In the wake of a worldwide pandemic and the corresponding government shutdowns, in the midst of war in Europe and the Middle East, and in an age of technological advancement moving at lighting speed, many people are asking, Are we at the end of the world? Apocalyptic movies such as the Mad Max franchise, Don’t Look Up, or 28 Days channel the anxieties about a world that has lost order and meaning.
Christians, of course, are not immune to fear, but we ask ourselves a different question. We wonder if we are living in the last days predicted by Jesus. Believers throughout the church age have held differing views on exactly how the end times will unfold. The latter half of the 20th century was a high-water mark for pre-tribulation dispensationalism, with bestselling book series, movies, and prophecy conferences. While belief in this strand of eschatology has waned somewhat in the 21st century, it doesn’t mean believers aren’t looking at world events and wondering where they fit into God’s plan.
This is a good instinct. Every believer, regardless of his eschatology, has a hope that a fearful world lacks. We have the promise of Jesus’s coming. We have confidence that God is gathering history to Himself. Scripture tells us to eagerly anticipate the coming of Jesus, who said in Luke 21:28 to “look up, for your redemption is near.” Christians aren’t to be asleep and adrift amid the cultural tides, but to be watchful, alert, and sober.
A recent Pew research survey found that nearly 40% of Americans believe we are “living in the end times,” but a surprising 75% believe Jesus will return. Among Christians, half may believe we are in the last days, while the other half does not.
In a sense, however, we have always been living in the end times. Writing to first century Christians, an increasingly beleaguered and persecuted minority, the Apostle John warned, “It is the last hour” (1 John 2:18). The writer of Hebrews opens his letter with “In these last days …” (Hebrews 1:2). It can be hard for us moderns to fathom that a 2,000-year period could constitute “the final hour” and yet God declared the entire church age to be the last days.
So in an age filled with war, rumors of war, and Orwellian technology, we can be confident that we are facing the end of the world. But for Christians, this should not provoke us to fear, but faith. The sovereign Lord of the universe is not wringing His hands at any of this. In fact, Psalm 2 says that God sits in the heavens and laughs at human machinations.
Click Here to Read More (Originally Published at World Magazine )
Daniel is the director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of several books, including The Dignity Revolution, Agents of Grace, and his forthcoming book, In Defense of Christian Patriotism. Dan is a graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Angela, have four children.
