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 sixteenth sign is found in the one word that we have not specifically studied in II Timothy 3:1-5. “In the last days,” people will be “unholy” (verse 2). The general sense of the word provides a good summary of the entire passage. However, the specific meaning points us to a particular mindset. Literally, “unholy” indicates a person who is entirely separate from God; we would call this unholy person wholly secular. The ideology of secular humanism dominates our educational system (except in the humanities at the collegiate level, where postmodernism reigns). Primary tenets of this worldly worldview include a staunch belief (?) in atheism, an unswerving adherence to evolution, and an arrogant assumption that mankind is the highest form of being in the cosmos. Secular humanists unabashedly employ our schools for purposes of indoctrination, seeking to erase Christianity from history and eradicate any Christian beliefs from our children. The secular humanist movement is about a hundred years old and is firmly entrenched in world culture. Its presence is a clear precursor of the promised end. In response to its message of negation, let us follow the kind command of I Peter 1:15-16: “But as He [Who] hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation [behavior]; because it is written, ‘Be ye holy, for I am holy.’”