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Click on the front cover to view as PDF |
In this month's issue:
The End of the World |
A monthly magazine published by the Christadelphians (brothers and sisters in Christ) and available throughout the world. Its objectives are – to encourage study of the Bible as God's inspired message; to call attention to the Divine offer of forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ; and to warn men and women that soon Christ will return to Earth as judge and ruler of God’s world-wide Kingdom.
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The End of the World |
If you saw someone walking down the road carrying a placard which said “The End of the World is Near” how would you react? With pity, anger, irritation, or interest? If you knew the person in question and perhaps worked alongside him or her, would you try to find out why he or she felt strongly enough about it to go public? Or would you forget what you had seen and treat the matter as if it had never happened?
I once worked in the same building as an animal-rights protestor and would often pass her in the corridor – she was immediately recognisable because she had pink hair. But I never once asked her about her views; I thought it best not to, and I just took it for granted that she was against blood-sports and would adopt a pro-animal position on all sorts of issues. That’s what other people had told me and I reckoned that it’s sometimes best to keep your views to yourself. You know what they say: “Never discuss religion or politics if you want to keep your friends”.
Protestors
Many people are concerned about the state of the world and for very good reasons. So the person you saw with the placard might have been demonstrating for lots of different reasons. Perhaps the placard was warning about:
à The world economy that threatens our financial stability and will leave the developing world in massive debt and lots of people out of work.
Maybe it was about rising levels of crime that often follow mass unemployment, as people steal to survive or to feed their drug addiction.
It could have been about climate change that scientists warn might result in rising sea-levels and a huge loss of life.
It might have been about the ‘war on terror’ which is still threatening to destabilize Western society.
What about the threatened loss of civil liberties?
Or was it about nuclear power?
Let’s face it, there are plenty of things that people protest about and all those things could end society as we know it, change our standard of living radically and leave our children or grandchildren with a terrible legacy, even if this generation manages to survive somehow. Things are not as stable and secure as we might have hoped they would be in a technically advanced society. Indeed technology is part of the problem.
Nowadays you can see things happening in faraway places almost instantaneously, encouraging terrorists to seek maximum publicity for their cause. People can communicate with ease and efficiency, right across the globe. We have all become computer-dependent, so if those systems go down, we all feel the effects. Lose electricity for any length of time and we are all in a mess: the freezer begins to thaw, the phone no longer works, our heating and cooking fails, and we are left to worry about life, in the dark.
Forward looking
Not everybody wants to worry about tomorrow, of course. Even the Bible says that we should concentrate upon today and let tomorrow take care of itself:
“Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34).
There’s a great deal of truth in that, as you would expect. Many people put off things they should have done today until some other time and then never get around to it, which is why they put the matter off in the first place. We’re all going to see the dentist, have a medical check-up, fix the roof, turn the compost, and ring up an old friend – when we get around to it. But some things you have to do today and we all know that. There are things you just can’t put off, for if you do you’ll live to regret it. First things have sometimes got to be put first.
In fact, that’s exactly what the Bible says about today and tomorrow in that passage we looked at earlier.
“Do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:31-34).
Peace of Mind
Jesus was speaking to his followers at the time – men and women who had decided that he had something vital to teach them. Many had abandoned all to follow him and in return he taught them how to live in a way that would give them peace of mind and peace with God. Those two go together, like peaches and cream or love and marriage.
If you can get your life right with God and recognize that He both knows and controls what the future will bring, it is bound to give you peace of mind. If the God who made the universe is on your side, who can possibly triumph over you? The Bible is crammed full of such comforting thoughts because it reasons things through in such a logical way.
The question is, do you apply the same logic in the way you live, so that if the end of the world really is near you would be ready for whatever comes next?
