Looking at the world around us from so many different viewpoints separates and divides the human community, engendering hatreds, wars, and death. Jesus, speaking while on the Mount of Olives one day, prophesied the degree to which the differences would explode in the time just before His return:
“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places” (Matthew 24:7).
We have pointed out often that the word “nation” here is from the Greek word ethnos, translated “ethnic” in English. Jesus was warning that the Tribulation era will produce great hatreds that will center on racial and cultural differences of worldview. These unprecedented uprisings will, Jesus said, eventuate in famines and pestilence—the inevitable result of all-out war.
Although we of this generation are not in the Tribulation era about which Jesus here prophesied, we have diametrically differing worldviews on the national and international scenes that certainly must be setting the stage for the times Jesus foresaw.
The US is mired in many ethnic problems and cultural differences within the various races themselves. Insistence on embracing multiculturalism by the PC crowd, motivated to their hyper level of championing the melting-pot worldview by mainstream media, throws fuel on the fires of racial divides. The multicultural Nazis want Americans to stay separate because most of these PC types are socialist-leaning globalists who want us to be citizens of the world rather than citizens of a sovereign nation. Hyphenating, or mixing, ethnic with national identities into unique nomenclature seems designed to make America eventually forfeit national autonomy.
Worldview is being shaped in this nation to reflect the one-world-builders’ blueprint for the “global village,” as one well-known failed presidential candidate put it. The worldview in question has never gone away. It is the perennial worldview that has been with humankind since Nimrod attempted to build the tower to Heaven not long after the Flood of Noah’s day (read Genesis chapter 11). We see that blueprint manifested in the diplomatic world’s attempts to bring everyone together in the Middle East–at Israel’s expense, of course.
Jesus also prophesied that humanity would get itself deeper and deeper into trouble, so far as the nation state is concerned, the closer the Second Advent comes:
“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring” (Luke 21:25).
There can be little argument against the obvious. Nations are indeed in great distress today—with much perplexity. We don’t have to look at the many nations of Earth to prove this fact. Our own nation is divided right down the middle on almost all issues of politics and morality. People are so distressed—even perplexed—that many promised to leave the country if they didn’t get their way in presidential election results. Others have written fictional books venting their anger in wishful accounts of the assassination of a president they hate. And actual assassinations and attempted assassinations continue to take place.
The problems involved boil down to one issue: worldview.
Any other view of life on this planet than God’s is–to put it bluntly but truthfully—wrong, and destined to produce disaster. This is true no matter the area of life. Worldview is all-important in avoidance of trouble and achievement of success. There isn’t space here to go into the many areas in life today to which this truth applies. So, let’s briefly look at one key issue in considering worldview that gets to the crux of the most important prophetic indicator of this late hour. The issue is modern Israel.
The geopoliticians are perplexed about Israel and its hate-filled enemies. The diplomats have no idea where the anger truly comes from; therefore, they cannot begin to understand how to solve the violence and hatred. The world’s diplomats have worldviews that completely leave the God of Heaven out of the equation for peace-making. The result has been more than five thousand years of war throughout recorded history.
God says, “Be governed by my rules, because I created all that is, and know what is best.” The earthly rulers say, “We can handle it. If there is a God, that God is existential at best. We don’t need or want him to rule over us.” This doesn’t apply, of course, to Islamic fanatics who slavishly accept the bloody demands of their god to make war.
God says everything is His, including the land of the Middle East He chose to give to the Jews–Israel. The geopoliticians say they will decide who owns the land and who doesn’t. The result: a world that is quickly moving toward all-out war—Armageddon.
The same error in worldview is within the Church today. The worldview of most mainline denominations says God is through with Israel. The Church—that worldview proposes—is now inheritor of all the promises the Lord covenanted with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God is through with Israel, and all about Israel that is in the Bible must be spiritualized, allegorized, or treated as history already accomplished.
Really?
They proclaim–through their worldview—that the Church is going to make the world better and better until they have made it good enough through the political and diplomatic process—in conjunction with religious, do-good projects—for Jesus to come back and take over.
Really?
They aren’t reading the same headlines I am. If the Lord has given up on Israel, then it sure is some coincidence going on. We are expected to believe that Israel just coincidentally happens to be on the front page headlines every day, in the center of a desperate cry for peace, just like God’s prophetic Word says.
Worldview is all-important in God’s economy. God’s worldview is, as legendary football coach Vince Lombardi once put it in talking about winning, not everything. It is the only thing!