There are many church leaders who have joined the dark forces rather than trying to stamp out evil, and are trying to justify it and extinguish the light of Christ’s truth.  I am reminded of what Jesus said to the religious officials when they arrested Him:  “This is your hour and the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53).  Many theologians do not accept the Bible as God’s final words, so their doctrine is no standard for the rest of us who believe the Bible to be God’s words.

    Big name evangelists have been preaching the coming of the Lord from the beginning of time for thousands of years about the return of Christ and the end of the world.  Can we really believe we could possibly be living in the end of times?  We have heard this and so many have looked for His return, how could we know if this is really the time of the end? Did Christ leave us any signs to look for?  In times like these, just like the ones in which we live, the Lord will come.  It can happen at any moment.

    “And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying; tell us, when shall these things be?  And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world (age)” (Matthew 24:3).

   “And He spake to them a parable; behold the fig tree, and all the trees; when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.  So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand” (Luke 21:29-31).

    You see that Christ used the fig tree as an example of signs.  We use the same signs when we see spring approaching.  The disciples believed Christ when He spoke of the end, but they wanted to know what the signs were going to be.  Christ reassured them that there will be signs pointing to His return but it is up to us to look and watch for them.  He did leave us signs, but what are we to look for?

    The light of Christ is the way of life--eternal life in the day of resurrection--but the darkened mind is destined for death, the final death at judgment.   This is sad, but even more saddening is preachers that preach a Christ that “died for you,” and all you have to do is “accept Him.” Mini-skirted girls and fuzzed--face, long--haired boys see a new “kick” and join the easy churches.  The surfer’s Christ is acceptable to the world today.  This is the easy gospel.  It requires no repentance; no forsaking of sin, no dying to the flesh, and it has produced a group of useless Christians sitting around that won’t fit into the gospel of Christ.

    Something is drastically wrong in the churches today.  Instead of obeying the Lord’s command to “feed my sheep” we are entertaining “the goats” with rock bands.  God never intended His church to be an entertainment center, pattering after the world and the T.V. set. On and on it goes while we are promoting the Lord and the Holy Spirit right out of the church. Every minute of precious time that we are gathered should be used to preach the gospel, instruct, teach, exhort, and to worship God.  People have changed, church discipline has changed to meet this compromising age; but God has not changed neither has the Bible.