The days in which we live

When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed.  Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains. You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me, you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. And the Gospel must first be preached to all nations.  Mark 13: 7 - 10

These verses would seem to indicate that we are indeed in the last days – the days before Jesus returns in power and glory.  North Korea is threatening all sorts of things involving nuclear weapons, Palestine and Israel are on the verge of war and there are other wars all over the planet.  There are more earthquakes now than at any time in history and certainly famine is widespread.

The rapid spread of technology means we are more aware of world affairs than at any time in history.  However there have been other times in the past when the church felt it was living in the last days.  I believe in John Wesley’s time, the church believed Jesus would be returning soon. Certainly there must have been times when believers in other parts of the world would have looked at events in the light of these verses and thought Jesus’ second coming was imminent.

So whether these are the last of the last days or just another birth pang, Jesus makes a few things clear.  The first is not to be alarmed.  Our God is in charge of world history. He is not sitting back letting it all happen and then at the last moment sending Jesus to the earth. There are verses all through the Bible which says that God is in control of the nations. Many people will be panicky but we must not.

We must of course be praying diligently and the other thing we must be prepared to do is to be a witness. The Gospel is to go out into all the world and that means each one of us must be prepared to share the good news of God’s love wherever we have opportunity. We may be taken before governments and kings and, if we are, we will be given the words to say but everyone of us will need to be praying and sharing God’s love.

Salvation is what matters most. Jesus came to seek and to save what was lost (Luke 19:10). On the cross, Jesus destroyed the power of sin and death so that by believing in him, we might all be saved from our sin to spend eternity with him (I Timothy 2:4). That is the Gospel, the good news. That is what everyone MUST hear and in these increasingly uncertain times, when there are wars and rumours of wars, of banks wobbling and financial institutions crumbling, when governments don’t really know what to do, the Church and we as Christians must speak forth God’s love and salvation to a lost and dying world.