On
“60 Minutes” this past Sunday evening, they presented some of the parents who
lost children because of the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. It was
painful to watch and listen as the parents grappled with the aftermath of this
tragic and senseless loss of life. As I watched and wrestled with my own
emotions, it suddenly hit me: “The media is prophesying to the nation because
the church is not!”
I
hear the rants from the political left and the right about gun control,
background checks, and even taking away all guns. I read the reports, as I know
you do, about gun shops selling weapons at unprecedented levels, and supplies
of ammunition being bought up within hours of being delivered from the
manufacturer. Stores can’t keep bullets in stock! What does this say to us
about our nation?
Forget
all the rhetoric about assault weapons or size limitations on magazines. What
is all the panic-buying of guns and ammunition saying to us? What is the
increasing frequency of violent crime, shootings and stabbings saying to us?
How
can I say that the media is prophesying to the nation and the church is not?
The media is attempting to grapple with the problem and get it out in front of
the nation. The media sees the problem as guns — and, specifically, the wrong
kind of guns — getting into the wrong hands.
On that issue they are, right or wrong, prophesying to the nation. Large
segments of the historic church agree with the media.
The
real issue, as I see it, is not a second amendment issue but the lack of a proper
biblical perspective on the end times. Sad to say, the contemporary church is
largely silent about prophecy and the end times. I had one pastor of a
megachurch tell me, “I will never talk about prophecy or anything prophetic.
That’s a mine field and can too easily make me look bad.” His statement is pretty
sad, but that’s just my opinion.
Let
me share with you, from my point of view, a little perspective on the end
times. I think we all can get a better grip on what is happening by looking at
what three of the principal characters of the New Testament had to say about
the days in which we are living.
First,
let’s look at just one thing Jesus had to say about this moment in history.
In
Matthew 24:3, the disciples asked Jesus, “Tell us, when will these things be?
And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” Jesus
takes the disciples through a list of things that will happen, including
famine, earthquakes, wars, rumors of war, and then says, “All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:8). The word sorrows in the original language means
“birth pains.”
When
a baby is close to being birthed, the mother’s pains begin to increase in
frequency and intensity. As the moment of birth comes, the pain goes from being
sporadic to continuous until birth takes place. Jesus was saying to us that the
end-time events would become increasingly painful and continual in occurrence.
Second,
let’s look at what the apostle Paul had to say about the end times.
“But know this, that in the last days
perilous times will come” (2 Timothy 3:1). The word perilous means “harsh, savage, dangerous, hard to deal with.” The
word describes a society that is barren of virtue but abounding with vices. The
word describes a society whose children think it is okay to film a drunken girl
being raped and then pass the video around on their cell phones. We are living
in a society that is being drained of virtue.
Finally,
we come to the words of the apostle John, the writer of the book of Revelation.
“Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and
the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he
knows that he has a short time” (Revelation 12:12).
This
passage, I believe, is speaking primarily of the devil’s frantic activities on
the earth because he knows that his time here is limited. The word wrath means “exploding anger, impulsive
outbursts of hot anger or rage.” Isn’t this what we are seeing in these
senseless shootings and stabbings taking place with obviously increasing
frequency?
So
why would I say that the media is prophesying to the nation and the church is
not? The media is driven by its own self-importance to try and correct what it
views as a wrong in the world. Can or will God use the secular? The Bible is
full of instances of God using pagan kings and nations to achieve His purposes
when His people were in disobedience. The contemporary church is not going to
prophesy to the nation, because they have largely given up a sense of urgency
in order to facilitate a need for acceptance and the perception of success.
