When I was a young girl, a 9 year old third grader, I had a babysitter, Cindy, from church. She would come over or I would go over to her (parent’s) house during the summer.
She was probably 15 or 16. Her dad was a high up Muckity in the USAF. We were all born again Christians, and this was the early 70’s. Consequently, there was speculation in Bible studies and day to day conversation about the return of the Lord Jesus Christ and, as always, the “mark of the beast”. Christian movies such as A Thief in The Night were popular and as I watch this trailer, it really is ridiculous. Welcome to the 70’s!
And there was the accompanying scary apocalyptic song “I Wish We’d All Been Ready.”
Well, turns out I overheard a lot of stuff and it stuck with me. Spying was my jam and I was really good at it. I would listen in on adult conversations and one has stuck with me for ALL these years. Colonel B was back and forth to Brussels. He and my parents would talk about what he saw, and I am sure it was classified, but being a believer, he shared his thoughts. What he was seeing in Brussels was a giant computer being built and the people who worked on it would call it The Beast. It was used to track people. But, the only computer I could even conjure up in my mind at the ripe old age of 8-9 was Robot off of Lost In Space.
But, now as I look back on those conversations overheard from that sunny summer, I think of what he said. Brussels? The Beast? Well, as we all know, the computing power in 1973 is vastly different from today. 64KB memory in your old computers and phones is the size of a postage stamp, whereas, in the 70’s, the equipment required to produce 64KB would take up an entire high school gymnasium.
People say to me “Oh, every generation has thought they would see the end days and they never did, so don’t get all riled up.” Yeah, I think I will get all riled up, for a little while anyway. What is so different about now?
We are the first generation fully capable of being The Last. Wonderful! Marvelous! Wouldn’t a “rapture” just be great?? If that is what you believe will happen, good for you. I personally do not believe God tells us to be strong and hold fast in the end days for nothing. He says “….unless the Lord had shortened those days, no life would have been saved; but for the elect whom He chose, He shortened the days.” Mark 13:20
The Guidebook gives us clues. Everyone will have to have heard The Good News and have a chance to accept or reject it. Thanks to the power of the internet, I believe this goal is close to being accomplished, if it hasn’t been already. Check. Money will become obsolete. CBDC is coming, and you are probably using it’s pathway into our life right now to make your phone calls and such. You can’t buy or sell without the mark of the beast. Check. Israel will become a nation. Check. God’s “chosen” people, the Jews, will return to their homeland from all over the world. Check. Wars and rumors of wars. Check. Nation will rise against nation. Check. Earthquakes. Check. Famines. Check. Brother will rise up against brother, children will rise up against parents. CHECK. (You can’t see my family unless you are jabbed!)
But, the exact time and hour is unknown. Mark 13 and Matthew 24 are good chapters. There are many more things I have not included here, because, well, there is just too much. I am keeping my eyes on Israel and Jerusalem. I will tell you that the signing of the Ten Commandments of Climate Change, signed in November on Mt. Sinai, IMHO is blasphemy, plain and simple. I will let God deal with that heresy. Mt. Sinai is where God gave Moses The Ten Commandments and man takes to worshiping the creation instead of the Creator. But, I am just a lone woman, with one opinion. But, I know what I saw. I heard what I heard. I see what I see.
Global religious leaders promote climate action during UN climate conference COP 27
We need to be very careful about how we talk about these things, especially to young people who have major life decisions ahead of them. I was in high school in 1973, and yes, there was a lot of that kind of talk going around then. I remember the leader of the Bible study group I was in saying that the end would come before his infant son entered kindergarten. Well, that kid's long grown up and so are his kids, and we are still here.
I was going through a rather rough patch in my teenage years, I wasn't popular, in fact I was one of the kids you either ignored or made fun of. I was constantly being told by my family that there wasn't any money for extracurricular activities, and after a while I quit asking and pretty much withdrew to my room. SO, when the Bible study leaders and other influential Christians started talking about these are the last days, I perked up my ears. If Jesus was coming soon, then I would have nothing to worry about. I wouldn't have to worry about how I was going to finance a college education when my parents "made too much money" for financial aid, yet not enough to send me; I did not qualify for scholarships and loans really weren't available then. No money for school, but I had to go, I had no choice in the matter. Getting a job is not easy when you live in the suburbs where there are no close jobs, have no car of your own, have no public transportation, and cannot rely on your parents because "we have other children to think about not just you." But now all of this didn't matter anymore! Praise the Lord! I didn't have to worry about my lack of practical job skills. It didn't really matter what major I chose because it was all going to end fairly soon anyway.
That's what that kind of talk did to me as a teenager. It focused attention away from the problems I should have been focused on solving. It made me passive. And all it did was kick the can down the road, as the years and then decades went by and Jesus still hadn't returned. My lack of preparation for the future, especially in the light of all the obstacles I had to overcome, really handicapped me. If I could go back and talk to my teenage self I would tell her to quit hanging around that Bible study group, start learning how to dress and act professionally, start learning about personal finance, maybe stand up to her parents a little more and find allies to help her grow, not hold her back. Because what I did back then impacted my future in ways I could not have forseen at the time. It impacted my ability to earn a decent living, not a "just getting by" living, and it probably also had a negative effect on my ability to find a spouse. But nobody in that Bible study group was concerned about any of this; instead, it was my walk with Jesus, my spiritual life, that was of primary importance. Well, that was 50 years ago, and here I am alone--my spiritual guardians nowhere in sight.
So what I am saying is maybe this time is for real; but maybe it is not; and perhaps we shouldn't be encouraging people to look or a rescue that maybe isn't coming. I for one am not holding my breath.