For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.

Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.

1 Thessalonians 5.9-11

“Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works,

and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

Jesus, Matthew 5.16

As I think back over the events of 2024, Proverbs 26.11 comes to mind: As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly. It’s been a rough year. In Ukraine and Israel, war has raged. Antisemitism reared its ugly head on American university campuses. We watched in horror as an assassin’s bullet nearly killed Donald Trump. In a reversal of fortunes, Trump was elected president. As the year wound down, the world continued to change in dramatic ways. The mainstream media, for years a purveyor of half-truths and outright lies, was in disarray, and replaced by online news sources. The horrid Assad regime in Syria was toppled, only to be replaced by forces that may be even worse.

Throughout the year, evidence of depravity was ubiquitous. In last summer’s Olympics, the opening ceremony mocked Jesus and the Last Supper, and two boxers with male chromosomes beat women to earn gold medals. In recent weeks, two “married” homosexual men were sentenced to 100 years in prison each after sexually abusing two boys for years after adopting them. We saw it in churches, too, where well-known megachurch evangelical pastors were forced to leave their ministry because of moral failure. Sin is alive and well on planet earth.

Since the election, I’ve witnessed a cultural schizophrenia. People have diametrically opposite expectations for the world in 2025. Many are optimistic, predicting that Trump will ‘make America great again’ (MAGA), and bring in ‘millennial’ time of peace and prosperity. Others are pessimistic, warning of a ‘great tribulation’ time of war and repression (‘Magog’)! I’ve learned to avoid both these extremes, and instead hold on to Scripture.

The Bible has an unmatched record when it comes to prophecy. God’s prophets prophesied what would happen to Israel and other nations, and it happened. They prophesied about Jesus’ birth, life, and death, and it happened just as they said. Skeptics have mocked the Bible, but new archaeological finds always validate Scripture. And since it has proven itself trustworthy, I trust what it says about these last days.

What the Bible tells us to expect in the last days is a ‘perilous peace.’ 2 Tim. 3.1-5 says that the end times will be perilous – difficult, dangerous, violent, and wicked times. 1 Thess. 5.3 says that people will also consider the last days to be a time of “peace and safety”! These seemingly incongruous factors are echoed by Jesus’ words in Matthew 24.38-39:

“For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.”

So what should we expect in these last days? They will paradoxically be times of peril, increasing wickedness, anxiety, and violence, and times in which people will think that everything is getting better and better. Sound familiar? As we see this happening, how should we as Christians live in this sinful world?

In 1 Thess. 5, after telling of coming perilous times, Paul immediately moves from that bleak picture to one of hope. He says that while those the world is ignorant about the coming destruction, we are not! They are living in darkness, but we are living in the light. He calls the Christians “sons of light” (5)! As we see troubling times, we should encourage and build up one another (11)! Why is that?

Because, as Paul writes in the verses I cited at the beginning of this article, God has not destined us for wrath! This time of “wrath” refers to what is called the Great Tribulation. Jesus spoke of this in Matthew 24, and John later told about it in Revelation 6-19. This is a time of God’s judgment on sin and wickedness in the world. We who are Christians will not go through this terrible time of judgment. 1 Thess. 4.13-18 tells how those who are alive  believe in Jesus and have not died and gone to be with Him, we will be caught up in the air – the event that is often referred to as the Rapture – and from that time on we will be with the Lord.

So the first thing to do as a Christian in 2025 – no matter what may happen – is to encourage each other, because God has not destined us for wrath, but salvation!

The second thing we should do in 2025 is ‘let our light shine.’ This is what Jesus told His followers to do in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5.16). You and I have the ‘light’ of the gospel of Jesus Christ – God’s love, grace, and forgiveness for all mankind. Tell someone about it this year!