So, as we leave 2020 behind and reflect on what the last 12 months has brought us all, we can’t help but think “surely it can’t get any worse, can it?” It has been said that 2020 has been the most difficult and challenging year since the outbreak of WW2! It certainly has been the most difficult year in the last 40.
The questions for 2021: Will COVID-19 be eradicated or will it mutate to a new and more deadly strain? Will the moral and political collapse of America and the UK see a rise in Russia and China on the world’s stage? Will Iran and Israel go to war? Will the climate crisis go past the tipping point and lead to the destruction of the environment and the natural world?
These are all questions that millions of people around the world will be asking as 2020 turns into 2021. Now perhaps more than ever before the world wonders what the future will hold!
However, we do not need to wonder, because actually we’ve been told what the future holds. The Bibles Gospel message and the promise of God’s Kingdom on the earth, is not the hopeful words of a visionary—they are the promises of God and his son Jesus Christ.
The questions for 2021: Will COVID-19 be eradicated or will it mutate to a new and more deadly strain? Will the moral and political collapse of America and the UK see a rise in Russia and China on the world’s stage? Will Iran and Israel go to war? Will the climate crisis go past the tipping point and lead to the destruction of the environment and the natural world?
These are all questions that millions of people around the world will be asking as 2020 turns into 2021. Now perhaps more than ever before the world wonders what the future will hold!
However, we do not need to wonder, because actually we’ve been told what the future holds. The Bibles Gospel message and the promise of God’s Kingdom on the earth, is not the hopeful words of a visionary—they are the promises of God and his son Jesus Christ.
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“Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other.
I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.” (Isaiah 46:9–10). |
The destiny of the world is in God’s hands, and it is expressed in a sentence by another prophet:
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“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Habakkuk 2:14). |
God's Kingdom will be established on the earth, but it will be the work of God, not us.
These Old Testament prophecies, from the first part of the Bible, deal with events before the birth of Christ. But the New Testament prophecies continue the same theme—notably a prophecy of Jesus himself. The Mount Olivet prophecy ends with a personal warning.
The return of Christ will be an event which shakes the earth to its core, along with all its inhabitants. It demands preparation.
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“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness, and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth.” (Luke 21:34–35) |
So, as we enter 2021 with all of the difficulties that the people of the world are facing, let’s not fall in to the trap of thinking “it will be better next year”, sadly we know that things will get worse before they get better. So, we need to remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ when he says:
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“Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:36) |
(All Bible quotations are from the NIV version)
