Prepare for Heaven or Make the World a Better Place?

How many times have I heard people say, "The end times is of no importance to Christians.  It's a waste of time to think about it and it's a waste of time to talk about it."

Hmmmmm......that's interesting because Jesus talked about the end of the age and he also told us to watch the events happening around us.

Knowing what you believe and being able to back it up with scripture is important to all believers, not only so we can share our faith but so we can defend it as well.

Think about it:
"Well Dennis, I'm a Christian and I think our main purpose on earth is to make the world a better place, clean the environment, feed all the poor people, accept and celebrate our brothers and sisters of different faiths and once the world is living in harmony, THEN Jesus will come back and tell us what a great job we have done!"

Do YOU believe that?  No??

OK so I guess our beliefs about SOME end-times discussions CAN be important.

Many young evangelicals in the millennial generation are shifting from their parents' theological emphasis on biblical prophecy to a focus on issues of social justice in this world, such as combating homelessness, economic inequality, racism and violence, the website Religion & Politics reports.

Michael Onifer, director of the Bethlehem Project and author of the book "God, Israel, and You: The Scandalous Story of a Faithful God," said the trend has positive implications.

"I'm very excited to see a generation that's looking to effect change in real-time as opposed to invest time and energy in the speculation of future events; and I think the church will be better by investing more time in engaging the world than we will in trying to understand end time prophecy," Onifer told WND.

Onifer clarified that he believes Christians should prepare for the afterlife, but he thinks they can't prepare without helping to make the world a better place in the process.

"If we're going to say sanctification is synonymous with preparing for the afterlife, then no one can really do that in a biblical sense without benefiting their immediate temporal surroundings," he said.

"So I would say to focus on the afterlife without benefiting your temporal, immediate existence is not biblical. I would say that would be some type of religious invention, but that's not biblical Christianity."

http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=960

Do Christians make the world a better place?  Yes it's a fact that the Holy Spirit restrains evil.

Is the world going to get better or worse as Jesus the return of Christ nears?  Worse.

Should we care for the world and be good stewards of all that God has entrusted us with?  Yes.

Should we care MORE about spreading the Good News that has the power to save eternal souls than we should about saving the planet?  Yes.

You can feed millions of hungry people but if all you do is feed them and them never tell them the Good News....what eternal work have you accomplished?