When Jesus described the events leading to His Second return, the Lord said that they would start off as birth pangs, preparing the way for the main event.

Some wonder with COVID, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, warnings of nuclear war, asteroids, Communist China’s emerging threat, and concerns about looming famines and food shortages, that we have entered the birth-pang stage (Matthew 24:6-8).

And as these events slowly unfold, we are also witnessing a breakdown in society.

Breakpoint recently had a column about the social upheaval taking place in the U.S.:

According to the FBI, there’s been a 50% uptick in “active shooting incidents” since last year, and that’s not counting the shooting that left 21 dead in Uvalde, Texas. “The two attacks (in Buffalo and Uvalde) are not outliers,” announced National Public Radio. “Mass shootings happen in the U.S. with depressing regularity.” According to their count, 213 so far this year.

A variety of things and people are being blamed: access to guns, social isolation, politicians, talk show hosts, authorities, harmful ideas, and more. Behind events this tragic are a number of contributing factors.  At the same time, we can no longer think of mass shootings as isolated incidents. They must be understood as indications of social breakdown, along with spiking rates of addiction, overdoses, violent crime, suicide, sexual confusion, and even airplane incidents.

Last week, a friend reminded me of some insightful words from Chuck Colson. One can easily imagine Chuck Colson extending a similar analysis to today’s issues, “The problem is not gun control, poverty, talk-show hosts, or race. The problem is the breakdown of moral values in American life, and our culture simply cannot respond.”

READ: Being Christian When Civilization Collapses

Jesus hinted at this societal collapse when he wrote that because of the growing lawlessness in the end times, the love of many will grow cold (Matthew 24:12).