We have a case of water in the garage yet that we bought just in case we ran a little short that first week or two. Think about how much money was spent, how much time was given to talking about the problems that were going to happen when the computers couldn't handle the change over to the year 2000. If we think about the hysteria that existed and then how little actually happened, we can see again how much we give ourselves to the gathering clouds of crisis only to find out that it was a false alarm. There are people who are always trying to figure out when the end of time is going to come. We've heard of groups over and over again who have set a date and have sold off their land or have even committed suicide, anticipating that they were at the end of time and that they were going to be moving to the next spiritual age.
Many folks find the encouragement for that in our Bible.
The Book of Revelation is particularly a place that people turn to read images about the end of time. They try to take news reports, countries that exist now, world leaders, wars that take place and fit them into the puzzle of the images of the Book of Revelation. They attempt to anticipate exactly when the end of time is going to come. The adult Sunday School class studied the Book of Revelation a year ago. It was very clear, in all the materials that we used, that the Book of Revelation was written for the Christian church at a particular time in the history of the church.