Sometimes the evangelical emphasis on an end-times disaster, combined with the aging membership of many churches, becomes a recipe for doom and gloom. Prophecies of the coming economic collapse and world-wide Islamic jihad are often swirled into a lament about the decline of morality and increase in depravity. All this is topped off with some wistful longing for the good ole days of old-time religion and patriotism. We older folks eat this stuff up.
But we need to think about how this doom and gloom tastes to the young people in our churches. After all, it is their future we are talking about. We have to be careful to make certain all our proclamations about the future are based on sound exegesis of God’s Word–not on our arthritis or grumpiness. After all, the time many now call the good old days were the days when Nazism had taken control of most of Europe.
We should also remember that in the midst of Israel’s worst days in Babylonian captivity God said, “For I know the plans that I have for you . . . plans for welfare and not calamity to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11
