LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT
A dear Christian woman in Louisiana wrote to our ministry: “Last Sunday, our pastor asked for testimonies of what God had been doing during the week. His own five-year-old son stood up and said, ‘I had a dream last night. Jesus told me He is coming soon.’” The Holy Spirit used that child to remind God’s people of a glorious truth.
Sadly, the present generation knows less about the return of Christ than any generation in the past. Jesus’ coming is seldom preached in churches anymore. Indeed, multitudes who call themselves Christians don’t want to hear about the subject. Why?
Life is good for most people, including Christians, and the focus is on how to keep the good times rolling. Just as Lot’s wife, many are possessed by what they own. They have become addicted to the things of this world, and in their minds Jesus’ coming would be disruptive.
I have heard churchgoers mock the possibility of Jesus’ “anytime return.” They scoff at the idea He could come back soon. Indeed, there is a doctrine that states our Lord won’t return for thousands of years. The idea is that the Church will be given all that time to evangelize the world and set up a new order before Christ comes back to reign as King.
The Apostle Peter addresses these things, saying, “There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Peter 3:3–4).
Peter speaks a pointed word to all such willfully ignorant people: “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).
Sadly, the present generation knows less about the return of Christ than any generation in the past. Jesus’ coming is seldom preached in churches anymore. Indeed, multitudes who call themselves Christians don’t want to hear about the subject. Why?
Life is good for most people, including Christians, and the focus is on how to keep the good times rolling. Just as Lot’s wife, many are possessed by what they own. They have become addicted to the things of this world, and in their minds Jesus’ coming would be disruptive.
I have heard churchgoers mock the possibility of Jesus’ “anytime return.” They scoff at the idea He could come back soon. Indeed, there is a doctrine that states our Lord won’t return for thousands of years. The idea is that the Church will be given all that time to evangelize the world and set up a new order before Christ comes back to reign as King.
The Apostle Peter addresses these things, saying, “There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Peter 3:3–4).
Peter speaks a pointed word to all such willfully ignorant people: “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).