Jeffress - Countdown to the Apocalypse: why ISIS and ebola are only the beginning

T heres a sense possibly that the world is spinning so fast and nobody is able to control it. Thats what President Obama said in October 2014 at a fund-raiser in New York City. Its easy to see why. Check out some recent headlines:

• Ebola Hits New York City
• 4 Jihad Attacks in 4 Days
• Ukraine Could Explode in 48 Hours
• ISIS Tortured Hostages Before Beheading Them
• Muslim Terror Rivals Unite Under ISIS Banner
• As Ebola Spreads, Asia Senses Vulnerability
• Ebola Crisis On Same Scale as AIDS Epidemic
• Houston Demands Pastors Turn Over Sermons
• The Criminalization of Christianity Is Here

Then there was a column in the New York Times by veteran journalist Roger Cohen called The Great Unraveling. It begins this way: It was the time of unraveling. Long afterward, in the ruins, people asked: How could it happen?

The succeeding paragraphs each begin with the phrase It was a time of followed by beheadings, aggression, breakups, weakness, fever, and disorientation, each one recording the ways in which the world is unraveling before our eyes. Here is the closing paragraph: It was a time of disorientation. Nobody connected the dots Until it was too late and people could see the Great Unraveling for what it was and what it had wrought.

Its fairly amazing to read something like that in the New York Times, which specializes in All the News Thats Fit to Print. As the newspaper of record for America, thats a sobering assessment of the state of the world at this moment in history. Most telling is the assertion that no one connected the dots. In a very deep sense, Roger Cohen is right.

We all see the problems in the world.

We understand that something has gone badly wrong.

We all wait to see what will happen next.

Never in my lifetime have I sensed so much unrest in the air. It seems that every day brings another set of unsettling headlines. Everywhere I go, I hear people saying that they expect something is about to happen but they dont know what it is.

Will there be another 9/11-style attack on America?

Will ISIS create a Muslim Caliphate in the Middle East?

Will an Ebola epidemic or an outbreak of some other super virus spread across America?

Will Christians be jailed for their faith?

Will we ever trust our own government again?

Is the world itself unraveling before our eyes?

Author David Jeremiah frames the question this way:

Two well-known Christian leaders recently addressed these questions. After recounting the story of Sodom and Gomorrah from Genesis 19, psychologist and author Dr. James Dobson explained the connection to current events:

Why have I chosen to recount this biblical story from so long ago? Because I am convinced that America and other Western Nations are sliding in the same direction. We have not yet reached the depravity of Sodom and Gomorrah, but that appears to be where we are headed. Judge Robert Bork, the brilliant jurist who was shamefully denied a seat on the Supreme Court, wrote a book about this danger 18 years ago. It was titled, Slouching Towards Gomorrah. I think he had it right.

In looking at a world in crisis, Billy Graham used words that sound very much like what President Obama said:

Today the world is being carried on a rushing torrent of history that is sweeping out of control. There is but one

Then Reverend Graham added this analysis, which sounds very much like James Dobsons comments:

Even though America is just as wicked as Sodom and Gomorrah ever were, and as deserving of the judgment of God, God would spare us if we were earnestly praying, with hearts that had been cleansed and washed by the blood of Christ.

If Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire and brimstone from heaven (Genesis 19:23-29), what can we in America expect?