It was easier to believe the end was near when it felt like losing.

During the pandemic and in the ensuing years of the Biden administration, when every evil thing was celebrated, and the entire world seemed to be crumbling under globalist control, it was very easy to believe the end was near because it felt as such.

In the U.S., depending on your political leanings, it might feel less.

But the nearness of the end has never changed. I haven't written much on this blog because I grew quite frustrated with the explosion of Bible prophecy folks flooding the internet with content in which the same crowd was interviewed, and if you could get into that group, you were in a good place positionally.

After some time, the tinfoil hat stuff got wearying also. Whether it was some or all or none true is beside the point; it was speculative at best and had traveled far past what the Bible reveals. While God may have directed some to be so speculative, He certainly directed me to step back and reduce exposure to that kind of content.

BIBLE prophecy, not conspiracy prophecy.

I now listen to very little Bible prophecy and I have to wonder, since the election, what the ratings are like for those who decided to leave churches and put everything into the Bible prophecy basket as a way to make a living. If God directed them, then they will be fine. If not, I imagine it is a difficult time.

Because it doesn't feel as imminent as it did a few years ago.

That's not to say it isn't; we're actually closer than ever. But it doesn't feel it and it was only feelings that pushed me to seek out incessant prophetic teaching, some of which was certainly suspect.

I look back on my posts and I don't see much I'd change; the populist movement keeps rising, the distrust is as strong as ever, and the mushy lines of who is a believer and who isn't (the antichrists of 1 John) are mushier than ever.

But I do want to make something clear. 

Several prophecy folks encouraged people to not participate in the election, with reasons that "both sides are a different side of the same coin" and "both are evil" and "it's all a uniparty" and "Donald Trump is not the second coming of Christ," and I was frustrated by that, as if anyone who didn't see as they did were deceived by who their savior was.

Of course anything in this broken world is not only imperfect, but infused with sinful people with sinful natures doing sinful things. It has always been as such. And yet the same people pressing their listeners to check out of society and elections (but keep those YouTube views a comin') and watch the giant hailstones fall or whatever it was they were doing---they were benefitting from the good things that happen whenever Christians still do good work and participate in the system God has placed them even while scolding them for not being enlightened to see that they were voting for sinful people.

Since January 20, there have been children who have been spared trans surgery and treatment whose lives were saved from that horror. There are people not being trafficked at the border. There are people who are not going to give up on their business because they have a little hope left in their country surging again. There are real lives being changed even as eternity is barreling down upon us and isn't that the best we can do as believers on this side of eternity be walking out our faith and doing good for those around us for God's glory so we can tell people about Jesus, despite the sinful and imperfect system we have to work with? 

What I want to drive home is that God's timeline and plan are unchanged. 

Voting for one candidate over another did not change the ultimate culmination. There will still be an Antichrist, global system---all of it. The people involved in tech and AI and other uneasy things that are all part of the current administration package aren't an "I told you so" excuse to mock those who voted as if they thought they voted for Jesus but got the devil instead, but, instead, simply a continuation of the reality that God's plan is still in action.

Each day I wonder at the years of prophecy teachers and their continual plumbing of the depths of conspiracy, dark secrets, hidden agendas, and all of the things we were fed to make high-view content these past few years that may or may not have validity to them. If you weren't careful, you'd end up knowing more about Noah Huari and the globalists than God's Word; it remains to be seen if all of that globalist education even plays out in the end times like they thought it would. Whatever some of that teaching was, it was certainly not as useful as pumping people full of the actual Word of God. 

I stopped listening to most prophecy leaders mid-way through the Biden Administration and strangely, by limiting who I would listen to only to teachers who were very Bible-first and methodical in talking about prophecy in terms of Bible study instead of newspaper or topical speculation, my excitement for the rapture and for Jesus only increased, even while I feel a lot more joy and hope in daily life in the here and now. Even before the election, I noticed this shift, and after, it is especially so. I find myself excited and hopeful about my country, cheering some of the changes, while simultaneously viewing things that seem like a win as kind of "that's awesome and could also be a piece of the end times puzzle!" It is a strange paradox, how I look forward to the nation's future while also truthfully hoping Jesus comes for us this very moment.

You don't get there swimming in dark conspiracy, even if a few Bible verses are tacked on.

Prayerfully consider what I have to say here.