How Relevant Are the ‘End Times’ for Believers and Non-Believers?
Those who don’t believe in God refuse to accept that we are living in the last days of world history.
Israel Today
While most in our secular societies don’t believe in Bible prophecy, the movie industry continues to pump out end-times thrillers. The topic of the End Times seems to fascinate people regardless of whether or not they believe in God’s Word. There can be various reasons for this, but one thing seems certain: for most, the future is more exciting than the present.
The Bible speaks of many signs that will be visible during the last days. We read in Luke 21:25-26:
“And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”
Gog and Magog is also a biblical concept (Ezekiel 38-39). Gog is the name of the leader of a world coalition, which at the end of days will attack the Land of Israel from the north. Even the false assurance of peace and security are a sign of the end times, according to 1 Thessalonians 5. Today, politicians and historians boast that we are living in the quietest era in all of human history. Seventy years without large-scale war. Of course, they must ignore what is happening in much of Asia and Africa, not to mention the situation now in Eastern Europe, to paint such a picture.
In general, Christians have a far greater affinity for biblical prophecies than Jews. They seek after signs and symbols that highlight the End Times. And that, of course, includes the coming of the Messiah. I have often asked myself why believers abroad delve into the biblical end times so much more than Messianic Jews in the Land. One possible reason may be that in the End Times war, it is Israeli soldiers that will be fighting at Armageddon. We, our children or our grandchildren, not those living abroad. And that frightens us.
Bruce saved us once, why not again?
At the turn of the millennium, Christians around the world insisted that the Second Coming was imminent. I still remember the video cameras on the Mount of Olives that were directed toward the Temple Mount in anticipation as the clock struck midnight on December 31, 1999. Two years prior, the Hollywood end-times thriller Armageddon starring Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck was a huge hit. In the Book of Revelation, Armageddon refers to the location of the decisive battle in the war of the Great Day of the Lord. The site will be the plain of Megiddo in Israel.
All the recent consternation over American policies suggests we are closer than ever to that terrible final conflagration. For instance, a few years ago Republican senator and chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Bob Corker, warned in an interview with The New York Times that then-President Donald Trump was by “his arbitrary threats towards other countries [pulling] America into a Third World War.” We hear similar things regarding the policies of the Biden administration.
Anyone searching Google for movies about the end times will be surprised by the large selection. The fact is that last days concept intrigues both believers and non-believers. Yes, the concept involves unprecedented catastrophe, typically presented by Hollywood in exaggerated proportions. But mankind always ultimately prevails. A Hollywood happy ending. But the ideas for these screenplays originate with the biblical account. And, according to the Bible, it is not man who will save the world under impossible conditions. It is the coming of the Redeemer that will set all right again. Sadly, the Messiah has no role in these blockbusters.
Still, the phenomenon demonstrates that the “last days” is not some silly notion held by Christians and Jews alone. All of mankind seems tuned in to the reality that an end is coming.
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