Why Futurequest? Because Individually Or Otherwise, Life Can End Suddenly

Not because of Nostradamus and many other so-called prophets but because of the daily newspaper headlines.

By Frank Raj

History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic declines. There has either been a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse or an ultimate natural disaster.

—?General Douglas MacArthur

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.

—?Martin Luther

Hooray! Hooray! The end of the world has been postponed!

—?Herge

Deciding to write?Futurequest, I’ve been considering how to develop such a column. Doomsday predictions I will not make, so I must admit that the task of handling a subject like this regularly will be a challenge, and I do not anticipate being prolific, only discerning, when something merits comment.

Futurequest,?nonetheless, will inevitably be linked to the strong convictions I have about God and life after death. I am convinced it is wise to investigate matters of eternal significance and the afterlife. “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”

Contemplating why we are here, where we came from, and where we are going hardly matters to many people who care so little about the Creator who made them. From their disregard for the Maker, with their bloated egos, it would appear they all arrived on their own steam to planet Earth. They are, as the holy book indicates, like the fool who says in his heart, “There is no God.”

Or if they don’t say it, they live it, which amounts to the same.

I wanted a reason that would have a universal understanding and impact. Waxing eloquently about my own beliefs isn’t motivating enough to write a regular column. The canvas has to be bigger, spanning the controversial issues of our time, providing not only metaphysical stimulation but professional challenges for research and writing and perhaps even some thoughtful entertainment value in the search for answers.

Perhaps not so curiously, I found answers in the recent near-death experience of a close friend who survived what, in normal circumstances, should have been a fatal accident. It was the first time death came knocking on his family’s door, reinforcing quite powerfully that it can all end very suddenly. Morbid thoughts, you say? Hardly. They are a busy, happy family living a full life. Like you, perhaps. But the fact remains that on another day in the immediate or distant future, that knock on the door will sound for you and me, and someone will have to answer.

So why?Futurequest??Because whether individually or otherwise, life can end suddenly, so what on earth or in heaven happens after that to you and me? Besides provoking thoughts about our whereabouts in the hereafter, nobody can deny it is interesting to study what is going to happen when the world comes to an end. Not because of Nostradamus and many other so-called prophets, but because of the daily newspaper headlines, I’m convinced things cannot go on the way they are forever.

In an awesome sense, it will be the greatest spectacle on earth, the culmination of mankind’s violent and sinful story, the end of decades of perversion, wars and political intrigue, man-made environmental disasters, natural calamities, the havoc of disease and famine, proving ultimately the impotence of science and medicine as man falls into the hands of a holy and just God, whose loving forbearance ends with the fullness of time.

No one using the keyboard for a living can deny being compelled to observe anything that even hints at the arrival of the event!

So, great political and economic initiatives aside, what hidden perils lurk in our worlds that portend disaster for man?

On the environmental front, the oceans are dying, we are told. Famine and pestilence and natural disasters are increasing. Strange things are happening in different parts of the world with a frequency that warrants more than a casual newspaper read. Does the Ozone Hole have anything to do with our dying oceans? In the book of Revelations (Rev 16: 8–9) it says, “The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was given the power to scorch people with fire. They were seared by intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.” Could the Ozone Hole be the beginning of this prophecy? Other prophecies merit consideration; we will examine them later.

In 1993, Bill Clinton, in one of the first official acts of his presidency, ended the moratorium on federal funding for research on fetal tissue transplants. Since then, many standard ethical questions about tissue procurement have been falling by the wayside, as research teams have been vying with one another for a piece of the multi-million-dollar grant action, considering proposals for using implanted neurological fetal tissue.

India Today?reports that of the 25 million illegal abortions worldwide, over five million — the highest for any country?—?happen in India. In America alone, over 50 million innocent children have been aborted for the sake of convenience and greed. It is legal in some states in the US to have an abortion at any point in the pregnancy, even five minutes before birth. Fetal tissue research allows babies to be harvested for their brains and hormones, for fetal tissue proteins claiming they play a crucial role in scientists’ efforts to combat and cure devastating diseases, including Alzheimer’s, ALS, Diabetes, and Parkinson’s.

During the Nazi Holocaust, an entire nation of otherwise civilized people allowed malevolent insanity to rule them, not by becoming insane themselves, but simply looking the other way. They refused to recognize evil for what it was. Various issues today present each one of us with a similar challenge to our conscience.

When the great flood (variations of which are found not just in the biblical scriptures) destroyed the world previously, it is sobering to recognize that it was 120 years from the time when God instructed Noah to begin constructing the Ark until it was completed. That meant four generations of Noah’s prodigy warned people of God’s impending judgment. Did the people heed Noah’s warning? Many laughed and ridiculed him.

No doubt?Futurequest?will elicit similar responses!

However, the laughter ended abruptly when the deluge began, and God closed the door to the Ark. That curious phrase is worth noting in the Biblical account of the flood.?God closed the door to the Ark —?not Noah, and once the Almighty closed it, the screaming, panic-stricken hordes of drowning humanity could not force their way into the safety of the Ark. It was too late to seek the refuge which had been offered for so long.

Frank Raj moved to the U.S. after nearly four decades in the Middle East. Frank is the author of ‘Desh Aur Diaspora’ (Home & Diaspora) and ‘The Universal Book of the Scriptures.’ His new books are, ‘God Calling In Poetry,’ (soon to be released by John Hunt Publishing, UK) and ‘101 Poems: A Spiritual Traveller.’ He is working on ‘The Sinner’s Bible’ and 'The Last Religion' and vlogs at?https://christnotchristianity.com