Articles
When It Ends
We ran this article this same week 2 years ago, and it generated a lot of discussion and comments.
(Oct 4, 2018)
Almost every cell phone in the nation got a Presidential Emergency Notification test yesterday. I can’t say for sure if this was the first but I know there have been plans working for some time to be able to immediately notify everyone at the citizen level of a national emergency. It’s complex, and is utilizing a combination of existing systems and new equipment and software. President Trump didn’t simply hit a few keys on his iPhone for sure. The system has safeguards and if we get such a warning, it will be legitimate.
In reading some of the comments, people voiced how ”eerie” it was to hear everyone’s phone going off simultaneously. Just imagine if those tones had been followed by “This is NOT a test” and then some info about a national emergency. If that had happened, life as we know it would have ground to a halt and each of us would have been rushing to prepare for whatever the danger was. I’m suspecting, in that moment, we would not care about the nonsense that consumes us daily, but rather our lives and the safety of our families and loved ones would be all we would be concerned with.
I was half way between Snyder and Lubbock yesterday when the test came and it occurred to me that if it had been something real, I would not even be able to do anything until I got home in 45 minutes, although I could probably make it in 25 minutes under that scenario.
You know, Christ is coming back someday. It will happen world-wide unexpectedly, just like that test did yesterday across our nation, except life will indeed stop, instantly. I don’t mean we will go into survival mode, I mean nothing going on in the world will continue. If we are on the highway, that’s the last thing our eyes will see.
We won’t have time to text anybody to say ‘good-bye’ or ‘I love you’. We won’t get to pick up the kids at daycare. We won’t have time to grab a Bible or even Google(R) how to become a Christian. We won’t have time to get into water to be baptized and have ours sins forgiven (Acts 2:38). We won’t even have time to repent of the sin in our lives, because “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound....” (1 Cor 15:52) it will come to an immediate end.
Unlike a national emergency that might give us time to prepare or respond or at least get advanced warning, Jesus’s return won’t offer us any such options. God won’t use the government’s alert system on that day, He’s got one of His own, trumpets from heaven. When we hear that trumpet call, no one, not even the dead in the graves will sleep through it. No one will mistake it for anything of an earthly nature, and there won’t be any areas without coverage. And like it or not, we can’t press a button and ignore His call on that day.
It’s not that God won’t give us a warning, He will, or should I say, He does! He assures us there is time to make a change, but that warning is the one His word has been echoing since He spoke it, the warning His Church preaches in the face of persecution and rejection. As for Him giving us time to prepare for that day, He says “... now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor 6:2). Don’t let us miss that, God is warning us now, and telling us to act now! When we hear that trumpet blast, our opportunities are over.
If we received a national warning today from a verifiable source like this nationwide Presidential Emergency Alert System, with a few exceptions I’m sure, almost all people would heed the warning and take all possible measures to insure their physical safety. Why do the masses continually ignore the repeated warnings from a verifiable source, the Creator of Heaven and earth, when it’s much more than their physical safety at risk, it’s their eternal dwelling?
