Pack Your Bags!

Well, folks, I think this is good-bye. Armageddon is just about upon us, so it seems we ought to make pre-emptive niceties toward each other, shake hands and say adieu.

Anne Graham Lotz (daughter of famed Billy Graham) has declared that we're now at the great convergence in history when we can expect to see the end of human existence.

“We’re looking at the end of human history,” said Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of renowned evangelist Billy Graham and president of AnGeL Ministries, at the recent convention of the National Religious Broadcasters. “That our generation is the generation that precedes the return of Christ, what a privilege, what a responsibility to share the gospel with the world in this generation.”

You know, that's really a sentiment that I've never understood: how is it more of a privilege to share the Gospel in the end times than to share it in the times before? If we hold to the conviction that time is not linear to God, then why do we suppose that there's a higher premium on sharing the Gospel toward the end of our interpretation of the times than before the end? Will the outcome be different somehow?

And when did it pass by the attention of educated, or just interested Christians that the advent of Christ was the beginning of the end? I mean, His physical presence on earth marked out the half-way point, didn't it? Wasn't it like the old English math question, "how far can you walk into a forest before you're walking out?"

Answer: half-way.

Well, it would seem that Christ's birth marked the half-way point in human time, so haven't we been on our way out of time since then? In which case, the seeming especial importance of sharing the gospel at the end of time has been the historical norm since the earth received Christ some 2000+ years ago. That would mean that it was just as important to share the gospel then as it is now. This by that, there is clearly no difference in degrees of importance sharing the gospel now than there was then.

Nonsensical sentiments like that drive me batty.

In any case, haven't we heard these kinds of predictions before? Hal Lindsay, Grant R. Jeffrey, Swedenborg, Jack Van Impe, etc. They've all set their dates. Those dates have come and gone. They've thus shown themselves to be false prophets. I suppose we'll have to wait and see if Ms. Graham Lotz and her band of merry prognosticators show themselves true, or not. For now, I think I'll hold on to Malcolm Muggeridge's quip about pining after the eschaton:

"We love to think of ourselves as positively the last generation of people: it enhances our sense of importance."