Yesterday I was reading from the book of Luke when a particular verse caught my eye. The verse is Luke 18:8, or rather the last half of verse 8, which reads:
“However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”
It seems every time I read the Bible, I discover something as if I had just seen it for the first time . I think this verse caught my eye yesterday because earlier I had been reading in the Old Testament about the flood, and about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. I shudder whenever I picture a world where the light of the righteous was as faint as it was in the times of Noah and Lot; yet I have always taken comfort in my belief that times of such universal evil are gone, never to return. The question posed in Luke 18:8 disturbed this comfort in my mind. I know from other verses that there will always be Christians until the day Jesus returns; but this question alludes to the possibility that the Church could some day just be a dwindling light. And that troubles me.
I should state that I am an optimist. I have long disliked the defeatist attitude often expressed in the Church when people talk about how much worse things are than they use to be; and how they use that fact to theorize about how bad things are sure get in my lifetime. Things might get worse; but many people talk as if that’s inevitable, and that all we can do is bunker down until Jesus returns. I combat such thoughts with the argument that “at many points in history things were very bad, and then they got better.” Look at the reformation. Look at the restoration. In both cases the Church was more endangered than it is now; and then the dedication and zeal of righteous people turned things around. I believe that the same thing can happen today! In fact I think things are lining up perfectly for a new restoration. All across the world, people are losing trust in governments, money, and the stability of life which they have always known. Also, even many who don’t claim to believe in God cannot help but admit that the current lack of morals on an international scale is extremely sad. Really, the ingredients are perfect for a big turn around. But as Jesus mentioned in Luke 10:2, the people needed to foster in this change are lacking. The Reformation wouldn’t have taken place without men like Martin Luther, and the Restoration wouldn’t have taken place without men like Alexander Campbell. Without such people nothing would have changed. So yes, as long as we Christians hide our heads in the sand, things will continually go down hill until they get as bad as people say they’ll be. I don’t want to see that happen! I don’t want to read Luke 18:8 and decide that things can only get worse no matter what I do. I take this verse as a challenge for me to do my best to help the Church grow and to see that faith remains strong on the earth as long as I can. I believe things will definitely get better if we only stop acting like we’ve already lost. This is our chance to turn things around. I know we can do it! It is a time for a new restoration of the Church.
