Fundamentalist Scare Me

I overheard a conversation yesterday that suggested that we are at “end times”. For self described “believers” this is a very exciting time as they ready their tickets for the one way trip that they are expecting. After all, that is what separates them from everyone else. So they read their Bibles and commune with like minded people and await the end time when the Lord will gather them up in the rapture. What frightens me is that they are convinced and how much damage has been done to the message because of this “prediction”. Despite the fact that people have expected the end times since Jesus rose.

Now don’t get me wrong, we could very well be in “end times” but I don’t really care. I figure that is God’s jurisdiction and God will let me know if God wants to let me know. I cannot predict, by using the book of Revelations what God is planning. I actually feel that Jesus is among us. I walk on a tight rope because I feel that way. Always wondering “what is the right thing to do?” What is the action that will keep me in right relationship with my God.

It is so easy to look around and make Satan a person and take the responsibility off of ourselves. It is so much easier than to look within our own hearts and ask the question that Jesus asks the scribes and Pharisees when he was healing the man on the mat, “why do you think such things in your hearts?” (Mark 2:8) The very thought that Jesus would pose such a question to me makes me shudder because further down Jesus clearly states what the issue is for the chosen people and that is a lack of faith and a hyper focus on righteousness. Rather, their version of righteousness. So, in posing that question Jesus is saying “who do you think YOU are?” It is a knee buckler.

Evil is insidious; it gathers at our weaknesses, it manifests itself in our pride and in our fear, and any other place not of God. It is in our humility that we can see what evil truly is, but when we are so convinced in our own righteousness, we are living in a state of pride so we are less likely to see evil for what it is.

So, at least in my estimation, it isn’t that I need to fear the anti-christ, it is that I need to fear how I partake in the creating of an environment that allows evil to exist. Whether that be in my own home, in my church or in the world at large, my biggest responsibility is to honoring the will of God in my life and to looking through the eyes of compassion and to opening my heart to how I can affect Gods kingdom in the here and now.

Color me crazy but I genuinely believe God can take care of the rest.