Does Russia's Invasion of Ukraine Signify the End of Days?

The world is on edge. Anxiety and speculation have arrested the global consciousness as Russian President Vladimir Putin's military forces continue to invade Ukraine while threatening all who consider interference with "consequences you have never seen." On Feb. 24, Russian forces launched a devastating assault on Ukrainian territory — the largest military operation in Europe since World War II. Missiles rained down on Ukrainian cities and columns of Russian troops from neighboring Belarus and Russian-held Crimea reportedly began streaming into the countryside. Ukrainian forces reportedly tried to hold back the Russian advance on several fronts, as ordinary citizens joined trained soldiers. This offensive represents the latest chapter in these two nations' complex and intertwined history and their people groups.

As disconcerting as this recent occurrence is, warfare is not novel to the human condition. Conflict is innate. Human depravity is in our DNA, inherited from the first man and woman to frolic in their garden paradise. Even today, battles rage across the globe, much of the bloodletting in places out of our immediate spheres of consciousness or concern. They range from generational tribal conflicts and insurgency to terrorism and modern military operations. Nearly twenty ongoing wars have caused between one thousand and ten thousand direct violent deaths each over the past year. Some regions have been entangled in constant turmoil for a half-century. We live in a fallen world where greed, oppression, fear, and the horrors of war are ever apparent. Yet despite this certainty, empathy, justice, unity, and liberty are worth pursuing. Peacemaking remains a blessed objective while honor compels the attacked to fight for their homeland.

Reels of graphic destruction and threats of paralyzing cyberattacks have led many to wonder if the end times are near. Before his ascension, Jesus answered his disciples' inquiry regarding his second coming, "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." Since that conversation and Christ's ascension, humanity has attempted to pinpoint his return. In each century, bold predictions have come and passed with a whimper.

The ferocious trauma of mass causalities and the mayhem of an epoch understandably lead to such reactions and prophecies, but no one knows the day or the hour of Christ's return. Accordingly, Jesus tells his disciples NOT to be alarmed because these things MUST happen along with earthquakes, famine, desertion, and persecution. Though His return is closer today than yesterday and the day before, the groanings of creation and persistance of man's cruelty have epitomized time, including the hostilities that characterized the very moments he breathed those words.

Even if this generation of humanity is among the last, our mission is already concretized, unaffected by speculation swirling around us. We are to keep watch, operating in a perpetual state of readiness, serving God, and loving others well. We are to be good stewards, faithfully multiplying our gifts, diligently working until the master's return. We are to be generous and just neighbors, benevolently meeting needs. We are to partake in preaching the gospel of the Kingdom to the whole world. As images of destruction, displacement and death circulate the globe, may the hope of de-escalation drive us to pray for lives in peril, wisdom for world leaders, and courage to seek an elusive yet coveted peace.

Until that Glorious day, all these things will continue, and then the end will come.

Come, Lord Jesus.

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