TESTIMONY: Preoccupation with signs about the end of times took my focus away from what is important.

I recently recieved an email invite to an event titled Signs of Christ’s return. It was a free event but I chose to ignore the invitation because the subject is a turnoff for me.

I am generally not interested in teachings or anything to do with identifying the signs of Christ’s return or signs for the end of times.

The reason I have this attitude towards this subject is that when I was in primary school we had a teacher who in her effort to teach us about the Gospel spent a lot of time telling us about the end of times and the consequences for us if we do not repent.

I don't know which church she belonged to but they seemed to have a lot of graphic literature about the end of times.She happily shared those books with us and they left me traumatized. I still remember to this day how I felt reading the books then as if it was yesterday.

When I got to high school I joined the Student Christian Movement(SCM) because it offered me refuge from the ‘initiation ritual’ which was done to new students at the boarding school I attended. With the benefit of hindsight I now believe I also joined partly because of the fear I carried from the teachings of my primary school teacher.

I quit the SCM a year later because I felt that the standard for living a Christian life was too high for the likes of me and I could not cope with it.

My primary school teacher’s preoccupation with the signs for the end of times and return of Christ had the following consequences for me.

I did not learn anything about God - I put in a lot of effort trying to save myself so I can avoid the consequences of hell. I worked very hard for my salvation but I did not learn anything about God.
I focused on what I can do for God - God’s will for his children is to expand his Kingdom on earth through them but I was so scared of the consequences of hell that I was more focused on what I can do for God instead of focusing on what God wants to do through me.

I was not led to Salvation - It was only in 2019 that I learned that salvation is a free gift from God that cannot be earned. The scare tactic used by my primary school teacher did not lead me to salvation instead it led me to the opposite direction where I thought I can only be right with God in my own strength.

Not  so long ago in 2020 some within the Christian faith were having conversations whether this is the sign that the end is near. I was still new to my faith and these conversations did not add any value to my Spiritual growth.

Jesus Christ is coming back whether or not I keep a lookout for the signs. The preoccupation with when he is coming back takes away my focus and makes me an ineffective follower of Christ.

For now I will stay away from anything that takes my focus away from this life because my goal is to be an effective vessel that God can use to impact society and make this world a better place.