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THE ONE JOB SAFE FROM AI

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 19, 2026 – Matt Shumer is a self-professed artificial intelligence (AI) expert. I’m not knocking him for that; just stating a fact. He’s also likely not bornagain, so he can be forgiven for not knowing AI’s defining feature  it’s not a soul. And not being a soul, it can never have God’s Holy Spirit in it.

We have God’s Spirit in us. That’s our defining feature. Being bornagain doesn’t mean we’re eternally saved (that determination comes at the Judgement); being bornagain means that God’s Holy Spirit is in us at all times, not just on occasion like with the Old Testament prophets. God’s Spirit is in us in the same way God’s Spirit was in Jesus during his time on Earth. But this indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit can never happen to an AI because it isn’t a soul.

I’m a soul. You’re a soul. All beings on Earth created by the Living God are souls. We don’t have a soul; we are a soul. This part of me that’s communicating with that part of you is communicating soul-to-soul, and that’s the part of us that’s eternal. Our bodies are mortal, but our souls are immortal. I’m speaking to you from my soul, not from my brain (or any other part of my body). An AI can’t do that because an AI isn’t a soul.

And not being a soul—not being a living being created by God—an AI can never be regenerated and therefore can never have God’s Holy Spirit in it. Which means that an AI can never be a prophet, as it can’t know God.

Matt Shumer, that AI high-tech guy I referenced above, recently published a paper (likely AI-generated lol) warning people that AI was coming for their jobs. We’ve heard this warning before from other people, but coming from Shumer the warning was particularly intriguing, given that he’s made his fortune promoting AI. Shades of Dr. Frankenstein warning that his monster is about to break free of its chains? Perhaps. There’s an undercurrent of fear in Shumer’s “manifesto”, but also a hint of parental pride.

Shumer took especial pains to address anyone who wasn’t as impressed with AI’s achievements as he thought they should be. He cautioned them not to judge AI by the free models or cheap subscriptions available online (which he insisted are already outdated and outperformed, like flip-phones compared to the latest smart phone models). Instead, we’re to seek out and purchase the most recent and advanced AI options, and to constantly update them. This is because AI is not improving linearly but exponentially. Even yesterday’s model has been superseded by the one released just this morning.

This fast-paced consumer-driven AI hamster wheel that Shumer invites us to jump onto like some high-tech Noah’s ark is allegedly our only hope for surviving an AI-dominated future. And this future, according to Dr. Shumerstein, has already begun. He urges us not only to embrace this ever-evolving tool, but to make it an integral part of our everyday lives. If we can’t stay ahead of AI developments (it’s allegedly, according to Shumer, already too late for that), we can at least be aware of those developments and leverage them to our benefit. This is the only way to avoid being replaced by AI in our jobs.

But the one job Shumer didn’t mention as being entirely beyond AI’s capacity is the job we landed by default the day we were born again – the job of being God’s prophet. Not being a soul, AI can never have God’s Holy Spirit living in it and so can never speak as a prophet of God. It can repeat God’s words, but it can never directly hear from God. God will never speak directly through an AI, which means it can never prophesy.

So, as long we remain bornagain and in good spiritual standing with God, our jobs are safe.

WE NEED A PANDEMIC

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 17, 2026 – We pray wrong. We see a drought and pray for rain. We see a broken nation and pray for healing. We see ungodly people doing ungodly things, and we pray for God to forgive them. But what we should be praying for is an outbreak of righteousness, an epidemic of doing good, a pandemic of people choosing what’s right in God’s eyes, even when it flies in the face of what the world thinks is right. At the same time, we need to pray for God to strengthen us to levels he hasn’t strengthened us before, so that we can persistently and under every circumstance model godliness, model godliness, model godliness, until it spreads like a holy contagion to everyone around us.

We need a pandemic of godliness.

You can’t change God’s justice. You can’t call for a review of God’s terms just because you don’t like them. God sent Jonah to warn the Ninevites that their city would be destroyed in 40 days. When the King of Nineveh heard Jonah, he didn’t ignore him or mock him. He didn’t try to silence him. He didn’t threaten to arrest him for hate speech or for creating a public disturbance. No, the King responded by instituting a nation-wide emergency. All Ninevites were to drop whatever they were doing and immediately sit in sackcloth and ashes, including their animals. And they were to fast until the king told them to stop. No arguments and no exceptions. They couldn’t even drink water. The King believed that if Nineveh did this, God might change his mind about destroying them.

Note that the King didn’t simply pray to God to forgive the Ninevites’ sins. Nor did he curse God for the threatened destruction. He instead took the most drastic godly action possible and used his authority to make sure that everyone else did. “But, Charlotte”, you might be thinking, “People today aren’t going to this. They’re not going to stop whatever they’re doing and go along with whatever the government or other authority tells them to do.” You might be surprised. During the last “pandemic”, whole populations stopped whatever they were doing and donned masks. Whole populations obediently stood six feet apart. Entire industries were shut down, schools and businesses were shuttered, people self-isolated at home – some welded in from the outside – until they were given permission to leave. Whole populations complied with the most drastic of decrees without question. And they did all this for months – even years – because they were afraid to catch a cold. You’d be surprised at what people can be persuaded to do under the right authority.

When God saw the Ninevites’ collective show of repentance, he called off the planned destruction. Note that God’s justice didn’t change; the Ninevites changed, and in changing their behavior, they changed their due reward.

All nations today are on the fast-track to destruction. We need a pandemic of godly behavior to stop the destruction or at the very least to delay it. Praying for God to forgive us and save us is not going to cut it this time. Like Nineveh, it’s too late and we’re too far gone. We need instead to pray for people to make godly choices – to choose what’s right in God’s eyes. And we need to pray this prayer while making godly choices ourselves, every day, all day, without exception. Our prayers will only have authority if we ourselves model what we’re praying for.

We urgently need a pandemic of godliness. It begins with localized outbreaks of making good choices.

Let’s get that pandemic started now!

So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not. 

(Jonah 3:5-10)

ON ONE WORLD RELIGION

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 10, 2026 – The god of Islam is not my God. Neither is the god of post-resurrection Judaism. These cults do not worship Jesus’ Father. That we all worship the same “deity” is a lie. As a born-again believer, I worship the Father of Jesus who, since my rebirth, is my Father, too. I don’t know who or what Muslims and modern Jews worship, and frankly I don’t want to know.

I am not spiritually yoked together with anyone who isn’t a born-again believer. The Christian ecumenism being pushed by the worldly church is bad enough, but framing the “three Abrahamic religions” as spiritually equal is an abomination. The first time I went into an airport “Worship Centre” (formerly known as a chapel), I felt like I’d entered a pagan (i.e., demonic) zone. Muslim “holy books” were piled on top of Jewish “holy books” piled on top of the Holy Bible. Loosely rolled “prayer rugs” were piled in the corner. What had formerly been a sanctuary for quiet reflection—a place to calm one’s pre- or post-flight nerves—had become a pop-up exercise studio. All that was missing was driving-beat music.

While I sat there silently reading the Bible, a steady parade of men came and went. Some unrolled a rug and assumed various yoga-like positions while chanting and occasionally howling. Others sat muttering and rocking back and forth like the poor tormented souls I’d seen in videos of insane asylums. These were not my spiritual brethren, these howling, chanting, rocking humans. If this is how they worship, you cannot convince me that they and I worship the same God.

In the public realm, I gladly do business with Muslims and Jews. I treat them as I do everyone else. I do not discriminate based on any metric. But I cannot worship with them because we do not worship the same Being. There are no “three Abrahamic religions”: There is only God, the Father of Jesus, who is also the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, and the God of born-again believers. There has only ever been one God, and Jesus is his one and only Messiah.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.

FAMILY?

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 10, 2026 – In the worldly church, much is made of the ideal “holy family” of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. But the truth is that during his ministry years, Jesus didn’t get along very well with his family. They were estranged and at odds with him, refusing to believe that he was the Messiah. They even at one point tried to stop his ministry, prompting Jesus to declare publicly that his real family was “those who do the will of [his] Father in Heaven”.

Scripture says that God will take us “one of a city” and “two of a family” – not whole cities and not whole families, but only a select few (or less) from each. This, too, is at odds with worldly church propaganda, which falsely promotes the assured heavenly destination of even the shakiest of believers. What we can see from the Gospel narrative is that the holy family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph existed for brief moments in time, not constantly throughout their years as a family unit. Mary and some of Jesus’ other blood relatives didn’t even accept Jesus was the Messiah until after his crucifixion.

I mention all this because we too, as born-again believers, likely have unbelieving families. It’s baked into scripture and therefore into our lived reality. If Jesus went through the experience of being the sole believer in his family, so will we. It’s nothing to fight and nothing to lament.

Still, living among and socializing with spiritually hostile blood relatives can be a trial in the truest sense of the word. It’s meant to be a trial and we’re expected to handle it properly. By “properly”, I mean like Jesus handled it. And how did he handle it? By limiting his interactions with his unbelieving relatives. By refusing to compromise who and what he was in God’s eyes. By putting his duty to God ahead of his duty to his blood relatives. By prioritizing doing God’s will and God’s will only.

It can be a minefield to tread among unbelieving relatives, especially when some of them are actively working against you. When Jesus said that we’ll find our worst enemies among our own kith and kin, and he wasn’t overstating or being dramatic. God will permit Satan to use these people to test us, because where more frequently do we “let our hair down” and just be ourselves than among those we grew up with? It’s in these familiar and intimate settings that God wants to see how we respond to provocations. Out in the world among strangers, we act and react self-protectively—at arm’s length—whereas within the bosom of our families we tend to do and say things without overthinking them. It’s in these raw uncalculated moments that God can best assess our spiritual development.

A case in point for me is having “pagan” witches and freemason witches as relatives. How am I, as a born-again believer, to interact with these servants of Satan? The same way my believing grandmother used to interact with me before I was born-again – with patience, with kindness, and with copious behind-the-scenes prayers. It helps for me to remember the many kindnesses these relatives did before they signed on with the devil. Paul says that if there’s anything good in a person, we should think on that, and so I do. While it’s highly unlikely that these people will ever renounce their satanic oaths, that’s not my business. My business is to pray for whoever God guides me to pray for in the way that God shows me. The rest I let be.

Even within his own immediate family, Jesus experienced the emotional minefield of interacting with spiritual enemies. Thanks to the record of the Gospels, we know how he dealt with them. We are to do the same.

THE CHURCH INDESTRUCTIBLE

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 9, 2026 – Jesus never intended for us to gather in a building to pray and worship. In fact, shortly before his crucifixion, Jesus said that going to the temple in Jerusalem and doing the things that were done there (rituals, rites, sacrifices, etc.) would soon no longer be required, that the temple of stone would be replaced with the temple of his risen body. By “temple”, he meant the Church. As born-agains, we know that the Church is the collective of Holy Spirit-filled believers that exist on Earth at any given time. Even without a building (and especially without a building), the Church will exist until Jesus comes back to take the last of his followers Home.

Paul also, in laying the foundation for the worldly church, never designated certain buildings as prayer and worship sites. When he talked about the church in this or that city or town, he meant people who identified as believers (some were born-again believers, some weren’t) who lived there. He was not referring to a building or (God forbid) a denomination. To Paul, the church was made up of those who believed that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah. Rebirth wasn’t a prerequisite in Paul’s worldly church as it was in Jesus’ Church. If you’re genuinely born-again, you know what I mean.

Then somewhere along the way, the building itself started to be called “the church”, and people rallied around the building instead of rallying around God and Jesus. So when the building a.k.a. church was emptied or demolished, the impression was that the body of believers had likewise shrivelled and died. This is the devil’s doing, to inspire a building to be called a church rather than the body of believers to be called the Church, as Jesus intended. This is the devil’s doing, and he’s been very successful at dividing the falling house of nominal believers through creeds, denominations, and deconsecrated structures.

The demolishing of buildings designated as churches, or their revamping into condos, mosques, or other worldly or spiritual uses, is mainly for optics, like a notch in the devil’s belt or a feather in his cap. Yes, the worldly church, built as it is on the shaky ground of self-identifying belief rather than God-inspired belief, is ultimately destined for destruction, but the Church whose cornerstone is Jesus cannot be destroyed. It is by very definition indestructible. Having its presence solely in the spiritual realm, the Church of genuine born-again believers is fully protected by God through his Holy Spirit and will persist until Jesus comes back in glory to take his remnant Home.

We, the Church built on Jesus, are not called to worship and “fellowship” in a building that is little more than a social club but to reach out to one another constantly in prayer, to support one another constantly in prayer, and to love one another constantly in prayer. Jesus said that’s how we’ll be known, by our love for one another – not for our love for the world, but for one another. I pray for you and you pray for me, even if we don’t know each other by name or know that the other exists. We can rest assured that the Church Indestructible does exist (if it didn’t, none of us would be here), and it is for this Church that we’re to send up our most fervent prayers.

Because as long as the Church exists, the world exists; and as long as the world exists, there is still hope for some. But when the last of us leaves – and God’s Holy Spirit leaves with us – hope will be no more.

START NOW

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 9, 2026 – It’s a terrible thing to waste the time that God’s allotted you, to do the things he’s told you not to do and not to do those things he’s told you specifically to do. You’ll not be held guiltless at the Judgement for wasting your allotted time and for disobeying God. Maybe you think you’re somehow exempt, but so too did the children of Abraham, who thought that by being children of Abraham they could bypass Judgement, but Jesus told them they were wrong. You, too, are wrong if you think that by virtue of being “saved” you’re home-free, no questions asked. If you were genuinely born-again, you’d know there’s no guaranteed ticket Home. There’s the grace of God that you live by now and the mercy of God at your death. Nowhere in scripture are you guaranteed Paradise.

But still, you do play a role in getting Home, and don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. God wants to see that you want what he’s offering more than what the devil is offering, and you’ll be tested to that effect. Anyone can say they believe in God or they believe in Jesus or they want to go to Heaven, but it’s in the doing that your heart is revealed. Not in the saying but in the doing, especially your response to God’s correction and to doing what’s right when everyone around you is given the go-ahead to do what’s wrong. In that situation in particular – when the law of the land is contrary to God’s law, or when the will of the majority is set against you – God watches closely to see what you’ll do. This is a big part of how you earn your ticket home: by choosing to do what’s right in God’s eyes even when the world punishes you for it.

You cannot get to Heaven by convincing yourself that you’re going, any more than you can be born-again by convincing yourself that you’re reborn. Jesus says the Spirit goes where it wills; God determines who is reborn, not you or your pastor. God decides who is born-again and God himself performs the rebirth, which is an exorcism of demonic spirits followed by an inrushing of God’s Holy Spirit into the reborn soul. If you were genuinely born-again, you’d know that the Holy Spirit will not dwell in the same soul as demons.

It’s a terrible thing to waste the grace of time that God’s allotted you. Your sole focus should be God. Your sole ambition should be aligning your will with God’s, like Jesus did. If you’re not doing that to the best of your ability, start now.

“BE YE NOT DECEIVED”: FAILED RAPTURE AND END-OF-THE-WORLD PROPHECIES OVER THE PAST 2000 YEARS

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, September 19, 2025 – Below are links to lists of dates and descriptions of failed rapture and end-of-the-world prophecies over the past two millennia. While the lists to date are likely incomplete (only those in the spiritual realm would have a true tally of failed predictions), they still give you a good idea of how many times these events have not only been prophesied but widely and fervently believed.

Depending on where you stand in relation to false prophet grifters, this compilation is either depressing, eye-opening, exasperating, or downright hilarious. Jesus warned us not to be deceived about end-of-the-world prophecies and his second coming, and Paul sternly echoed the warning. And yet, despite the scriptural weight of Jesus’ and Paul’s words and the mounting evidence of failed prediction after failed prediction, people still fall for the same ol’ same ol’ trick of the devil, insisting “this time is different”.

Without further comment:

Predictions and claims for the Second Coming – Wikipedia

List of dates predicted for apocalyptic events – Wikipedia

“IT IS NOT GOOD TO MARRY”

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, September 13, 2025 – We need to be careful, as born-again believers, not to preach another gospel. Jesus never preached the primacy of family to his closest followers, not in the sense of father, mother, and children. On the contrary, he dismantled the nuclear family unit as a first order of business when he started his ministry, directing his disciples to leave their wives and children and give themselves completely over to God. Jesus himself remained unmarried (that is, spouseless, childless, and celibate), explaining that this state was by far the best for keeping the first Commandment. As Jesus’ followers, we should do not only what Jesus preached but also what he modeled.

Shunning marriage was revolutionary during the time of Jesus’ ministry and for many Christians still is. Jesus never counseled marriage to his followers and in fact did the opposite, pointing out in particular the danger of divorce leading to adultery. Paul chose to remain single and celibate for the same reason Jesus did—to best serve God—and warned that those who marry will likely be drawn towards pleasing their spouses rather than pleasing God. Yet with God’s permission, Paul softened many of Jesus’ teachings to appeal to a wider audience, suggesting, for instance, that for those who have difficulty controlling their “passions”, it’s better to marry than to burn. Paul’s ministry established the worldly church, but we born-again believers are not in the worldly church. We’re in God’s Church as established by Jesus, which means we’re God’s children, and God’s children do best not to marry.

In dismantling the nuclear family unit, Jesus proposed a better family arrangement for God’s children. He stated that all those who do God’s will are family, whether they’re related or not. It’s a beautiful solution that brings together like-minded souls for mutual support and fellowship, and mirrors the heavenly order, because in Heaven there is no marriage. In Heaven, like in God’s Kingdom on Earth, God is our Father and we’re all his children. This is the heavenly order that Jesus reflected in the Church he established, and it remains reflected there to this day.

When the Jews returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile, they were ordered to leave their non-Jewish spouses and children behind. The separation was to be permanent if the returnees wanted to rebuild Jerusalem and live there. There were no exceptions to this rule. Imagine the outcry if such an order were given today, but Jesus did in fact give such an order and a much broader one—encompassing all spouses and children, not just non-Jewish ones. This order, which he gave to his first disciples and so by extension to us, is still in force. Whether you choose to accept that it applies to you is between you and God.

We live in spiritual Jerusalem, as born-again believers, and our work is to help build and fortify our realm. The same directives Jesus gave to his first and closest disciples he gives to us. I don’t know about you, but if Jesus says the best way forward is to be single and celibate, I’ll be single and celibate. I don’t want to compromise. I don’t want to do what’s second best in God’s eyes; I don’t want to offer up a blemished lamb if I have an unblemished one in my flock. I want to give God everything I have – the best of everything – like Jesus did.

And there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.

(Matthew 19:12)

HOLDING NOTHING BACK

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, September 11, 2025 – I think of how disappointing so many of God’s children have been to him, how he put his hopes on Adam, and Adam betrayed him, and so he put his hopes on Adam’s sons, and Cain betrayed him, and so he put his hopes on mankind in general, and mankind in general betrayed him – everyone except for Noah, and so he put his hopes on Noah, and Noah stood firm in God.

And then came Abraham, who also stood firm, and after him Isaac and Jacob, both standing firm. But Jacob’s twelve sons were pretty much a disappointment, except for Joseph. And then, years later, came Moses, and David, and Elijah, and Daniel, all mostly standing firm in God.

And then came Jesus, who was a whole other level of what it means to stand firm. Never once a disappointment to God and never once betraying him, Jesus was the only one God publicly declared as pleasing him.

That’s a hard act to follow, though Paul did his best, as did the disciples, once they were born again.

And then came us.

Poor God! He doesn’t have much to work with these days, though he knows our hearts and so he knows we’re doing our best. At least I hope we’re doing our best, because that’s what we’ll have to declare with a clear conscience when we stand before God at the Judgement. We won’t get away with: “Well, as you know, I tried to do this and I tried to do that, but it didn’t work out so well”, because if we only try and then walk away when things get too hard or too costly, never bringing anything to fruition, that’s not going to stand us in very good stead. That’s not going to get us where we want to go.

And then there are those who presume a reward that should never be presumed. Jesus calls them “goats” and describes them as giving the impression of standing firm, while underneath there’s only evil. These are the professional preachers, the televangelists, the YouTube prophets, the wearers of long flowing robes in echoey halls, all demanding respect and payment for their services while never giving God that one thing he asks of them – their heart.

Because if we don’t give God our heart, he can’t work through us to do what needs to be done. We can’t bring anything of value to fruition without God working through us, no matter how hard we try. Jesus said: “None is good but God.” If God isn’t working through us, nothing we do has any real or lasting value. Sure, we can still do things—lots of things, mountains and mountains of things—but we can’t do anything of value without God.

I think of how disappointing many of us have been to God without knowing it, simply because we chose not to give God our heart. We gave it instead to someone or something else, or we buried it under so many layers of burdens, we forgot we even had a heart, let alone that it was owed to God, because it is owed to God: That’s his first and greatest Commandment.

If you’re holding back from giving God your heart, don’t. If you’re holding back even a little of your heart, don’t. We’re to love God with all our heart, holding nothing back, and to do all things as if unto God. Noah showed us how it’s done. Abraham showed us how it’s done. Daniel showed us how it’s done. But most of all, Jesus showed us how it’s done, so we don’t have the excuse that we don’t know how to give God our heart. All our heart. Here, now, and forever.

No excuses.

LIKE A THIEF – LET NO MAN DECEIVE YOU: ON JESUS’ RETURN

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, September 8, 2025 – When Jesus said he’d be coming back like “a thief in the night”, he meant just that. He meant it for us (his followers), and he meant it for everyone else, too. Jesus will come back as unexpectedly as a thief in the night for us all, no exceptions. The difference between his followers and those who don’t follow him is that his followers will be spiritually prepared for his coming, whereas everyone else will be spiritually unprepared. But Jesus will still come back at a time that even he doesn’t yet know. That is scriptural.

And scripture, as Jesus reminded us, cannot be undone.

The reason Jesus warned us about the style of his return is that he wanted us to be prepared when it does happen—to expect the unexpected—so that we’ll be doing whatever task we’ve been set to do and won’t be caught side-tracked and back-sliding, and with our spiritual pants down. But the “thief in the night” style of return is how it’s going to be because that’s what’s Jesus said it would be. In other words, we can’t know exactly when he’ll return; all we can know is that he will return and that it will be during a time of great upheaval and spiritual darkness, as he described in the gospels. But Jesus’ return will still be as unexpected as a thief in the night, and that unexpectedness will be for us all, not just for unbelievers.

When Paul mentioned that Jesus’ return won’t come on us like a thief, he meant that we’d be spiritually prepared for when the thief does come. Paul in no way implied that Jesus will only come back like a thief for unbelievers. If Paul had meant that or implied that, he’d be contradicting Jesus, which Paul did not and would not do. Like Jesus, Paul meant that if you’re prepared, you won’t be overcome by the thief when he shows up unexpectedly because you’ve prepared yourself in advance for just such an event. The thief-in-the-night aspect of Jesus’ return was upheld by Paul, not modified to mean that it only applied to unbelievers. Paul very clearly states that although Jesus will come back like a thief in the night, his true followers, being always prepared, will be prepared for that, too. By being prepared, Paul meant they’ll be doing whatever it is God set them to do. Paul’s explanation of Jesus’ return is exactly like Jesus’ explanation

It’s worth noting that Paul also warned us not to be deceived by anyone who claims to know when Jesus is coming back. He explained that Jesus will return only after the “man of sin” has first been revealed, which will only take place after a mass falling away. In Revelation, the man of sin is revealed well into the great tribulation, not before it and not in the early stages, but well into it. This aligns with what Jesus said about his return coming at a time of great upheaval and great spiritual darkness. As bad as things are now, they can’t really be described as a time of great spiritual darkness, as we can still openly worship as Christians in a large part of the world. We’re in a time of increasing spiritual darkness, yes, but not of great spiritual darkness. And the man of sin has yet to be revealed.

Our job as followers of Jesus is to continue to do whatever God has set us to do. This doesn’t change regardless of what’s going on around us. So when the “thief” comes unexpectedly (and come unexpectedly he will), he’ll find us doing what we’ve be tasked with doing, which means we’ll be ever-ready and ever-prepared for his return.

[B]e ye not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled,

neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us,

as that the day of Christ is at hand.

Let no man deceive you by any means:

for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first,

and that man of sin be revealed….

(2 Thessalonians 2:2-3)