What time is it?

Don’t ask Phil Connors that question: for him, it really didn’t matter. In the 1993 movie Groundhog Day, Phil (played by Bill Murray) was stuck in a strange time loop, repeating the same day, continuously. If life isn’t moving toward some significant future horizon – if every day is just a do-over – then asking about time, as if the answer would spark some urgency – is meaningless.

According to the Bible, there will be an era when urgency would be abandoned: “In the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, ‘Where is this “coming” he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.’” (2 Peter 3:3-4). The “last days” would be “days without end,” according to scoffers…

Are these the “last days?” A generation ago, that question was frequently posed in and around the Christian community. Sunday morning sermons on prophecy were not uncommon; speculation about some of the milestone markers related to the End Times could keep small groups in heated exchanges long after the coffee and desserts had disappeared. These days, that discussion has mostly disappeared…

If you’re feeling under the weather, a trip to your primary care physician becomes a pop quiz: he/she will pose a series of questions seeking the symptoms that will – when considered together – allow an accurate diagnosis and subsequent prescription.

Here are some markers that Scripture aligns with the progression of the prophecy clock. For each, think about your lifetime: has this increased (+); decreased (-), or remained constant (=) ??

• Decline of unity and commitment in Christian community; false teaching: +  –  =
• Claims of faith, but character that mirrors the culture: +  –  =
• Extensive travel, and expansion of information: +  –  =
• Intense persecution – especially toward Christians – that threaten extinction: +  –  =
• Belief that creation lasts forever, without any Creator or conclusion: +  –  =
• Earthquakes, natural disasters and threats of cosmic catastrophes: +  –  =
• Conflicts between tribal groups, and wars between countries: +  –  =
• Deniers of divinity who live with no moral boundaries or sense of accountability: +  –  =

Click here for the biblical citations from which those end-time symptoms are extracted. You tell me: are these on the rise? on the decline? or, holding steady? In the few decades of your adult life, has the accelerating movement foretold across millennia been in keeping with God’s projection, or not?

When Peter looks at the clock – and the careening culture that seems destined for a future collision – he says it demands a personal determination: “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.” (2 Peter 3:11-13).

So… what time is it?

 Bob Shank

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Matthew 24:10-12: “And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.”

2 Timothy 3:1-5: “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.”

Daniel 12:4: “But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”

Matthew 24:21-22: “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.”

2 Peter 3:3-4: “Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”

Luke 21:11: “There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.”

Matthew 24:7-8: “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.”

Jude 1:18-19: “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions. It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.”