A recent poll by the Ventura, Calif.-based Barna Group found 4 in 10 Americans – and 77 percent of evangelical Christians – believe the “world is now living in the biblical end times.”

With the rise of ISIS, America’s tepid support of Israel, the moral decay of our nation and most of Western society, threats of economic collapse, there are many reasons to be fully alert to the possibility.

Now, nobody knows the time or date that Christ will return and certainly I do not. I do know this: Christ will return and we need to always live in a state of readiness but remain focused on the long term.

Wayne Grudem, the author of Systematic Theology gives this practical advice:

“Certainly we should commit ourselves to long term activities. It is precisely for this reason that Jesus does not allow us to know the actual time of His return; He wants us to be engaged in obedience to Him, no matter what our walk of life, up until the very moment of His return. To ‘be ready’ for Christ’s return (Matt 24:44) is to be faithfully obeying Him in the present, actively engaged in whatever work He has called us to.”  

Source: Chuck Bentley, www.crown.org