Continued from previous post...
“…in
the last days mockers will come with their mocking, …saying, “Where is the
promise of His coming? For ever since
the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of
creation.”” 2 Peter 3: 3, 4
Mockers
mocking? What exactly does that
mean? The Webster’s New World College
Dictionary (4th ed) defines the word mock as, “1 to hold up
to scorn or contempt; ridicule,” so we know that a mocker mocking is someone
who is contemptuous of, and ridicules something. (10) This verse makes it clear that the subject
the mockers are attacking is the advent of Christ, and their argument is that
the world has gone on for centuries without change and that it will continue to
do so. Our job is to find out who is mocking
the second coming of Christ at the end of the world, and what argument they are
using.
Proponents of
different religions have argued, belittled, and even persecuted each other
throughout history. There seems to be
nothing new about one “religious person” mocking another, so I think we can
dismiss this as applying to the end times.
Then we must look around and see if there is a new group attacking the
return of Christ.
Atheists do not
believe in the existence of God or a supreme being of any kind. Atheists and their denial of God are not to
be confused with Agnostics, or those who have doubts about the existence of God
and are searching/waiting for proof of God’s existence. No, true atheists are adamant, unrelenting,
steadfast deniers of God. Now, there
have always been people who have doubted or denied the existence of God, but
only in the last few hundred years has there been anything resembling a
‘movement’, an organized resistance, against God and religion.
Modern atheism is a
product of two developments: the Age of
Enlightenment in the 18th century where philosophy, science and
reason were promoted over religion and tradition; and the adoption by many
countries of the idea of separating religion and politics. (11)
In fact, one of the
many reasons for the French Revolution was the “…intellectual ferment of the
Age of Enlightenment…”, and one of the results of the revolution was a drafting
of a constitution that put “Severe restrictions on the power of the Roman
Catholic Church…” (12)
But what do
atheists say about the second coming of Christ?
Here is a quote
from a website called Daylight Atheism.
The person who wrote the article states that, while reading an
Associated Press poll of Americans, s/he “…noticed the following bizarre
statistic: 25% anticipate the second coming of Christ.” The author goes on to say, “It is depressing
how many people still believe this will happen during their own lifetimes,
considering how many previous generations have also lived and died expecting it
and turned out to be absolutely and completely wrong.” (13)
Here is another
quote from a different source.
“Christians believe that Christ will return to Earth, gather up the
faithful, condemn the unfaithful, destroy life as we know it and create a paradise
on Earth - the second coming, the end times…For two thousand years they
(Christians) have believed the second coming would happen at any moment…Through
the years literally hundreds of apocalyptic predictions have been documented.
And yet people still believe this nonsense!” (14)
These are only two examples of the ridicule heaped upon the
Christian belief of the end of the world and the second coming of Christ. Mockers mocking.
In this chapter we
have seen some of the verses in the Bible that have pointed to signs marking
the end times, and we have been able to show that events occurring around us
today fulfill the signs given to us centuries ago. We could go on and look at other topics such
as the rise in violence, our polluted environment, and the political and
religious machinations of recent history, but all of that will be covered in
coming chapters. Our goal in this first
chapter was to show where we are now in the course of human and Biblical
events. In the next chapter we will
begin to find out how we got to where we are now, and once again prove the
accuracy of Bible prophecy when looked at from an historical perspective. In other words: we know where we are, but how did we get
here? Right now we have part of the
story, now it is time to add to it.