What is Going on Here?

Many of us who were here in the 60’s and 70’s remember a song by a group called “Buffalo-Springfield” (named after a manufacturer of earth moving equipment) that said:

                “Something’s happening here

                What it is ain’t exactly clear. . . ”

To even the casual observer, not to mention us oldsters who well remember a calmer, more civil world, there does appear to be something unusual and even sinister going on in our present moment of history that is perhaps unlike anything that has happened before. There is a lot of turmoil in human society around the globe and we are unsure as to what, if anything,  it all means. Though the ideas and opinions that I am going to express in the following group of posts are  different from, and have no connection to that old hippie era song:

                “I think it’s time we stopped, hey what’s that sound?

                Everybody look what’s goin’ down.”

 We Christians look forward to what we call the “last days” and the return of our Lord, and we wonder if the crises of our present time are related to that part of our belief system. We look at the turmoil that is going on around us, not only in our nation, but seemingly in nearly every nation on earth, and many of the Bible’s last days passages seem singularly appropriate to describe what we see. The description of the “perilous times”  that  Paul spoke to Timothy (2 Timothy 3:1-5) seem to fit, as do several statements by Jesus in Matthew 24 about the “birth pangs” (v.8) and how He says “Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold (v.12).”  The word given to Daniel about “the time of the end, when many will rush here and there, and knowledge will increase (Daniel 12:4 NLT)” also seem to fit our times.

Even the secular world is engaged in “doomsday thinking”,  and “the end of the world as we know it.” We have only to look at many of the most popular movies, TV  shows, and literature to see evidence of this.

I too admit to having developed an interest in recent years for studying what the Bible says about the endtimes, and how these teaching may or may not relate to the troubled times in which we live. I haven’t all the answers by any means, but I have come to some basic opinions (always subject to change) about what is going on in the world, and more specifically in our nation. Among these is my belief that we are facing in our nation and in our world four major crises (sorry preachers, I couldn’t reduce it to just three). I believe that we are suffering from:

·         An economic crisis

·         A spiritual crisis

·         A moral crisis

·         An environmental crisis

I have also come to believe that God is at work among His people, preparing us and strategically placing us to minister for Him during these crises.

While, as always, my opinions are my own, I have been influenced by the views of several others who have taken to writing about this same subject in recent days. Some of these I regard as prophetic voices. Others simply have useful information about our times and their view of it all. I am going to elaborate on these and more specifically what they each have to say in my next post, but just so you can get started reading their work, they are:

·         The late David Wilkerson; America’s Last Call, and God’s Plan to Protect His People in the Coming Depression

·         Jonathan Cahn, Harbinger

·         Dr David Jeremiah, The Coming Economic Armageddon

·         The late Grant Jeffrey, One Nation Under Attack

·         Perry Stone www. Perrystone.org

·         Robert Jeffress, Twilight’s Last Gleaming

I imagine that there have been many more influences that these few on my thinking but I want to point out these and what they have to say. More to follow soon.

Thanks for sharing this moment with me today.