Is the Church Paying Attention?

This going to be another one of those getting-the-thoughts-out-of-my-head type of posts.  I’m just tired of them being in my head.  So you won’t offend me if you pass this one by.  But I hope you’ll at least consider it.  While writing them here may not erase them permanently from my mind, I’ll at least feel better…hopefully.

The Bible – it tells us everything we need to know about life, love, pain, hopes, failures and everything else in between.  It’s always on point and has never been proven to be wrong. But the one thing I feel most of us in the church are missing is the fact that it tells us about the future.  And believe it or not, the future it’s been telling us about is here and is happening daily – playing out on the world’s stage right before our eyes.

Before I go any farther, I need to state a very clear disclaimer – I am not a biblical scholar or expert!  I am a guy who finds the things most people avoid due to fear or “unnecessary for our time” in the Bible very fascinating.  Prophecy is a difficult subject as it uses a lot of imagery and sometimes weird wording to explain things that have happened or are going to happen.  Especially when it comes to eschatology (the study of the end times).  I do not claim to understand even a fraction of what has been told to us.  But I hope to understand it more.  My knowledge on this subject has only begun

Israel – the apple of God’s eye.  The Holy Land that He chose from antiquity is constantly in the news.  Every nation surrounding it stakes some sort of claim to it’s land or wants a piece of it very badly.  The Bible speaks of the nations of the world becoming intoxicated or obsessed with the land of Israel.  The history of this tiny nation is riddled with hostile invaders.  But this land (and much more was originally theirs based on Biblical accounts) has always been the Promised Land of the Jewish people.  Nothing can change that.  But that has not stopped the ongoing assaults.

The Golan Heights have been under dispute.  The West Bank has been occupied.  Now Jerusalem, yet again, is coming under attack.  There is a convention this month (Jan. 15th) that will vote on the possibility of a 2-State solution with the so-called “Palestinians,” – a nation that technically doesn’t even exist as far as the international community is concerned.  If passed, Jews will no longer be legally permitted to pray and worship at the Western Wall – one of the most sacred locations in Jerusalem.  Our nation, whether we realize it or not, has turned it’s back on Israel.  Maybe the church hasn’t completely.  But our leaders definitely have (at least a lot of them).

Israel and it’s capital, Jerusalem, have been the center of controversy and debate for thousands of years.  It has been under attack time and again from it’s very inception.  So this isn’t new news at all.  But it is worth paying attention to.

Jesus makes this statement: “You know how to interpret the weather signs in the sky, but you don’t know how to interpret the signs of the times!” (Matt. 16:3 NLT).  Jesus was spoken of by every prophet in the Old Testament to include King David.  Even the stars all but screamed of His birth (see http://www.bethlehemstar.net.  Very fascinating stuff!)  Hundreds of years before He actually stepped onto the scene, the leaders of His day knew about Him and were supposedly expecting Him. But when He announced Himself, they didn’t recognize Him. Even though He was fulfilling those prophecies right in front of their face, they missed it! Instead, they treated Him as an impostor and criminal – which, coincidentally, was prophesied as well.

Why is it that so few of us are not seeing what is going on today?  Why do we allow ourselves to be blinded by every day life and not at least try to stay up to date on what’s going on?  I’m not saying this to cause fear or condemnation.  Because, even if Jesus were to come tomorrow, we should be excited for that as believers.  And I understand – I have kids, a wife, a job, bills, TV to watch and Call of Duty to play (yes, I know – you’re 37, Bud, grow up).  But we should be waiting and expecting Him just like those in His day were. And we should be watching the signs.  Only we have different distractions than they did.  But we also have better capability than they did to know what’s going on around our world.

The power of media is awesome.  And even though I believe little that is told by the news anymore (that’s the conspiracy theorist in me), I believe we still have a responsibility to know what’s happening and compare it to Scripture.  Find someone who teaches the subject objectively and with conviction and be educated about it.

To me, it’s exciting!  And I have learned the hard way that I am in the minority by a long shot simply because I have found very few people who are willing to discuss it with me. Honestly, I don’t know very much about the subject and a lot of it doesn’t make sense. But it not making sense doesn’t make it less true or make me less obligated to attempt to understand.  And I hear about it less and less from our pulpits.  The David Wilkersons and Leonard Ravenhills of our time are dying off and few are willing to tackle it.  That saddens me.

I also understand that it is difficult to see all of the stuff happening in this great world of ours.  Terrorism is rampant, Christian persecution, murders, trafficking, natural disasters – it can be very overwhelming.  So you need to discern what you can handle and what you can’t.  And anything that weighs too heavy on us, we need to give back to Him and pray for whatever that may be.

I’m just ranting – I am not condemning in any way.  But we need to be more world focused in a way that causes us to cry out to God for the nations of the world – especially for Israel. I don’t know when He’s coming back for us.  But I don’t want to be like the leaders of His day and completely miss Him.  In the end, God will have His way and Israel will stand tall. Just like the 6-Day War, the miraculous will take place and the world will be in awe.

The journey of learning continues…