As frequently the case, our bedside radio was set on the British Broadcasting Company's "World News" programming last night. One commentator's analysis of present global trends and likely outcome particularly caught our attention. While the world at large is not yet to such state, we could little avoid being reminded of Jesus' prophecy concerning a time wherein fear and desperation becomes the controlling emotion of a threatened mankind (Luke 21:26).
Of various developments, states of affairs and related apprehensions addressed within the BBC analysis - politically, militarily, societally, economically, etc. - one quote especially grasped our attention. Relative to the Mid-east, but Israel in particular, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (and likely successor, once more, to the office) offered this analogic assessment: "We are presently in 1938, and Iran is Germany."
As the commentator went on to observe, notable distinction attends the world's present dilemma, however. Whereas in times past, threats to world peace and stability tended to be of a largely specific if, at times monolithic, nature - Germany and Nazi facism, Russia and Marxist Communism, for example - today's concerns tend toward the ubiquitous and multifaceted.
Again, our minds recalled the relatively recent pronouncement of our own former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. Given the intensifying political violence and turmoil of our day accompanied by concerns of radicalized nuclear proliferation, his response to the question of nuclear warfare was that it is "only a matter of time."
Today's threats all contribute to a somewhat expanded sense of meaning in relation to Jesus' words concerning a final time of havoc, confusion, violence, persecution and struggle (Matt. 24:3-12). What is frequently missed here is that Christ did not promise the Church exemption from developments of this nature. Rather, "When you (i.e., the Twelve as representative of the believing Body) shall see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door" (Matt. 24:33).
As we recently noted, meaningful faith is going to be seen through a lens of definition requiring more than casual commitment or "as usual" frames of reference in days to come. For such reason Jesus also states, "But the one who endures to the end, it is he who shall be saved" (i.e., delivered or rescued, Matt. 24:13).
Burl Ratzsch
