The end times OUGHT to be a reason for a strong optimism of Spirit. Jesus’ plan of salvation (with the alternative of final judgment against those who adamantly refuse it) is cooking along just fine.
But Christians are so mournful today. WHY??? Could it be upside-down values, as one Salvation Army colonel I knew kept sharing with his congregants.
Yes, I thought about commenting that half these Christians aren’t lamenting the end times, but eagerly awaiting them. Personally, but I couldn’t care less about the second coming. I’d much rather live long enough to see my grandchildren and great grandchildren. I pretty much walked away from Christianity because I view it all this end of the world stuff as a self fulfilling prophecy. People who anticipate the end of the world, and see every bad thing that happens as a sign that the end is nigh, tend to just fatalistically accept things that they could and should actually do something about. Sure, they might bitch about it first, but then, the “Jesus is coming soon” circuit trips somewhere in their brains and they accept it as the tragic “new normal” and a sign of the Apocalypse, and sit back and try to isolate themselves from the problem until Jesus comes back to rescue them, never for a moment stopping to think, “What if Jesus isn’t coming back soon?” Then some other societal devolution comes along and the mental gymnastics begin all over again. It’s asinine. The world might end sooner rather than later, but if it does its because we sat back and let everything fall to pieces.