Culture Shock

I'm writing this mostly out of a combination of amusement and frustration, in case you care. I'm tired of hearing about how Jesus must be coming back soon because of how bad America is. Please. America has a long way to go before our perversity begins to resemble that of Rome (or Persia, or Assyria, or certain regimes in ancient China, or or or or). Jesus may very well come back next week or year or decade, and if He does then I will be the first to admit I was wrong. Until such a time, however, I won't buy, and see no reason for anyone else to buy, the argument mentioned above. I don't want to spend a lot of time writing about Roman history, there are plenty of books that can be read to prove my point if you don’t believe me (like this , or this), but the fact of the matter is, as disappointing as this may be, our generation and culture is not the most perverse in the history of the world. Until I go to a dinner party and see slaves being forced to have sex for entertainment, or see naked women being forced to swim in the fountains at birthday parties, or see men killing each other (yes actually killing each other, not fighting violently in a UFC cage) for entertainment, or see enemy prisoners-of-war fed to lions or put in a wood chipper, or see women being forced to have sex with a random citizen in the temple before they can get married (Persia was a strange place), I wont concede that we have matched or surpassed Rome or Persia or those other cultures in perversity. I'm sorry, but we still have a ways to go. 

Another thought:
People might be writing all of these end-of-the-world novels and exposes because they are really trying, out of their great compassion and care for the human race, to warn all of us of our impending doom. They might also be writing them to make a profit off of your fear.

The culture shock that has been proposed to us by some individuals within the conservative Christian movement is that our culture has distinguished itself historically in its dedication to depravity and that this is a sign that the end is imminent. I would argue that, instead, the real culture shock for Christians might be that we are just another generation in a long line of generations with the same Creation mandate and the same two commandments to live by. Prepare yourself for historical obscurity.