Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. - Revelation 21:1.

Asteroid 2002 NT7 is projected to possibly hit the Earth on February 1, 2019, and it is massive being 1.2 miles (two km) wide, apparently on a direct course to collide with our planet. Dr. Benny Peiser, an asteroid expert at the Liverpool John Moore’s University said, “Objects of this size only hit the Earth every one or two million years. In the worst case scenario, a disaster of this size would be global in its extent, would create a meltdown of our economic and social life, and would reduce us to Dark Age conditions.” However, a spokesman for the Royal Astronomical Society said, “This thing is the highest threat that has been cataloged, but the scale in terms of the threat keeps changing. If it did hit the Earth it would cause a continental-size explosion but it is a fairly remote possibility.”

The end is coming! The end is coming! The end is coming! But then we have been told, warned that the end would occur at some point in history. In the Book of Revelation we are told of several earth shaking events that are on their way. One is recorded in Revelation 8:5, “Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thundering, lightnings, and an earthquake.” Even before 1990 there had already been 59 or so failed end of the world predictions. Others say there have been 200 or more failed predictions and it may be there have been many more, which were not widely recorded. Would it make any difference in the way we live if we had a date as to when the end would occur? As Christians we will never know the precise date but we do know the end is coming.

We know that our Lord is coming back and because we know that it should affect the way we live our lives. In Hebrews 10:24-25, we are told, “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” That “Day” is approaching and is nearer than it has ever been in history. Paul tells us in Romans 13:11-13, “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.”

We know the end is coming but until it comes let us live as we know we should and “so much the more as we see the Day approaching.”