Discerning the Signs but Looking for the Lord
I do listen. As I get older, I forget more easily, but I do listen to people’s concerns. In the last several years, a number of devoted Christians have asked me some form of the following question: “Are we close to the return of Jesus Christ?” As with any Biblical teaching, we must be careful with this subject. In Matthew 24:36, Jesus said, “Of that day and hour knoweth no man.” Later, in Acts 1:7, He added, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons.” Paul wrote in I Thesssalonians 5:2 that “the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” Thus, date-setting defies God’s Word and dishonors our Savior. However, in Matthew 16:3, Jesus pointedly asks, “Can ye not discern the signs of the times?” We do not know and cannot know the exact time of Jesus’ Second Coming and the resulting period of the Tribulation, but we are told to seriously study the signs found in Scripture. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
A ninth herald of the future finale is the sad decline of the family. II Timothy 3:1-5 tells us “that in the last days perilous times shall come.” Part of this peril is people “without natural affection” (verse 3). Literally, this expression should be translated “without family affection.” I can not think of one statistic regarding the family that is trending in a positive direction. In fact, we know that our children are being taught in school and on social media to consider their parents bigoted and racist if they support a particular political candidate or stand for the American flag. Verse 2 describes the scoffers of the last days as “disobedient to parents.” Marxism actively encourages children to turn against their parents and, in actual Marxist countries, to turn their parents in to the authorities. Postmodernism redefines the family as any group of people who call themselves a family (Charlie Manson would approve); moreover, postmodernism emphasizes community rather than the traditional family (for postmodernism attacks anything that is traditional). Rather than love family members, opponents of Jesus “shall be lovers of their own selves” (verse 2), spending more time taking selfies than helping parents and siblings.
The Church must teach the importance of family, which is ordained by God. The fact that family imagery is used of our relationship with God (Father) and with fellow believers (brothers and sisters) intensifies the clear teaching of Scripture. Pray that our families will be protected from this increasing Satanic onslaught. May our homes become sanctuaries from the growing darkness.