“The Earth is degenerating today. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching.” Sound familiar?
We hear things like this all the time. Harold Camping predicted the end of the world first September 6, 1994 and then as recently as May 21, 2011. In fact there was a major advertising blitz throughout the U.S. telling us so! Both dates came and went. The Jehovah’s Witness organization first predicted the end of the world as October 1914, 1915, and 1918 then started to realize it wasn’t happening but started back up and predicted 1925, then 1932 and finally 1975. And there are/were many more false prophets: Remember Sun Myung Moon and David Koresh?
Mark 13:5-6 (TNIV)
5 Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 6 Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many.
We must always beware of groups or people who claim that they have special knowledge of when Jesus will return. As I mentioned yesterday, “Jesus answered these questions about the end times, questions about the future, so that we could learn to live in the present. He didn’t tell us these things so that we could calculate and try to determine and predict the exact day and hour they would happen. Jesus wants us to be spiritually alert and prepared for His return. But, just as important, he wants us to live in ‘today’.”
The disciples ask Jesus in mark 13:4, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?” Well…….Jesus first tells them this: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 6 Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many.”
The best way to prepare for the future is simply to stay faithful. It is important that we stay away from imposter’s and people who want to lead us down the wrong path. When we put all of our focus on the world ending tomorrow, we lose focus on loving God and others today. The only sure way for us to keep from being deceived is to focus on Jesus and His wisdom.
By the way……Scripture does tell us one thing that will be unmistakable:
Mark 13:26 (TNIV)
“At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.Revelation 1:7 (TNIV)
“Look, he is coming with the clouds,” and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him”; and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.” So shall it be! Amen.
Oh, that quote I started out with, “The Earth is degenerating today. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching.” ……it allegedly was written on an Assyrian tablet 2800 years before the birth of Jesus.
So, let’s focus on Jesus’ and His wisdom every day and let’s focus on a relationship with Him and the fruit of that relationship is focusing on others and loving all of God’s creation. Tomorrow will come and we will be prepared…….