Don’t be ‘alarmed’
As the world was emerging from the COVID pandemic and lockdowns, it was suddenly hit with another crisis, as Russian President, Vladimir Putin, invaded Ukraine. And on top of this, people are now taking financial hits by an unprecedented rise in prices for food and gas (see Revelation 6:6). In many ways, this sudden series of events fits the metaphor that Jesus used to describe the initial stages of the end times, which Jesus likened to the birth pangs that a woman experiences prior to giving birth (Matthew 24:8). The birth pangs are deliberate, unstoppable, one after another, gradually increasing in speed and intensity. One of those birth pangs that Christ warned about was war, and curiously it was on par with ‘rumours of war,’ related, but in its own separate category: “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.” (Matthew 24:6 NIV) Could we classify Vladimir Putin’s threat of using nuclear weapons during …