I Wish We'd All Been Ready

I have been thinking about this for a while now but never wrote about it because it seemed rather too theological for me to try to speak to. But I've come to the realization that if I never talk about things I do not completely comprehend, I will never speak. And we all know that ain't happening. So here it goes.
The Rapture, Second Coming, Tribulation, Mark of the Beast. The Anti-Christ.
When I was a kid, this whole End Times thing was terrifying. At times, it was a constant thought. Am I saved? Will I be left behind? Who is the Anti-Christ? Is he a baby now? A man? My age? Hey! Was that a trumpet?
If you were raised in church, I've got to think some of you have had the same experience. At least in the 1970s Pentecostal church we were kept holy via terror of someone writing 666 on our foreheads in Sharpie. Seriously, I laid awake at night fearing the Rapture and praying to stay saved at least through the night. Then I started hearing about Pre-Trib, Post-Trib, Mid-Trib, Armageddon...this is why I now work in mental health. I lost my mind and my eye sight staring to the East. Because it was such a huge fear in my childhood, in adulthood I made myself face the whole Revelations thing head-on and get a grip on it. I didn't do a deep scriptural research project or travel to the Holy Land or call the Pope or anything. I thought it through and made a decision to get over it. I can't do anything but live for Christ now and face the rest of time as it unfolds. If the Rapture happens after the Tribulation and it happens during my life time, there it is. How in the world am I going to change that? I'd best just get to living knowing that God will be sufficient however my days are spent.
One thing I have figured out is the Anti-Christ. Many smarter people than I probably have a better handle on this, but I'm putting my thoughts out there for the rest of you Beast watchers. I don't think the Anti-Christ is some little boy adopted in Italy with weird writing under his hair. I don't think there is some evil infant out there that we need to hunt down and eliminate. I think that throughout all of time, there has been someone evil enough to be used for this purpose. There has always been some fool who wants to lift himself above God and will give in to his own arrogance in exchange for his soul. Who will believe in himself above God. The Anti-Christ, I think, has always walked the earth. And always will. Until...
Until we decide it is time to give him the power for which he hungers. Until we stop seeking after God and righteousness and holiness. We have stopped the Hitlers and all who came before him. But someday; we, humanity, will decide that we can tolerate one more thing. And one more. And one more. And that we can separate our desire for wealth from our desire for God. And we can look the other way and let someone else make the decisions. We will be drawn to pretty words and warm smiles and promises of ease.
And we will have the spirit of the Anti-Christ. Or at least, we will welcome him. We will sit quietly and let him ascend as long as our little lives are not too bothered. We will assume someone else will be the warrior to stop him. We will believe another generation, (before or after ours), is called to battle.
When we get tired or selfish or lazy or stupid enough; it will be time.
I know my great grandparents and my grandparents stopped him. I know that it is time for my parents and I to stop him.
And I must teach my children and grand children to stop him.
But someday, we will not stop him. We will welcome him. And with him, the end of time.
This year is much scarier than the 1970s.

1 John 4:2-4 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.