Here are some of my assorted thoughts about contemporary events, my understanding of Scripture and if and how the two might relate to the second coming of Jesus Christ.

The first has to do with the duplicity of the United States' foreign policy regarding the nation of China (not Taiwan). China could smoke cigarettes, sexually harrass folks, eat coconut oiled popcorn, and even have handguns and my guess is that they will remain a "most favored nation" in trade with the USA because of their huge potential markets and our enormous greed. Neither atrocity nor political incorrect-ness can deter our commitment to making profits with China.

"Most favored" China still engages in forced population control abortions with little if any international objection. They still are enormous in the persecution of Christians, again to little outcry. Prison forced labor and other atrocities have received little protest and less pro-active response. One would not need to wonder what the outcry would be if these acts (ANY of them) were endorsed and carried out by say..the nation of Israel. I can nearly assure you that the United Nations would be given no rest until reparations were made and/or sanctions imposed. Why not with China? One wonders if allowing the rogue nation to continue unconfronted at least with rhetoric on the international stage, whether such a policy of inaction or "treatment not to treat" will create the kind of anarchist nation we see mentioned in Revelation 9:14-16 and Revelation 16:12f.

If there is a remote chance that this could be the "armies from the East" with soldiers numbering "200 million" as Revelation describes, our moral cowardice could be contributing to the future "destruction of 1/3 of the inhabitants of the earth" according to Revelation, as that future army will head across SE Asia and India heading for Armageddon in Israel! Read the Scriptures, note the location of the leaders of the East, the size of the army, the destructive path they take to Armageddon and tell me your thoughts.

Now what about all the rhetoric about the end of a World-War threat through the glorious (depending on which Party is speaking) political actions of (fill in your favorite political party's name here)? I am thrilled with missions opportunities in China and the Commonwealth of Independent States and support such endeavors enthusiastically. However the nation of Russia (correct me if I am wrong) is not only NOT disarmed, but they still have nuclear warheads aimed at Western Europe and the USA. The last I heard, NATO was established in significant part to arrest that threat, given eastern Europe's history of expansionism.

Now that "peace is at hand" and the threat is gone, we live in a "whole new world". Or so it is alleged and again without much dissent. So Russia, without disarming, without re-targeting, gets an active role not only in the U.N. but also in N.A.T.O. For those like me who wonder if our missions opportunity is a current *window* of opportunity, a rush to political carelessness is foolish. Could a future Gog and Magog described in Revelation and in Ezekiel 38 and 39 as the hostile-to-Israel-armies to the distant north of Israel, yet arise and oppose a national Israel in that last battle where Jesus will appear and vindicate that possible, -in-the-future, Jesus-as-Messiah believing nation? With certain powerful political identities lurking in Russia and the arsenal still in place, is such a question too politically incorrect to ask?

None of this is impossible as it may have seemed in past generations. None of it is a mute point no matter how much we may revel in the myth of moral progress. All these forces are still on stage and at the ready position. And some may wonder if these forces have ever been more ready, vulnerable, or lacking of a moral compass, the United States included.

I am not saying this is definitely that. Nor am I saying it isn't. I'm saying to be discerning and morally courageous in these propogandistic times. It is true that as we speed toward the end of the millennium fanatics will run to the mountains and hoard food and do the full extremist gig. These foolish actions of course undermine and surely negate our Lord's command to be "*in the world* but not of it" and to be "light" that is visible and "salt", arresting the spread of decay and corruption in our world at large through engaging it with the gospel. People have discredited Biblical prophecy because an author in the 70s wrongly speculated (and speculated with some confidence) that a Biblical generation was 40 years and by such timing and the parable of the fig tree in Mt 24, Lu 21, and Mk 13 convinced others that Jesus would return before 1990. Others have done the same thing in other times. This wrong headed practice of date setting is as old as the church at Thessalonica (2Thess.2:1-3) or the so- called Epistle of Barnabus and its mention of 2000 years with Abraham's people and 2000 years with the Church and then the end. People do it, people bank on it. It is wrong and destructive.

To argue against a whole school of theology, namely eschatology, because of the actions of a few, is to promote a reductionistic theology on the basis of an ad hominem. This too, though not recognized as much as the former practice, is extremism and dangerous.

Clearly, the first reference to a time period of a Biblical generation is given in the book of Genesis and it is 100 years (Genesis 15). And what is meant by the greening of the fig tree? I do not know. The earlier commentary speculators were wrong. Some thought it referenced 1948 when Israel became a nation for the first time in over a thousand years. Some went with 1967 when Israel in a defensive war won back their rightful capitol city, Jerusalem. Now the 100 years' folks are saying it may be related like Cyrus before, to the decree that gave *permission* for the go-ahead on the project of building Israel and these relate it to General Alanbee of England in the early 1900s. Clearly the safest move is to relate "generation" to the Jewish peoples as a people-group and speak of the miracle of their survival of horrid persecutions and bigotry over the years and enduring to this day. One could surely get a sermon out of that even with the largest concentration of Jewish peoples still being in New York City.

I'm not willing to throw the topic of Bible prophecy and the second coming of Christ into that circular file of apathy parading as wisdom and simply saying "it will all pan out in the end." Somehow when Jesus spoke what He did about his return, I do not think He wanted date speculators, nor topic trivializers carrying the day of popular opinion, nor of popular Bible teaching. So I may add to this list from time to time and welcome e-mail criticisms, affirmations and the like.

Joseph B. Whitchurch