The Christian world view should not be misunderstood by those around us.  The gospel message is a great light in the darkness.  We await the brightness of His coming.

Though we watch with a certain expectation the events of the world, our focus is not on fear or panic.

The ultimate focus of the Christian who studies God's Word is that the events taking place now are indicators of the glorious appearance of Jesus Christ which is to come.

They are also sober warnings of what we know will come upon the world and specifically what will come upon Christians and Jews in the last days.  The Kingdom of antichrist will not be good for anyone in the long run.

Those who choose to take the mark of antichrist and submit to worship the image of the beast for a short time of convenience in this world will be punished eternally in the lake of fire.  This is more than just a simple act of worship.  Making a choice to serve the world, beast system, is a choice against God.

Those who choose God and eternal life will endure persecution for a short time under the rule of antichrist.  This is to purify them.  Some will fall.  Some will be put to death.  But if we love not our lives, even unto death, then we will save our lives for eternity.

God really does care what choice you make...and it is a choice for life or for death.  Choosing eternal life by faith shows God that you truly do believe by faith (faith being the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen) that is who He says He is.

While some may characterize faith as blind, nothing could be further from the truth.  We see all around us, fulfillment of prophecy from scripture.

These are the proofs of our faith.  Things which have already come to pass.  As Christians we merely associate the actual events that were prophesied with the scriptures that have foretold the events that were to come.  Events like the reformation of Israel in 1948.  God said He would bring them from every country to which they have been scattered and re-establish them in the promised land.

This is a particularly amazing prophecy since the Jews were scattered for almost two thousand years without a homeland.  But they managed to keep their tradition and language intact over all this time.  This is unheard of for societies and cultures that have been scattered and absorbed throughout the world.

But God is faithful to bring His words to pass.  And there is more written still that has not yet come to pass, including:  the re-establishment of the seventh kingdom into the eighth kingdom of anti-christ.  It is my firm belief based upon scripture and historical fact that the eighth kingdom will be a Turkish-Ottoman Islamic Empire which will impose it's anti-christian point of view on the whole world...but more importantly centering around Jerusalem and Israel, as God's Word always does.

There is much to happen still before this comes to pass in it's fullness.  For example:

1. There must begin a covenant for seven years, initiated by antichrist to bring peace to Jerusalem and Israel.   Daniel 9
2. There must be a third temple rebuilt by the Jews in Israel, in which the antichrist will sit and declare himself God.  In the midst of the last seven years.  The abomination of desolation will occur.  Matthew 24.
3. Also at the midpoint of the last seven years, Jerusalem must be surrounded by the armies of antichrist and desolated once again as the "gentiles" trample the holy city for forty two months.  Luke 21