Fearful of What’s Happening to Our World
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Are you fearful of what is coming on the earth? There are many causes for concern both near and far: Covid-19 virus is the immediate concern of us all; not just the impact on health but the economic downturn (both global and local) that has resulted from the controls that are being put in place. We are naturally worried about something that we can’t control.
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Climate Change Fear
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Another cause of concern is the climate change issue. Over the last year, many young people have mobilised to raise the global warming agenda, urging immediate and wide scale action to limit potential catastrophic consequences. Recently, we have seen many major events that are probably linked to a changing climate: unprecedented wildfires, glaciers retreating around the world, ice sheets in Greenland and the Antarctic rapidly decreasing, sea levels rising and major storms causing large scale flooding in the UK.
However, there are issues that concern those who think about world events:- |
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War
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On Europe’s doorstep a war has been going on for the last nine years, killing hundreds of thousands and creating millions of Syrian refugees. These refugees now have become pawns in the political power struggle between Turkey and Europe. The refugee crisis is fuelled by Syrian and Russian forces closing in on the remaining resistance in the northern Syrian province of Idlib.
The world held its breath on January 20th when America killed Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, a division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. Iran retaliated with a relatively restrained attack on an American military base, and the tension eased a little. This incident followed the tit-for-tat capture of oil tankers. Iran has now resumed its Uranium enrichment programme and the US has tightened its sanctions. Tensions in the area remain high. |
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Doomsday prediction from scientists
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Some people are forecasting that ‘doomsday’ is coming. Back in 1945 a group of nuclear scientists used the idea of Doomsday to indicate the likelihood of global catastrophe, as the following quote explains: They established “the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and created the Doomsday Clock two years later, using the imagery of apocalypse (midnight) and the contemporary idiom of nuclear explosion (countdown to zero) to convey threats to humanity and the planet. The decision to move (or to leave in place) the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock is made every year by the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board in consultation with its Board of Sponsors, which includes 13 Nobel laureates. The Clock has become a universally recognized indicator of the world’s vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change, and disruptive technologies in other domains.” (https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/)
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On Jan 23, Rachel Bronson, PhD, President & CEO announced that their Board has moved the minute hand to 100 seconds to midnight (Doomsday). The board wrote to “Leaders and citizens of the world” as follows:
“Humanity continues to face two simultaneous existential dangers—nuclear war and climate change—that are compounded by a threat multiplier, cyber-enabled information warfare, that undercuts society’s ability to respond. The international security situation is dire, not just because these threats exist, but because world leaders have allowed the international political infrastructure for managing them to erode.”
“Humanity continues to face two simultaneous existential dangers—nuclear war and climate change—that are compounded by a threat multiplier, cyber-enabled information warfare, that undercuts society’s ability to respond. The international security situation is dire, not just because these threats exist, but because world leaders have allowed the international political infrastructure for managing them to erode.”
It’s not just Scientists that are very worried
There are many other reasons why people are fearful: corrupt governments, violence, moral decline, social inequality, financial, health scares – Covid-19 is the latest one but before that SARSs in 2003.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) wrote in 2014 – six months into the Ebola epidemic “The 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, the first of the 21st century, proved how very quickly a new virus can spread to every corner of the globe.” In the same statement the WHO said “All experts agree: changes in the way humanity inhabits the planet make the emergence of more new diseases inevitable. Constant mutation and adaptation are the survival mechanisms of the microbial world.……. Recent large outbreaks, just since the start of this century, have shattered a number of myths about the world’s vulnerability to threats arising from new pathogens and epidemic-prone diseases like Ebola.”
The same WHO article said “the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution that affirmed the threat this outbreak [Ebola) poses to peace and security, shattering yet another myth. The resolution had 134 co-sponsors, by far the most for any resolution in the Security Council’s history. This was also the first time in the Security Council’s history that an emergency session was called to address a public health issue.”
While the world now focuses on Covid-19, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is coming to end of their tenth outbreak of Ebola in 40 years. The number of cases has reach 3,444 with 2,264 deaths. It is the second-biggest Ebola epidemic ever recorded, behind the West Africa outbreak of 2014-2016 which killed 11,000 people out of 28,000 cases.
The other outbreaks this century have been Swine Flu – in a large scale in Asia and something not talked about too much in the Western Media is the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) wrote in 2014 – six months into the Ebola epidemic “The 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, the first of the 21st century, proved how very quickly a new virus can spread to every corner of the globe.” In the same statement the WHO said “All experts agree: changes in the way humanity inhabits the planet make the emergence of more new diseases inevitable. Constant mutation and adaptation are the survival mechanisms of the microbial world.……. Recent large outbreaks, just since the start of this century, have shattered a number of myths about the world’s vulnerability to threats arising from new pathogens and epidemic-prone diseases like Ebola.”
The same WHO article said “the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution that affirmed the threat this outbreak [Ebola) poses to peace and security, shattering yet another myth. The resolution had 134 co-sponsors, by far the most for any resolution in the Security Council’s history. This was also the first time in the Security Council’s history that an emergency session was called to address a public health issue.”
While the world now focuses on Covid-19, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is coming to end of their tenth outbreak of Ebola in 40 years. The number of cases has reach 3,444 with 2,264 deaths. It is the second-biggest Ebola epidemic ever recorded, behind the West Africa outbreak of 2014-2016 which killed 11,000 people out of 28,000 cases.
The other outbreaks this century have been Swine Flu – in a large scale in Asia and something not talked about too much in the Western Media is the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS.
The View from the Bible
So, there are many things happening in the world right now that give rise to real concern about our future. Paradoxically, to the follower of Jesus Christ, these very same events are a cause of real hope. Humanity has shown itself incapable of solving these problems, but the Bible clearly states that at a time of trouble for the world, Jesus will return to establish the Kingdom of God. The prophet Daniel tells us that “… the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever” (Dan 2:44).
In his so-called Mt. Olivet prophecy, Jesus gave his followers some indicators as to when this intervention in world affairs could be expected.
In his so-called Mt. Olivet prophecy, Jesus gave his followers some indicators as to when this intervention in world affairs could be expected.
Bible prophecy – Fear of what’s coming on the earth
He said “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken” (Luke 21:25-26). That is a very accurate description of the present time, but Jesus’ next words in Luke 21 are crucial. “At that time, they will see the Son of Man [Jesus] coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21:27-28).
Bible prophecy – Wars, Pandemics, famines, earthquakes
Earlier in the same discourse Jesus had said “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven” (Luke 21:10-11).
We have seen all these signs over recent years and now we see the world gripped with fear over the Covid-19 pandemic. Jesus said that pestilences would come – an old word for fatal epidemics. He also mentioned there would be fearful events. The first part of this article illustrates how accurately this prediction applies to the days we live in.
We have seen all these signs over recent years and now we see the world gripped with fear over the Covid-19 pandemic. Jesus said that pestilences would come – an old word for fatal epidemics. He also mentioned there would be fearful events. The first part of this article illustrates how accurately this prediction applies to the days we live in.
The Last Days
All of these events lead us to the conclusion that we are living in the ‘last days’, the days just before the return of Jesus Christ to this earth.
Jesus prophecy about Jerusalem was fulfilled
We have confidence that what Jesus, the son of God, spoke about will come to pass because many Bible prophecies have proved to be unerringly accurate. For example, in this very same prophecy Jesus said (Luke 21:20) “When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near…..v 23b There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”
All this happened from AD70 –when the Roman armies besieged Jerusalem and eventually took it, that was about 40 years after Jesus was killed. The Jews were dispersed and became wanderers, from nation to nation for hundreds of years. It wasn’t until 1948 that the state of Israel was established and then in 1967 that Jerusalem was controlled once more by Jews, after 1900 years. Jesus was proved right regarding Jerusalem being trodden down by Gentile powers and he was proved right about the Jews one day regaining control of Jerusalem.
So, we should take what else Jesus went on to say very seriously (quoted earlier),
25 "There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.26 Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.” Jesus is saying that in the days immediately preceding his return to this earth people will be worried, anxious, fearful even when they’re looking at the things coming on this earth. He said the “nations will be in anguish and perplexity”. The lexicon gives the meaning of that word perplexity as “quandary, to have no way out”. That is indeed an accurate description of the politicians and world leaders. But for the follower of Jesus, there is a way out, for as
Jesus said in Luke 21:27 “At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”
All this happened from AD70 –when the Roman armies besieged Jerusalem and eventually took it, that was about 40 years after Jesus was killed. The Jews were dispersed and became wanderers, from nation to nation for hundreds of years. It wasn’t until 1948 that the state of Israel was established and then in 1967 that Jerusalem was controlled once more by Jews, after 1900 years. Jesus was proved right regarding Jerusalem being trodden down by Gentile powers and he was proved right about the Jews one day regaining control of Jerusalem.
So, we should take what else Jesus went on to say very seriously (quoted earlier),
25 "There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.26 Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.” Jesus is saying that in the days immediately preceding his return to this earth people will be worried, anxious, fearful even when they’re looking at the things coming on this earth. He said the “nations will be in anguish and perplexity”. The lexicon gives the meaning of that word perplexity as “quandary, to have no way out”. That is indeed an accurate description of the politicians and world leaders. But for the follower of Jesus, there is a way out, for as
Jesus said in Luke 21:27 “At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”
Jesus’ return to the earth is near
We believe Jesus’ return is near, and so you need to make a choice: will you put your trust in politicians, economists, scientists and engineers or will you put your trust in God? To trust in God isn’t simply to believe that Jesus will come and resolve the world’s problems. To trust in God involves changing our lives now; it’s about trusting that His ways are right and trying to live our lives in accordance with them.
Read the Bible for Good News!
We ask you to look at the Bible and see the good news that is written there.
It contains a great message of hope, of being saved from eternal death to live in an earth that has been restored to how God intended it in the beginning. This renewed earth is called the “Kingdom of God on Earth” and you can get a flavour of what it will be like by reading some word pictures from Bible. Read Isaiah chapter 2 vs 1-5, and at your leisure all of chapter 35, chapter 66 vs 17-25 and all of chapter 11.
You can also read about how God wants everyone to have an opportunity to have a part in this Kingdom in “The last great chapter of the human story”
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION.
Copyright 1973,1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.
Used by permission of Hodder and Stoughton Limited.
It contains a great message of hope, of being saved from eternal death to live in an earth that has been restored to how God intended it in the beginning. This renewed earth is called the “Kingdom of God on Earth” and you can get a flavour of what it will be like by reading some word pictures from Bible. Read Isaiah chapter 2 vs 1-5, and at your leisure all of chapter 35, chapter 66 vs 17-25 and all of chapter 11.
You can also read about how God wants everyone to have an opportunity to have a part in this Kingdom in “The last great chapter of the human story”
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION.
Copyright 1973,1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.
Used by permission of Hodder and Stoughton Limited.
