Love’s Last Gleaming?
We just observed the twenty-fifth anniversary of 9/11/01, one of America’s darkest days. We who were alive then watched that Tuesday morning while Islamist terrorists flew commercial jetliners into the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in New York City and into the Pentagon in Washington, DC.
Well, I didn’t actually “see” this happen because retinitis pigmentosa had already taken my eyesight by as early as 1994. But I could “see” it unfold within my inner sight, because by age fifty-one my cerebral facilities had stored all the sights involved in that horrific attack. I could visualize all that happened in rapid succession: the huge planes as they, loaded with passengers, flew into those 110-story-tall Twin Towers.
I then “saw,” in my mind’s eye, along with you, those burning edifices. I envisioned each building’s fall, with a tremendous rumble, into a fiery crash that climaxed with the unbelievable debris cloud that exploded as the buildings’ collapsing floors hit the bottom of their foundations.
I can think of no event more filled with hatred than that murderous attack in the name of Allah by the terrorists that day. Yet we were told Islam is a religion of love. Even the president of the United States in office on that day told us we must remember that Islam is a “religion of peace.”
My great friend Dave Hunt once wrote a book on Calvinism called What Kind of Love Is This? I think the same can be asked about Islam: What kind of love is this?
The one who seeks only to steal, kill, and destroy is certainly doing the hellish job he assigned himself when iniquity entered him and he first determined to usurp the throne of God with his “I wills” of Isaiah 14:14.
At this late hour of the Church Age (Age of Grace), we see Lucifer’s campaign of filling the minds of the fallen (those who refuse to accept Christ as Savior and Lord) with the absence of love. Instead, we witness in every direction the dark, destructive throes of hatred. And that hatred doesn’t always come in the form of the murders of thousands in attacks such as those on 9/11. As a matter of fact, the attacks are much subtler from the satanic mindset spawned by Lucifer. The attacks involve the murder of not mere thousands, but into the millions.
These subtler but much more effective murderous activities engendered by Satan and eagerly embraced by those of equally fallen mindset are scarcely noticed by much of the world, or by US and world mainstream news media. There is no date of remembrance to honor the victims of these murderous assaults on humanity—the humanity Satan stalks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8).
It is as if the luciferian forces have been able to turn off the most basic light within the part of humanity’s conceptual level of functioning—the part that has love at its center. Certainly, the eros love light has not been extinguished. Satan has used this to make that intellectual level of functioning much greater in intensity. From that soul-blinding light has come every sort of wicked sexual and lustful thought and action.
But within the most God-centered light of love placed into humanity’s spiritual level of functioning, agape love, the rheostat is being turned down.
There is a date of remembrance honored by those who have had this spiritual light turned down to near extinguishment, in my view. It is the date of one of Satan’s greatest attacks, one that has killed millions upon millions, and continues to do so.
Roe v. Wade was first settled on January 22, 1973, when the US Supreme Court issued its landmark decision legalizing abortion nationwide.
The recent death of a woman who was recognized perhaps as the most prominent intellectual champion for abortion—the face of the feminist movement—is in the news.
Gloria Steinem, a prominent feminist and massive abortion advocate, recently died at the age of 92. As one pro-life news organization reporting on her death put it, “Steinem was predeceased by the more than 60 million unborn children whose sacrifice she believed to be essential for a free and feminist society.” What a tragic, but accurate, eulogy for a woman who chose wickedness and to use her life to promote violence against the most vulnerable group of human beings: the unborn. I would not want to be her standing before our Creator God giving account of her life!
The legacy of death that Steinem helped to create will, sadly, continue even though she is gone. One example of this culture of death occurred recently at the Kentucky State Fair, which took place in Louisville, Kentucky—about an hour and a half from us at AiG. During the fair, an abortion nonprofit called Mayday Health rented a plane to fly a banner overhead that said, “Abortion Pills by Mail,” and included a URL for more information…
It should be no surprise that people who believe it is a woman’s right to murder her own child don’t actually care about the health and safety of women either. Though they call it “health care,” their goal is death: the death of a baby, as convenient as possible. The risk to the mother simply gets in the way, so they downplay that real, demonstrable risk, calling it “a flood of misinformation.” They are putting women in harm’s way and ending the lives of babies made in the image of God. It’s evil. (Culture of Death: Organization Flies Banner Above the Kentucky State Fair Advertising the Mailing of Illegal Abortion Drugs, Ken Ham, RR News September 15, 2026)
That the light of true love placed within humanity is gleaming less effulgently in these end times should not surprise. Jesus Himself had something to say about these very days, I believe God’s Word informs.
“And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matthew 24:12).
Our Lord’s words, of course, never fail, because He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. His prophecy telling of the diminishing of love within fallen humanity as the end of the age approaches frames all the evil and wickedness we have been witnessing for decades. And now we stand on the edge of the Tribulation era—prophecy about which Jesus gave the prophet John in the Revelation.
The Lord didn’t stop there, thankfully. He said further:
“But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:13–14).
Seminaries teach in many of those institutions that the words of this prophecy are exclusively for Tribulation saints—or, even more specifically, only for Jews of the Tribulation era.
However, I believe these words at the same time speak to us today. We who will “endure unto the end” of this age will be saved, both in the sense of our eternal souls and in terms of being saved from (kept out of) the wrath to come in the Tribulation (Revelation 3:10).
And, with His words—“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come,” the Lord is exhorting believers to carry out His Great Commission (Matthew 28:18–20).
That Great Commission we are to preach to the whole world contains the truth of our Savior, who is the Light of the World. Jesus said the following:
”I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).
And God’s love for humanity that can never be extinguished is wrapped up in the greatest of all gospel truth told by the Lord Jesus:
“That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:15-16).
Earthly love is being diminished by the day, as witnessed by hourly news feeds. But the love of God is inextinguishable.
—Terry
Destination or Journey?
We see it in both the world and among Bible-believing Christians. It impacts all of our lives to some degree, and it’s a tendency I fight almost daily. What is this inclination?
It’s the mindset that makes this life our destination rather than a dangerous journey. As believers, we often forget that the Lord uses our time here below to prepare us for the paradise that awaits after this life. He’s making us ready to reign with Him in His kingdom. Yet I so often forget.
Pastor and author Paul David Tripp, in his book New Morning Mercies, refers to the emphasis on this life as a “destination mentality” and describes its negative impact this way:
“Living with a destination mentality means you load all your hopes and dreams, your search for a definition of the good life, and your inner sense of well-being into this present moment. It means that no matter what your theology says about eternity, you live as if this is all there is. And because you are living as if this is all there is, you try to turn this present moment in this fallen world into the paradise that it will never be. Yes, if you are God’s child, you have been promised a paradise beyond your ability to conceive, but you must understand that this is not it. The sin-broken world, populated by sin-scarred people, will never be the paradise that you and I tend to long for it to be.
You see, a sound biblical doctrine of the future is the only way to arrive at a sound biblical understanding of the present.”
For several years, one of my key complaints about today’s popular views of future things has been that they shift believers’ focus from glory to this moment in time.
How Churches Make This Life Our Destination
One of the most prevalent beliefs today teaches that the church will usher in millennial conditions on the earth before Jesus’ return. The hope is not in the Lord’s imminent appearing, but rather in improving human institutions, which they claim will change the world and lead to kingdom conditions on the earth. In other words, their focus turns to improving conditions on earth, which transforms the journey into a destination.
Another widespread viewpoint points to AD 70 as the fulfillment of most Bible prophecies. Its adherents believe that Jesus returned to the earth at that time. Although they believe in an eternal state, it’s a far-distant reality that doesn’t affect their daily lives.
The same is true for other churches that believe the church is the new Israel. Like the teachings mentioned above, this view also pushes the Lord’s intervention in human history to a distant reality. And again, the emphasis often shifts from eternity to making this life the best it can be.
I realize there are many exceptions to my above observations about the various end-time theologies. However, I have listened to many gospel presentations that totally ignored the matter of eternal life. Forgiveness of sins is indeed a wonderful result of saving faith, but the deafening silence about our “blessed hope” in most churches today leaves the saints ill-prepared to face life’s harsh realities and disappointments. I have also had many conversations with believers who do not believe in a Rapture.
The Link Between Here and Eternity
I’m convinced that belief in the pre-Tribulation Rapture is the best cure for the widespread destination mentality. Those who believe that Jesus might come for them at any moment view life differently; they set their affections on things above rather than on making this life the best it can be.
The Rapture links us with our promised inheritance of a kingdom. Yes, we already belong to God’s spiritual realm (Colossians 1:13). Scripture, however, tells us that we are heirs of a future kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:50–55; James 2:5; Ephesians 1:12–14). The most popular teachings in the church today make us possessors of the promised kingdom rather than heirs, which naturally shifts the believers’ focus from the glory ahead to this life.
The mindset of heirs differs greatly from that of possessors of an inheritance, does it not? Notice the kingdom outlook on life in Paul’s instructions below to the saints in Corinth on a matter seemingly unrelated to future things:
“Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?” (1 Corinthians 6:1–3).
Was the apostle telling the Corinthian believers that they would “judge the world” in this life? I don’t think so. And at what point would his words apply to “angels”? Besides, these things do not fit with the eternal state when sin and death will no longer exist. These are kingdom truths that speak of millennial glory.
How do we know that Paul had our inheritance in mind when he penned these words? Immediately after warning his readers not to take their internal disputes before unbelievers, he explains why in 1 Corinthians 6:9–11. In these verses, he emphasizes that the unrighteous are not heirs of the “kingdom of God,” implying that his readers were indeed such heirs.
The kingdom is not yet here; Jesus is not yet sitting on the throne of David, and we are not yet reigning with Him. Yet these things are just a part of the glory that’s promised to us after this life. Our expectation is not of bliss in this life, but rather something so wonderful that we can only faintly imagine the paradise that awaits us.
—Jonathan