Future Fears
Cheryl Courtney Semick
When I was twelve years old, I thought the year 2000 was fiction. I was convinced it was a year that could only exist in a sci-fi movie and it was scary thinking of living in “the space age.” Church people were saying that Jesus would come back before 2000 so we really didn’t have to worry about it—we’d all be gone.
At youth group we watched, A Thief in the Night, a movie based on Scriptures in the Holy Bible that describe the day of our Lord’s return: a sudden vaporization of all believers in Jesus Christ—as in, ‘Beam me up Scottie!” It scared me to death. In the beginning of the movie, millions of people vanished from the earth and the rest of the film depicted what life would be like for those “left behind.”
As a result of this massive disappearance, multitudes of disasters occurred simultaneously as cars, planes, buses and trains were suddenly unmanned; something far worse than the Holocaust took place in that film and it freaked me out. It was so frightening I had to put it out of my mind just to cope.
Well, here we all are in January 2010. I think. I mean, I’m actually writing this article in December ’09 so it will print for a January issue. I guess you could say that I’m assuming it’s January and that we are all still here.
Assume is an interesting word isn’t it? We assume that tomorrow will be just like yesterday, or today. Writers point their pen into the future, writing days, weeks, sometimes months in advance assuming their words will be relevant to the reader. Many assumed the world would end on Y2K. Now people are worried about 2012 because of another movie about the Mayan calendar.
Some assume the stories of Jesus Christ’s return are myths, or that after all these years they have become irrelevant. It’s as if in our sophistication and intelligence we have shelved the Biblical end-of-the-world scenario with our novels and DVDs.
But isn’t assumption a risky pill to swallow in an attempt to calm our future fears? We all fear the future in one way or another. We can’t see it, we can’t touch it we can’t control it. So, what do we do with it? Generations have wrestled with this looming question. It seems that everyone, regardless of race or creed, wonders what the end will look like—and when it will come.
But, we can think about that later, right? After all, 2000 is no different than 2008 and 2010 will be no different than 2009. How interesting it is that between A.D. 64 and 66 the Apostle Peter wrote, “…scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” It sounds like he was quoting someone from the 21st Century.
Peter knew that many of his readers were fearful of the future and so he added, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:4, 9 NKJV)
On the evening of 1/1/00 I realized I had nothing to fear. Not because we were all still “here” but because I had chosen to exchange my fears for assurance of salvation in Christ Jesus. Now my thoughts of His return are full of joy and anticipation.
To assume Christ is not coming back soon, or ever, can anesthetize for the moment—for if the Bible is wrong, then it’s just another book on the shelf. But if it’s right, and Christ comes back like a thief in the night to claim His own—then those who thought it was all just a good sci-fi story will be left behind with a fearful future.
