Daniel Holdings – August 16, 2013
Born in 1962, I was 
more of a Treki (Star Trek fan), than a fan of the Buck Rodgers franchise of my parent’s generation. Regardless, all age groups seem to have a fascination with the potential of the future.
Modern Day Challenge
My teenage daughter is appalled that her parents grew up without cell phones, internet, answering machines and microwaves. I believe her exact words were, “How could people live like that?!”
Our generation and those who grew up before us, are archaic dinosaurs to her. And our perspectives of today’s world are far different.
Don’t get me wrong. For someone of her generation, she is very astute. As her parents, we are blessed beyond measure to know that she is awake, she is gifted, she’s a strong follower of Jesus and that she is in the Word and growing. Nevertheless, her peers all around the county have become products of their 
environment.
Not Science Fiction Anymore
Today’s world is made up of faceless friends online that instantly interact with each other on their smart phones. At their fingertips are volumes of information on every subject from underwater basket weaving to nuclear physics. And, theoretically, my daughter’s generation can live longer with modern-day advances in medicine and genetics.
To her is promised a better life with the changing of her human DNA while the promise of science is to make her stronger, faster and smarter by embedding technology right into her body. Within five years, she won’t even need to drive because cars will drive themselves!
Socio norms are also “evolving” around her as homosexuality is now simply deemed a “choice” rather than a taboo. She is growing up in a country where her and her friends are encouraged to report unacceptable behavior to “the authorities”, i.e. the government. Congruently, her generation is being conditioned to depend on that same government for everything. The concepts of liberty and freedom are radically being changed and are now so degraded that the ideals of our forefathers seem almost foreign to her generation.
In addition, this generation is being groomed to accept Homosapien 2.0. Transhumanism and genetic manipulation is becoming commonplace and even “necessary”. What was once called evil is being called good, and good evil. Political alliances are swinging wildly in the opposite direction and tolerance is the word of the day while political correctness trumps biblical principles.
A New Phase
Not to be out done, the Earth itself continues to groan out 
warnings of transition. Significant earthquakes in diverse places continue to rattle the world. More volcanoes have become active, and continue to stay active. Severe weather has racked numerous states within the Union and overseas nations have also felt nature’s fury. Mass animal deaths are becoming the norm without a cohesive reason.
Our technological prowess that once aided us in dominating our habitat has now turned on us as we face new, unthinkable, dangers. Fukushima is nearly in a full-blown meltdown which threatens to kill the entire Pacific Ocean. In addition, a floating debris field of radioactive tsunami remnants is headed to the west coast of America.
Contagions that threaten to sicken and kill millions are being watched closely in Asia and the Middle East. Last, but not least, looming on the near horizon is World War III with its flash point in Israel. Like a lit fuse, that war and her subsequent conflicts, will result in the superpowers clashing all around the globe.
The End Times Model
What is lost on my daughter’s generation is the speed in which our world has morphed into the End Times model. But our Youth are not alone in this ignorance. The majority 
of the “Church” has turned a deaf ear to the cries of her Watchmen despite their warnings of the end of the age.
Those things that were once fodder for Christian films on the End Times have become reality. However, like the alcoholic who refuses to believe that he has a problem, the modern-day Church refuses to understand that in prophecy – The future is now.
Purposeful slumbering will not make this future go away. The world is literally being attacked on every side. If nature is not lobbing a salvo, then the darkness of social decline threatens. Economic disaster might temporarily be averted, but political chaos and totalitarianism threatens our precious liberty. If we miraculously managed to stem the tide of these disasters, nature herself would threaten with more weird weather and seismic activity. The result is that at every turn, we are hard pressed.
With all that the world faces, it is Believers, as the Apostle Paul wrote, who need to stand firm. After all, the Lord himself foretold of this future, millennia ago. We were warned and that warning should not make us fearful. Contrarily, it should give us this hope: Regardless of what the near future may bring, the God of the Universe, who lives outside of time, cared enough to warn us about a certain future.
That begs the question: If Jesus and the Bible were right about the things that would one day befall the world; could it be that all the other promises in His Word are also true?
For a little while longer, it is still day. While we can, we who are awake must work diligently to wake up those around us. We may not be able to stop the future, but we can change how others think and feel when faced with it.
If we understand that God Himself holds the future in His hands, then we can make it through the difficult times to come. Because with Him…
The future really is bright.