Pastors' Blog

Here in the Fourth Watch blog we examine current trends in this nation or the world that I believe are harbingers of earth’s darkest hour (what the ancient Romans called the fourth watch) just before the sunrise of Christ’s return. And while these observations and analyses reflect my personal convictions, I am amazed at the ascendency of voices—secular as well as religious—that are warning of what lies ahead for our civilization. Take for example the seemingly isolated street protests against Wall Street, that for three weeks now occupied Zuccotti Park in the financial district of New York, railing against corporate greed and  economic decline, and blaming US financial institutions and Wall Street for the resultant unemployment. Hundreds have been arrested. But thanks to Twitter and social media sites, the New York protests are now spreading to other cities in the nation. Students now threaten walk-outs from classes in sympathy with these protests. (Though less violent, these homeland demonstrations are not unlike the radical street protests in Athens, as Greeks have turned with vengeance on their government and the European Union for their own financial meltdown—and what now appears to be certain national bankruptcy.) How could an isolated street protest burgeon into a national movement? Here’s CNN.com’s assessment: “Occupy Wall Street is a leaderless movement made up largely of twentysomethings upset with the economy, the Afghanistan war, the environment, and the state of America and the world in general. In less than three weeks, the movement has become a magnet for countless disaffected Americans at a time when an overwhelming majority of U.S. adults say the country is on the wrong track” (http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/05/politics/occupy-wall-street/). But what could morph the Occupy Wall Street protests into an apocalyptic game-changer is the announcement that labor unions are joining the movement. Responding to Twitter calls from Occupy Boston (a sister movement to the New York protests), the Massachusetts Nurses Association is joining the rally. In New York so are the Amalgamated Transit Union, the Transport Workers Union, and the United Federation of Teachers union among others. Is it possible that a nationally diminished labor movement could find new life and impetus in all of this? How innocuous are labor unions in a Fourth Watch scenario? In a terse exposé of capitalist excesses, the Bible declares: “Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. . . . Your gold and silver are corroded. . . . You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. . . . Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord's coming. . . . because the Lord's coming is near” (James 5:1-8). A day of reckoning is coming for the barons and minions of Wall Street who have made their billions at the expense of the paltry savings and investments of a once unsuspecting public. But could a sympathetic labor movement backlash into a prophetic paradigm shift? These words were in a letter written in 1904: “The trade unions will be the cause of the most terrible violence that has ever been seen among human beings” (Letter 99, 1904). Main street, Wall Street, the street protests may not be so innocuous after all. My point: the headlines we now live through are not inconsequential to a Fourth Watch mindset, are they? NOW is the most opportune time you and I may ever have to freely share the everlasting gospel of Christ with people who need him—family members, friends, colleagues. NOW is the church’s opportunity to seize the moment, rise up and in the panoply of the Spirit’s infilling and hurry to a final civilization with the news of Jesus’ soon return. Our friend Ron Clouzet’s satellite series, “Prophecies Decoded,” to the continent couldn’t be timelier (join us this evening at 7:20). Let him, let her who has ears hear. For the rumble we hear may be the tread of an approaching God.

“Trim the Fat, Roast the PIIGS,” yelled one headline. “Is Europe Going to the PIIGS?” chided another. For those who aren’t following the European Union’s debt crisis, PIIGS is an acronym for Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain—five European nations on the brink of bankruptcy. In fact, some are estimating that Greece’s bankruptcy is now 98% certain. And the drama this week has centered on Chancellor Merkel of Germany and French president Sarkozy’s huddle with Greek prime minister Papandreou. Will the economic powerhouses of Europe be able to pull the rabbit out of the hat, or will Greece’s financial collapse drag Europe into its swirling vortex? (To insure $10 million of Greek debt now costs $5.8 million! http://seekingalpha.com/article/293251-eurozone-trim-the-fat-roast-the-piigs) Perhaps Nebuchadnezzar’s ancient dream (Daniel 2) about a towering metallic image deserves another look. Are its iron and clay toes—the nations that grew out of the collapse of the Roman Empire—a prophetic warning that even an economic union like the European Union is doomed to fail?  “Just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay” (v 43, emphasis supplied). And how will the United States—itself teetering on the economic edge—weather this hemorrhaging crisis? Thinkers the world over are warily endeavoring to decipher these unusual times. The gyrating global stock markets are simply empirical indicators of mounting apprehension and perplexity. Nobody knows. Emphasis on nobody. Thus the future of earth. What a made-to-fit moment this is for the “Prophecies Decoded” series that begins on September 30—seen coast to coast on satellite, and “live” here at Andrews University. And wouldn’t you know it—the opening lecture comes straight out of Daniel 2’s provocative prophecy. My friend, Dr. Ron Couzet, is the presenter. And he is as trustworthy and credible a voice I know to speak to the urgency of these times. That’s why I’d like to earnestly invite you to take advantage of this prophetic lecture series, by inviting friends, colleagues, neighbors you know who would benefit from a careful, biblical examination of the prophecies that speak to our age. We’ll be offering a big-screen live link to Nashville, Tennessee, where Ron Clouzet will be speaking—Friday evening, 7:20, September 30—that’s when it begins. Pick up a handful of the color brochures at Pioneer to give your friends. Have them go online to www.propheciesdecoded.com and watch the series trailer for a themselves. Call them up and offer them a ride. The point is—when you’re living in the toes of earth’s history—there is something greater than PIIGS to motivate your life. And that something is the Someone who is coming soon. So pass the word, will you? The PIIGS, Europe, the U.S., you and I—we’re all living on the edge. It’s time to believe. “‘The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy’” (Daniel 2:45).

The old American folk song sings it well, doesn’t it? Irene goodnight, Irene goodnight Goodnight Irene, goodnight Irene I’ll see you in my dreams You cause me to weep, you cause me to mourn You cause me to leave my home But the very last words I heard her say Was “Please sing me one more song” Irene goodnight, Irene goodnight Goodnight Irene, goodnight Irene I’ll see you in my dreams But nobody up and down the eastern seaboard is in any mood to sing these words, as the massive clean-up for Hurricane Irene’s devastation continues. “You cause me to weep, you cause me to mourn, you cause me to leave my home” pretty much sums it up in the aftermath of this storm—remembered more for her rains and floods rather than for her winds. Over forty dead, property damages predicted to exceed $7 billion, Irene now ranks in the top ten most expensive disasters in this country’s history. But what caught my eye this week was the announcement that this marks the sixty-sixth disaster that FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) has faced in 2011. And the monies are running low, with only $900 million left in FEMA’s disaster aid funding. So here’s a question for your own brooding: Could an escalation in natural disasters drain our national economy? I.e., is it possible that a spike in costly disasters could someday (I’m not suggesting today) actually deplete government resources, drain private reserves and diminish our collective ability to respond to nature’s emergencies? How many more hurricanes or droughts (Texas was praying for the rain of that hurricane to veer westward to relieve their own withering disaster) or earthquakes would it take to “break the bank” in the United States? (Look at Japan with a single earthquake and tsunami this year, as she still struggles to gain her economic footing.) The US News and World Report website reported this week: “To date, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s website, President Obama has declared 24 emergencies and 66 major disaster declarations in 2011. So, also including those for fire management assistance, President Obama has made 181 FEMA declarations this year. That figure easily eclipses the previous record of 157 overall annual declarations set by Bill Clinton in 1996.” And the year isn’t even over. (http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2011/08/30/12-states-with-the-most-disaster-declarations-in-2011?PageNr=1) “Good night, Irene.” But could it be “Good night, America” one of these days? Two thousand years ago, Christ made this terse prediction of global conditions that would occupy the headlines on the eve of his return: “On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.  Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.  At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (Luke 21:25-27). So shall we panic? Not at all. But we really do need to quit living life as though it were “business as usual.” The “usual” has long gone, and the “unusual” is now our new “usual.” So what if we lived with the quiet confidence Christ’s next sentence offers: “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (v 28). Is Jesus suggesting a quiet confidence in his prediction? No, but implicit in his command is an abiding confidence in the One who is to return. That’s why our new series, “The Last Word: The Fourth Gospel for a Final Generation,” is front and center this new season—because reliving the story of Jesus can revive our faith in Jesus. Not faith in the headlines of earth’s “fourth watch”—but rather faith in the One who has promised that after the “Good night” will come the very “Good morning.” No wonder we can live the “fourth watch” with our heads up!

Just as the ubiquitous yellow school busses are revving up to begin another school year across the nation comes word about President Obama’s brand new $1.1 million mystery bus. Perhaps you’ve seen it on his road trip this week through some of our Midwest neighbor states—that new Greyhound-size black bus, with blacked out windows and red and blue police lights. Few details of the bus have been released, although the Christian Science Monitor website has conjectured what the imposing bus might be like. If it shares similarities with the familiar black presidential Cadillac limousine, nicknamed “The Beast” by the Secret Service, then it, too, is built like a tank, with “8-inch thick armor-plated sides, special bulletproof glass, and Kevlar-reinforced tires . . . mounted on specially designed rims that can continue to drive even if the tires are missing.” Similarly the new bus “is probably airtight, and likely has an advanced fire suppression system, oxygen tanks, and is built to withstand a chemical attack.” And on the bus, as in The Beast, “bags of Obama’s blood” are surely on board in the event of a medical emergency. But because the bus is significantly bigger, it no doubt contains more than The Beast’s tear gas cannons, shotguns and night vision cameras. How many satellite phones and communication wizardry—to connect with government officials and world leaders in the event of a terror event—is anybody’s guess. Actually, the Secret Service commissioned the Hemphill Brothers Coach Company to build two such busses, since the Republican presidential candidate next year will be given similar protection. Total cost for these two “mystery” busses? $2,191,960. (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2011/0817/1.1-million-bus-used-by-Obama-has-high-tech-defenses-but-what-are-they) So how are you planning to travel this new year? Forget about a bus. If you’re like me, you’ll be glad for your trusty old bucket of bolts to simply survive another winter! But would you like to travel even better than the President? The title for this new blog, “The Fourth Watch,” comes straight out of a dramatic emergency (as last week’s blog noted). “Now in the fourth watch of the night [Roman reckoning for 3-6 a.m.] Jesus went to them, walking on the sea” (Matthew 14:25). There’s no president alive who can travel like that! When Peter recognized it was Jesus walking the wind-lashed swells, he called out into the fury if he might come. “Come.” And Peter did, with all the bravado of a seasoned fisherman. “But when he saw the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, ‘Lord, save me!’” (v 30). In that split second the Savior grasped Peter’s flailing hand. “Walking side by side, Peter’s hand in that of his Master, they stepped into the boat together” (Desire of Ages 381). Did you catch that? Side by side, hand in hand with the God of the universe. No mystery bus or The Beast. Instead a walk through the fourth watch, through the raging storm, with the Savior. Which is why I hope you’ll join me next week at Pioneer or this website in a life-changing journey with Christ through the Gospel of John—“The Last Word: The Fourth Gospel for a Final Generation.” That Peter walked on water isn’t the surprise—that Jesus wanted him to is. So pray with me L. D. Avery Stuttle’s prayer: I cannot, dare not, walk alone The tempest rages in the sky A thousand snares beset my feet A thousand foes are lurking nigh Still Thou the raging of the sea O Master! let me walk with Thee.