Does anyone know what time it is?

Every time I am confronted by yet another sign of our current generation's condition, I do a double take. On one hand I am not surprised at where the culture is going, since I am aware of where it has been. Yet on the other hand I still react with a level of shock and sadness as if part of me continues to deny that it is as dark as it might be. That's the part of me that still thinks (or wants to think) that the world is a wonderful, fun, and beautiful place – that the bad news we hear about day by day is the exception rather than the rule. While I am aware that according to the Bible, judgment will come one day, that really isn't my concern.

But perhaps it is later than I think. Does anyone know what time it is?

The fact is we live in what might be the darkest era of human existence (or am I being too negative?).

Our entertainment is full of blasphemy and sexual perversion. Marriage is mocked. The abuse of addictive substances is so widespread. We tolerate the slaying of the unborn. The threat of terrorism is growing as is the specter of nuclear war . The world's poor are exploited. And a world-wide pandemic is around the corner.

Doesn't anybody know the time?

In a couple of weeks the Festival of Shavuot (Pentecost) will be celebrated. It was on the day of Shavuot almost 2000 years ago that a gathered crowd in Jerusalem were urged, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation" (Acts 2:40). If they were living in a corrupt generation – one that needed saving from, then what is the state of our generation today? And if it is corrupt, how then are we to relate to it?

I need to know the time!