Many have predicted when the world will end. All of them have been wrong. Jesus tells us that no man knows the hour. His word is sufficient for me. I will not attempt to make any predictions. However, He does tell us of signs to look for of the coming of the end of the age, the Church Age. The Church Age began at Pentecost, after His crucifixion and resurrection and continues to this day. Of course, we’ve all heard of His stating that nation will rise against nation and there will be earthquakes and wars and rumors of wars. However, in the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 24, in addition to these things, He talks more precisely about the heart of mankind and how it will become twisted and dark in the final days before He returns.
The Apostle Paul writes about this in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 (ESV),
“1But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.”
That sounds amazing, like 2,000 years ago Apostle Paul tore those words right out of today’s headlines. The websites of every major news organization are filled with stories that precisely involve each and every one of these topics multiple times, day after day, month after month. Just read your daily paper (if you still get one) and watch your local news broadcast for proof of this.
The predictions of famines, floods, wars and earthquakes are important, but these have been occurring for centuries. And, yes, there have been many bad people on the planet that have done some pretty rotten, wicked and despicable things. But the sweeping, utter depravity of mankind described by Paul is something new.
The brazen love of criminality and coldness that Christ refers to in Matthew 24:12 “And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.”, speaks to a growing darkness in the heart of Man, both towards each other and towards God. Apostle Paul’s writing merely expands on what that will actually look like in more explicit form.
Never before in our American history have leaders, those entrusted by the people to protect the people, so wantonly and brazenly flaunted the laws they are obligated to enforce, to the detriment of those who gave them that power. We have always had criminals, but to have the authorities encourage more criminality and openly not punish criminals for their activities is unheard of.
Such behavior decades ago would have brought a whirlwind of public heat to these officials, and they would have been removed from power so quickly that their heads would be spinning. Not today.
I believe God instilled in man an innate sense of right and wrong. We have the free will to do either what is right or disobey that still small voice and do what we know to be wrong. Without a universal standard, a foundational agreement, about what is the moral way to act, we cannot say what is right and what is wrong. Without objective Truth, there is No truth. If everything is relative, then anything goes. If anything goes, we have chaos. The absence of light is darkness. We can’t have both. We must choose.
Criminals are expected to be criminals. Those in charge of policing them are expected to police them. When that doesn’t happen, we have anarchy. What is the sense in having laws, if those entrusted to write laws and enforce them (police chiefs, mayors, judges, prosecutors, legislators, governors, presidents), choose not to? The public tolerance of such behavior and other immoral behavior is a sign of the coarsening of man’s heart to that small voice of conscience that we all have. The harder our hearts become, the more that voice gets drowned out to the point of finally becoming nonexistent in many of us.
Nefarious activities that used to be frowned upon, and those who engaged in them ostracized, are now being celebrated openly and brazenly. The thought of ostracization has a deterring effect on illicit behavior. We are social creatures and abhor the idea of being ostracized. However, with the acceptance or tolerance of such things, of course, we get more of them. Thus, we now have a month of celebrating sexual deviancy, as Apostle Paul put it, “…proud…without self-control…lovers of pleasure…”
Our Founders knew and acknowledged, for the first time in history by a government, that our rights do not come from other men or Kings, but from our Creator. We have natural rights, and we have natural law. Yet, many today believe that rights can be made up from thin air and then given to us by Acts of Congress or the courts, such as the “right” of abortion. Those promoting and even celebrating this act of death show just how true Jesus’ words are about how, “the love of many will grow cold”.
This callousness toward the innocent manifests itself in abortion and the new eugenics of sex selection abortions, and convenient abortions of the “diseased and unfit” such as Downs Syndrome babies, but is also evident in assisted suicide and euthanasia. Even with some legal concessions, the extremist proponents of this death cult reflect Apostle Paul’s description of “…arrogant… heartless, unappeasable…”.
This wanton disregard of innocent human life is evident in the coddling of criminals. When the only executions in the country are of innocent citizens on the streets rather than hardened murderers on death row, you know something is amiss. We are told that life in prison is much harsher a punishment. If that’s the case, then why do 99.9% of convicted murderers on death row submit endless appeals for a life sentence using millions of tax dollars and decades of time, all the while families of their victims scream for justice? Justice delayed is justice denied. All this is done in the name of “social justice” when in reality this is nothing but “…heartless…brutal…treacherous…having the appearance of godliness…” as Paul tells us.
All manner of behaviors once thought to be deviant and taboo are now acceptable, promoted and praised with commensurate excuses being made for pedophilia (minor attracted persons – MAPs), sexually explicit books in K-12 school libraries, approved racism (CRT and DEI), allowing boys and girls, men and women into each other’s locker rooms/restrooms/showers/sports, open child and prostitute trafficking, rampant vagrancy and open drug use and intoxication to the point of encampments taking up streets and sidewalks filled with zombie like humans and NO compassion, for those so suffering, from those in charge…and the list goes on and on and on, with no end in sight.
In the not-too-distant past, even non-believers had a sense of right and wrong, law and order, and love of family and country. Those days are fading fast. Those of us who are believers, Christ followers, know that it will get worse before it gets better. We know that we are called to do whatever we can to slow this descent into hellish madness by telling others of the Truth. Yes, electing the right people helps, but more so it means teaching our children about God and right and wrong, attending Bible believing churches and telling others. All will not listen, but some will. It’s not too late. But one day it will be. Don’t be one of those who doesn’t heed the warnings Jesus made and gets caught unprepared when He returns.
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Eagle, very apropos and timely analysis !
Love your ability to zero in on key points and express it in words we all understand. Keep it up!
Thank you, Bill M. I’m trying to get the word out.