Are we living in the last days?

Are we living in the last days?

C. H. Fisher

(This was written in 2001.  It may be relevant today since Thomas Merton’s Buddhist beliefs and practices, namely Contemplative Spirituality, has invaded Christianity.)

The stunning horror and reality of the September11^th terrorist attacks on our nation jarred most Americans to the core of their soul.  As a result, many Christians and non-Christians have been asking if we are living in the last days before the coming of Jesus Christ.  There seems to be two lines of reasoning in answering this and other eschatological concerns.  Some people respond from the premise that America needs to be reassured, not frightened, during this difficult time.  The other response is to declare that our nation is being judged because of rabid wickedness in the secular realm and apostate rebellion in the religious sector.  If the latter is true, then soothing the fears of people who need to repent is not the answer.

We must examine the facts to formulate an appropriate response to the last-days question.  First of all, let’s consider that the Scriptures prophesy a one-world government and religion will emerge in the last days before Christ’s coming (Rev. 13).  The present global unity has been coalescing for years involving various secular and religious organizations.  It has surfaced now because of the attack on America.   Many present and former heads of state along with major religious figures attended Mikhail Gorbachev’s summits on one-world global government.   It is interesting to note that at one conference Gorbachev declared that communism did not fail, it just neglected to include religion. He went on to explain that the world needs a new communism with a new religion.  The participants at the summit were repeatedly informed that the Judeo-Christian worldview must be replaced by a fresh set of inclusive universal values, “the wisdom distilled by all faiths,” in other words, a one-world religion.  Recently, the United Nations formed the United Religions structured on Buddhism and headquartered at the UN building in New York City.  That brings us to the role of Christianity in the aftermath of this tragedy. 

After past tragedies, Christianity has stepped to the forefront to deal with America’s grief and answer the hard questions.  Noticeably, except for the memorial service featuring Rev. Billy Graham as the key religious speaker, this time Christianity has been pushed into the background. Instead, we watched a parade of Hollywood stars, secular recording artists, and united religions at the major events.  On Friday after the tragedy, for the first time ever, Rev. Billy Graham preached the gospel to the whole world at once.  There is a biblical prophecy that the gospel must be preached to the entire world before the coming of Christ.  Whether Rev. Graham fulfilled this prophecy or not I will leave to the theologians and experts to debate.  But what caught my attention was the event called “A Prayer for America” held in Yankee Stadium on Sunday, September 23^rd.  We may have very well been viewing one-world religion in a power climb to prominence and dominance in American society. The list of participants could have been taken from the membership of the Parliament of World Religions. Many religions that are antithetical to Christianity were represented including Islam and Hindu.  Some of the speakers declared rather forcefully that there is one god.  However, the Christian God is not the god worshipped by many of the individuals at that event, including the various neo-pagan and earth-centered religions.  I must love the followers of these belief systems and absolutely will not treat them harsh or hateful, but I have a Christian duty to inform them that their god is not my God.  He draws all people to Himself through Jesus Christ and none other.

In light of these things, another popular question must be answered.  That is, did God withdraw His hand of protection from America on September 11^th as a last day’s wake-up call?  I can only respond that if God was protecting the WTC and Pentagon, then the terrorists overwhelmed His protecting hand.  I certainly cannot accept that conclusion.  The only question remains is why God may have allowed (not caused) this devastation to occur.  Let’s consider the spiritual state of our nation here.  America has wandered into a cavernous depression of wickedness and rejection of God.  Homosexuality and abortion have become respectable and even controlling influences in our country.  The flood of immorality, violence and sheer demonic themes in the music and film industries are overwhelming our senses.  Greed, crass materialism, and the pursuit of every form of illicit pleasure, along with wanton blasphemy oozing from the human spirit, have saturated our society. Godly virtues have been skewered on a lance of political correctness and roasted over the fires of militant hatred of Christ. Can we count on protection from the law when we break the law?  Why should we expect God to protect our nation when it is so callused and hard that we allow and even fund such atrocities as a crucifix dipped in urine presented as a form of art?

But some may protest that we are a Christian nation and God must protect us.  My response is many Christians profess what they do not possess and that our churches have become cold and formal. Pastors who preach against this invasion of wickedness are rejected and branded as hate-mongers in a complete defacement of the term “hate.”  However, the heroes of our society can say any vulgar word and commit every immoral deed with no loss of acclaim or respect.  Every Sunday, many professing Christians gorge on a plethora of sports and worship their unregenerate stars while worshipping God is crammed into what’s left of the time.  In fact, worship has been redefined as sitting on a pew and true prayer has become a lost art.  Hypocrisy and apostasy are at epidemic proportions as multitudes of professing Christians flirt with the world system and sin.  Christianity has also become inundated with liberalism and New Age religion disguised as new revelation and fresh vision. Just consider what is replacing Christianity and we can easily see the degree of its weakness.  President Bush stated that Islam was the fastest growing religion in America.  That’s not quite correct.  It is the fastest growing religion in the world, but Witchcraft, also called Wicca, is the fastest growing religion in America.

Thus we can see that for the most part we Americans, both religious and secular, have become desensitized to the rising flood waters of evil.  Like the proverbial frog in the pot, we cannot sense the malignant wickedness and spiritual decay because it has been advancing in such small increments.  Now we seem blind to the imminent devastation that befalls every nation who rejects God (Jer.18). But whether or not we are in the last days should not make any difference to our state of preparedness.  America faces an ominous future with or without terrorism and the declared war on terrorism will matter.  My best advice to anyone is to accept Jesus Christ as the only true Lord and Savior and to serve the only true God Almighty as presented by the Holy Bible. It is also time for Christians to repent and return to being the influence of Christ to a lost, dying and decaying society and the world in general. Our security must not be based on the might of our military and the power of our technology.  I intend to take my refuge in the peace of God, not in the crumbling fortress of humanity and certainly not in aberrant religions or their false gods.