It’s hard to imagine but it was ten years ago that the world watched the New Year role in with great fear and anxiety. The culprit: Y2K! That little computer glitch that had the world in a panic as the clocks on computers wouldn’t know how to role over into a new century.
Y2K fears were many: banks would be shut down, power grids would black out as computers around the world would shut down because the computers’ clocks wouldn’t be able to roll over from “1999” to “2000. People horded food during the year leading up to when at the stroke of midnight, the world as we knew it would end. Of course it didn’t end and very few problems were attributed to the Y2K or Millennium Bug.
However, looking back over the last decade, one can’t help but think that the fear generated by that fateful date was more of an icon for the coming ten years than one would have imagined. Consider the following:
- Terror was ushered to the center stage of the world when on September 11, 2001, when it witnessed two planes crashing into the “World Trade Center”.
- Two wars; thousands of lives gone and terror still looms larger than before.
- The Doomsday Scenario of planetary destruction by mankind on the environment was perpetuated by politicians, scientist and scam artists.
- Pandemic events from bird flu to H1N1 flu, governments and organizations world wide swung into a media frenzy perpetuating fear to the masses.
- International banking stared into the abyss as a near systemic financial collapse enveloped nations (and it still lingers behind the scenes).
- And now Iran stands on the threshold of securing nuclear materials to usher in a “global chaos” to force the Mahdi out of hiding to institute a world-wide Islamic society.
And like the closing act of decade long Broadway play, on Christmas Day, a Nigerian man tries to blow up an airplane preparing to land with a cocktail bomb sewed into his underwear. And the wheel of fear is once again given a spin.
So just as ten years ago people entered into the year 2000 with fear and anxiety, polls shows that the number one thing on people’s minds deal with fear of a terror strike and all that it entails.
Yet with all this looming on the horizon, 2010 also holds out the bright promise of hope. For when the world sees turmoil, confusion and fear, for those of us who know the truth, it is a period of blessed assurance. Like never before, the fulfillment of biblical prophecies are swiftly taking shape. It is evidence to those that know God, that He is in control and that nothing catches Him by surprise.
So as events continue to move us in the direction foretold, Jesus promised that the generation that witnessed the beginning will not pass until all these things are fulfilled. He also told us that in the last days, peoples hearts would fail them for the fear of the things happening on the earth.
So as the New Year dawns with all its anxieties and questions, remember: No Jesus, No Peace; Know Jesus, Know Peace!

