ARE YOU READY FOR WHAT’S COMING?

In 2009, Dr. John N. Oswalt (Ph.D., Brandeis University), Visiting Distinguished Professor of Old Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, wrote a book titled, “The Bible among the Myths: Unique Revelation or Just Ancient Literature?” published by Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan.  At the end of this thoroughly researched and enlightening work, Dr. Oswalt made 10 predictions of things to come in our society.  Now ten years later, many of them are beginning to come into being.  I find them extremely insightful, thought I’d share them with you, compliments of Dr. Oswalt.

■ First and foremost, ethics as an internal compass will disappear from among us. Ethics will certainly remain as civic requirements, and there will be various public attempts to enforce them, but in the society at large, they will be meaningless.

■ “Truth” will progressively be replaced by power, since there is no standard of reliability outside of each person’s own needs and wishes.

■ “Right” and “wrong” will become increasingly useless terms as they lose any agreed-upon basis outside of those same wants and needs. The terms will continue to be used, but only as code words for those who can shout the loudest.

■ There will be a dramatic upsurge in interest in “black magic” as a means of getting one’s way.

■ Any attempt to control absolute sexual freedom in any area and at any level will be labeled as “hate-mongering.”

■ Individuals will be increasingly devalued at the same time that “individual freedom” is more and more loudly trumpeted.

■ Altruism and other forms of self-denial for the good of others will steadily disappear.

■ Acceptance of responsibility for one’s own behavior, accompanied by appropriate changes of behavior, will be a rarity.

■ The study of history, except as an ancient antiquarian interest, will disappear.

■ The possibility of a genuine transformation of one’s character from the worse to the better will be dismissed out of hand.

If you have seen any of these trends in society in recent days and months, are you preparing yourself as a person would do if a Hurricane, or Tsunami, or Volcanic eruption had been announced? What set of survival rules would you follow? Jesus foretold such events as coming in the last days (Mt. 24:1-51). The Scriptures make it very clear: don’t give up hope; keep your faith strong; let God’s Word be a lamp for your feet (2 Tim. 3:-17), for those who endure until the end will be saved (Mt. 24:13). – Dr. Robert R Seyda