I Will Come Like a Thief

In scripture, the book of revelation itself rejects any attempt to use its words to predict the time of the end. It quotes christ as exclaiming this striking phrase: I will come like a thief. Echoes similar disclaimers in the letters of paul and ter, as well as jesus emphatic statement in the gospels, no one knows the day or the hour. Radical uncertainty is ours to live with. Our troubled times are probably not the end of the world, but they may be manifestations of the plagues that revelation describes being poured out on humanity. That in itself, strangely enough, is reason for hope.