I've had a couple of people ask me about my take on the recent events in the Middle East, New Zealand, and the Adam's killed on their yacht by Somali pirates. Political unrest in the Middle East is at a stage never seen before, earthquakes in Haiti and New Zealand, general persecution of Christians... does all this mean that the End Times are near? It seems to me (and others) that every generation thinks they are living in the last days. My short answer is, no, we are not yet there. For the long answer, keep reading.
Whether you are a pre-tribulationist, mid-tribulationsit, or hold some other view, there are some signs that the end is near that all agree on. The first of these is that the Gospel needs to have reached all peoples. This can be found in Matthew 24:14, and Mark 13:10. Even with our incredible technology today, this has not yet happened. According to the Joshua Project there are still 2.8 billion people who have not been reached. From a people group perspective 41% of the people groups have yet to be reached. That's still a great deal of work to be done.
The "birth pangs" that the earth will go through is another sign. This relates to natural disasters, earthquakes, tsunami, volcanoes, the earth itself reacting to the immanent coming of Christ. Not to minimize the loss of life and destruction of resent events in Iceland, New Zealand, the 2004 tsunami, or any place else, but, there have been far greater natural disasters with greater loss of life and with greater global impact. There was the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, many other eruptions, the earthquakes in Armenia, Mexico City, and Haiti. While these are individually terrible losses of life and property, they do not stand out as a global event.
Then we have the Beast with 10 Horns(Daniel chapters 2/7, Revelation 12/13/17), which has been interpreted to mean 10 nations that will band together to solve the world's problems. When I was younger the EU was supposed to be this. However, the EU now has double that number of members. There is the G10, the Group of Ten(now eleven) economic powers that set economic world policy China and Russia are also involved with all G10 meetings, so that probably does not fit.
While things are not good today, they probably have more to do with Kondratiev waves than with end times. In the end there is only one thing that we, as Christians, have any control over. That is the spread of the Gospel. If you want to see Christ return, get busy spreading the word, the rest will work itself out.
While most would like to see the return of Christ in the near future, I agree that there is much work to be done until that day. That being said no one knows the date of the glorious one's return so we must be active vocal christians in the community. Nice post!!
ReplyDeleteOnce again, great post. One "atheist's advocate question", the Joshua's Project calculations on who had been "reached" seem arbitrary. To you, what does "reached" mean? How would you qualify/quantify that? How much access to the Word does one require to be reached? Is a South American Rainforest Indian reached because he has heard the name "Christ"? Am I reached since I was brought up Catholic and have read the Bible cover to cover? Pray for JP, my thought go with him.
ReplyDeleteI certainly am with you in praying for Julius Pearl. Are you reached? Yes, you are. I'm not sure how you can be an atheist and a KA at the same time. How can you even agree with the motto, Dieu et Les Dames if you do not believe in God? If you look around the website they share their methods, it's not arbitrary. I was brought up Catholic, and disagreed with most everything I was taught. Belief in God and the Bible are not restricted to one denomination.
ReplyDelete