Living in tough times

The book of Revelation is notoriously difficult to understand, and has spawned a host of weird and wonderful interpretations. But read sensibly and carefully with the help of mainstream commentaries, it can be a tremendous help in these turbulent days.
Revelation tells us that in the days between Jesus' first and second coming, there will be a rise in opposition to the gospel, and many martyrs.
Those who oppose the Lord Jesus and his church and insist on worshipping idols (which includes materialism, atheism etc.) will cause great suffering to Christians and non-Christians. But such suffering will not produce repentance and faith (Rev 9:20f).
Non-Christians will also cause many Christians to be martyred. But these martyrs will be vindicated by God and will bring more people to repentance and faith (Rev 11:7-13).

Today, we see both of these happening, especially in Central Asia, N Africa, China and Asia. And we shouldn't be surprised if we begin to see it happening in the west as aggressive and intolerant atheism takes hold in government. Atheism has no solution to the problem of man's inhumanity to man, so it enacts increasingly punitive laws in an attempt to control men and women. But it doesn't work because it can't change the heart. All that happens is that people rebel and fight back because they see the injustice of a society in which the rich look after themselves, appoint their friends, pay themselves stupid sums of money, lock themselves behind security gates, fleece the poor, and make laws to suppress protest. Society begins to break down, violence increases, and Christians may be targeted as scapegoats. It's the latter which will, ironically, bring about conversions.

Is that where we're heading? Perhaps. Some of the signs are there. So it seems as if Christians in the west need to learn from our brothers and sisters how to cope with persecution. For years, we've thought we had something to teach them. Maybe it's time for them to teach us.