By Gustav Krös
Whenever I speak to people about the future of the world or the future of their country, there tends to be three different groupings of people. On the one hand, you have people who are utterly negative about the future and don’t have any hope, and on the other hand you have people who are positive about turning things around and believing in a brighter future. Then you have the people that find themselves in the middle. They used to be on the positive side, but as they start losing hope, they go through a season of confusion before ending up at the negative end of the spectrum.
The group that is negative focuses primarily on the physical and moral decay they see in their country and in the world, and they don’t have hope that things will turn around. On the other hand, the positive people focus on the spiritual side of things and find their hope for the future in God, and because nothing is impossible for Him, they trust He will turn things around.
When I then give my opinion during such conversations, I advocate for a combination of the two, but without being left confused in the middle. I don’t believe that the state of the world can be turned around. The physical and moral decay we see in most countries will just continue to get worse, and so in general, the world will just get worse. I believe this because that’s my understanding of the Bible. In Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 Jesus sketches a very bleak picture of what we can expect before His return, and then there’s also the book of Revelation that just expands on the difficulties the world will go through before Jesus’s return. In Revelation 21:1, it actually says that the first heaven and first earth will pass away and that there will be a new heaven and a new earth.
Therefore, I do not believe that things will get better on a global scale, but that does not mean that I don’t have hope. My hope is in God, yes, but not that He will turn this world around, but rather through the salvation that I gained in Jesus Christ, that I’m going to spend eternity with Him in the new heaven and the new earth.
At the same time, I do not believe that this should be an excuse to adopt a mindset of simply waiting for Jesus to return. No, I believe that we need to do as much good as we possibly can, because in a hopeless world the fruit of the Spirit lights up the darkness. In a world that’s getting darker and darker, even the simplest of fruit, like kindness, shines brightly for others to see. The natural display of the fruit of the Spirit gives people hope that there is still some good in this world, and it will be attractive to those who have lost all hope.
In the process of living out your Christian faith to the fullest, within a world that’s moving in the opposite direction, you will get more and more opportunities to share about your faith and hope in Jesus. This will lead other people to accept Jesus as their saviour and Lord, and you will be bringing real change to people’s lives within the midst of darkness. So, yes, I believe change is possible, but we are not going to change the course the world is on.
In changing people’s lives, we will contribute towards homes being changed, and maybe in some instances neighbourhoods, schools, and businesses could be changed. There might even be some towns or cities that change, and if we are very fortunate, we might see a few countries change.
Ultimately we know, however, that this world is not going to change, and that it will come to an end. The only thing that will be with us in the new heaven and the new earth are those people who also accepted Christ as their saviour and Lord. May we therefore continue fighting the good fight, bearing the fruit of the Spirit, and proclaiming the Gospel to the hopeless and the lost, no matter how bad things get. In the process, we don’t know whether our efforts will ultimately bring change to our neighbourhoods, schools, cities, or countries, but at least we will be spreading hope to the hopeless, and we will be glorifying God through the lives that we live.
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