Last Days

Unrecognizable

Valerie Cullers 14 Comments

Have you ever gone to a town where you had visited and something devastating had happened there? You start to survey the landscape and look for familiar landmarks, but don’t see them. The scale of the devastation is so great that the area is unrecognizable. You aren’t sure exactly which street you are on, and it is impossible to find the features you remember. Has that ever happened to you?

If it has, you know that the first thing you do is get out your phone and call up Google Maps. You hope there is some way to get your bearings and find what you are looking for. You desperately search for something familiar so you can orient yourself to your surroundings.

That is exactly how I feel when I look at the culture around me. I feel I am living in a society that is unrecognizable from the one I grew up in. Almost every social metric has plummeted in a negative direction. Just to name a few: criminal behavior has skyrocketed because it is rewarded with a slap on the wrist and a get out of jail free card. Homelessness is accepted as a normal part of society, and few public officials are able to find a meaningful solution to the problem. The benchmarks on the education of our students are abysmal, and yet billions are thrown in that direction with little or no improvement in literacy or mathematical skills.

Unfortunately, I can’t call up Google Maps for help to try to navigate our culture. How do I, as a believer in Jesus Christ, live in a meaningful way in an unrecognizable society? The only thing I know to do is to go to the Scriptures to help me find my bearings. When I read them, I can somehow get a perspective on what I see taking place. When I look at some of the last words that Jesus spoke to his disciples, they open my eyes and help me see the signposts I am looking for.

Jesus said that the last days would be like the days of Noah. Those days were marked by violence and genetic engineering. He also said they would be like the days of Sodom. Those days were filled with sexual perversion and children being misused by unscrupulous adults. Jesus talked about the love of many growing cold, and if that isn’t one of the primary mileposts of our day, I don’t know what is. Man has stopped caring about his fellow human beings, and meaningful compassion is in short supply.

Rather than walking around dazed and confused, each of us can look to the Scriptures for clear direction. We can ask the Lord to fill us with His Spirit so that we may love our fellow man. We can do whatever is within our capabilities to make a positive difference in the lives of those around us. Then and only then will we make a significant impact and the landscape we see will become more recognizable.

Are These Really The Last Days?

Valerie Cullers Leave a comment

pexels-photo-735647.jpegLately, I have heard many pastors and teachers say we are living in the last days before the return of Jesus. I don’t like to take anyone’s word for something like that, so I decided to examine the evidence for myself.

First, I went to the Bible and looked primarily at the verses in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 that talk about this time. What do they say the conditions on earth will be like before the coming of Jesus? I decided to list some of them and then come up with my own conclusions.

The first sign in Matthew 24 is that there would be false Christs and they would deceive many. I went on Google and found there are countless people claiming to be the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Some have a few followers, while others seem to be only deceiving themselves. There were others, however,  like Jim Jones, David Koresh and Sun Myung Moon who, among themselves, have deceived countless individuals.

The next sign would be an environment on the earth where there would be “wars and rumors of wars.” Jesus went on to say, “nation would rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.” The word for nation in the Greek is “ethnos.” In other words ethnic group would be fighting against ethnic group. I have heard enough on the news to know that this sign is taking place.

There would be “famines.” I need only to look at Africa and the people there who have been experiencing famine for years. Some of the famines have been from natural causes, but others are man-made and a form of political genocide on a particular group of people. There are also millions of refugees around the world who are on the brink of starvation because of wars taking place in their countries.

There would be “earthquakes.” In Luke 21, it says “great earthquakes.” Again, I have seen this happening all around the world, but a 2014 NBC news story entitled, “Worldwide Surge in Great Earthquakes in the Last 100 Years” was an interesting read. The USGS also has a list of the strongest earthquakes since 1900. There are a lot of them, and all of them that are 8.0 and above on the Richter Scale and are considered “great earthquakes.”

There would be “pestilences.”  I looked that word up, and it means a disease that normally would kill you. I think of the rise of diseases such as Ebola and AIDS. There are also superbugs that are resistant to medications, and if you get one of them, there is not much the medical community can do for you. Pestilences are here.

Luke 21 also lists “signs in the sun, moon and stars.” I had heard of the four blood moons that occurred on Jewish feast days and the Revelation 12 sign that just occurred in the sky recently. Will there be more? I will have to watch and see.

Jesus also said in Matthew 24 that the gospel would be preached in all of the world and then the end will come. The gospel is being preached on the internet and on television in various countries around the world with the technology of satellites.

Israel would have to be a nation again, as there are several references to Jerusalem and Judea in these passages. Israel became a nation in 1948, so that seems to be lining up with Scripture.

After I thought about all of these things, I decided, “Yes, these could very definitely be the last days. It does seem like we are moving towards the culmination of all things and the return of Jesus Christ.” So what should I do?

I will continue to read Scripture and watch world events so I can be aware of what is happening. I will try to keep my eyes on Jesus in the midst of these unsettled times. And I will pray; for myself to be awake and aware, and for others to look around and see the events happening today in the light of the prophetic passages in the Bible.