Open any newsfeed this week and the world reads like the back pages of your Bible. The Strait of Hormuz is contested. A supreme leader has been killed. Lebanon is at war. Gaza is rubble. Antisemitism is climbing in places that swore — only eighty years ago — never again. And every six hours, a fresh emergency replaces the last one before we have had time to grieve it.
I am old enough to remember when believers spoke about "the last days" as a thing to come. I am also old enough to wonder, with every passing month, whether the door we have been pointing toward is the door we are now standing at. The sign on it says 2026. The hinges are warm.
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. Matthew 24:6
Notice what the Lord did not say. He did not say the end is now. He did not say panic. He did not say cash out and head for the hills. He said: see that you are not alarmed. The wars and rumors of wars were always part of the contour of the in-between time. They are the surface of an ocean that has been moving since Eden.
What we are not called to
We are not called to be date-setters. The Lord Himself said no man knows the day or the hour — not the angels in heaven, not the Son in His earthly humility, only the Father. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.
We are not called to be hoarders. Faith does not stockpile silver coins for the bunker; faith stores up treasure in heaven where moth and rust cannot destroy.
And we are not called to be cynics — looking at every headline and saying "see, see, the world is ending" with a strange gleam of satisfaction in our eyes. The world ending is not good news to the lost. The world ending is good news only because it is the door through which Christ steps back into His creation. Until that door opens, the lost are still lost. We have work to do.
What we are called to
One — Sober eyes
The believer in 2026 should look at the world with the same eyes the watchmen of Jerusalem had on the wall. Not anxious. Not asleep. Alert. The watchman names what he sees. He does not embellish, and he does not deny.
Two — Soft hearts
Hard times harden hearts unless we work against the gravity. The temptation, when the world becomes a fearful place, is to wall ourselves in — emotionally, relationally, even spiritually. Resist that. The closer we believe Christ to be, the gentler we ought to be with the people He died for.
Three — Settled feet
Do not let the headlines preach to you louder than the Word does. The headlines change every six hours; the Word of the Lord stands forever. One of these will hold up under your weight. The other will collapse beneath you the moment you put your full trust on it.
The convergence
Here is what is sobering, and what I will not pretend isn't. Several of the things Scripture said would happen near the time of the end appear to be happening at once. Israel, the prophetic clock of Scripture, is back in her land — and surrounded. The technology to know all things, see all things, and track all things now exists in your pocket. The moral revolution Paul predicted in 2 Timothy 3 reads like a description of yesterday's news cycle. The lukewarmness Christ rebuked in Laodicea has become a pastoral norm in much of the West.
None of this proves anything about a calendar date. All of it should be a wake-up to a church that has, for too long, lived as though Christ were on permanent leave.
The door, and the One behind it
I have been pastoring long enough to have seen four "definitely the year of the rapture" predictions come and go. I do not know if 2026 is or is not the year. Neither do you, and neither does anyone reading this with a YouTube channel. But here is what I know: behind that door, whenever it opens, is a Man. The same Man who walked the Galilean shore. The same Man who washed the feet of the disciples on the night He was betrayed. The same Man who hung on a Roman cross with a thief on either side and said Father, forgive them.
That is the Person we are watching for. Not a calendar event. A Person. The Bridegroom. Christ Jesus our Lord.
So watch with me, friend. Pray. Love your neighbor. Tell someone, today, the simple gospel that has saved a hundred million souls. The sign on the door says 2026. The hinges are warm. The Bridegroom may be closer than any of us think.