Are we living in the last days of the world? Some people are convinced that the end of the world as we know it is just ahead. Yet predictions of the world’s end are not new. Such prophecies have been made for at least two thousand years and to date they have all been wrong.
One prophetic writer advanced the idea that “666,” the number of the beast mentioned in the Bible, is actually the date for the beginning of the Rapture – 06/06/06. Obviously he was wrong since that date is now history.
One man yet to be proven wrong has said the Rapture will begin on the 7th hour of the 7th day of the 7th month of the Hebrew calendar in the year corresponding to 2007. Another writer has predicted that global warming and the melting of the polar ice caps before 2012 will signal the beginning of the end.
The War of Armageddon will begin, says another prophet, at the precise moment the population of the earth reaches 6.66 billion people. Quite possibly the world population has already surpassed that number.
The predictions of Michael Drosnin caught my attention. In his book, The Bible Code II, Drosnin offered the startling conclusion that coded in the Bible are the words “atomic holocaust” and “World War” as well as the year 2006. To any thinking person that is certainly a worrisome possibility given the present climate of world violence.
Drosnin might have more creditability had he not advanced the idea that the DNA of the human race was brought to the earth in a space vehicle by beings of higher intelligence who live somewhere in the universe. This also the Bible code revealed to him. That is simply too much of a stretch, at least for me.
Earlier this month Dr. Bernard Lewis, an expert on the Middle East and a professor emeritus of Princeton University, drew serious attention with his article in the Wall Street Journal. He suggested that the nation of Iran might have a cataclysmic event planned for August 22nd.
That date on the Islamic calendar is significant to Muslims who on that date celebrate the night flight of the prophet Mohammed on a winged horse to heaven and back. We breathed a sigh of relief when no nuclear attack upon Jerusalem last Tuesday was reported.
Lewis, however, helps us understand a striking change that has occurred in recent years. Not too long ago world leaders were in agreement that the use of nuclear weapons would result in mutual annihilation. So no nation at war has been willing to use such deadly force since America used it in World War II.
That apparently is no longer true. Radical Islamic leaders, like the current president of Iran, may be willing to use nuclear warheads now because of their relatively new attitude toward life and death. Radical Muslims are now willing to kill themselves, and their own people, without remorse because killing infidels pleases God. The media reports this every day as suicide bombings are accelerating.
They can embrace this unthinkable (to us) attitude because of their conviction that when they die Muslims go straight to heaven while the rest of us go straight to hell. So killing fellow Muslims is doing them a favor by sending them to heaven sooner. These Muslims have a mission – death to all infidels.
If you still have any doubt about the thinking of Islamic terrorists, consider this chilling quote attributed to Osama bin Laden:
“The Americans love life; that is their weakness. We love death and that is our strength.”
This statement epitomizes the radical change of attitude toward life and death that is being embraced by a growing number of Muslims.
Despite all the predictions that the end of the world is near, and the uneasiness we all feel about a possible nuclear holocaust, we must not allow ourselves to be obsessed with fear. It still makes sense to believe that “This is my Father’s World, and though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the Ruler yet.”
So far as I can tell, God has not surrendered his sovereignty over the world to ruthless terrorists. He is still in charge and will be until he decides, in his own good time, to close shop. Until then I suggest we continue to sing with confident joy, “The Lord is King; let the heavens ring! God reigns; let the earth be glad”! + + + +