The Prophetic Rollercoaster

There are times when you just shake your head and pray you don't live anywhere near people like this. Let me introduce you to Mr. Muhamed. He is a 19 year old Somali born citizen of the United States. His goal in life is to blow up a van full of explosives at a tree lighting ceremony in Oregon. Hmmm, who attends tree lighting ceremonies? Men, women, CHILDREN, all types of people who want to celebrate the Holidays (sorry, I should say Christmas). This kid wanted to blow up a bunch of people wanting to celebrate Christmas. He said he basically picked Portland becaus you wouldn't expect anything to happen there. That really makes me rethink any plans to attend a public events where I live.

There are several questions about this that immediately come to mind. Why would a naturalized citizen want to do this? Where are his parents? If a 19 year old can get this far imagine what an experienced, well organized, well planned, and well funded small group of individuals can do? That may be the scariest question of all. The terror threat has not diminished at all. It is only a matter of time before one of their plans is realized.

One thing I've come to understand as someone who watches these "prophetic indicators" is that it is really easy to get caught up on the roller coaster of events. Over the last several days we've seen this terror attempt, the Korean situation deteriorating, China and Russia quitting the dollar, Dept of Homeland Security indicating its intent to expand pat downs and body scanners to maritime ports and bus stations, not to mention the continued violence so pervasive in our society. We've also seen a steady decline in our relationship with Israel. All things that were once considered immoral and sinful are now considered ok and if you disagree with society on this then you are a hate monger and bigot. Oh, Heaven forbid you may be called a conservative Christian.

When you see these spikes in activity your natural inclination is to think "pack your bags, we're outta here!" Don't get me wrong, I would love for that to be true. The truth is this, we don't know when the rapture of the church will happen and it very well may be today. Believe me, I'm totally fine with this. I don't belong here, my home is somewhere else. But we shouldn't confuse the timing of the rapture with the 2nd coming of Jesus because that's an event where He physically sets foot on the Mt. of Olives. We know based on Matthew 24 that the events described above are things that have to take place before Christ comes back physically to earth. So dont' get all caught up in the stuff going on around us. To take it in the proper perspective is to understand that all these "end time" indicators point to Christ's physical return to Israel which is at least 7 years away. For the Christian we need to see these things going on around us and know that the rapture will take place before that 7 year period BEGINS! We need to witness to the lost without ceasing. We can't stress enough that Jesus is the ONLY way to Heaven. He says, "I am the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE. No man comes to the FATHER except by ME."

kev