PERSPECTIVE ON CURRENT EVENTS

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.