Dissing the Second Coming: To Quell or to Quash?

First it was Greece followed by Spain and now Ireland’s economy that is in the straights and the Emerald Isle is seeking a loan from the EU of not less than 10 billion Euros. The price for this loan: less Irish sovereignty.

George Osborne, Ireland’s Chancellor of the Exchequer has conceded that a loan from the EU, the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the ECB (European Central Bank) may be the only solution to Ireland’s teetering economy. Brussels may not be happy with its member states’ economic downturn but like their American liberal counterparts, the EU leaders will not let a good crisis go to waste.

It may not seem like much to Americans but this is the sort of event that prophecy watchers and eschatologist have been predicting with ever more frequency as we approach what many are calling the pivotal or critical year of 2012.

It is this kind of problem, some say, which could be the impetus for the fiercely sovereign United States to enter the EU in full membership sometime in the near future. The only other foreseeable possibility would be that after resisting the worldwide call to a one world order that America would be attacked and strategically subdued by a pact of Eurasian nations willing to kick the resistant Americans into submission to the inevitable.

What heretofore was considered too early to predict is at least now more reasonable to imagine.

In fact, the President of the EU, Herman Van Rompuy has recently asserted that “The age of the nation state is over and the idea that countries can stand alone is an ‘illusion’ and a lie.” It is the first time such a naked proclamation of the underlying goal of the EU has been made without reservation. While Britain’s David Cameron and others have dissed Van Rompuy’s assertions there are many in Brussels who have applauded the claim or remained conspicuously silent. Van Rompuy voiced his view during the 21st anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Van Rompuy decries European skepticism as the nasty culprit that could not only stop the full unification of Europe but of the world itself. In an ultra simplistic equation he concluded that, the biggest enemy of Europe today is fear, he said. “Fear leads to egoism, egoism leads to nationalism, and nationalism leads to war.”

Van Rompuy further claims that the recession that now plagues Europe would be far worse if the German mark and the French franc were still the common currency in those countries.

Neither Van Rompuy nor other ministers in Brussels have chosen to remember that America has thrived on strong nationalism for over 230 years. America fought in WW1 to aid a Europe that had warred itself into the only war ended by attrition in the history of the modern world and the U.S. had to be dragged into WWII by a direct attack to one of our largest military installations. American nationalism did not cause either war, but went far to ending both.

The prophetic surety of a one world government spearheaded by a nation (EU) that emerges in the same general geographic area as the old Roman Empire is a scriptural promise that is all but disregarded by most politicians and policy makers here and in Europe.

Religious leaders are fairly numb to the prophecies as well. Religious news covers the Pope’s new lightening of restrictions on condoms or the interest some 50 Anglican Bishops in the UK now have for rejoining the Catholic Church. Serious studies or news gathering and analysis about second coming remain an interest only in largely scripture based faiths of American and some EU traditional historic denominations.

Even among evangelicals, non-denominationalists and Pentecostals there is a tendency to dismiss the urgency of eschatological findings. Christ’s warning that no man would know the day or the hour of his return (Mark 13: 32) was once used to quell the concerns that world events were signaling the imminent return of the Lord. Such concerns were at their highest peak in WW2 and were voiced by many, the most well known of these being German Lutheran Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was convinced that Hitler was the antichrist.

What was a tool to level excessive concerns before the time is now used by many of the churches to quash the serious study of second coming prophecies. The result is that some of the most scripturally based churches are leaving their congregants in a woeful state on un-preparedness.

Adding to this careless dismissal of the ramifications of recent world events are voices like that of Janet Napolitano, head of Homeland Security. The Homeland agency’s chief has warned that adherence to second coming teachings could produce radicals who want to stockpile food or openly rebel against government.

Napolitano’s views are far more radical than the concerns they address. In fact they are diametrically opposite of the Biblical admonition to not run away or resist the changes the second coming will bring to the entire world. The Christian is admonished only to a steady proclamation of the gospel regardless of what the times may bring. Violence is forbidden and radical behavior is not part of the Biblical message except as it pertains to Christ-like behavior and explaining the gospel message in a world that is already steeped in violence.

Amateurs in the study of eschatology now know with great certainty that the unstoppable train that is known as pre-millennial prophecy has now reached breakneck speed and cannot be deterred from its final destination. How fast is it going? Go see Denzel Washington’s latest movie, Unstoppable and you will have a very good idea.

Those considered more than amateurs are looking at specific time slots for various events. They are not acting against the admonition of Mark 13:32, but are working in concert with it. The purpose is always to keep God’s people and this very nation prepared for upcoming changes, the like of which this world has never seen.

It may be that only those with high level portfolios heed the Wall Street prognosticators but in the case of prophetic utterance everyone rich or poor has a stake in the outcome of the predicted events. The very destiny of every man and woman on this planet rests in their response to the gospel, but initial salvation is just the first step in a long journey. It ends in the triumphant return of the Lord to Israel, in person, in fact and in the very near future.

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Pet 3:9)