I had to do one of my first research reports in 5th grade. I don’t think I’ve spent a whole lot of time checking into the state of Indiana before or since.
I wrote up a report on the state’s population size, its different regions, its climate, likely some stuff on its economy, and probably a few other things. My handwriting was nice and neat (for a change), and I assembled my papers and supporting graphics into one of those folders with the little brass things you stick through the holes in the paper to keep it secure in the folder.
On the day we were supposed to turn it in, I was pretty happy with my well-researched work of academic prowess. I had placed it carefully in my Trapper Keeper and brought it to class without even bending the edges.
As I looked around the class, I was horrified to realize that I had done nothing at all for the cover! While some kids had color photos, printouts, or elaborate drawings on the front of their state reports, all I had was a plain blue folder.
In a panic, I racked my brain about what to do. There was no possible way to do anything substantial before turning it in. That kid over there had cut out pictures of famous landmarks from their state and used a glue stick to fix them on the cover. Kids were already starting to hand their reports in!
The best I could do was to haphazardly draw a picture freehand. I whipped the report open to a picture of the state’s shape and committed the proportions and south border to memory, then started drawing on the front. The drawing was a little off center, but I topped it off with a star roughly where the capital city was. Then I threw the state name in big letters under it and put my name under that. The cover design wasn’t very good, but it was the best I could do in such a short time. I knew I’d get no points at all for the cover if I didn’t do anything, so what did I have to lose?
I don’t remember how I did on the report, but I remember that I got three out of 10 points for the cover portion. Not my best work, but three was better than zero.
If you’re not really ready to jump into this “Jesus thing” with both feet, ask yourself: “what do I have to lose?” Most people are tentative about having to give up some part of their lifestyle or quit something they’ve grown to like. This isn’t like a gym membership where you feel you have to get in shape before you walk through the doors for the first time. Come as you are. Let’s say you grow deeply committed and change your whole lifestyle and then it turns out there’s nothing waiting for us after death. In that case you won’t even possess a consciousness to realize what you’ve given up. If, on the other hand, Christ actually is who He says He is, you will have gained immeasurably more than what you had before. Sounds like very little risk for an immense payoff.
When I was a young teenager, members of our youth group took a two-hour trip to go visit a family of friends that had moved away from our church.
We did lots of stuff while reconnecting. We hung out at their house, we went to a local mall, and we ran all over the church grounds playing different games. As energetic young teenagers, we needed an outlet for some of our energy.
It must have been a cold-weather trip, because the sun went down pretty early. One of the games we played was a round of capture the flag. We could go anywhere on the church grounds, as long as it wasn’t inside a building. The playing area included a paved parking lot, the main church building, and a couple of out buildings on the property, along with all the green space in between. We set up the boundaries and used two plain white knee-length socks as flags.
Normally the way these games work is that the playing field is divided into two zones, one for each team. Each team hides the flag somewhere in their zone, and you have to venture into the opposing team’s zone to search for the flag. If an opponent tags you while you’re in their zone, you go to jail in a small section within their zone. You can be set free if someone else from your team makes it to the jail to tags you. You win the game if you find the opposing team’s flag and carry it back to your zone without being tagged. Both teams are playing offense and defense at the same time.
On that particular evening visibility was bad. Since it was dark, starting to get foggy, and there was lousy weather moving in, we split into two easily discernible teams: boys vs. girls. I don’t remember numbers, but there were a lot more girls than there were boys. Between an odd layout of the church grounds and not having enough guys on our team to simultaneously do a good job defending and go looking for the opposing team’s flag, we decided that in order to have any chance of winning, we’d have to come up with an amazing spot to hide our flag so we didn’t have to dedicate anybody to protecting it. As it turns out, we came up with what I believe to be a pretty risky and bold idea for a bunch of middle-schoolers.
When both teams were ready, we started the game. It moved slowly for a long time. Even if our team tagged opponents and brought them to our jail, we didn’t have enough guys to really protect the jail and still play in other areas, so it wasn’t too hard for the other team to set their jailed teammates free.
I remember our team’s strategy was so incoherent and we were spread so thin that at one point in the game I was running from one part of our zone to another and I stumbled across a member of the other team that nobody even realized had made it into our zone. She was picking through the bushes, looking for our flag. They had figured out that if they were patient enough, they could wander in and out of our zone and all they had to do was move quietly and we probably wouldn’t even know they were there.
This went on for probably 45 minutes. I don’t think any of our guys were able to find their flag, and the other team was getting frustrated because they felt they had searched everywhere in our zone and still couldn’t find our flag. All of us were cold and wet, and our team was about to get accused of cheating, so we collectively decided to call it a draw.
Understandably, the other team wanted to see with their own eyes where our flag had been hidden. We brought them over to the area, and some from the opposing team were shocked to learn they had run past it multiple times during the game and hadn’t even considered that it could be so near. We had placed our flag, an ordinary white sock, lying in plain sight on one of the white lines outlining parking spaces in the church’s parking lot.
Humans are born with the idea that there’s something beyond this life…that there’s more to this existence than what we can see. God’s the one that put that feeling there…He built it into us. People can’t look up at the stars or at the intricacy of the human body and not start asking big questions.
The devil, knowing he cannot stop this instinctive wondering, has concocted and fostered numerous counterfeit religious ideas and worldviews with which to distract humanity. The objective truth seeker has many options aside from Christianity they must examine, and the enemy’s hope is that the seeker will tire of the search and declare something besides the following of Christ as “close enough,” that the seeker will conclude that each worldview is as meaningless as every other one, or get them established and entrenched in an inaccurate worldview like works-based salvation. Yet all that time, the answer is not hiding. It’s sitting right there in plain sight, waiting for the seeker to look closer at it.
If you’re seeking truth, take a look at Jesus Christ and what the Bible (only the Old and New Testaments…no “mandatory” additional books) has to say about Him. Humanity was initially created perfect and had fellowship with God, but then made mistakes and became imperfect, thereby falling out of that fellowship. Jesus Christ, God incarnate, lived a perfect (sinless) life, and extends to us the offer of the only bridge back to that sweet fellowship with the Lord.
It’s that simple. You don’t have to perform rituals. You don’t have to give a certain amount of money to the church or perform a certain number of hours of community service. All you have to do is embrace Jesus Christ as your Savior, acknowledging Him as your only means of escaping the judgment of your imperfections. As you walk that new path, you’ll desire to change your character to become more like His, and as a result of that, you’ll want to perform good works.
It’s right there, hiding in plain sight. I implore you, take a closer look. You might just find the thing that you’ve been looking for all along: the answer to your deep restlessness.
(Another entry not meant for my regular readers, but for those left behind after witnessing something extraordinary and terrifying…the sudden, inexplicable disappearance of a sizable percentage of Earth’s population.)
So it actually happened. Millions of people across the world just disappeared without a trace. What happened? What does it mean?
It means the Bible is true.
It means that over the next…probably 7 years or so, humanity will witness a level of destruction not seen since the days of Noah and the ark. I can’t put an exact timeframe on it because I don’t know for sure where the Rapture (the sudden disappearance of Christians) falls in relation to the seven years known as the Great Tribulation.
(One of the many confusing things about this era is going to be the fact that there are still people who thought they were Christians who are still left behind. The inconvenient truth they’ll have to face up to is the fact that even if they attend church regularly and do lots of “religious things,” they have not trusted Jesus Christ as their savior.)
I’ve written about this before, but it’s a pretty heavy duty topic, and I’d love to be able to help provide some direction for the people that are still here. If the Rapture actually happened, I’m not here anymore, so I can only help you through stuff I’ve already written or stuff I can point you to. Here’s the part that sounds crazy, but since you’re probably pretty desperate for answers, I’ll just come out and say it. When I say that you’ve been “left behind,” here’s what I mean. God created the world. Humanity sinned and sort of broke the deal that God had with us. For awhile we got by with presenting sacrifices to Him (the days of the Old Testament), but it wasn’t until Jesus Christ came to become a permanent sacrifice on our behalf that it changed our relationship with God. After He rose from the dead and ascended back to Heaven, He left the Church here to do His work until He comes back to take the rest of His followers away so they don’t have to endure the Great Tribulation, which is where God cleans house and lets loose on whoever’s left for thousands of years’ worth of stubborn disobedience.
Don’t worry, there’s still hope for you! The Great Tribulation will see unprecedented levels of both Christian revival and persecution of Christians. Keep an eye out for the Evangelists. There are going to be street preachers, people that hold meetings in big tents, in warehouses, in schools, in sports arenas, people that spread the news about Jesus. They’ll use whatever are the most popular tools of the day to spread the news. Go to them. As long as what they’re saying agrees with the Bible (and no other religious books), they’re steering you toward the truth. (But be careful, 2 Timothy 4 says that many people will be deceived by false teaching during this time.) In the meantime, track down a Bible and start reading it. Start with the New Testament…read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These are four books that cover the same material, so don’t be confused when Jesus dies four times. Those four books are collectively called “the Gospels.”
To read a little more about what you’re living in (the End Times, the Great Tribulation, the Apocalypse, Armageddon), check out the last book in the Bible; it’s called Revelation. You’ll probably need to read it a few times, and you’ll learn a lot more if you have some kind of study Bible with notes or some kind of Bible commentary. A few other books in the Bible cover the End Times and provide more info…check out the books of Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah, and First and Second Thessalonians (again, study Bibles, Bible commentaries, and online resources will be tremendously helpful). Here are a few of the things that are coming, but not necessarily in this order:
Mass death. Not only are the four horsemen of the apocalypse real, but one of them is given the power to kill a quarter of humanity (Revelation 6:7-8). Later, four imprisoned fallen angels (demons) are released to kill a third of humanity (Revelation 9:13-15). If we have 8 billion people on the planet right now and this happened, the horseman takes out 2 billion people, and then the fallen angels take out a third of the remaining six, cutting the population in half from 8 to 4 billion.
You think the idea of climate change is scary? Earth’s ecology gets absolutely demolished in Revelation chapter 8. The wind even stops in chapter 7.
God pours out so much wrath on the planet and its occupants that people abandon large portions of it and move somewhere else (picture Detroit as its population fell, but on a much larger scale). Of all places, Babylon, code for the famous city of Rome, becomes very important; I’m not sure if it actually becomes the global capital or if it sort of becomes symbolic of global debauchery and sin, sort of like how Vegas is for the U.S., and people consolidate there (Revelation chapters 16ish to 18).
At least one off-the-scale earthquake takes place (Revelation 16:18).
Slavery makes a comeback (Revelation 18:11-13).
There will be two missionaries that are invincible for a time, who speak truth to power so effectively that people can’t stand hearing their testimony and try unsuccessfully to kill them. They defend themselves like something you’d see in an X-Men movie, but watch out for the guy that eventually does kill them…he’s super bad news and will seem like he’s awesome, but believe me, he’s not somebody you should follow. Those two witnesses/missionaries also won’t let death keep them down. There will be some worldwide celebration for a few days after they’re killed, but the world will get a shock when the two of them get up again three and a half days after their death (Revelation 11:1-12).
Look, I don’t envy you. I’m writing this in August of 2022, and the past couple years have been pretty nuts from my perspective, but they pale in comparison to what you’re living through. Dig into the Bible, spread the word, and find other believers to encourage and be encouraged by. Dark days are ahead, and you’ll be hunted. If you turn to God, repent, and give your life to Him, He’ll give you what you need to make it to the end.
I used to have a colleague who had an interesting sign hanging up near his desk: “When you are dead, you don’t know that you are dead. It is difficult only for the others. It is the same when you are Stupid.”
It’s a humorous (and irreverent) take on things. Before you start wondering about whether or not other people think you’re stupid, let’s take this in a completely different direction. J
If you’re a gambler, you’re always hoping to hit the jackpot, right? Maybe you don’t go to Vegas, but sure, you pick up a couple of lottery tickets or scratchers at the gas station/supermarket every now and then. Imagine if, every time you played, you won at least enough money to cover the cost of the ticket(s) you bought. Once in awhile you might even score a $25 or $50 payout. Overall it ends up costing you nothing, there’s only upside, and there’s always the hope of scoring a big win.
Let’s combine the two anecdotes now. Somebody please explain to me how, if you believe death is the end of your existence (where you don’t even realize that you’re dead), it makes ANY sense at all to reject Christ. If you’re right and your consciousness just fades into oblivion, not caring about Christ isn’t a big deal, but if you’re wrong, you lose everything.
Tell me, what are you giving up by hearing what He’s all about, or even deciding to follow Him? If you give it some careful thought, the worst thing you can probably come up with is feeling like you’re unable to live the lifestyle you want to live. Think of it this way: if Christ is the real deal, He meets you where you are; to meet Him you don’t have to change anything about the way you live, but if you choose to buy in, you’ll want to make changes in your life. It’s all stuff you want to do.
This is a case where it ends up costing you nothing, and there’s only upside…vast upside. I like those odds. You might be very good at convincing yourself that religion isn’t your thing. Consider this: what if you’re wrong about Christ…and you’re betting eternity on it?
(Yes, I realize people give plenty of other reasons for not giving their lives to Christ besides this example, but if you’re one of those people, whatever other reason you come up with, ask yourself: “will that be good enough consolation during an eternity of suffering?”)
This week’s post isn’t geared so much toward my regular readers as it is the people that have just witnessed an astonishing event, and who are absolutely freaking out right now. If a sizable portion of the human race has just flat out disappeared without a trace, and you’re still here, this post is meant for you.
Right off the bat, I can offer you hope, but it’s going to come with a hard dose of reality. I’m breaking this into two sections: what happened, and what you need to do now. You’re going to think what I’m saying is crazy, but crazy just became your new norm, friend, and the things I touch on can help you start to understand this new reality.
So what happened? I can’t put a number on it, but a ton of people around the whole world just up and disappeared, right in the middle of everyday life. Cars driving down the road suddenly had no drivers, and airplanes lost their pilots, which caused additional chaos, I’m sure. Despite what’s being reported, it wasn’t aliens and it wasn’t some weird new disease. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say the people that disappeared are Christians. That is, they believed and trusted in Jesus Christ. Sure, there are still some church-goers and religious people that didn’t disappear. Ask them why others are gone but they’re still here. If they can’t seem to articulate their thoughts, ask them about their relationship with Jesus Christ. Not their head knowledge, as in their knowledge of or about God, or the money they give or the things they do for the church; ask them about their relational/experiential knowledge…the relationship they have with God. Odds are that they didn’t have a meaningful one.
Here’s the quick and dirty: after Jesus left, the Church (capital “C”) started. Throughout the Bible’s New Testament, the Church is described as the thing preserving the world (the “salt and light”). The Church is what perpetuates society’s collective morality. Yeah, things progressively get less and less like the way God wanted humanity to act. Churches give in, get “woke,” and endorse things that God himself would not endorse. Morality becomes less black and white and becomes increasingly gray. There are some churches and some folks that stand up and try to point the way back to Biblical morality, but over time those voices get drowned out, silenced, or labeled “hateful.”
Eventually (this is the part you’ve witnessed), God says “That’s enough; the evil is too much. I don’t want it to corrupt my people any further, so I’m pulling them out of there.” I don’t know when He’s going to do it, but I know that none of the people who disappeared are perfect; they just chose to love Jesus and trust Him as their savior and are now with Him in Heaven.
So where does that leave you? Well, you’re heading for some very rough waters. As it turns out, the Church was the speed bump that slowed down the moral degeneration of the human race. Now that it’s gone, there’s nothing holding back society’s decay. It’s like defunding the police and trusting that everyone will just get along and live happily together without problems. Things are about to get more insane and deadly than you imagined could ever happen.
If it hasn’t already happened, there’s a guy about to come on the scene that’s the most articulate politician/leader you’ve ever seen. He’s going to seem like he’s got all the answers and people will thrust him to global leadership. It’s a meteoric rise. The Bible calls this man the Antichrist. Circumstances will be such that you are encouraged (and maybe in some cases forced) to worship him. He’s empowered by satanic forces and will be able to do amazing supernatural things, and will perform counterfeit versions of the actual miracles Jesus performed.
Very quickly, here are some other things that will happen: Crazy, unexplainable signs in the sky…sun, moon, sky, and stars will all act strangely (Revelation chapter 6, verses 12-14, along with Rev 8:12). Imagine peace in the Middle East. This guy will orchestrate a 7-year treaty with Israel that brings peace to the region. Halfway through, though, he’s going to break it for his own benefit, desecrating Jewish holy sites in the process (Daniel 9:27, although there’s a lot more reading to do in order to grasp this meaning). Also, you’ll be unable to buy or sell or otherwise conduct normal business without receiving a mark on your hand or forehead. I don’t know if it’s going to look like a bar code, a QR code, or something else, but odds are it will somehow have the number “666” associated with it. (Rev. 13:16-18) Additionally, even aside from the disappearances, there’s going to be widespread death on a massive scale (Rev 6:7-8). Interestingly, there are going to be two guys that show up in Jerusalem that, for three and a half years speak out against the way folks are living and the way the world is conducting itself, pointing the way to Jesus Christ. People are going to hate hearing the truths these two guys are spreading, and will even try to kill them in order to silence them. During this time, these two will be invincible, but at the end the Antichrist himself will kill them both and their bodies will be left in the street as people celebrate their death by giving gifts to one another. Three and a half days later, however, both men will come back to life in full view of everyone. God then calls them to Heaven, and the two men will leave after that. (Rev. 11:3-12)
Look there’s a whole lot that happens, and I just don’t have the space to go into it all. Here’s what you need to do:
Accept Christ as your Lord and Savior. You’re not perfect, but you don’t have to be. I realize that “accepting Christ as your Savior” sounds kind of wonky for someone who’s not accustomed to “churchy” language, so I’ll say it differently. Talk to God; pray this prayer: “Dear God, I need you. I’m humbly calling out to you. I’m tired of doing things my way; help me to start doing things your way. I invite you into my life to be my Lord and Savior; fill the emptiness in me with your Holy Spirit and make me whole. Lord help me to trust you, help me to love you, help me to live for you. Help me to understand your grace, your mercy, and your peace. Help me have the strength for what lies ahead. Thank you Lord, Amen.”
If it hasn’t already, it’s probably about to become illegal to possess a Bible. You’re going to need one, though, along with a place to stash it. The Bible is a very complex book, with lots of stuff that you’re probably not going to care about (so many lineages!), and you’ll need help understanding it. There are lots of different translations of the Bible, but the most important thing for you is to get one that you can follow and that is an actual translation (not paraphrased). If it says that Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully man, you’re probably on the right track. If you’ve never read the Bible before, start out in the New Testament. If you’re new to this, start with Matthew. (The books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are in the same group of books, and they cover a lot of the same material. Don’t read all four and wonder why they killed Jesus four times!) Some of the books of the Bible that will pertain the most to you (Revelation, Daniel, Ezekiel) are also some of the most difficult to understand, so it’s best to get either a study bible (with notes) or separate commentaries that can help provide explanations of what the text is saying. At this point you’re living in a time that’s past civility, so I’ll say this and you take it however you’d like: the homes and bookshelves of the people who disappeared are your best shot at obtaining the biblical resources that can help you the most, and those folks sure don’t need those resources anymore.
The Bible is your single best source for learning what you need to learn, but it can be very hard to understand. For a lot of people, sermons from pastors/priests or additional Bible study materials will help increase understanding of biblical scripture’s application. If you can obtain those resources, do it.
Find others like you. God empowers His followers with special talents called “spiritual gifts.” They could be things like teaching, faith, leadership, administration, or the gift of helps (this isn’t an exhaustive list). If you accept Christ, you’ll gain something that you can use to help other Christ-followers, and others will likewise be able to help you. The Bible says that wherever two or more are gathered in His name, He’s there (Matthew 18:20). Take comfort in that, help each other learn about Christ, and help each other survive. You would not believe what God can do when He wants to get something done, and you may very well see it up close.
There are very hard times ahead. You will personally understand desperation in a way I can only vaguely imagine in April of 2021. My hope is that this post will float around online long enough to reach the people that need it, starting to orient you in a time of unprecedented chaos.
I’m not out to con you. I can guarantee that I have nothing to gain by passing this information along. In fact, if I’m right about all this, I’m already gone. You, on the other hand, have everything to gain!
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. – 2 Corinthians 4:17-18
A lot of Christians struggle to reconcile what the Bible says with the available scientific evidence. Case in point: according to your beliefs, how old is the earth?
Science says that the earth is more than four and a half billion years old. That doesn’t square with a strict reading of the Bible, though. The Bible says that not only the earth, but the entire universe…everything that is…was created in seven literal 24-hour days, probably between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago.
This presents a problem for many Christ-followers. I’ve heard some water down what the Bible says in order to make it fit the science. “I don’t think it was one literal week, I think it was figuratively referring to the process that actually took billions of years.” Or maybe “I believe God intentionally inspired the author of Genesis to use vague language, so that it’s not clear.”
Consider another alternative. The scientific evidence we observe is accurate and makes sense, and God created the whole universe in seven literal days less than 10,000 years ago.
How could this be? I offer this theory: instead of creating the earth as if it were brand new, God created it as though it were already in-progress.
What does that mean? It means when the earth was only a month old, it already had the appearance of being much older. Instead of creating a molten Earth with flat terrain, taking millions of years for plate tectonics to build mountains and for glaciers to carve valleys, there were already crumbling mountains and an amazing Grand Canyon by the time Adam and Eve showed up.
Half-lives of Carbon and other elements used for dating old materials would present a compelling case for an earth that’s much older than 10,000 years. The part that’s not going to jump out at us is the part where those elements were created in a partially decayed state. Science can present us with verifiable facts, but in order for us to get the full story there are still considerations apart from science.
“Mmmmm, yeah, I’m still not buying it,” says the science-leaning Christian. Okay. How about this spin on the “chicken or egg” problem? Adam took his first breath as a full-grown man. He was never “born” in the traditional sense. Since he never had a need for an umbilical cord, do you think Adam had a belly button?
If Adam did lots of crunches and took selfies
It’s an odd question, perhaps. Of course, we have no way of knowing from our reading of Genesis, but since Adam was made in God’s image, would he be functionally different from what we are today? I can’t say it with certainty, but I say no. The main recorded physiological difference between Adam and modern man is that he may have been born with more ribs than we were. (Genesis 2:21-23 gives a little more information on this subject.)
From what we know about the way Adam was brought to life, if he had a belly button, it was more for decorative use than functional. Obviously he didn’t need it, but if it was there, it was likely because everyone else after that point would have one, and since he was the first man he should look like everyone else. Is this an odd discussion? Absolutely! It meshes with the theory listed above though: God created everything as though we picked up in the middle of a movie. If that’s true, is it such a stretch to claim that yes, science would suggest the earth is over four and a half billion years old, but that there’s also a perfectly good reason to think it’s much younger?
Not only is God good, He’s the God of logic. Why would the Creator of science leave a trail of evidence that leads His followers away from what He claims in the Bible?
