Welcome Guest Blogger, My Husband Chris!

My husband Chris is so insightful on matters of theology. I love that you can sense the passion in his writing. He posted these thoughts on his Facebook page. But since he doesn’t have a blog, I’ve stolen his post for a guest spot on mine. Enjoy!

During a recent family conversation, several topics were discussed such as – North Korea, the civil unrest in Iran, the economy – you know those upbeat topics we love to chat about at the dinner table! Anyway, the one theme that seems to rise to the top of these conversations is the “end times.” When is Jesus coming back? Is it soon? The common Evangelical sentiment is yes, these are indeed the “last days.” However, I believe we are not taking this question far enough. Yes it may be the end, not of the world, but of America as we know. We see government getting larger and larger, our politicians becoming more inept and corrupt, and our economy and energy being at the mercy of foreign nations.

So what does this mean? It means nothing more today than it did yesterday or the day before that. God is on His throne and Jesus is not waiting to see the nukes fly across the sky to “rapture” His Church. Believe it or not, the Church was thriving and growing across Asia almost 2,000 years before America was settled by the colonies. The early Church was also facing torture and persecution the likes of which the American Church has never seen in its proclamation of the Gospel. Did I say Gospel? I’m sorry – forgive me – I assumed the American church proclaims the same Gospel as our early church fathers. Well, we don’t do that so much here anymore. We proclaim prosperity, positive thinking, and how to better one’s self and throw in a couple of Biblical references and mention “God” enough to sell the message as “Christian” and call it “ministry” instead of commerce.

So what am I getting at here? The return of Jesus Christ is not dependent on the safety and security of America. The Church is thriving and growing in the underground churches of numerous other nations that are openly hostile and violent towards followers of Christ. American Christians often assume that America is somehow the lynchpin of God’s redemptive purposes or a Theocracy that is central to carrying out God’s will, neither of which is Biblically or historically sound. I believe it is because the role of the Church in America has become so watered down in attempts to be “relevant” that we have abdicated our role in the arts, science, medicine, economics, and government. Where the Church leaves a void, in comes the government and the fallen culture to fill in the gaps.

Can we accept that if America as we know it somehow ceased to be that Jesus Christ would still be sovereign and the Gospel would continue to go forth? How then should we live? We should live, work, and rest in the fact the we have been in the “last days” since Christ’s Ascension and have endured World Wars, a Great Depression, the Holocaust, and many other catastrophes in this world and the Church has remained. Jesus said the gates of Hell shall not prevail against His Church. Do we believe it? Can we persevere as American Christians and pray for our leaders to repent and lead with wisdom and integrity rather than stockpiling our homes for doomsday and watching the skies for His return? The race is not over so let’s not give up while the great cloud of witnesses spurs us onward. In always looking for “the end”, we Christians sincerely miss the work God has for us here and now.