Tipping Point

Peace is unraveling in the Middle East. Is the world at a tipping point?

Former President Jimmy Carter said Sunday that the political unrest and rioting in Egypt “is the most profound situation in the Middle East” since he left office in 1981. What’s going on?

In my previous column, “Turbulent Times,” I wrote how 2010 was described in an Associated Press story as the “world gone wild.” Last year saw all kinds of freakish weather.

This year it not only continues (the media called the last Northeast storm “Snowmageddon”) but we can add to it political turmoil that threatens both the political and economic stability in the world. Carter described the tense situation in Egypt as “Earth-shaking.”

While Americans cautiously celebrated a recovering stock market and hoped the recession was ending, suddenly half the world seems to be “going to hell in a hand basket.”

Is this the tipping point that takes the world into chaos or the End Times?

“Now hold on just a minute! Aren’t you getting a little carried away?”

No more than Jimmy Carter. And since he’s credited with brokering the peace accord between Egypt and Israel in 1978 and knows the key figures involved, I’d say he has a better handle on the situation there than the average American.

Amazingly, Jesus Christ predicted the kind of events we’re now seeing. He said, “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. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.”

Jesus was not speaking of the birth of a child. He was talking about the beginning of a new era. In Jesus’ day when the Jewish Rabbis spoke of “birth pains” they were referring to the sufferings that were to precede “the day of the Lord,” that is, the coming of the Messiah.

The Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, foretold such a time.

A good friend of mine, Micah Winefeld, is a student of Bible prophecy and the Middle East. He recently wrote, “If I were to write a script for a movie or play about world conditions before the Rapture of the church, I could not create one any better than the current events unfolding at this very hour. Our world is on the verge of economic meltdown, creating the perfect conditions for what many believe will be the beginning of a New World Order and a one-world currency.”

The “Rapture of the church” that he refers to is the return of Jesus Christ for his Church before a terrible time of judgment on the world called the Great Tribulation in Bible prophecy.

Now I am not, by nature, an alarmist. But as I observed last October in my column “Triple Threat,” the world may be about to suddenly change from what we have known.

I wrote that the three monotheistic religions of the world, Judaism, Christianity and Islam all share similar, Messianic “End Times” expectations. And in all three groups there is a growing expectancy that Jesus Christ, or someone like him, is about to come.

One group of Shiite Muslims (Twelvers) believe that worldwide chaos and destruction will hasten the return of their messianic “hidden” or Twelfth Imam.

As I said last October, “Regardless of what you believe about the Bible and its prophecies, just a brief review of these facts should be interesting, if not disturbing.”

Is the world at a tipping point? Only time will tell. Come to Jesus Christ for an inner peace that the world cannot take away. That’s why the Bible calls him the “Prince of Peace.”

Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!