Polish Nobel Peace prize winner Lech Walesa addressed the Nobel Peace Prize committee last month, calling for a new “secular” Ten
Commandments that would express universally-shared values for all religions of the
world. It's not hard to see this as movement toward a One World Religion, one of the end-time prophecies. Nor is it hard to see unrest in the Middle East exploding into a Mid-East war, if not a world war, and all the more because of Israel's imminent attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. What's more, because of the region’s oil wealth, it is easy to imagine the fulfillment of the Gog-Magog invasion (Russia and Iran).
With Israel back in the Holy Land for a generation, steeped in global conflict as prophesied for the end times, and with geo-political instability, along with the re-posturing of post-WWII allies, how long can it be before a leader (Anti-Christ) appears on the world stage, offering a plan for unity, peace, and hope? “The end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers” (1 Peter 4:7).
Greg,
ReplyDeleteI just did a word study on the word translated "serious" in the passage you quoted from 1 Peter 4:7. It is elsewhere translated "sober" and "right mind." The verb "sophoneo" is a compound word formed from two words: "sozo" meaning "saved" or "safe," and from "phren" referring to the mind. Being "serious" in our prayers as the end times approach is actually the result of "safe-thinking" because our minds have been renewed according to the "truth as it is in Jesus..." So we can know how to think when we see the signs that His return is near.
Stan
thanks, Stan, for this great insight! I just did a study on the word as well. And one of the other ways of translating it, interestingly, is a "right" mind. Paul tells Titus to instruct young women (2:4) and young men (2:6) to be "right minded." Considering the coming apostasy (see today's post), that is all important: discerning right from wrong, employing biblical principles, not from cultural acceptance of what seems right: "every man did what was right in his own eyes."
ReplyDeleteGreg