27 November | Youth

Strange Times

«But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come.» 2 Timothy 3:1

Human beings are sometimes very contradictory. And, as time passes, this becomes increasingly clear. Analyze, for example, the gap between technological advancement, on the one hand, and social development, on the other. The North American company SpaceX is a good illustration. It is part of the conglomerate that promises to revolutionize the present and future of humanity. One of SpaceX’s projects is to build a habitable city on Mars, as an alternative to a possible collapse of planet Earth. So, on May 30, 2020, SpaceX became the first private company to send a rocket into extraplanetary orbit. This feat generated a huge stir on social media, especially because of the crisis context the entire world was in, many in social isolation and, in some places, in lockdown. People could barely leave their homes; not even to go to the pharmacy. Someone even commented: “What strange times! We managed to go to space, but we can’t go to the street corner.”

Strange times indeed! The Bible describes the last days as terrible times. Why? Human beings would become the biggest of all problems. It seems ironic, but it is not. It is pure reality. We live in difficult times. Parents and children, within the same house, use the telephone to communicate instead of talking face to face. In some countries, the number of divorces already exceeds the number of marriages. There is a project for the survival of the population in space, however life on Earth is being decimated by hu-man irresponsibility. People kill and die for trivial reasons. Fathers and mothers abandon their families. Children kill parents, parents kill children; mothers throw newborn babies into the trash; adults rape children; teenagers prostitute themselves to survive; politicians steal from the nation; citizens bribe public officials. Ultimately, chaos seems inevitable, and selfishness and greed are at the center of this turmoil.

Despite all this, the Bible encourages us to have hope, because God is in control of history. Very soon, Jesus will return to get His chosen ones and grant them eternal life. Would you like to be among them? Do you have plans to take this interplanetary trip? Would you trade a season on Mars for eternity in Heaven? Buckle up. We are about to take off!