There are many of us who have been talking about the “Last Days” for a while now. And we continue to talk about them, as it grows clearer with each passing week that we are in them.
But no one knows how long those “Last Days” will last. It could be that the Lord will return today or it could be that He will return in fifty years. Or more.
God’s timeline is not our timeline.
As the world continues on without our Lord’s return, the scoffing from both those who claim to follow Christ and from those who don’t continues to grow. Peter told us this would happen:
Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. (2 Peter 3:3-4)
Things do continue on. We don’t know how…but somehow they do.
That doesn’t mean Christ isn’t returning. It just means His timeline is not ours.
Way back in the early 2000s, I heard a very knowledgeable friend predict that the economy would crash within a year or two. According to them, there was no possible way it could keep going.
And yet it did. It has. And over twenty years later it continues on.
In the 1970s and 1980s predictions for the rapture abounded. And yet, here we are…some fifty years later.
Does this lack of fulfillment mean these things will never happen? Of course not. They are simply delayed beyond what our expectations may have been.
I don’t know when Jesus is coming back. And neither do you. We must live like it could be today but also like it may not be in our lifetime.
We need to find that balance of living with eternity in mind while being a good steward of the many responsibilities and blessings that have been given us while here on earth.
I have been reading recently of the years in Romania during the years of Ceausescu. I had no idea.
To be found with a Bible could mean a lifetime in prison. To make a statement—any statement—that was imagined to be against the government could lead to you just disappearing forever (labor camps, execution…no one ever knew what happened to you). To simply watch a movie about Jesus in the privacy of your own home could lead to arrest. To have wealth and property led to your death because the state wanted to confiscate your wealth and your property. To be a biblical pastor led to imprisonment because they couldn’t have pastors who would not point to Ceausescu as god. You get the idea…
They were unimaginable circumstances in which to live.
And it reminds me…
Things could get much worse for us before the Lord returns. Oh, they might not. But they could.
What am I doing to prepare for this potential possibility?
You hear so much about “prepping”. Stockpile things so that you are prepared for any major disaster. Food, water, material things we might need. Oh, we don’t hear about it quite as much now as we heard in 2020, but it’s still around.
But how much more important to “stockpile” spiritually? To prepare our hearts and minds for the possibility of not having a Bible in our home? To prepare for the possibility that we can’t go to church without fear of arrest?
There’s only one way to do that and it is to strengthen ourselves spiritually, through prayer, Bible Study, and Bible memorization. Not only for ourselves but we need to prepare our kids and grandkids, too. The necessity for this may not be in our generation.
I am amazed at how many Bible verses came to mind for Romanian Christians. They had memorized them and when they were imprisoned or facing death, these verses came to mind to strengthen and comfort.
I have often read the same for persecuted Christians in other parts of the world.
If you were imprisoned or taken to a Labor Camp today because of your uncompromising faith, would you have verses and songs memorized to help uphold you in that dire time?
It’s a good question we Christians should all ask ourselves. Because life can change and it can change quickly.
I am not saying it will. I have no inside information. But I was reminded in reading about the Romanian Christians that it could.
We can tend to get lazy in our comfortable and secure lives here in the west. But we dare not get too comfortable. We are still just pilgrims and strangers traveling through a strange land. This world is not our home and, any day, it could turn on us.
Let’s prepare ourselves for that day. Just in case.