There's no need to enumerate all that has "gone wrong" in 2025.  The news broadcasts will keep telling us.  Nevertheless, it HAS BEEN a year which has tried the patience and the stability of billions.  It reflects the warning of Jesus of "men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth..."   (Luke 21:26) There seems to be genuine fear -- not only among groups which have traditionally been persecuted, but also among groups which used to feel a measure of security.

 

And, according to prophecy, things will be getting worse yet -- much worse.  But THAT is not the focus we want to have.  The troubles are for a purpose, and the purpose is to stop the foolishness of humanity once and for all -- and to replace it with the promised paradise that will be the eternal experience of humanity on this planet.  We are actually living in the most promising time earth has ever experienced.  It just doesn't look like it!

 

As we close out an old calendar year, and if we are sincere in our Christianity, we will need strong faith to know how to act and react as the world around us crumbles.  Unfortunately, much of Christianity does not have enough Scriptural information to teach us what is happening, why it is happening, and what our place is in relationship to it all.  We surely don't want to act like the rest of mankind is now acting!  We need to be separate from it all -- a witness to our having been with Jesus and having been fortified by his teachings regarding our day.

 

Jesus' personal success is Scripturally attributed to the fact that he "loved righteousness and hated iniquity."  (Hebrews 1:9)  And, as Christians, we are to strive to be like him in that and in all respects.  That, of course, is a true challenge at any time, but especially in our day.  There ARE wonderful examples of righteousness among humanity.  And, unfortunately, there are many more examples of iniquity among humanity.  But if we love righteousness and hate iniquity, we are not obliged to crusade for or against either quality.  We ARE obliged to develop the correct love and hatred in our own characters, but we should not assume that that gives us the right to try to force it on others.  People (other than saints) are not currently under judgment.  To try to judge them now is a serious mistake.

 

And, of course, the great difficulty is, IF we hate iniquity, how can we keep from crusading against it?  THAT is where faith comes in.  When we are convinced that the incoming Kingdom will correct and resolve all of these problems, we need not think we have to accomplish those corrections in others NOW.  If we are faithful in becoming a part of the Lord's "Little Flock" of overcomers, we will have granted to us the power needed to lift up, bless, and perfect all of humanity -- not only those now living, but also all of those who have died.  

 

A faith in that CAN sooth the savage instincts in us to strike out now against all unrighteousness.  There is a great lesson in the epistle of Jude.  Jude informs us that Jesus, in his prehuman existence as "the archangel," would not even hurl an accusation against Satan -- putting that judgment into the future and under the auspices of his Father.  (Jude 9)  Should we do any less?  Too often we have been erroneously taught that we are duty-bound to correct sinners -- even to the point (in some minds) of harming them!  As Jesus said on one occasion, "You know not what spirit you are of!" (Luke 9:55)

 

Our hope for us all in this new calendar year is that we can remain aloof from the problems -- not being critics of the blind, nor fearing that sinners (who are NOT under judgement) will be lost if we don't correct them.  And while we retain that separateness, we must work hard on our own characters and endure all of the contradictions against our attitudes with a total and abiding conviction that the Lord is, indeed, AT THIS VERY MOMENT, working the cure for everything which plagues this poor human race.  The prayer for the Kingdom to come with God's will done here in earth is most appropriate.  (Matthew 6:10)  Not only must we ask for it, but we must be convinced that that prayer is in course of fulfillment.  The struggles of a dying civilization all around us are a visible witness to the proximity of the "golden age."

 

 

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