What is the World Coming To?

For years the fundamental wing of the Christian Church has speculated about the Second Coming based on the 1948 creation of an Israelite state in the Middle East. Bookstores have been filled with books (the "Left Behind" series has been a huge seller) about final things and eschatology. Undoubtedly, the events of this week will become constant fodder for the religious airwaves in the days and weeks to come. This will be viewed by the John Hagee's and Pat Robertson's as fulfillment of biblical prophecy. What are we to believe? What are we to think? What is the world coming to, anyway?
Time Magazine has put up this cover and proclaimed the end of "Cowboy Diplomacy". Yet today, the rumblings of the next war in the Middle East have been heard. Bombs are being dropped on airport runways and roads that link nations together. Soldiers are kidnapped and terrorists camps have been bombed. The seriousness of the conflict is intensifying. Iran is threatening an Arabic world retaliation if Syria is attacked. Is WWIII coming? Is Jesus about to return? What is the world coming to, anyway?
Well, I am thinking more about people like DonDeena Johnson in Beirut. She is trying to run a school and pastor a church while the city of Beirut is being bombed. I am praying for her and for the students, faculty and church members of that war torn country. Do I think Jesus is about to return? Sure. I always think he is about to return. Jesus told us to live our lives ready for an event (the second coming) that will happen at any moment but may tarry for another millennium or two. When it happens, no one will be prepared except those who are always prepared. I seriously doubt that any Mideast conflict will usher in the final event of human history. It is too obvious. But I do think that it will be the "second coming" for some people who will die in this conflict. To those who die today, their second coming will be to face Jesus and give an account of their lives and their faith. Let us live as though today is our last day and let us plan as though the Lord will tarry for our lifetimes. And don't listen to Time Magazine or Hagee or Robertson. Read the Word, it has more contemporary information in it than any of these guys have. And it reads better, too.