Q; Does Civilization have to collapse before Jesus comes?

OR: “Honey, do we have enough ramen soup and ammunition?”

Well… To begin with “Civilization” is not a concept the Bible has much use for.  Civilization is the, seeming, triumph of humanity over the “nasty, brutish and short” life that is the state of nature.

The Bible is all about the Kingdom (& by coincidence so is this coming Sunday’s Sermon. Golly!)

Christianity is not any particular requirement of civilization. Pagan Greeks, Maya, Khmer, Chin, all achieved high levels of civilization without our input. Nor is every Christian country automatically a civilized garden; remember the Spanish Inquisition?

Likewise, civilization is not always a friend to the Faith.

Nero’s Rome,

Nazi Germany,

The USSR,

China, &

Saudi Arabia,

are all very orderly places, but offer no safety to the Disciples.

We can well imagine a very civilized society, where Christians, solely on the grounds of acting out the faith, are jailed, put to slave labor in state factories, physically and sexually abused, and medically assaulted for organ harvesting.

No Wait!

We don’t have to imagine it.

All that is occurring today in the Peoples Republic of China. http://www.persecution.org/suffering/index.php

So as the Church, we have a justifiably jaundiced view of the benefits of Civilization.

But does that mean that we must as a matter of faith go through some Mad-Max type collapse before we see the Son of Man coming in Glory? Actually, it is likely to be a lot like now, only more-so.

Let’s break it down. It is not Civilization, the human thing, that is threatened here, it is the Church, the army of the Kingdom that is now, and will be suffering.

First a note: this is not “The Tribulation” – when capitalized like that, is a part of Darby Premillennial Dispensationalism – see Not the End Part 2 below.

But real persecution, ordeals, trials & tribulations – are the battles of the war being fought for this world between the Disciples and the Enemy – in EVERY generation.

“they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name.” Lk 21:12

“Then they will hand you over to be tortured and will put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of my name.” Mt 24:9

“I have chosen you out of the world--therefore the world hates you.” Jn 15:19

The Church has been persecuted from the cradle, and the pace and intensity of persecution has done nothing but increase.

 Nor do we have any excuse from either Scripture or Reason to believe that persecution will diminish. Instead we can expect the Church to continue to be exposed to increasing violence, hatred and attack as she continues in faith to carry out the Great Commission of Jesus Christ to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Mt 28:19

So if we accept as a given that the pace of persecution increases over time; and

We also accept as a given that The End comes, as it were, at the end.

Then the greatest intensity of persecution will come just before the end. q.e.d.

Whether a particular Christian experiences that persecution in a blasted and law-less wasteland, e.g. Somalia, or with electric lights and running water, under the iron fist of a totalitarian secret police, e.g. China; Is probably just an accident of geography.

“Yes honey, we have enough ramen & ammunition.”

The question is, “Do we have enough Faith?”