At the moment, I’m sitting in a library, doing research for a book. Writers always look for distractions, and I’ve found mine.

Six feet away is a floor-to-ceiling magazine rack.

I should move.

Next to “O” — the Oprah Winfrey journal of narcissism, is the narcissistic “People,” with a cover story on Jennifer Aniston as she moves through her life five years after the breakup with Brad Pitt.

Below those gripping periodicals is the new issue of “Scientific American,” with its cover story, “Why Humans Have No Fur: And How Evolving Bare Skin Led to Big Brains.”

Many of my friends and family no doubt think I’ve become sort of a spiritual Walter Matthau, a grumpy old man who sees no good in anything.

That’s really not true. Just this morning on the drive in, I was marveling at how good God is, and how He takes care of me every day. These are challenging times seemingly for everyone, and I’m glad to have what I have.

Still, I believe it’s important to be realistic about where we are in the world today. As time goes on, I think more and more of Paul’s description of people in the last days, this found in 2 Timothy 3. The laundry list of characteristics is disturbing. I also believe it is one of the great overlooked prophecies, as most focus on the identity of the antichrist and that sort of thing.

You see, we live in a world today in which the Bible is not the guide for life for most people. If it were, we would know that humans never had fur, but that God made them distinct from the animals right from the start. To believe otherwise is proof that we are in fact devolving. In an ironic conversation with a friend recently, we were discussing the fact that man was created with, in effect, a super-computer in his head. Adam, a real person, was super-intelligent, but after the fall, it’s been downhill for us ever since.

Sure, we’ve improved in brainpower since the Middle Ages, but in many respects, we are less able to see truth than ever before. This is what happens when a culture abandons the Bible. I would contend that our culture today in America is so self-absorbed that if we are not in the middle of 2 Timothy 3, we are close to it. If we are not yet there, I’m not sure I can mentally prepare myself for what’s coming.

Today, up is down and down is up, reflecting Isaiah 5:20.

This morning, I was reading 2 Corinthians 5, and it is a wonderful section about our hope of heaven, and leaving behind this temporary “tent” that we all live in. Sadly, what passes for Christian leadership today, such as that from Brian McLaren, tags those of us who hope for the blessed hope as endorsing an “eschatology of abandonment.” That is a handy intellectual term that is designed to denigrate Bible believers.

Personally, I long for the day when people stop worshipping themselves — when “O” will no longer be published — and our Creator alone is worshipped.

What is the answer? To persevere. This has been the great hallmark of the Christian life for 2,000 years.

If you are having a tough time in life, you might meditate on Scripture. There, you will find that God does not change, and that He is always there for you, always available.

What a sweet thought in sour times.

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Originally published in One News Now, Prophecy Matters. February 1, 20010

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