Are We Living in the End Times?

"For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes."

Matthew 24:7


In the last ten years of the 19th century, in the period of relative calm before The Great War and and the Russian revolution, there was only one major earthquake recorded in the entire world. In the last sixty days we've had three and their aftershocks, and the middle one moved the axis of the earth. The polar ice caps are at their second lowest level in modern history. Entire regions are besieged by famine and war and uncertainty. Religious hatreds seethe. Plagues and killer bacteria overwhelm our advances in medicine and science. Nature is seemingly reclaiming the planet. Something is up, and far beyond our control.

From our primitive beginnings, from the discovery of fire and tools to the age of reason to the ages of machines and industry and information technology, we've taken great pride in our mastery of the elements. We've built talling buildings and awesome weapons, only to be reminded again and again that most powerful weapon on earth is the simple rhythm and gathering of the tides.

When Napoleon's armies raged over Europe many feared it was the end of the world. When Hitler plunged the world into ultimate evil, burning the innocent, living out his twisted and unholy obsessions, infecting an entire country with his madness, people wondered if time had reached its darkest hour. Only the brave and amazing sacrifices of many ordinary people turned away his darkness. Millions gave their lives to save humankind from despotism and blood lust.

This too is a terrible uncertain moment in the history of humankind. We can't march against the tides or build a foundation strong enough to withstand the rending of the ground beneath our feet. We don't have the wisdom to control the fierce hatreds we've stored against each other, or the knowledge to turn back the terrible ill effects of our poor husbandry of our world. We are like polar bears swimming frantically for 150 miles. We're the birds growing quiet before the next cataclysm. We are confused and overwhelmed and faithless. What will save us? Where will we turn when it happens here?

Our leaders posture and argue in the margins. Money buys its influence as if everything will go on as before, as if the currencies of today will matter on the dark morning and the awful hour. Yesterday I saw a man walking through the health club with a .44 magnum tucked into his pants, stuffed against his hip, held there by the waistband of his jeans. People take a gun with them to buy their morning coffee. How long before someone starts shooting, angry because the waitress smirked or there was no cream or their unemployment has run out? What have we become, when everyone carries a weapon? How far are we from the rule of lawlessness and greed? Where will the earth shake next, and who will pull the trigger first?

My son-in-law leaves for Afghanistan in a week, to make the world safe for democracy, one successfully defused IED at a time. The tremors and rumblings of that desolate place are no place for a kind man with two babies, but that is his duty and his training. He will go, and rely on fierce bravado and steady hands, and the pictures tucked in his helmet. Like many other young men before him he's called to execute the will of politicians and fools. From the solid rock where I stand, the two are the same thing.