There seems to be a spate of them recently...
...films, or remakes, that look into the future; giving a picture that is a very bleak view—from the films '2012' and 'The Road' to the BBC remake of the apocalyptic 'Day of the Triffids'.
Our contemporary culture hardly offers a better picture! Whether it be climate change or the prospect of overpopulation, they offer visions of the future based on ‘scientific’ evidence, without any sure vision of a saviour. They are profoundly pessimistic, and without a God, there is no resurrection, no rebirth and only a terrible future!
Contrast that therefore with the Christian view of the end times, where the religious apocalypse is distinctly optimistic. The faithful are promised that justice will be done, that suffering will end, and that unbreakable, and never ending happiness shall be theirs. In this view, God is in control, and he will reward those who trust in him at the End of Time. This is an attractive prospect to those who are oppressed, or downtrodden, and who have little hope of an end to their pain in this world. For such people in particular, the end is a beautiful thing that is to be desired.However, with our Western culture’s view of things, there is no God, no sacred texts, and the only ones who can save us are ourselves. Given our track-record on saving ourselves, that is not a hopeful statement.
So what is your view of the future?
Do you, in the light of all that you hear scientists predicting feel fear or hope? For it seems that increasingly we are a people bound by fear—with no saviour in sight—unless we invest that in our leaders!
Some of us are so full of the present, with our desire for ease and comfort, recreation and pleasure, that we don’t consider the future. The present is everything. To us—the Christian view of the future is a grim wake-up call. For trouble is coming. There will be accountability, and we are called now to face up to what will happen and to listen to Jesus Christ. He upsets our feelings of independent, self-satisfied sufficiency, and calls us to repent, to change, to turn around.
Whatever your view of the future, we need to face up to it. But your response will depend on where you look—to the statistics of scientific research—or to the documents of the Bible that have stood the test of time. Ultimately, it is the documents that point to Jesus a nd his words.