Does anybody really know what time it is?

A man was asked what he thought about the last days ignorance and apathy.  He replied, “I don’t know and I don’t care.”  A similar position has been taken by millions of professing Christians.  When it comes to the last days, a great number of them do not know, and they do not care. However, according to Twitter and Facebook stats, they are concerned and want to know about practically everything else but where the world is at the moment in the prophetic time table.  I understand why they do not consider it important to recognize, accept, and understand the vital information about the last days.  They wrap all their last days concerns in the catch-all of, “Jesus is going to snatch us out of here before the bad stuff happens.”  So why worry?

It is a fact that Christians could enter a very harsh time of horrific persecution before the Second Coming of Christ.  What’s proof do I have of that?  Just visit the websites or Facebook pages of the organizations that are ministering to the persecuted church worldwide.  Consider the words of Anthony Brown, and avowed atheist and European correspondent of the Times.

“Rising nationalism and fundamentalism around the world have meant that Christianity is going back to its roots as the religion of the persecuted. There are now more than 300 million Christians who are either threatened with violence or legally discriminated against simply because of their faith — more than any other religion. Christians are no longer, as far as I am aware, thrown to the lions. But from China, North Korea and Malaysia, through India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, they are subjected to legalized discrimination, violence, imprisonment, relocation and forced conversion. Even in supposedly Christian Europe, Christianity has become the most mocked religion, its followers treated with public suspicion and derision.”  (Anthony Browne, Europe correspondent of the Times)

But is persecution coming to America?  Yes it is, and ignoring it will not slow down or stop it.  The proper response is to make ourselves aware daily of the events pointing to difficult times ahead, and to prepare ourselves spiritually.

Consider the following information:

1. A federal judge threatened “incarceration” to a high school valedictorian unless she removed references to Jesus from her graduation speech.
2. City officials prohibited senior citizens from praying over their meals, listening to religious messages or singing gospel songs at a senior activities center.
3. A public school official physically lifted an elementary school student from his seat and reprimanded him in front of his classmates for praying over his lunch.
4. Following U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ policies, a federal government official sought to censor a pastor’s prayer, eliminating references to Jesus, during a Memorial Day ceremony honoring veterans at a national cemetery.
5. Public school officials prohibited students from handing out gifts because they contained religious messages.
6. A public school official prevented a student from handing out flyers inviting her classmates to an event at her church.
7. A public university’s law school banned a Christian organization because it required its officers to adhere to a statement of faith that the university disagreed with.
8. The U.S. Department of Justice argued before the Supreme Court that the federal government can tell churches and synagogues which pastors and rabbis it can hire and fire.
9. The State of Texas sought to approve and regulate what religious seminaries can teach.
10. Through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, the federal government is forcing religious organizations to provide insurance for birth control and abortion-inducing drugs in direct violation of their religious beliefs.
11. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs banned the mention of God from veterans’ funerals, overriding the wishes of the deceased’s families.
12. A federal judge held that prayers before a state House of Representatives could be to Allah but not to Jesus.  (from an article by Michael Carl, Persecution of Christians on rise—in U.S.; WND)

Consider that over 50% of all the Christian martyrs, or 35 million, died in the last century.  As it now stands, 163,000 are killed each year because of their faith in Christ and the number is rapidly rising.  None of them were snatched out.  Wake up, sleepers!  You can face the facts now or faint under the stress of reality later.