Hope in a World of Chaos

Hope in a World of Chaos

??????????? The global economy is below the historical average, political division is rising internationally, nuclear proliferation is accelerating, and hate is spreading around the world … especially against Israel and those of the Jewish faith. You may ask, are we are seeing biblical prophecy being fulfilled? The answer is yes; albeit, we have seen a steady series of prophetic events over many decades, which is too much to chronical in this devotional. But we are living in the “last days”, the church age, which began when the Holy Spirit filled the apostles in the upper room at Pentecost through today. The church age ends with the rapture, meaning "to snatch away" or “caught-up” (Greek, harpazo, Latin, rapturo) and ushers in immediately the “end times”, that 7-year tribulation period (Greek, thilipsis) of God’s wrath. Don’t confuse the rapture with the second coming of Christ, which occurs at the end of the tribulation. While we don’t know when the rapture will occur, we do know that no additional prophesies need to be fulfilled. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17: “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever.” Paul continues, 1 Corinthians 15:51-53 & 58: “Behold, I am telling you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.” God loves us too much to leave us without a warning, v-58“Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be firm, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” Paul tells believers why we need to be vigilant in these “last days”. 2 Timothy 3:1-2,4-5: “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these.” We’re all mindful this deterioration; how society is consumed with money and materialism, people are immersed in self-absorption with no self-control and many churches are lukewarm without power or purity, as written in Revelation 3. The reality of the approaching rapture brings today’s global events into perspective. Appreciate this fact; because Christ died, we have lives that are forgiven, because Christ rose, we have lives that are forever.