A Violent End

For 73 years, starting in 1945, the United Nations has been viewed by many people around the globe as humanity’s best hope for peace.

And while a third major world war has been prevented, the hundreds of conflicts and regional wars since the end of World War II, also in 1945, have resulted in the deaths of millions of people—some estimates at ten million and up.

There appears to be no end in sight. The famous Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was set at “two minutes to midnight” in January 2018, one of its closest settings ever. (“Midnight” would mean nuclear holocaust.) “To call the world nuclear situation dire is to understate the danger—and its immediacy,” the scientists said in their annual statement.

The wars we’ve seen—and will see in the years ahead—are the outgrowth of the Great Controversy between Christ and Satan. The adversary “knows that he has a short time” (Revelation 12:12) and is throwing everything possible against those waiting for Christ’s return, regardless of how much such strife will hurt innocent men, women, and children. Daniel tells us “there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation” (Daniel 12:1), yet God’s people “shall be delivered.”

Believers in Christ will be concerned for themselves, their families, and their neighbors, of course. But this is also a time to rejoice, for Jesus said, “When these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near” (Luke 21:28).

Apply It:

Share the good news—that Jesus is coming again and that He can make anyone ready for that return—with someone who needs to hear it today.

Dig Deeper:

Mark 13:7, 8; Matthew 25:6; Isaiah 25:9

Key Bible Texts

Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: (Luke 21:10 KJV)