Have you ever wondered, “Just how bad is it… really, in terms of human stability at this very present time?” Those of us who have grown up in God’s Church or who have been a part of it for any length of time, have heard, read and contemplated end time, prophesied events fairly extensively. We are always on the lookout for what is shaping up anywhere on the world scene. It is not for the purpose of trying to calculate the day and hour of Christ’s return, but in order not to lose our personal sense of spiritual urgency.
After Israel’s recent elimination of a top Islamic Jihad leader, militants in Gaza began sending hundreds of rockets over the border – many coming close to Tel Aviv and some within 30 miles of Jerusalem. It is being called a jihadi revenge attack. The Jihadists claim that their continued responses will have no limits. This is not good news for that region. It is noteworthy for sure, but it is not uncommon.
Additionally, a prominent business news source just published a piece explaining why a majority of wealthy investors are anticipating a significant market sell-off before the end of 2020. Two thirds of those interviewed believe that the market is not affected so much by fundamentals as it is by geopolitics. The biggest concern among these investors is the ongoing U.S./China trade conflict and the upcoming presidential election. This too is sobering news, although not unexpected.
We anticipate military conflict going forward. We anticipate financial crises going forward. We anticipate a restructuring of European power at some point. There is a clear sense of anticipated instability.
There is, however, a very clear and unanticipated indicator of just how bad it really is presently in terms of human stability. In a November 4, 2019 LifeSiteNews posting, titled “Atheists sound the alarm: Decline of Christianity is seriously hurting society,” Jonathon Van Maren wrote,
“Only a few years ago the aggressive ‘New Atheist’ movement was on the march, with rhetorical brawlers like Christopher Hitchens and renowned biologists like Richard Dawkins leading the charge against religion and the last vestiges of Christian faith in the West. Religion, Hitchens famously stated, ‘poisons everything’ and could only be considered, at best, humanity’s ‘first and worst’ attempt to solve existential questions.” None of this surprises us because we’ve heard it for decades now, but the atheist movement has, in fact, had a devastating impact on what is widely considered “Christian” culture. Mr. Van Maren goes on to say, “In a truly secular society, in which men and women live their lives beneath empty heavens and expect to be recycled rather than resurrected, there is no solid idea that mankind needed God to know right from wrong, but scarcely two generations into our Great Secularization and we no longer even know male from female.”
Amazingly, many atheists now see that without the Judeo-Christian foundation of knowing right from wrong, as our culture wars over the last several years clearly indicate, the fabric of our society will be torn apart with no hope of regaining any form of normalcy. Van Maren cites Richard Dawkins as an example of new found insight, “Dawkins has now come out and repudiated his previous belief that Christianity should be banished from society even more firmly. In fact, he told The Times ending religion – once his fervent goal – would be a terrible idea, because it would ‘give people a license to do really bad things.’”
Just how bad is it? It is bad enough that prominent atheists don’t want believers in God to give up their faith for fear of what godless people might do. This unanticipated development should heighten our personal sense of spiritual urgency!
Marshall Stiver
