Pastors' Blog

If you surf YouTube, then you know there has been a crescendoing clamor by a fringe of people claiming a non-existent planet called Nabiru (nicknamed Planet X) will collide with our home planet Earth sometime on Saturday, September 23, 2017. I.e., in three days the world will end. Slick YouTube graphic animations portray what the explosive moment of impact will look like from somewhere out in space. One of the loud voices belongs to David Meade, a Christian "numerologist," who is warning that on the basis of the number 33 and the prophecy of Revelation 12, the Bible itself predicts this destructive collision between "Planet X" and Earth on this very date. Meade, however, has avoided claiming, as others are, the world will end—instead he clarifies: "'The world is not ending, but the world as we know it is ending,’...adding later: 'A major part of the world will not be the same the beginning of October’" (www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/09/17/the-world-as-we-know-it-is-about-to-end-again-if-you-believe-this-biblical-doomsday-claim/?utm_term=.c3efb9fa01d6).

Ed Stetzer, a professor and executive director of Wheaton College’s Billy Graham Center for Evangelism, has responded to the Washington Post: "'There’s no such thing as a Christian numerologist . . . You basically got a made-up expert in a made-up field talking about a made-up event’" (ibid).

The reason I mention this "non-event" at all is because the internet doomsayers are warning that the recent escalation of record-shattering hurricanes and killer quakes (and who can deny that over the last few weeks our hemisphere has been severely battered with a devastating string of these ecological disasters?) are evidentiary proof "Planet X" is hurtling closer and closer to this earth. Some go so far as to claim the recent U.S. solar eclipse 33 days before September 23 is itself an indicator of impending doom.

But of course in a university community like this one—and an Adventist campus at that—these warnings are quickly (and rightly) dismissed as evidence the lunatic fringe is still alive and well. But that is precisely my point.

If I were the devil and I were concerned that these strings of natural disasters were indicators my own time on this planet were coming to an end, I would do all in my power to keep thinking men and women from arriving at the same conclusion. After all, Jesus’ list of indicators preceding His return (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21) strongly link upheaval in Mother Nature to His coming: "'On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory" (Luke 21:25-27).

If I were the devil, I would do all in my power to destroy any logical connection between these upheavals in nature and the return of Christ. I would inspire illogical, unreasonable minds to seize this escalation of natural disasters as proof of September 23’s impending doomsday. By leading unbalanced minds to embrace a biblically credible indicator (one the Lord Himself offered as a sign of His return), I would destroy the credibility of Jesus’ own indicator(s) in the eyes of the public and thus lead lucid, thinking people to reject any notion of "the end of the world." I repeat—no way would I want this civilization to be warned that in fact time is running out for this planet. The lunatic fringe would be my subterfuge to make sure nobody believes such gobbledygook.

But you and I know different, don’t we? Which is why Unlock Revelation begins this Monday evening (7:30) here at Pioneer. Because the Bible does speak with clarion voice to the times in which we now live. And to keep silent is to surrender the genuine harbingers Christ gave us to the hype of terribly misguided zealots who are dead wrong. Your witness and mine are God’s counterbalance to our mortal enemy’s desperate deceptions. People need to know the truth as it is in Jesus. Now more than ever. So please join me in making a personal invitation to someone you know who needs to know. If the choice is between YouTube and you, be assured God is banking on you.

Talking about Ground Zero! The world is abuzz over the reported underground detonation of a hydrogen bomb by North Korea this week. Other than state propaganda, information from out of the Hermit Kingdom is hard to come by. But analysts have concluded the 6.3 Richter scale quake in the northern sector of the isolated country on Sunday was triggered by a test nuclear explosion, perhaps North Korea’s largest nuclear detonation ever. Photographs of their feared leader Kim Jong Un examining a suitcase size hydrogen bomb only add to the speculation he now has the capacity to arm an intercontinental ballistic missile with a warhead that conceivably could threaten major distant cities in both the Far East and the U.S.

Why even a tabloid in London, playing on the fears of an anxious public, headlined the news, "North Korea nuclear attack threat: What will happen if H-Bomb hits London?": "A North Korea attack on the heart of London would utterly destroy around nine square miles of the city and instantly kill tens of thousands, according to terrifying new data provided by NukeMap. The website shows in horrifying clarity the extent to which an H-bomb attack would impact all corners of the city, which is one of the most obvious European targets for the rogue state" (www.express.co.uk/news/uk/849959/north-korea-news-nuclear-attack-uk-london-world-war-3-hydrogen-bomb). Perhaps a bit of tabloid overkill, to be sure, but an indicator nonetheless of the fear that continues to drive this hour of uncertainty on Earth.

And given all of this, jammed between two devastating and record-shattering hurricanes in our own hemisphere, on our own shores—one could be excused for more than the usual dose of paranoia over the state of affairs lately. Even the investors on Wall Street have embedded their personal fears into the gyrations of the major indices.

Any good news in the midst of all of this? Actually there is. Jesus’ own prediction of the prevailing mindset at this juncture in history—"people will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world" (Luke 21:26)—describes an unrest that plays into His mission to save lost people. Check this out. "Happiness researcher Dan Gilbert has written that ‘human beings come into the world with a passion for control, they go out of the world the same way, and research suggests that if they lose their ability to control things at any point between their entrance and their exit, they become unhappy, helpless, hopeless, and depressed.’ We want to be able to imagine the future, and we want to be able to prepare for it. Uncertainty makes this awfully hard" (www.unstuck.com/advice/afraid-change-science-uncertainty). Which being translated means times of overwhelming uncertainty drive the human to seek new certainty, new security.

Our default setting is always to try and turn disequilibrium back into equilibrium (homeostasis) as quickly as possible.

And when we try, guess Who’s standing at the door knocking? "Turn to Me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other" (Isaiah 45:22). Because crisis and change are a valuable catalyst to urge the human mind to turn towards the possibility of the divine. You’ve tried everything else—and the anxiety and fear remain undiminished—so why not turn to Me now? "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).

While we wouldn’t wish bad news on anyone, the fact remains that times of uncertainty and change are powerful opportunities to point those we know, those we love to the unchanging love of our changeless Lord—Whose impassioned appeal will remain unchanged to the very end: "Come to Me now."

PS—Why not pick up some printed invitations to Unlock Revelation (beginning September 25 @ Pioneer) in the literature rack? Let God make His invitation through you. It’s the right time, wouldn’t you say?

"Parents often think teenagers are overly obsessed with their best friends. They should let them be" (https://qz.com/1059666/having-a-stronger-closer-friendship-as-a-teenager...). That’s the conclusion from new research published in the journal Child Development. Turns out having a best friend when you’re young impacts your life beyond your teenage years.

Rachel K. Narr, a PhD candidate in clinical psychology at the University of Virginia, led the study of 169 adolescents, who were tracked for ten years, from the age of 15 to 25. The youth were diverse racially, socio-economically and ethnically—and were interviewed at 15 or 16 years of age with a follow up interview at 25. "They were asked who their closest friends were, and detailed questions about their friendships in general. The interviewers also asked them about anxiety, social acceptance, self-worth, and symptoms of depression" (ibid). The researchers "triangulated" the teens’ responses by making sure the best friends they identified in fact considered them best friends as well. They also corroborated that the teens who claimed to be popular were in fact so." (Studies find two types of popularity—"people who are likable—their peers trust them and want to be with them—and those who seek status, and often try to wield that popularity as power" [ibid].)

So what are some of the conclusions researchers have drawn? Narr’s hypotheses include: (1) "Adolescent relationships are critically important because they are the first that teens form outside their families, and come at a time when identity is being formed (as they say, you can pick your friends but not your family); (2) "it’s about the skills a teen develops in forming friendships, rather than the friends themselves; (3) [most] kids won’t have the same best friend at 25 that they had at 15, but making close friends develops the muscles that can become self-defining characteristics [which] help build self-worth, and give kids confidence that they can build trusting relationships, which is something researchers say bodes well for the next chapter of intimacy in life (romantic relationships)" (ibid).

Mitch Prinstein (not part of Narr’s research), a University of North Carolina professor and author of Popular: The Power of Likability In a Status-Obsessed World, maintains that "people who seek to be likable tend to end up in healthier, in better relationships, with more fulfilling work, and even live longer" (ibid). And Joseph Allen, co-author in Narr's UV study, observes: "‘As technology makes it increasingly easy to build a social network of superficial friends, focusing time and attention on cultivating close connections with a few individuals should be a priority’" (ibid).

So how are you with your friends?

Turns out the wise King Solomon was right: "There are friends who pretend to be friends, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother" (Proverbs 18:24 RSV). And having a best friend like that truly does add years to your life—which must be why God makes this powerful friendship promise: " . . . call upon Me, and I will answer [you]; I will be with [you] in trouble; I will deliver [you] and honor [you]. With long life I will satisfy [you], and show [you] My salvation" (Psalm 91:15, 16 NKJV).

Did you catch that? A "long life" with your Forever Friend—your truly BFF (best friend forever)—what’s not to like about that! As Jesus puts it: "‘And here is how to measure it—the greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends. . . . Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me’" (John 15:13, 15 NLT). Just an old rugged cross, to be sure—but kneel there and gaze up at it morning after morning, and you’ll never forget the lengths your BFF went to just to win a friendship with you. And you’ll never keep Him a secret either.

"The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was given power to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him" (Revelation 16:8-9).

Let me be clear—I don't believe we’re in the midst of the Seven Last Plagues. But let's go apocalyptic for a moment. That is, after all, the point of this weekly blog "The Fourth Watch": to scan rapidly mounting harbingers that this civilization is now in the throes of its final watch, what the Romans called "the fourth watch"—the darkest period of night before dawn.

On Monday the journal Nature published a study, "Global Risk of Deadly Heat" (www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate3322.html). Commenting on the study news media reported: "Deadly heat waves like the one now broiling the American West are bigger killers than previously thought and they are going to grow more frequent, according to a new comprehensive study of fatal heat conditions. . . . A team of researchers examined 1,949 deadly heat waves from around the world since 1980 to look for trends, define when heat is so severe it kills and forecast the future. They found that nearly one in three people now experience 20 days a year when the heat reaches deadly levels. But the study predicts that up to three in four people worldwide will endure that kind of heat by the end of the century, if global warming continues unabated" (abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/hot-handle-study-shows-earths-killer-heat-worsens-48133208).

No doubt the inhabitants of the cities experiencing the sun's deadly scorching this week would be inclined to concur—Phoenix 119 degrees (with planes grounded because it was too hot), Las Vegas 117 degrees, Sacramento 107 degrees,  Death Valley 127 degrees. Camilo Mora of the University of Hawaii, lead author of the study, predicted, "'The United States is going to be an oven. . . . This is already bad. We already know it. . . . The empirical data suggest it’s getting much worse'" (ibid). Only in America? Turbat, Pakistan, back in May registered a lethal 128 degrees (ranking it "among the five hottest temperatures reliably measured on Earth").

The death tally isn’t in yet, of course. But a sober reminder of how high the human toll can be is the 2003 heat wave in Europe that claimed over 70,000 lives. The 72 deaths in Portugal last week from the dry sun-ignited wild fires are a reminder no place will be exempt from deadly heat.

". . . and the sun was given power to scorch people with fire."

We are not experiencing the fourth plague, whose apocalyptic proportions will surely dwarf the statistics scientists are scrambling to interpret. Nevertheless, Jesus warned His followers that before His return "'there will be signs in the sun . . . for the powers of the heavens will be shaken'" (Luke 21:25-26).

Shall we be afraid? No. Shall we be reminded that we live on the edge of God’s escalating endgame? We must.

I was on assignment last week in the nation’s capital. The chaotic mix of fear (my plane landed just hours after the shootings at the Congressional baseball practice that early morning), confusion and capricious volatility the world over surely compels those of us who call ourselves "Adventists" to shake off the numbing lethargy that paralyzes the heart of our faith community and our own souls as well.

Now more than ever the masses that live in Washington, D. C. and Chicago, Detroit and Los Angeles—the scores of urban centers in this nation—must be warned that "the end of all things is at hand" (1 Peter 4:7). It is simply not enough for us to comfort our end-time-hungry souls with the reminder Jesus is coming soon. You don't win this game by guessing how close we are to the end. The only winning left on this deteriorating planet is the mission of Almighty God to save every lost earth child of His while there is still time. Forget the signs—we must embrace the mission—now rather than later.

Simply because later will one day be too late.

So what, pray tell, are we waiting for, you and I?