Don’t Respond To Egyptian Crises Like This

As a citizen of the kingdom of God, there are a number of ways to respond to the current crises in Egypt.

There is one way not to respond, and that is to talk about the end times.

You know what I mean, Egypt is going to fall to the Muslim extremists, they will make war on Israel, Russia (or is it China now) will attack from the north with 2,000,000 men and they will all meet at Armageddon, chaos, dogs and cats living together, the rapture, the end . . . and Hal Lindsey promoted to the left hand of the Father.

There are a number of reasons it doesn’t benefit the kingdom of God or you to engage in end-times speculation over what is happening in Egypt. Here are three:

1. You will likely be proven wrong. I hope that doesn’t sound arrogant. It’s not based on any special knowledge I have. I’m just looking at history. I’ll give you 3 quick examples. The Christian Byzantine Empire, 540 A.D., the plague sweeps through the empire and 25% (some estimate more) of the population is killed. Revelation 9:18 (“A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues…”). Was it the end? Europe 990 A.D., closing in on the end of the first millennium, Christianity is on the decline, the Muslims are threatening in the south and pagans in the north. Was it the end? Something very different happened instead. Or how about 88 Reasons Why The Rapture Will Be In 1988? (Unexplainably this book is no longer in print). Practically every generation of Christians speculated they would be the last, and every one has been wrong. Not good for Kingdom credibility.

2. You will lose credibility with your non-Christian friends. When you are proven wrong, you and the kingdom of God will lose a little more credibility with the world. If you can’t speak truth to the world about what they can see, why will they believe you when you speak about what they can’t see?

3. You will make yourself irrelevant. Talking about the end-times with non-Christians in the context of the Egyptian crises will just make you irrelevant. They don’t believe it and will view you as having no solution and as incompetent in worldly affairs. Christians are called to lead in the world, and they won’t do that as long as they refuse to engage the world and start solving problems in the natural.

None of this means you can’t speak truth. Read the news, study the Middle East and contribute to the conversation from a Biblical problem-solving perspective, but don’t try to be a sanctified Nostradamus. GS

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