This Great Opportunity!
This Great Opportunity!
By Rev. Thorin Anderson
We have been extraordinarily blessed to live in America. Those who complain and seek to radically transform the country are sadly ignorant of how much better their lives are than most of those who live now or who have lived on earth.
If you know history you understand how wonderful our lives have been in this great Land, and we Christians, recalling how our forbearers have been treated through the centuries, should have a great appreciation for the liberties we have enjoyed here.
However, we also know that God’s plan for the ages to come does not include the United States as we know it. At some point in time the world will take a very bad turn into totalitarianism worse than the socialism and Communism of the last century, and it is quite clear that the United States will no longer be major figure in world affairs, at least not in its historic role as the “good guy.”
It is easy to become discouraged or even fearful about what lies ahead for the Nation and the world, but we who know Jesus Christ ought to have a different perspective. We are told by the Apostle Paul to “rejoice evermore!” He lived under one of the most brutal regimes to ever exist but could sit locked in a jail’s stocks with his back torn and bleeding from a Roman scourging and sing hymns of praise and thanks to God. How was that so?
Paul saw the world for what it was: a temporary staging point. Our experiences here are not the totality of our existence! Rather, this world is merely a moment in time, a kind of triage center for eternity and the front porch of home for those who know Christ. Multitudes have been misled by secularists and pseudo-science to believe that this world is all there is and that there is no heaven. Therefore, having no hope for heaven in the world to come they are determined to create one now, without regard to the morality of their actions or the injury done to others in the process.
We Christians, on the other hand, know better, or should know better. There awaits for those of us who have been born again a glorious eternity in the very presence of Jesus Christ, the Creator God, and with Him all the joy and pleasures that a good and loving God has prepared for those who love Him.
Therefore, the current crises should not disturb us but rather should challenge us to the opportunities such a crisis affords. The instability and fear created by recent events and America haters has produced what may be the greatest opportunity for the Gospel in decades, maybe in the history of the Nation! Just ask the next person you meet what they think of current events, and they will almost certainly admit to being fearful and confused. I regularly read posts of individuals who say that they are terrified at what they are witnessing!
Now is not the time for handwringing among the Christian community, but rather Gospel proclamation, an enthusiastic directing of people to repent and receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord!
Rev. Thorin Anderson is a member of the Advisory Council to Illinois Family Institute and the pastor of Parkwood Baptist Church on the south side of Chicago. Pastor Anderson has faithfully pastored at Parkwood Baptist Church since September, 2000. He received his Master of Divinity degree from Central Seminary. He and his wife Toni have seven children and 17 grandchildren.
Pastor Anderson also serves on the board of directors for Men for Christ, an association that organizes annual weekend men’s rallies in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois on a rotating basis. For more information on these events, please visit MenforChristRally.org.