The Life and Times of Allen Roberts

"Ahhhh, the simple life." Allen Roberts mumbled under his breath as he deflated into his easy chair. After a stressful day at the firm, the only thing he wanted to do was sit back and dream of "the simple life." He turned up the volume on the TV, and got into an old western on the screen. This ritual was like a meditation for him. Vicariously riding across the prairie under the big open sky helped him to almost believe that his stress from today would be gone tomorrow.

It wasn’t the class action lawsuit, or missing his connecting flight to Chicago that bothered him. Neither was it the road rage at rush hour, nor the toilet overflowing after the plumber supposedly fixed it. What troubled him was the news he heard at lunch about Bob and Lynn Sherman. Their nice family was splitting up for no apparent reason. Allen felt sick as he imagined how their children felt. They were friends of his children so that made it close to home. He knew they were probably trying to harden themselves inside to cover over the pain and sense of betrayal.

Families falling apart happened so frequently that it was shaking his security. It wasn’t even a week ago that Ralph Evans left his faithful wife and children announcing that he was gay, to pursue an apparent "gender preference" that, until recently, didn’t seem to have been a problem at all. His drastic change not only devastated his family, but left Allen having to explain to his daughter what happened to her best friend’s father and why he still came over for business socials. When he heard his daughter say how afraid she was to ever get married, Allen found himself bankrupt of answers with tears running down his cheeks. Allen could hardly say what he really felt. He was afraid he might offend someone at work and lose his job.

Do you know anyone like Allen Roberts? The flood of evil accepted by society made his insides churn. Even the things he got his security from — a luxurious condominium and a handsome retirement plan — seemed so empty in the face of all the moral erosion. Are you like Allen Roberts? Do you feel turmoil too? Are you under pressure to shut up and tolerate people who call good evil and evil good?

One of the signs that Paul the Apostle wrote about in the Bible when he foresaw these last days, is that people will become lovers of themselves, greedy, arrogant, and rebellious to their parents. They will be ungrateful, slanderers, haters of good, reckless, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, and inventors of evil. They know God’s laws in their conscience, that those who practice such things deserve to die, yet they not only do them but even give hearty approval to those who practice them (2 Timothy 3:1-5 & Romans 1:29-32).

You may protest the polluting of the environment, but do you protest the polluting of people’s consciences? The prophet Isaiah 2700 years ago said that the whole earth would be polluted one day, because its inhabitants violated the everlasting covenant written in their conscience. And Earth’s inhabitants will be held guilty and punished.[1]

The prophet Daniel 2600 years ago said that in the last days knowledge would be greatly increased and men would go to and fro on the earth.[2] Yes, we are the generation who has seen these prophecies fulfilled right before our very eyes — moral values have shifted, knowledge and travel have greatly increased, and the earth has been polluted like no other time before, reaching all the way to the outer atmosphere.

It’s amazing that the truth was revealed to these men so long ago! We had better pay attention. These men not only foretold doom, but also foretold that salvation in the last days would come from a twelve-tribed nation of people who allow themselves to be purified to become the light to the world.[3]