Worldwide lawlessness, rebellion signals imminent return of Jesus

By Charles Gardner —

Amidst all the turbulence, confusion and chaos we are witnessing across the world, rebellion is surely the word to sum it up.

According to St Paul in his second letter to the Thessalonians, such a scenario is an alarming precursor to the rise of the Antichrist in the run-up to the return of the real Christ, Messiah Yeshua. So the bad news comes first, then the good news, which is why the Lord told us to look up when we see these shocking developments, for it means that our redemption is near.

Referring to questions about the Lord’s coming, Paul writes that it will not happen “until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness (or man of sin) is revealed” (2 Thessalonians 2:3).

Rebellion encourages lawlessness, and isn’t that what we are seeing in these days? I am thinking especially of Israel and the UK, world leaders at various times in history of God’s civilizing morality.

The mass protests against judicial reform graphically reflect rebellion against the country’s democratically elected lawmakers, who appear to be trying to correct an imbalance which has seen judges undermining the government.

Whatever the detail, I am reminded of the riot in ancient Ephesus caused by the preaching of Paul accused of undermining the shady business of idol worship. The commercial leaders complained of him saying “that gods made by human hands are no gods at all”.

There was great confusion among the crowds. “Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there.”

That about sums up what is happening in much of the formerly Judeo-Christian Western world. Lack of discipline is coming back to bite us after generations of encouragement to free ourselves from the shackles of faith and obedience.

Israel-based British diplomats even rebelled against their own masters – their elected political representatives – by running the Palestine Marathon whose organizers deny the Jewish state’s right to exist. They ought to be sacked on the spot, but we mustn’t upset the woke left-wing applecart setting the ongoing agenda for a godless age of idol worship.

Overpaid football pundit Gary Lineker breaks rank from the supposed impartiality of the BBC – who pay him a staggering annual salary of £1.35 million – by comparing Britain’s new immigration policies to those of the Nazis. And he gets away with it!

Strikes abound in a society too spineless to enforce discipline, signaling to a new generation that if they don’t like something they should cast off restraint and shout and scream until mommy rewards them with a dummy (pacifier).

We’re heading for disaster. But God… These are the last days. Satan has been driven stark-raving mad, like a wounded snake thrashing around desperate to spread its poison before receiving the fatal blow with the glorious return of the Lord, who will ceremoniously crush his head. (See Genesis 3:15)

I guess it’s not surprising that, in turning our backs on our Creator, as we have done so decidedly in the UK, we have become so uncreative. Our manufacturing industry, for example, has imploded. We used to produce some of the world’s most exotic motorcars. But no more. And even the exponential growth in hi-tech, for which Israel takes much credit, has failed to greatly improve our welfare, leading instead to a proliferation of social media insults and an actual loss in communication skills.

Meanwhile Britain’s beautiful landscape becomes pockmarked with giant warehouses so we can order all our goods online, and forget how to socialize and love our neighbor!

But judgment begins with the house of God. Here in the UK, the rot set in during the 1960s, particularly through a book by Bishop John Robinson called Honest to God which severely undermined traditional Christian belief.

As one of our most insightful writers, Melanie Phillips, wrote back in 2011, the bishop helped deconstruct not just Christian belief but morality as well, and gave Christian absolution to the permissive culture.¹

Turning away from God’s commandments is a broad and certain road to Hell. Jesus calls us to walk the narrow way that leads to life. The wicked Ninevites repented at the preaching of Jonah and God relented from his intention to destroy them.

I notice that South Africa has now officially downgraded its diplomatic ties with Israel – along with its Anglican church, almost alone among African countries to adopt an anti-Israel stance, in both cases also conforming to the madness of the anti-God same-sex and transgender movement.

As the storm rages with ever-increasing fury, we are surely heading for the rocks. And it’s time the Church, like Jonah, threw herself overboard in repentance for failing to obey the Great Commission of Jesus to preach the gospel to the nations which alone will bring life and health and peace to all.

1 The World Turned Upside Down, Encounter Books