Troubled Times and End Time Predictions

Troubled Times

I am a news-monger.  I watch news.  I listen to the news.  I read the news.  I am obsessed with the assimilation of news.   Sometimes I wonder if today will be the day the Lord returns for His bride.  Surely He is getting lonely and wants us by His side!  Surely He knows we are longing for Him!  We want to be with him!  I know why John the revelator said, “Come Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22.20).

I think we can get caught up with all the news to a dangerous degree.  I mean, I for one love news.  But there are some people who are so caught up in the news that they try to become arm-chair prophets.  Most of us are amateur apocalyptic interpreters.  We attempt to take news and clothe it in the few end time scriptures we know and make conversation about it.  Nothing wrong with any of that except when we become radical with our interpretations.  We attempt to become the neighborhood Jack Van Impe with our end time insights.  We take on the theory of Fox News – “We report.  You decide.”

Our prophetic opinions become rock solid predictions. Sometimes when we really don’t know what we’re talking about or we just repeat what we’ve heard – and pray it’s on target and balanced – we can make a mess of the news and its application to reality.

I am reminded tonight of what Luke recorded in the book of Acts.

Acts 1:6-7

(6)  So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”  (7)  He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority.

While an interest in end time events and how they relate to Holy Writ is not a bad thing – it is something we can be overwhelmed with and easily forget why God put us here on the earth in the first place – to witness the life of His Son!  Let me give you the next passage of scripture – the one that follows up the statement about not becoming to involved with seasons and prophetic epochs.

Acts 1:8

(8)  but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

Here is what God wants us to become “obsessed” with.  He wants us empowered by His Spirit to become martyrs for His kingdom.  The power to become what He has ordained us to become – witnesses.  The Greek for witness here is martyr.  The word implies a “genuineness of faith.”  Think about that for a moment.  In a season of troubling times, hard times of economic turmoil and governments falling and rising – God has empowered us with the ability to live with a genuine faith.  We just witnessed a 7000 year old Pharaohic government fall in eighteen days!  We are watching a domino affect take place in middle eastern nations.  People are rising up against cruel dictatorships.  Liberty and freedom are being pursued with a passion. Those in pursuit of freedom from tyranny have placed the value of their lives on the line.  Thousands have already lost their lives.  How many more?  All in the name of freedom.  They have become martyrs of freedom.  They have become witnesses of freedom.  They are demonstrating their faith in freedom.  Governmental and civil freedom.  They are demonstrating a “genuine faith” in their future of freedom and democracy.

Then there is the church in America. We don’t have to become martyrs for our governmental freedom – at least not yet.  We have been called, empowered and anointed to live out, to demonstrate another witness.  The witness of Christ.  We have been called to live out a genuine faith in the work of Christ for all mankind.  While we absorb the vignettes of news items that have made the world a “village” – we can get so caught up in our pursuit of apocalyptic interpretation that we forget why we are here in the first place – to witness His grace and mercy for all of humanity.

Yes, I am a news-monger.  I am a Fox News-aholic.  I admit it.  I’m not sure I need anybody to lay hands on me to exercise deliverance.  I think I can control my need for news.  WHat I don’t want to do is miss the opportunity to become a witness of His mercy and grace to all of humanity in these last days.  If there ever was a time for us to saddle up the horse of martyrdom – it is now.  May all of us in these last days understand that while we may chase an amateur conclusion to Bible prophecy we cannot overlook our neighbors who are on their way to hell without a Savior.  To think the greatest sign of the end times may live a mere fifty feet from our front door – our unsaved neighbor.  While we take notes on end time scriptures the greatest conclusion we can come to in relationship to the coming of the Lord is that our neighbor may not know the One we are waiting to return.  How shameful is that?