(OPINION) Are we living in the days just before the return of Jesus Christ to this planet? Right now, there is a tremendous amount of chatter about the “end times” all over the Internet. So many really crazy things are starting to happen all over the world, and many people correctly recognize that we were specifically warned that a lot of these crazy things would happen in the last days.
For example, in Matthew 24 Jesus specifically told us that there would be “wars and rumors of wars”, “famines” and “pestilences” just prior to His return. As global events continue to spiral out of control, speculation that prophetic events described in the Bible are happening will only intensify even more.
Of course there are plenty of skeptics out there. In particular, there have been quite a few articles in the mainstream media lately that portray Christians that believe that we are living in the “end times” as a bunch of nuts.
But even though they think that such Christians are crazy, mainstream pundits openly admit that there are lots and lots of people out there that are interested in learning what the Bible has to say about the “end times”. The following comes from a Slate article entitled “Why Growing Parts of the Christian Right Are Convinced It’s the Apocalypse”…
If you peruse the list of recent releases in Christian publishing, you’ll get the sense that “the end times” are upon us. This summer saw the release of survival guides, books about current events, and prayer manuals all oriented around a rapture, a second coming of Christ, or an otherwise cataclysmic event at the hands of God.
(Subtitles included 12 Megaclues That Jesus’ Return Is Nearer Than Ever; An End Times Guide to Survival; Do Current Events Point to the Antichrist and His Worldwide Empire?; and Prayer Strategies That Unlock the End-Time Armory of God.)
According to Publishers Weekly, this spate of end-times books is being printed to meet demand. It’s what the readers want. (At least some of them; editors at the imprint Harvest Prophecy, which was founded last year, told Publishers Weekly they had seen “a strong surge of interest because there is so much happening in today’s world that parallels End-Times signs given in the Bible.”)
And survey after survey has shown that a surprisingly high percentage of the U.S. population actually believes that Jesus will come back in the relatively near future. For instance, a survey that was conducted by the Pew Research Center discovered that 41 percent of all Americans believe that Jesus will “definitely” or “probably” return by the year 2050…
By the year 2050, 41% of Americans believe that Jesus Christ definitely (23%) or probably (18%) will have returned to earth. However, a 46%-plurality of the public does not believe Christ will return during the next 40 years.
Fully 58% of white evangelical Christians say Christ will return to earth in this period, by far the highest percentage in any religious group. Only about a third of Catholics (32%) and even fewer white mainline Protestants (27%) predict Christ’s return to earth by 2050. One-in-five religiously unaffiliated Americans also see Christ returning during the next four decades. (READ MORE)
