Occasionally I get asked, “Are we living in the last days?”. This question is tied to the promise of Christ’s return. The people who ask this question are usually relating current events to the prophetic words of the Bible. My first response to this question is yes! We have been living in the last days since God poured out the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Since day one of God’s outpouring, Christians have been anticipating Christ’s return. I am sure that the earliest Christians would have been dumbfounded if they knew that the age of the Spirit would last at least this long! I remember when I first received the Spirit. It was a time of great harvest among my generation. With all that was happening in the world at that time, I was caught up with great anticipation of Christ’s return. As years went by and I settled down to adult life, my sense of anticipation seemed to wane. I did have friends who would sit around and talk about end times, but my sense was that God was not finished in doing the work of reconciliation. Where are we now and what is to be our posture as Christ’s followers? I do not believe that the book of Revelation is an outline of things to come. It is primarily a first century book that reveals the truth in a symbolic way of the latter first century world. What it does prophetically, is give us a way to perceive the forces of evil that continually crop its head in history. It warns us of the totalitarian urge of the powers that be. We only have to look at the last century to see that these forces are dynamically at work among humanity. We see these totalitarian forces at work today! In the West, these forces are at work in secular, progressive movements that in the name of compassion are taking away our God given freedoms. In other parts of the world, radical religious extremists seek to destroy Christians and Jews and set up a world order that looks very familiar to the beast of Revelation. Our ever expanding global world that ties economic and technological forces look more like the Whore of Babylon every day! The names may change, but the reality of evil will continue to grow until God says, “Enough!”. Until that day comes, we are to be faithful in our witness that only Jesus is Lord. With ever increasing evil will come persecution. We see it happening right now. We must not get fooled with words of comfort and escape from tribulation. We must remain faithful and trust that God will keep what we have committed until the day of Christ’s return. Yes these are the last days!
