What on earth is going on?

One could be forgiven for thinking that the battle had been lost... what battle?

The battle for planet earth!

Almost everywhere one looks the hand of the the dark lord is seen at work. Across the globe there are ominous signs of deep and very unsettling issues bubbling to the surface.

The "Middle East", long a source of troubled news is imploding: the barbaric civil war in Syria is almost overshadowed by the latest news from Iraq, deep divisions, usually along religious lines are threatening several other nations, and Egypt continues to wage war on itself. Israel is, once again, at the center of world news, caught between a rock and a hard place. Trying to defend itself, it has become the focus of the millennial old hatred of the Jewish people. 

A plague of almost "Biblical proportions" is stalking the earth, destroying economies, forcing countries into "lock-down", showing up woefully prepared politicians and bureaucrats. Death tolls in many countries will likely equal to ohave surpassed civilian deaths in world War 2. Sabre rattling by belligerent nations is on the increase, and the "dogs of war" are frothing at the mouth.     

The African Continent is deeply divided, famine, internecine strife, rumors of and actual wars continue to leave wrack and ruin in their wake. In India,  caste violence against young girls and teenage women see rape being treated as "laddish, boyish behaviors". Sadly the rapists usually escape any form of human justice. "Honor killing" of wives and single women (and occasionally homosexual men) in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq defy any explanation and betray a deep-seated hatred of women. This savagely vicious practice is increasingly being carried out in so-called civilized nations (read here and here). The 21st Century, which began with so much hope and yearning for peace and prosperity, and only 20 years old, sees humanity on a seemingly endless downward spiral toward Armageddon .

 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. Matthew 24:7 NASB

The natural world is in disarray, weather disasters are becoming commonplace, earthquakes are increasing in frequency and magnitude and animal species are disappearing at an alarming rate. I don't know about you dear reader, but if I wasn't a follower of Jesus Christ I would be trying to get a place on the Mars One project.  

What is going on?
For all of my adult Christian life, I have lived expecting the imminent return of Jesus Christ to take His rightful place as King in God's Kingdom. I, like many many others, was taught that that event would unfold around the year 2000.  It didn't! 

I must admit that my faith  took a bit of a hit with that non-event. I fell into the trap that so many others have been caught in over the centuries. Date setting! One thing is certain: all predictions of our Lord's much anticipated return, based upon "signs of the times", up to today, have been 100% WRONG!

King Richard and The Knights Templar

Around 200 AD, the prophets of the Montanist movement predicted that Christ would return in their lifetime and set up the New Jerusalem in the city of Pepuza in Asia Minor.Today no one is really certain just where Pepuza was.

In 999 countless Europeans gave away their possessions to the Catholic Church, to prepare their souls for the expected end of the world on January 1, 1000. The Catholic priests carefully recorded all donations to the church and refused to give them back when Christ failed to show up on schedule.

In 1190, English King Richard the Lion-Heart conferred with mystic and theologian Joachim of Fiore. They calculated that the Antichrist was already alive and living  somewhere in the world, and that it would be the destiny of Richard to deal with and defeat him, and that the Millennium rule of Christ would begin by 1205. Richard missed his date with Antichrist, dying in 1199. 

Faithful Christians in Russia predicted the end of the world in 1669.  When it didn't happen, 20,000 of them burned themselves to death in the period up to 1690 to protect themselves from the coming of Antichrist, who was later identified as Peter the Great.

 
There are many other well known examples of date setting; denominations and cults have been founded upon the very thing that Christ warned His followers about: "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power," Acts 1:7 KJV

 
Christ is not going to advise us in advance of the time of His coming, any more than burglars announce in advance when they are going to strike. "But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night," 1 Thessalonians 5:1-2 KJV

That the "sands of time" are going to run out one day is a given.  Until they do, we need to remind ourselves, regularly, that we are to be about His work in this sin soaked world, help others where we can, spread the Good News when we can and wait. If our Lord returns tomorrow or in 100 or 1000 years from now; remember that the Battle for Planet Earth has already been won! 

Republished/updated from July 2014