“By your perseverance you will secure your lives.” These are the words of Jesus in this Sunday’s gospel (Luke 21:5-19) in which he teaches us about a very sensitive topic – the end of time.
THE end of time, or the end of the world, is a favorite subject matter of many people, both inside and outside church circles. Predictions on the exact date when our Lord Jesus Christ will come again have already become a long list, and if we are to state what is common in all of them, it is this: they all failed, or are doomed to fail as they should. Why? Because as Jesus told us, nobody knows the exact day or hour, only the Father knows (Matthew 24:36).
So next time we see or hear anybody foretelling a definite day for the Lord’s coming, let us not believe him. Jesus, himself, warns us, “See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and ‘The time has come.’ Do not follow them” (Luke 21:8).
Does this mean that we are clueless as to when this grand event will happen? No, we are not. Jesus told us that there will be signs preceding the coming of this age. Nations will rise against nations, and kingdoms against kingdoms. There will be earthquakes, famines, and plagues. Awesome sights will be seen in the sky. And most importantly, Christians will be persecuted because of their faith in God.
But haven’t all these things happened already? Down the centuries, were not history books filled with accounts of wars and strife? Were not devastating earthquakes and astronomical wonders recorded in our newspapers, even in our cameras? Don’t people from different parts of the world die from hunger and experience untold sufferings from various diseases, both common and uncommon? Don’t we hear of Christian believers discriminated, jailed, hurt, tortured, or even killed because of their beliefs?
And don’t we see all of these signs continue to happen even to the present day?
The answer is “yes,” and the message is clear: The end is near, but how near, only God knows. It may be today, tomorrow, next year, ten years from now, a hundred years from now, or even thousands of years from now. Let us remember, “With the Lord, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day” (2 Peter 3:8).
Perseverance is therefore what matters most. We have to keep the faith now and hold on to it, no matter how short or how long the waiting will be. One thing sure is that one day we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and whether this happens because of the Lord’s second coming during our lifetime in this world, or due to our physical death prior to his return on earth, what is important is that we are ready to approach the day with a living faith that our Lord Jesus Christ will grant us the fullness of our salvation.