beliefs. The emphasis on discipleship and evidence-based faith positions his argument as a challenge to both passive religious observance and purely speculative eschatology.
