Love the future

I love learning about the future and the end times from scripture. I can't help asking Christians of America, "why do you want to be taken out before the key showdown of our age, before the man of sin spoken of by Daniel the prophet is revealed?

Wimps! You should be praying to stay. Does the prospect of a little persecution and conflict make you feel afraid? Is the hardship of such confrontational circumstances, the danger of a little torture and anti-Christian holocaust make you shrink away from a spiritual fight?

Most Christians might feel relief that at last there is some consequence for having beliefs contrary to the world system. We might see at last the reality of what we are warned of when we read, "all those who live godly in Christ Jesus shall necessarily see persecution."

I see a strange dichotomy here: we are accommodating the culture and are "all things to all men," to avoid conflict and be culturally acceptable or approved, then complaining to God that we don't have a significant role in confronting the evils of our day.

We avoid politics in order to protect God's 501-3 status, something God treasures as much as the temple tax of old, I'm sure.

The answer to the dichotomy is the existence of status quo suggested by our celebrity pastors, the big names who have so much personally at stake if the popular culture turns angry against Christianity in some real, monetary way.

The Jerry Falwells, or Jerry Falwell Jrs., of Christianity would fall on hard times when it comes to the sale of their newest book or the appeal for their latest University, law school, library or church expansion program.

I say, church, love the future - you are a part of it. The tribulations of our day will come and go, and finally the man of sin, Antichrist, will be revealed, and we shall see it - we ourselves or a future generation of the body of Christ. Embrace the opportunity; be a willing witness of these end time evils, a martyr if so privileged.