So I’ve heard a lot of sentiment recently about how many people think we’re in the end times. Honestly, I hope we are. So tonight I ask: so what?
I remember some random lady coming down our street when I was probably 4 years old and interrupting our kickball game telling us we were in the end times and we all needed to listen to what she had to say. Needless to say she didn’t exactly grab our attention.
So what am I saying? Am I a pastor encouraging people not to care what the Bible says about the end times? Pshhh. Not so much. I’m just saying, let’s be wise in how we approach the topic. Here are a few summary thoughts.
1. People have gotten this wrong for, oh, about two thousand years.
The first generation of disciples had it wrong. They thought Jesus was coming back in that generation. They were wrong. They saw things through their perspective and they missed it.
We see things through our perspective. That can limit us.
2. Perspective is huge. I think other times in history might have seemed closer to the end of the world.
If I had been alive when most of the world was at war with each other (TWICE) or the Cuban missile crisis LITERALLY brought the world to the brink of nuclear war, I would have been MUCH more likely to think the world was ending.
3. Declining morality and governmental failure must be considered historically and globally.
Some who say the end is near point to the increasingly liberal government of the United States. When Christianity was birthed, it entered a culture where the government was so opposed to it that it literally tried to kill people who followed Jesus to make it go away. Another reason people say we’re nearing the end times is declining morality. Throughout history MUCH more awful moral atrocities have come about than abortion and the homosexual agenda. People have been killed over theological debates, Christians have been burned alive for lighting at the emperor’s parties, and unwanted children used to be left for dead like trash on a curb. This is not to mention mass slaughters perpetrated in Russia, Germany, Cambodia, and China (not to mention the turmoil in the Middle East).
I’m not saying our moral culture is good – decline is obvious and troubling, but let’s have some perspective. Have not some global cultures seen great increase in spiritual revival and in political conditions? Rwanda today is far removed from the mid-90’s atmosphere that led to the slaughter of about a million people. Nations once under firm communist rule have more freedom today than 20 years ago. The church IS thriving and growing in dark places around the world.
(Note: I won’t even belabor the point about how technology and pervasive media coverage amplify every event in our faces like no other time in history.)
4. Even if it were the end times, Jesus wouldn’t want us to sit around and moan about how bad things are.
If we have concern for our moral culture, the only place it should lead us is to our knees. When Jesus taught the parable of the ten virgins, do you really think he wanted us to know that “keep watch” meant gluing your eyes to cable news for the next prophetic sign?
Interesting then that the next parable in Matthew is the parable of the talents. Nowhere in the Bible does it tell us that Jesus wants his followers to live out the last days arrested by alarm. Instead he wants us active, following him with passion until His return.
Until the time He comes, even if tomorrow, Jesus would have His Church to be active, showing love to the very people who would be separated from Him if He did come back. I sometimes get the sentiment from some Christians that they’d rather Jesus come back and condemn to hell all these people ruining our country than zealously witness to them and desire that they’d be joining us in heaven instead!
Think. Do you long for Jesus’ return? Why? If you think the time is growing close, what separates this period of time from other times of calamity in history?
Act. Do you feel urgency about the cause of Jesus Christ? Love, evangelize, sacrifice – urgency should breed action and desperate intercession, not complaining.