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Vanity- God is removing His Favor

You know, it would help a lot if you knew anything about other periods of history, about previous climate and geological conditions, and some basic Christian theology.

Other periods of history: yes, there's crap going on all around the world but in previous centuries and millennia it was MUCH WORSE than it has been over the last 50 years in the Western world (though the first 50 years of the 20th century saw unprecedented murder of people by governments, mostly statist governments). The world has never been a Little House on the Prairie sort of place.

Previous climate and geological conditions: the period between the Medieval Warming Period and the 1800s was much worse than anything we're experiencing now. And the time between the Roman Warm Period and the MWP had even worse meteorological conditions. For the last 600 years we have not seen hurricanes and storms of the frequency and intensity as before the MWP. As far as meteorology and weather are concerned, we're living in a pretty tranquil time.

Basic Christian theology: We live in a good world gone bad. We live among people who, regardless of culture or language or religion, are good, bad, and everything in between. They may help us. They may cut our throat. Some will be content to leave us alone. Some will persecute us. And yet, above it all, God is pouring his blessings down on everyone, regardless, until a certain day. And when that day comes, it'll all be over for everyone. Until then, the seasons come and go and God keeps showering everyone with love and favor and goodness, and instructs us to do the same.

So stop whining that God has withdrawn his favor--as though you've never before seen the following excerpts. Of course, maybe you have not.

God causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:45).

...the living God...has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy (Acts 14:15-17).

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth...he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations...so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.' (Acts 17:24-28)

“The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him.

“But if a wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die. None of the offenses he has committed will be remembered against him. Because of the righteous things he has done, he will live. Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?" (Ezekiel 18:19-23)

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. (Titus 2:11-14)

Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

“The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

“‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.

“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

“‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’” (Matthew 13:24-29)

The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

“As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. (Matthew 13:36-43)

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. (2 Peter 3:9-11)

God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. (II Thessalonians 1:6-10)