Chaos, Calamity or Comfort?
It seems sometimes that Americans, particularly Christian Americans, are anesthetized to things going on around them.
Things like the attempted takeover by the dark spiritual forces behind Marxism and worse don’t seem to register on Christian Americans’ worry meters—at least not to the degree it registers on my own meter of concern.
Some will say Christians are confident that God is always in complete control, so they just don’t worry about these things. But the truth is that most American Christians are complacent; they’re not interested in thinking about the evil around us.
Even what’s going on in the Middle East, the war with Iran, and the threat closing the Strait of Hormuz presents doesn’t seem to heighten the level of worry that World War III or, at the very least, a portentous economic crisis is in view.
And the Church–all who are in God’s family—for the most part doesn’t seem to have an idea of what Israel being at the center of all this worrisome news means. There is no concern about how it all relates to Bible prophecy among those who should be most aware of and alert to the fact that the world is teetering on the edge of a time Jesus called the worst that would ever be.
Yet this is another sign of where we are on God’s prophetic timeline, in my view, as we look out across that horizon of “things to come,” as Dr. J. Dwight Pentecost titled his great volume on Bible prophecy.
As I’ve written many times, I believe Jesus described exactly the condition of humanity as it will be when He next catastrophically intervenes into the affairs of fallen humankind. The Lord’s “days of Lot” prophecy (Luke 17:28–30) says it will be business as usual, like it was when Lot and his family were removed from Sodom by the angels.
The Lord indicated that business and life in general itself were ongoing, even doing well at that time, while the subsurface society and culture in that twin-cities area were as wicked as when God intervened previously in the “days of Noah” (Luke 17:26-27).
This is what we who “watch,” as commanded by our Lord (Mark 13: 37 and Luke 21: 28), should expect the world around us to look like at the twinkling-of-an-eye moment when He will again intervene as He did in those earlier times.
One of my frustrations continues to be that the Christians who say we who hold to the clearly taught, pre-Trib view of Rapture are wrong and that we’re leading believers astray. These writers, preachers, teachers, and others most often imply, or even say outright, that all the troubles we see around us mean the following: Either the world—including all believers in Jesus Christ—is about to enter the Tribulation, or we’ve already entered it. Some believe we’re already engaged in World War III.
These aren’t looking for Jesus Christ to rescue believers before the Tribulation as Paul taught; they’re looking for chaos, calamity, and—to be frank—the Antichrist rather than for the True Christ.
The following article presents the view that the world is on the brink of Tribulation but offers no hope of Heaven’s rescue for the Christian.
We live at a time when millions upon millions of us feel deeply unsettled. The news is filled with constant headlines about war, political chaos, economic problems and major natural disasters. A lot of people feel like humanity’s story is building up to some sort of a crescendo, and they are not optimistic about what that will mean.
In fact, a new study conducted by researchers at the University of British Columbia has discovered that nearly one-third of the people living in the United States and Canada actually believe that the world will end within their lifetimes.…
Of course, the world is not going to end any time soon.
But as global events spiral out of control, it will certainly feel like “the world is ending” to much of the population…
We really are living in apocalyptic times, and much more mayhem is in our future. (“Nearly One-Third of People Living in North America Believe The World Will End,” Tyler Durden, authored by Michael Snyder, March 13, 2026, Zerohedge)
Well…I guess one-third of people paying attention is a bit more than I thought–if the survey is correct. But one thing is sure: There is very little acknowledgment, as expressed in the article, of the need or hope of Heaven’s rescue, or even of a desire for Heaven to rescue us. This is exactly as it was in Sodom and Gomorrah and in Noah’s day, according to the Lord Jesus.
And Christian writers, preachers, and teachers who rail against the pre-Trib view by and large offer no hope of such rescue as promised by the Apostle Paul, who, again, wrote this to the Thessalonians, and also to us, these thousands of years later:
“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).
The chaos, the calamities, the unbelievable evil we see taking place offer nothing but fear and worry to those who are paying attention. But all this evil that threatens shouldn’t induce fear in those who know Christ as Savior and Lord. We’re not looking for Antichrist, or for the chaos and calamity that Beast is about to foist upon a world lost in sin and rejection of God’s Word.
We are looking for Jesus Christ and His promise:
“Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth” (Revelation 3:10).
Now, there is nothing but comfort in those magnificent words of promise given by the One who cannot lie.
Here is what we must share with those who want not chaos and calamity in their thoughts of the future, but comfort from the very heart of God:
“That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).
—Terry
Trusting God in Dark Times
Have you ever thought about the role God’s sovereignty plays in the fulfillment of Bible prophecy? Far too often we ignore this divine attribute as much too abstract or of having little to do with our daily lives when, in reality, it’s the basis of how we know the Lord is able to deliver on all His promises to us. Author and pastor Paul David Tripp put it like this in his book, New Morning Mercies:
I don’t know whether you have ever thought of this before, but God’s promises are only as good as the extent of his sovereignty. He can deliver what you need only in the places where he rules. If his rule is not firm and unchanging, his promises are not either.
Tripp then explained how the Lord exercised control over history leading up to Jesus’ birth. Through many centuries of turmoil, wars, and rebellion against Him, He orchestrated history so precisely that Christ fulfilled forty-eight specific prophecies related to His first appearing on Earth. God worked through a myriad of events and outcomes over a vast expanse of time so that upon His arrival, the Savior would fulfill all the Scriptures concerning His first appearance.
Several students of Bible prophecy have calculated that the first sixty-nine weeks of Daniel’s prophecy ended precisely on the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem just a week before His crucifixion (Daniel 9:24-27). So not only did he fulfill the words of Zechariah 9:9, He did so at the exact time that the Lord told His prophet Daniel it would happen. Only a sovereign and all-powerful God could accomplish such precision.
What’s the relevance for today? Despite the troubling news we read concerning the Middle East war, the warnings of impending economic disaster as a result of the growing oil crisis, and the political strife of our day, we rest assured that the Lord is still in the business of orchestrating events so that the result of all we see will in the end turn out exactly as He prophesied in His Word.
I have recently read many predictions of imminent economic disaster due to the war in the Middle East, and while they are troubling, I remind myself of two things. First, if not for the Lord’s restraining hand, we would already be in the midst of a great economic depression that many experts warned would soon happen a dozen years ago. Second, as He has done throughout history, God is still sovereignly orchestrating events to bring about all that He has promised us regarding the Rapture and to Israel concerning His restoration of a kingdom to them.
I also realize that many of the warnings of imminent catastrophe come from those who don’t believe the Rapture will happen before the Tribulation. As such, they warn us about Day of the Lord conditions without the assurance of 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 and Jesus’ promise of deliverance before the “sudden destruction” that will mark the beginning of God’s wrath upon the earth.
If you are like me, you remain a bit unsettled over the fact that Iran is still able to strike Israel with deadly missiles, attack oil and gas reserves through the region, and severely disrupt the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz. The political strife here in the U.S. also contributes to my uneasy feelings as I read accounts of the enormous theft of taxpayer funds with no one held accountable for it.
That’s again when Scripture, along with God’s sovereignty, brings relief to my troubling thoughts. God didn’t intend for us to find comfort in looking at this vile and violent world where everything seems out of control and about to erupt into further chaos. We rather find encouragement in Scripture with its amazing promises that pertain to us as New Testament saints. We know that our Lord is more than able to make good on His word because His sovereign power is so much greater than we can even begin to imagine.
As someone who has watched for the Rapture for a very long time, it’s easy for me to grow impatient at times and tell the Lord that “today would be a very good time for it to happen.” Thoughts of His sovereignty, however, remind me that His appearing and all the other prophesied events concerning the world and Israel will happen at the precise time the Father set long ago.
In the words below from Isaiah 46:9-10, God declares His sovereignty over history, assuring us that no matter how crazy and dark our day seems, He remains in total control of future events:
“I am God, and there is none like me,
declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose.’”
God has already decreed the future for this world. That’s a key reason for resisting the temptation to “fret” over wickedness that is rapidly growing around us (see Psalm 37:1-20). Furthermore, our relief also comes from the assurance that He’s more than able to do what He’s promised us and will soon take us home to the place He’s preparing for us.
Maranatha!
-Jonathan