Are We Truly in the Last Days?
I’ve been looking at the news lately. Most of the stuff to see and read is just one sad story after another. I don’t pay attention to it much. News most of the time is kinda like a glass of water. You drink it in you feel the sensation as it enters your mouth and it is gone from your memory. Endless images of atrocity after atrocity flashes before our eyes to such a degree that we are not moved by most of what we see. Some of the things I have seen lately in the news have been sticking out more in my mind and making me think.
I have heard many proclaim that the return of Christ is upon us soon. I have heard it since I was a little kid crawling around my parents legs in church. I once saw a movie in church that scared me so bad, that I was afraid and had nightmares that someone was going to come into my room, stamp the mark of the beast on my forehead and I would go to hell. The fear-factor type evangelism of the 70′s and 80′s fizzled out but gave birth to the end-time prophesy guys. These dudes who could take the most abstract news article like a story about the Colonel’s secret recipe and tie it to the rise of the anti-christ and a one-world government. At the same time you had many men that were prophesying the world would end more than once in my lifetime. There are those who are still predicting and prophesying devastation and destruction. I remember standing outside once as a kid standing on one of those days waiting to see Him split the Eastern sky which never happened. So many people looked so rediculous trying to predict His coming when the scriptures explicitly say “that noone knows the day or the hour”(Matthew 24:36). Anyone who thinks that they can predict the hour, day, or year need to read the scripture and learn what the bible truly says.
Our mandate is preach the gospel to the uttermost parts of the Earth. We are to proclaim the gospel to the nations. He will not return until the world had heard the gospel (Matt 24:14). Our mandate is not to scour the newspaper to look for signs of His return. Our mandate is to read our bibles, find out what He is telling us to do to futher His kingdom and go do it! We are to reach those who do not know Christ personally and start new churches with the same mission, whether locally or in other nations! Anything that takes our focus off those things are dangerous distractions. I say this all the time but too much of any good thing is not a good thing.
Do I think we are in the last days before Christ’s return? Yes I do. How much more important is it to preach Christ crucified, risen, and returning again knowing this? Let His Word be our draw, not fear of a coming world dictator, or one world currency. Our time is short. His Word is more than enough. Let us focus on the work at hand and reach this world for Christ until He returns!
Kevin
