Tuesday.....International.....Prophecy And The Newspaper

               The 1970s through the 1980s saw an explosion of prophecy teaching and prophecy books in Evangelicalism. The American church today primarily believes in what is called the pre-tribulation rapture. We see this ridiculed from time to time in the media and entertainment industries. Some believe that a rapture will occur before a tribulation period and some believe that it will occur in the midst on a seven-year tribulation period. Others see a rapture after all of the tribulation has taken place and some do not see anything that resembles a rapture or a seven year tribulation.
               One thing that we all agree on is that Scripture teaches very clearly that Jesus will return. We proclaim this often but how much we want it to be soon or even how much we really believe it, I don't know. I'm not doubting the honesty rather the logic. Certainly there are believers all around the world and even here in America that are experiencing so much pain through persecution that they sincerely look with hope towards the soon return of Jesus, but when one is raising a family with an expected bright future, it would be difficult for even the most devout to desire that it all will never happen, particularly if it means terrible tribulation beforehand. In my opinion, there are evidences that this time might be near.
              We are roughly at six thousand years of man's time on this earth. It's a significant number in Scripture. Even the most vociferous of those who deny that Israel has anything to do with the Lord's Second Coming, would have to admit that Israel's birth as a nation in 1948, particularly after a holocaust tried to eliminate the Jews, is more than only an interesting event in history. It has been a relatively short period of time since man has developed weapons that make end-times prophesies literally possible.
              I'll add two things that are of particular interest to me. Scripture strongly indicates that love will be in short supply and violence will increase during this time. I struggle with the newspaper every day in the tragic stories in how one man treats another man. Admittedly it is not new but in what once was considered a civilized society, it is startlingly frightful! If I remember correctly, when Carthage was uncovered, they found evidence of mounds of ashes where babies were sacrificed. We are not far from that, if apart at all, in our wanton killing of the unborn. And this, proudly defended as a right only for the last 40 years or so. The latest? Let the old people die so we can use the money that would lengthen their lives to improve the lives of children. That is if the pre-born make it past the Planned Parenthood Clinic.
             The second area that I am particularly interested in is terrorism. The 24th chapter of the book of Matthew is often referred to in prophesy, for the disciples actually asked Jesus when the time of the end would be. There are a couple parts of His answer that I return to again and again. He said And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. I have absolutely no training in the Greek language. I only have the reference books that anyone else might have. If the word rumors meant what we understand as a rumor, than it would be as if Jesus said You will hear of wars and "hear" of wars. The Greek word may primarily point to actually hearing the war or parts of it. (Now if you are a student of Greek and my words here are incorrect, I stand corrected and apologize for the confusion.) Terrorism is certainly not a new phenomenon but it has taken off like an Apollo rocket since the beginning of the 19th century and particularly so in the last century and more so again in the last forty years.
            I want to relate a disturbing story from the cover of today's Wall Street Journal. Here is a synopsis of what happened: Last week Mexican Special Forces killed a high-profile drug lord in a raid. A Petty Officer was killed in the raid and eulogized nationally as a hero. Hours after his burial, gunmen burst into a house at midnight and killed four members of the young man's family; his mother, brother, sister and and aunt. This is an elevation of the drug cartel killings and is generating extreme concerns that it is more related to the tactics around the world of full-fledged terrorism. Am I alone of those partaking of this blog, in thinking that we have to be pleading for God's mercy at what is happening around the globe? I don't think so. At the very least, we have to temper our temporal hopes, for the greater hope of the Second Coming.