Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Matthew 24:4-6

Be mindful of this. This is not in a unique state for our world to be in. Christian movements claiming to be acting on God’s behalf, false messiahs claiming to be God’s anointed, wars and the threat of war. There is nothing new in what we are hearing and reading in our world today.

Just as our current media posts are reflecting our historical journey from the last 2000 years, so too are we tempted to believe this is all part of God’s plan to bring about the fulness of His kingdom through power and violence. The crowds believed this on Palm Sunday, the Crusades believed this in the early years of the Holy Roman Empire. Even the Third Reich adopted a form of Positive Christianity that imposed their superior ideology upon much of Europe in the 1930’s-40’s

But the end won’t come through violence. It will be through the preaching and the living of the Good news to the ends of the earth. It is in this that the fulness of God’s kingdom will finally be revealed. Fleeing from the former and embracing the later seems to reflect best the hope that God has revealed through the life and lesson of Jesus. What a time to be alive!

Jas