Are We Living In The End Times?

At the new church I’m visiting we’ve started going through Romans, and when you start Romans you start at Romans 1.  It is preacher’s belief that we are in for a rough ride ahead of us because of the pattern you see in Romans 1 and the state of the current culture in the United States today.  It’s also possible that we could be living in the End Times.

Man has been predicting– and discrediting the idea of– Christ’s return since shortly after He left for Heaven back in the 1st century A.D.  Peter, Paul and the Apostles thought he’d return in their lifetime, and every generation of believers since has through that “today could be the day.”

There have been multiple series of books and movies about what could happen during those times– the latest being the Left Behind series– and many pamplets created like “88 reasons Christ will return in 1988”.  This has lead the general populace into thinking that He may not be returning at all– something that Peter predicted would happen.

America and the End Times

Important to this discussion– for me at least– is this caveat:  I do not judge how close we are to the end by how well or poorly America is doing at any given point in time.

Seriously:

• Scholars do not indicate that America is ever mentioned in the prophetic scriptures
• The Bible centers around what happens to Israel, not America
• People have a desire to have something be “the end” when times seem to get tough.
• All cultures throughout history have endured judgment phases because of sin, and that wasn’t the end for them.

So, I’m skeptical about when someone says “things are getting bad in America” or “we know Christ is returning because there may be chaos in America.”  The truth is, for many parts of the world, there is a lack of security of property, etc. like what we fear.  We’re blessed beyond compare.  Our poor are richer that some people in third world countries.  The blessings that we have are not absolute, and the removal of them does not indicate that everything’s done.

However…

In the same breath I argue that America is not the key to the End Times, I will say that there are many things that are going on in the entire world today that one could find fascinating when it comes to prophecy.  And I’m not simply talking about the global reserve currency either.

I intend to share some of the things I’m seeing in upcoming posts as we get time.  I’m not predicting the end of the world tomorrow, but I do believe that we are closer technologically, politically and culturally then we have ever been.