Reflection
Reflection
Whenever there is a strong sense of the end of the world in every generation, the Bible messages regarding the Lord’s coming will often be interpreted with different meanings. Many of these interpretations are simply human imagination and reasoning. If we are not familiar with what the Bible says about the end of the world, we will be perplexed and cannot distinguish which messages are biblical and which are not. Thus, we can be easily deceived by the wrong messages about the signs of the end of the world or the Lord’s coming, such as the cult of Eastern Lightning (or so-called ‘the Church of Almighty God’). We must beware of Satan’s scheme of attempting to confuse our weak minds in terms of our faith. Therefore, we should have a good knowledge of what the Bible says about the signs of the end of the world.
Another aspect concerning the end of the world is that some people will take it seriously and react quickly, while others may take it for granted and live as usual. Remember that in 2012, the date of 21/12/2012 was once rumoured to be the world’s final day. The news of this rumour had been widely covered as the day was approaching. Many people were curious about this topic and discussions were made everywhere and spread quickly via the internet. Some started to fear as they waited for such dreadful day to arrive. They worried that this rumour might turn out to be true and wouldn’t know what to do with it. According to a psychologist, over 70% of his patients during that period discussed the topic about the end of the world. Some were so obsessed with this issue that they were very pessimistic about the future. Some took the abnormal acts of withdrawing money from the bank, enjoying the “rest” of their days with pleasure, giving up their jobs, reserving food at home, etc. As movies about the end of the world have been thriving in recent years, the non-believers can react with certain degree of fear in their minds and behavior.
As I Thessalonians tells us, before the end of the world, the Lord will come and take up the believers. And II Thessalonians even tells us that before the Lord’s coming, the son of perdition or the anti-Christ will reveal himself to the world and claim himself as God in the temple of God. Moreover, Jesus said already in the Bible that nobody would know the day and hour of his coming; only the Father knows. (Mark 13:32) Any rumour pointing to a specific day as the final day of the world or anyone claiming himself Christ is absolutely a lie. Any believer with a basic knowledge of the Bible can discern it.
Regardless of whether the day of the Lord’s coming or the end of the world is approaching or not, if we live our lives worthy of the Lord, we should have no fear of the end of the world. To view it in an optimistic way, we should be excited to hear about the Lord’s coming and the coming of the end of the world, not with fear but with joy.