Declaring the end from the beginning

“Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure” (Isaiah 46:10)

I have always been fascinated by folks who are fixated on end time prophecies. Or better put, fixated on the end times itself, looking for signs that suggest that now is the time of the end of the world.

God, from the beginning has declared the end. When the end of the world will happen and the return of Christ we know not.

But beware of starring into the abyss of time, looking, searching, waiting for something yet to come. This will lull you to sleep and cause you to miss the most important time of all. It isn’t tomorrow, it is right now!

“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light” (Romans 13:11-12).

“For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

Now is the time to get right with God. Now is the time for repentance. Now is the time to be saved! Now is the time to act! And flush the past. Don’t let your past be a boat anchor to your future.

“Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.” (Isaiah 43:18)

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

Forget the past. Stop trying to interpret signs that foretell of future events. Right now, today is the only time of concern.

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (Matthew 6:33-34).

It is fear that drives the fascination of doom and forthcoming end times. Salvation and the high calling of God in Jesus Christ should squelch that fear and cause us all to rejoice in the knowledge that eternity with God has already begun. Now is the time.

Bill Hitchcock