By Dave Breese

Two remarkable things are in the process of happening in our present age which are bound to make things most interesting in the days immediately before us. These things are the simultaneous rise of good and evil in most obvious fashion in the same world. Light and darkness move with mounting impact upon our bewildered world; a conflict between Christ and Satan appears to be intensifying with every day that passes.

On the evil side, the world seems increasingly to be filled with violence. Terrorism is a fearful thing and the professional terrorist appears to be the man of this present hour. Believing in nothing except anarchy, the criminal terrorist is bringing the law of the gun and the knife to the fore in most of the nations of the West. Willing to die if only he can kill some and intimidate many, the professional anarchist is a very dangerous person indeed. Uncontained terrorism can bring down a government and thereby destroying civil authority issuing in anarchy, revolution and death. No nation is immune and no ruler is invulnerable. Like a time bomb ticking in the darkness, the heart of the terrorist longs for the day he can explode, felling in the process another wall of “the establishment.”

Who can doubt that Satan, knowing his time is short, is working frantically to unleash the irrational passions which work like a coiled serpent in the heart of every child of Adam’s race who has not been touched by the grace of Jesus Christ. His Infernal Majesty is surely working overtime in our age to inflame the base nature of the intemperate and irrational among us. Evil appears to be working in cumulative effort in our society, reminding us that “In the last days perilous times shall come”(II Tim. 3:1).

Our world is attempting to operate in what the Bible calls, “a dark place” (II Pet.1:19) and the results are obvious; it is disoriented, bewildered, injured and angry with itself.

So we see that the Scriptures confirm the fact that the world is, and will be more so, a dark place. Great anxiety is moving across the land as people sense that the darkness seems to be closing in on us all.

On the good side, a marvelous outgrowth of all of this is that people have become suddenly more spiritual, suddenly more aware that life has a spiritual component that extends far beyond the visible and reaches out into the wideness of eternity.

“The wheat and the tares will grow together until the end of time,” is the message of Christ. Surely in fulfillment of this prophecy of our Lord, the harvest is tall and ripe in our time. This then is the day for reaping, for the evangelization of millions for whom Christ died. Soon the Lord of the harvests will return to gather His own unto Himself. What an exciting day in which to be alive! It is a day indeed in which we must be looking out to the harvest and looking up for redemption that draws nigh.

Seeing this, we must take note of the words of the Apostle Peter, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto you do well that you take heed, as to a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts” (II Pet. 1:19).

But wait, we have in this verse a great and reassuring promise. It is that there is a shining light, a bright illumination available to us. What is that light? It is “a more sure word of prophecy.” It is the Word of God and especially His Word about the future. A person, therefore, that pays due attention to the Word of God need never stumble, never be confused, never be afraid of the darkness. Never!

Jesus said, “he that follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (Jn. 8:12). Yes, there is a light that shines most beautifully in the world. It is that sure Word of prophecy given to us who have elected to believe in and to follow Christ. What is there about the prophetic Word that can bring that promised reassurance today? Many things . .

1. The prophetic Word tells us that God presides. He controls the future; “These things says He that is holy, He that is true, He that has the key of David, He that opens, and no man shuts; and shuts, and no man opens” (Rev. 3:7). God has not, will not, lose control.

2. The prophetic Word assures us of the value of faith in a fading world. It says, “And the world passes away, and the lust thereof: but he that does the will of God abides forever” (I Jn. 2:17). Yes, the world will pass-but not you and I who are “in Christ.”

3. The prophetic Word tells us that the Devil is a defeated foe, a doomed being. It informs us that Christ partook of death, “that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14). Finally, it says, “and the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Rev. 20:10). We would not know the startling facts of the future apart from the prophecy found in all the Scripture.

4. The prophetic Word tells us that heaven awaits us who believe in Christ. Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (Jn. 14:1-3).

   How grand it is to be reassured that this world is but a temporary dwelling place. Our real home is in heaven.

5. The prophetic Word tells us that Christ will come for us, to take us home to be with Him. His promise is a marvelous and reassuring one in which He says, “I will come again.” When we remember that wonderful promise, there is no hour so dark, no situation so complicated, no danger so great as to make us forget that promise that Christ awaits us at the end of our lives and that there is a generation that is coming, perhaps this one, to which He will specifically come to take us to heaven.

The prophetic Word tells us much more. Therefore, we are told that we “do well” to take heed to its true and faithful admonitions. We will do well, that is a promise! The Scriptures faithfully promise that the person that pays due attention to Bible prophecy will profit, will be advantaged, will do very well. There is great spiritual gain to attending and heeding the Word of God. Discouragement turns to bright hope when we read the Word. Many despair of tomorrow, but that despair turns to bright anticipation when we listen to what the Bible has to say. We are creatures of hope when we know the Word.

Finally, how long must we hope? The Scripture says that the day star will arise. Yes, a new day will dawn when faith will give way to sight. Yes, there will come the dawn of a new age. Yes, the Scripture clearly promises that the night is not forever, the day will surely come.

Well, let us say quite emphatically that God did not inspire those evil men to strike against innocent people in our cities. But obviously, God did not prevent it through Divine intervention either. So why did He allow it to happen? Perhaps it is that the Lord has allowed such a tragedy as this so that we, as messengers of the love of God, might touch the hearts of a wounded generation with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Until then, the light shines clearly, leading more and more unto a perfect day. Therefore, let us strengthen the hands that hang down. Let us look up for our redemption that draws nigh. Let us be filled with anticipation because one of these days, perhaps very soon, Christ will come to take us home to be with Himself. Until then, Scriptures continue to be the light that shines and we who believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ are the bearers of that light. The Christian, therefore, is the person that the world cannot do without.