Maybe Sooner Than Later

“Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.  But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.  Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”  Matthew 24:42-44

Perusing across articles on a conservative website that I frequently pull up on my laptop, I ran across the following headlines: “Pastor Andrew Brunson to American Christians: Get read for persecution”; “U.S. city launches serious attack on traveling Christian evangelists”; “Pro-life group attacked by Molotov cocktail, headquarters set ablaze”; “Biden to visit Jerusalem with unprecedented statement: Zion belongs to Muslins”; and “Mark of the beast? New technology lets you pay with your hand”.  These articles were all published within a two-day period.  There have been many others over the last couple of years on line.

I don’t know if it is my imagination or not, but I have noticed more songs in contemporary Christian music with the themes of Jesus’ soon coming, looking forward to heaven and leaving this sin-cursed world behind, and the end of our troubles and trials.  When I was young, growing up in the 1950’s and 1960’s, many of the songs that we sang in church were about heaven and going to heaven, being with Jesus for eternity.  Most of these songs were written prior to the mid-20th century.  We sang “Heaven’s Jubilee”, “When We All Get to Heaven”, “Heavenly Sunlight”, “It Won’t Be Very Long”, “Just Over in the Glory Land”, “This World is not My Home”, and many, many others about leaving this sin-filled earth and spending eternity with Christ.  In the 50’s and 60’s, just about everyone struggled to make ends meet.  Attending church each week was a brief respite from the hardships and troubles we experienced.  World War II and the Korean War had taken their toll on everyone, and prosperity was rather elusive for most families.  For believers, the prospect of heaven brought joy and comfort to those whose future on earth didn’t look all that bright.  There was a much greater dependence upon the Lord in those days.

Then as prosperity began to become within reach of more and more families, the songs that we sang in church focused more on praise and worship, not that we didn’t praise and worship in earlier days, but the genre of music changed to suit the better economic status of believers.  People began to think less about heaven and more about the here and now.  Television preachers began to preach the “prosperity gospel”, the “you can have it all now, you don’t have to wait till you get to heaven” gospel.  The old gospel songs and hymns no longer were sung except occasionally, but when they were, they were sung to different arrangements, giving them a more modern beat.  Most children today do not know any of these old songs.  However, now, as mentioned earlier, the pendulum has begun to swing back to more songs about heaven and Jesus’ return, at least it seems that way to me.  If this is not my imagination, I see this shift in Christian music in connection with the evils and horrors that have been arising in the world over the last few years, particularly the last two years.

There is nothing new about evil being perpetrated across the globe, but it seems to be increasing exponentially and has become much darker and more depraved.  Jesus’ coming may or may not be immediate, but it is imminent.  It will happen and no one will be able to ignore it.  Preparation is the key to facing the end times:  repentance, faith in Christ, and a commitment to live for Him.  If one has been born again, he or she has no need to worry about Jesus’ coming because it will be a sweet relief from this world of woe.  Jesus gave an illustration about the importance of being prepared for His return.  If a burglar had been breaking into houses in a neighborhood following a pattern of one house each night in succession, the homeowners would be ready for him and do what was necessary to thwart his attempts to rob them.  However, thieves do not operate like that.  They do not warn their victims ahead of time.  Jesus has not given us His time of arrival, but He has given us plenty of warning.

Today, those who are looking for His return are being mocked and ridiculed, but the mockers won’t be laughing when Jesus returns to judge sinners.  If He doesn’t return during your lifetime or mine, it is certain that our earthly bodies will return to the dust of the earth and our souls will either enter the presence of the Lord in heaven or be numbered among the ungodly in hell.  Therefore, since we do not know the time of Christ’s return and neither do we know the time of our departure from this walk of life, does it not urgently behoove us to be prepared and watching?  Time is of the essence, and it could be sooner than later.