“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.” (2 Tim. 3:1 NIV)
When I was in Army basic training at Fort Lewis, we had one particular Drill Sergeant who liked to pour on the training exercises, such as; 10-mile hikes, in the noontime heat, wearing full combat gear! He would often describe each event in advance to us with all its scary details. And then, he would end his description by saying, “And this is not a threat, it’s a promise!”
This training was hard!
But many of us were headed to Vietnam with its extreme heat and dangerous combat situations, and we needed to be toughened up and ready for it! It was a matter of survival!
Jesus warns us about tough times coming in our future!
He wants us to be prepared for it! He said that in the last days, just before He returns, things are going to go from bad to worse to the extreme point that only God’s intervention will stop total destruction! He said, “For there will be greater anguish in those days than at any time since God created the world. And it will never be so great again. In fact, unless the Lord shortens that time of calamity, not a single person will survive. But for the sake of his chosen ones he has shortened those days.” (Mark 13:19-20 NLT)
Look what is said about how people will be like in the end times.
“People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power.” (2 Tim. 3:2-5 NIV)
Sound familiar?
We are living in a very different time than even a few short years ago! We are now calling good, bad and bad, good! Things are flipped upside down! We are accepting sexual deviancy as normal, and things like fidelity and celibacy until marriage as abnormal. Biblical marriage (between a man and a woman) is now redefined to include same-sex couples! There is public outrage over the death of a lion or gorilla, and yet 3,000 babies are aborted every day without hardly a word! “Political correctness” has become the way the world filters things. The Bible is no longer welcome in our learning institutions! Biblical truth is banished from open discussion.
Okay, all this sounds threatening and even scary! And it is! But, here’s what Jesus said we should do.
“And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic.” (Mark 13:7 NLT)
“When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21:28 NIV)
“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap.” (Luke 21:34 NIV)
“And everyone will hate you because you are my followers. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” (Mark 13:13 NLT)
And finally, remember this!
“Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:37-39 NKJV)