Business As Usual

 We have said numerous times that we think scripture is clear about what the world will be like before the rapture.  There will not be total economic collapse.  There will not be people hiding in caves to avoid aliens. There will not be bands of gun-toting criminals roving the streets of America stealing, raping and killing at will.

No!  People will be eating at restaurants, buying stuff at Walmart, booking wedding venues, digging basements for a new house to be built, planting gardens and grass...and they knew NOTHING of what was coming until they looked around and noticed that lots of folks were gone.

Pastor Greg Laurie in his devo today confirms this understanding as well.

Matthew 24:39

"People didn't realize what was happening until the flood came and took them all away.  That's how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man."

During the Persian Gulf War, I happened to be teaching through the Book of Revelation. We starting receiving phone calls from some radio stations that wanted to know if I would be a guest on their program because people were wondering whether the war was Armageddon.

Needless to say, it wasn’t. But one day, I was on a phone-in radio program in Los Angeles where one of the other guests was a university religion professor who didn’t believe that Bible prophecy was relevant. He also didn’t believe that the Bible was inspired by God.

As a result, we had a little bit of a debate. And as the conversation progressed, I said, “You know, you say you don’t believe in the Bible, but in reality, you’re a fulfillment of Bible prophecy.”

“What?” he said.

I went on to explain that in the last days, the Bible predicts there will be mockers and scoffers who say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created” (2 Peter 3:4 NLT).

He didn’t appreciate that too much.

Yet Jesus said, “When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat” (Matthew 24: 38 NLT).

In other words, it was business as usual. In the last days, people will ignore prophetic warnings, just as they did in Noah’s day. And just as they mocked Noah, people will mock us as followers of Christ. That, too, is a sign of the last days.

But one day the mockery will cease and the laughter will stop when Christ fulfills His very words. Jesus is coming back.