End Times

I posted this last month but we talked about it with John and Stephanie on WORD FM today so I'm reposting for those looking for the article:

For decades Christians have questioned whether the problems of the day could be the tell tale signs of the End Times. Some chalk this up to a few "Jesus Freaks" who cry "the end is near" to passing crowds who could care less, but it's much more than that.

William Miller"s 100,000 followers were so sure of his prediction that October 22, 1844 would be the exact date of the "seventh day of creation" and Jesus Christ's return to earth, that they sold their farms and businesses to prepare for it. 100,000 people duped in 1844, and here we still are today.

In the 1960s the U.S. faced the Cuban Missile Crisis. People wondered was this the beginning World War III? The sense of impending doom was so strong that 200,000 American households built bomb shelters. The also wondered if this was the end times as they hunkered under desks and in shelters.

Those claims from the past are back again. Louis Sahagun, writing in the Arab-American News, claims that many Christians are "laying the groundwork for Armageddon" in order to "speed the promised arrival of a messiah". I don't think anything we do will speed up or slow down God's plan.

Even in Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has suggested that the elimination of Israel would herald the return of a 9th-century Muslim cleric known as the Mahdi, the 12th Imam. He hopes to welcome that messiah to Tehran within two years. So now we are in a race for the messiah?

The questions must be asked. Could we be experiencing the first days of World War III? If so, is World War III the final prelude to Christ's return?

The Bible, in the third chapter of Second Timothy, says: "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power." Sadly, we fit that description.

I'm not convinced that we are in the end times. I am convinced we live in a fallen world. But I'm not selling the farm and building a shelter to wait for the return of Christ. I don't think we are called to do that. Instead, I believe we should all live like the end is only a day away. Not to withdraw from the world, but to embrace it. Change the priorities of your daily life like the end is near. No one is ever promised a moment beyond now.
If we are in the last days before Christ's return, what would you change about your life? Let's stop trying to figure out God's schedule and live like the clock is ticking, even if there wasn't a crisis going on in the Middle East.