The frontman for the Grammy-nominated and groundbreaking Christian band Stryper says he believes Jesus' return will take place sooner than skeptics believe and that he doesn't care if people think he's crazy.
Michael Sweet, whose Scripture-infused rock music has captivated audiences, made the comments during an interview with the Chuck Shute Podcast, pointing to prophecies that have been fulfilled.
"I think we're definitely living in the end times, but that could be short, that could be relatively soon, in the very near future, or that could be in a relatively distant future," Sweet said, according to Blabbermouth. "I don't think it's gonna be hundreds of thousands of years from now, but I think that it's coming, and our time is marked. … I think sometimes we think we're invincible – nothing can hurt us – and, obviously, Covid kind of taught us a lesson on that, didn't it? We are not invincible, and anything can happen at any given time unexpectedly that leaves us in awe, saying, 'Oh my gosh. I had no idea. I never even imagined that ever happening.' And it can and will happen. It's just a matter of time."
Sweet and his Stryper bandmates received a Grammy nomination for their 1986 album To Hell With the Devil and viewed their music as a way to reach the unchurched with the gospel. They threw Bibles into the audience. They also placed a Bible verse on their posters: Isaiah 53:5. The name "Stryper" is a reference to part of that verse: "With his stripes we are healed."
Sweet acknowledged that his beliefs are unpopular in some circles.
"But yet at the same time, when you go through the Bible, if you were to really dive deep into the Bible and have someone explain the theory of it to you and the stories that are behind the stories – so someone really smart, who isn't me – they could explain to you stuff that would make your chin hit the floor. And all the stuff that the Bible predicted that has already taken place, and really the only thing left is God's return and what follows after that, one of those things being the battle of Armageddon.
"People can laugh and sneer and think Christians are crazy, and that's fine," Sweet added. "I believe in the Bible, I believe what it says, and I think those times are coming. I think we're living in those times – absolutely, for sure. We live in a very interesting world, and I think everyone could at least agree on that – that times have changed dramatically in the past two years."
When Jesus returns, he said, "It'll be too late for the people who thought those people were crazy."
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Neilson Barnard/Stringer
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
