Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Are These The End of Time?

America is at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Israel is in a protacted conflict with Hamas in Palestine and Hezbolla in Lebanon. Iran is desperately seeking to acquire the technology to develop nuclear weapon. Vladimir Putin of Russia is schmoozing with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. There is carnage in Dafur, Sudan, while corruption and poverty is ravaging the rest of Africa. The natural elements are not left out - Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Tsunami in South East Asia, and the Fire in California. The moral fibers of nations are decaying - with confusion over the definition of marriage and sexual identity.

Are these the beginning of the end of days? How should Believers in Christ respond to these world events?

8 comments:

simplynues said...

On their knees...I was reading Nehemiah this morning. He was a great leader. Although, I have read this passage many times, It had a different meaning this morning. He was dishearted by the state of Jerusalem and how it laid in ruins and how the exiled inhabitants were in disgrace. See Nehemiah 2 for the powerful prayer of a leader. Unfortunately their aren't too many godly leaders today that is why there is so much chaos in society.

Akin said...

I agree with you completely. However it is good to remember that leaders are chosen from among the people. So the reason we have ungodly leaders is just because we have ungodly people. When the people know God and follow Him, they'll be able to raise a godly leader from amongst them.

simplynues said...

Well said Aftres... and how do we get godly people? I think the single most important starting point is the Family unit. Raising children in the fear of the Lord so that when they grow up they donot depart from it.
Thus they can become fruitful members of society and godly leaders. We are gradually seeing the decay that comes with ingoring this prinicple in today's society.

Akin said...

Again Simplyneus you are absolutely correct. The family is the backbone of any society: strong families equal strong societies. In order to raise these children in the fear of Lord, the parents themselves must know what it is to fear the Lord and walk in His ways. And how would the parents know the fear of the Lord if there is no one to teach them. The ball again is in our court, as Believers in Christ, whom God has planted in all societies, to shine His light, show His love, and perhaps make known His judgements, to all men, so that men may receive and come unto Him.

XtianDoctrine said...

As to the question of whether the end of days is upon us, my answer to that is Yes. We are at the beginning of the end times. Now I'm not sure there is anyone who knows the exact date and time (just as the bible says) but it is quite clear to me that we are nearer the end than when we first began. The emphasis for Believers is to be prepared and ready at all times. We must intensify our efforts with spreading the gospel of Christ. Our prayer lives must be revived, we must study to know the scriptures. We must not be bogged down with merely scavenging for our daily bread, our passion must be to seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness.

adetayo said...

I totally agree with you xtiandoctrine. A lot of us christians have waxed cold and give little thought to the rapture and Christ's return. When I got born again (in 1989), we were constantly reminded of the second coming of Christ. It was as though we were living for the rapture to happen. Holiness and righteousness was top on the list of sermons. If anyone had told me then that Christ would still not have come by 2007, I would say it's a lie. But these days, we seem to have forgotten there is such a thing as Christ's return. I don't remember when last I heard a sermon on "Prepare for Christ's return" or something similar. We are too pre-occupied with getting God to answer our prayers - Lord give me a house, car, husband, wife, financial breakthrough - the list is endless. Just pre-occupied with the business of life. Whether or not Christ returns in our lifetime remains unknown, but regardless of this, we need to daily walk in the consiousness of his return. If we did, we would take evangelism more seriously. I personally can't remember when last I evangelized...at least the "train woman" is doing something, whether or not we agree with her method (I need to respond to that in a seperate entry). If we don't evalgelize, it's as though we don't care what happens to lost souls...I agree it's more difficult to evangelize here in North America...I remember 2 different occasions I tried evangelising, one I think was a Christian Scientist (can't remember now) and the other was of the Bahai faith. The whole thing became a heated debate. If you've ever had a discussion with any of these pple you would understand better. Indeed only the Holy Spirit can do the work of conversion. Whether you preach God's love or hellfire is not even the issue here. At the end of the day I could only pray the Holy Spirit would touch their hearts and convict them. The question I have for simplyneus, xtiandoctrine, aftres, and everyone out there is 1) Do the pple at your workplace/school/whereever know you're a Christian? At least, even if you can't preach to them, they shld at least know you're a christian, and that there is something different about you. I am yet to meet either a Moslem or a Jehovah's witness who does not let you know within moments of your meeting them of their faith. They don't hide their faith. Jehovah's witnesses especially, they are so diligent with their evangelism. I honestly wish we christians could be that diligent. Second questions is "do you honestly have a compassion for lost souls that you meet everyday?
Ok, I think I shld stop here...this is too long already!

Akin said...

Fluanting my faith is not my style. I don't go about, at work, with a holier than thou attitude. The way I show I'm different is to not compromise the christian principles that I hold dear. For instance I make it known I don't celebrate halloween. I wish colleagues "Merry Christmas" and not "Happy Holidays". I order soda and never alcohol when we go out to lunch. I turn down all invitations to "Happy Hour" and don't get involved in coarse and inappropriate chatter. I let them know that I attend church on sundays and when occasion presents itself I ask colleagues whether they attend church - and this often leads to discussion about Jesus on some occasions. Also I always wear a cheerful face, a smile for everyone, and upbeat at all times, so much so that on my last birth I was given a birthday card that says something along the following lines, "You are always in such a cheerful mood, if we didn't know you we would have asked what you are on."

XtianDoctrine said...

Thank you very much adetayo. Messages in our churches - (at least in mine I don't know about yours)- today are geared towards success, wealth creation, property acquisitions, and the like. Now don't get me wrong, these are very important issues that Believers need to understand, however the Church of Christ has gone from solely preaching holiness and righteousness to solely preaching prosperity and success - from one extreme to another skewing the balance in the process. What I suscribe to is the total package, the full and whole gospel. That, to me, is what is going to make us matured Christians and not babies who need to be fed milk all the time. The full Christian message will make our congregations unconducive for pretenders and wolves in sheeps clothing - these unregenerated souls who pack our churches leading many into sexual immorality and all manners of sin.