Good Thursday morning! All those new congress persons started yesterday, but I don't see much difference yet. Do you suppose they spent the day trying to find the restroom in the capitol? After all of the political ads we endured for months leading up to the election, we do have some high expectations for our new and old congressional representatives and senators. Whether anything will actually happen or not...remains to be seen. The question we might ask of ourselves is: Do you think any legislative body or official can make anything better for us until the Lord gives them leave to do so? I am reminded of the words of Jesus. "And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold." (Matt 24:12) What does it mean that lawlessness will be increased? We tend to think simply of crime, especially violent crime, such as murders, rapes, and assaults. However, lawlessness can come in other ways as well such as corporations and corporate officers who think they can do as they please with the investor's and customer's money. What about the banks who think that government bailout money, aka taxpayer money, is okay for bonuses? Now that we have arrived here, what about the individuals who accepted those bonuses? What about that individual who rolls through a stop sign? Is that lawlessness?
More than likely, each of us would draw up a list of things that constitute lawlessness and the lists would be somewhat, or even very, different. Yesterday, I wrote about how exact the Law was in the book of Numbers in the Bible. However, we also read about how the most legalistic of groups, the Pharisees, piled on their own rules in addition to the Law, and yet Jesus denounced them often. So where is this line of lawlessness that we would draw? Is our line wavy and drawn in the sand? Today, the Pharisees might feel a particular satisfaction in looking at our collection of federal, state, and local regulations. They might even get the chance to point a finger at us and say, "We were bad, be we never had a pile of regulations that high!" True, but the point is not that we violate all of the laws, even the violation of one law may be a sin. The question to ask of yourself is: Would the violation of just one law make me lawless? I don't think that is what Jesus told us to watch for.
If you have developed the habit of rolling through stop signs on county roads, you might have a bad habit that you should take a look at, but I at least would not consider you to be a lawless person. Lawless to me seems to be more of a systemic problem in the time Jesus told us to watch for. In other words, it won't be the bad habit of one driver, but the "do as you please" attitude of nearly everyone in that time. The many examples we see in our times are signs that we are close to the end. The corporate scandals and sexual harassment in government offices; the city drivers who gun the accelerator at the yellow light and the rock star who tosses a heavy speaker into the crowd; these are signs of lawlessness on the increase. At the moment, you recognize that all of these things can and do cause injury or death to other persons. At the moment in this country, flocks of lawyers would descend and there would be lawsuits, compensation, and perhaps jail time for the offender. What we are to look for in a time of lawlessness might be the government official who runs the traffic light in his big armored vehicle, hits another vehicle and kills the occupants, and then continues on his way with a glib comment. Many other examples could be made, but I won't start out your day with a reading of too much of that dark subject.
What are the times we see now? If you were to hold my big toes to the fire, I would answer that from what I see, we are very close to those times, but not there yet. Our times as of today are more like what Jesus spoke a few verses earlier in Matthew 24: "And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet." We have been living in the "not yet" time for many years, even centuries now, and we can see how the end time is getting closer with each passing day. At times, groups of people and even entire nations have acted with lawlessness, but not yet the entire world. We see the corporate officer convicted of defrauding his investors, employees, and even his family, and then saying in the interview that he did nothing wrong. A sign that the end may be near, but not necessarily a signal that the end has begun. Like many, I also believe that we are not to worry because the Rapture will occur before this time of lawlessness. One reason is that the Rapture would explain the sudden increase in lawlessness all over the world.
The Rapture will catch not many, but everyone by surprise. We can see the signs and be on guard, but never know the exact time. I also believe that many millions of Christ-believing people will be suddenly gone. These people will come from many different churches, not just those whose members think that only their particular sect is entirely correct on all points of doctrine. The church you don't want to join is the one that will form after the Rapture. The one-world church headed by the false prophet of the Anti-Christ - you don't want to join that one! What sets us apart no matter which church we attend? Believe in Jesus. We can argue about an army of doctrinal points, but one verse says it all:
For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
Be a whoever, and have a great day!
Bucky
No comments:
Post a Comment