B R A D M A C D O N A L D C O L U M N I S T

Danger Is Lurking
August 26, 2010 | From theTrumpet.com
Can you feel it? More importantly, how will you respond?
 

I n nature, the ability to sense danger is often the difference between life and death.

Take the herd of antelope grazing peacefully on the sun-soaked prairies of Africa. Danger stalks these
beasts constantly. They are the fillet mignon of lions, cheetahs and other carnivores prowling the
plains in search of fine dining.

For the antelope, staying alive is a function of their ability to sense danger and react quickly.

You’ve probably seen this scene: A herd of antelope grazes blithely, oblivious to the lion hunched
nearby in the tall grass, stealthily stalking his dinner. He crafts his assault, contemplating the best
attack route, the timing, the target. Suddenly, the peaceful colony becomes restless. Heads dart up,
ears twitch, noses whiff the ominous scent, alert eyes scan the horizon. A few beasts begin to move,
then suddenly, though the lion remains hidden, the herd stampedes.

The scene ends in one of two ways. Sometimes the antelope dodges death, sometimes a comrade is
taken. Whatever the case, the antelope’s keen sense of danger is what causes its preemptive
stampede, thereby reducing its chances of being killed by the lion. Hunters often see this life-saving
quality in action. Even the faintest scent of human odor is enough to arouse a sense of
danger, causing the prey to flee the crosshairs of the poised rifle.

Point is, life and death are often separated by a keen sense of crisis!

How keen is your sense of crisis? How acutely do you perceive the dangers facing your life, your
family and your nation? Does an accurate sense of crisis energize your actions and drive your life
forward?

You know this planet is being besieged by terrifying predators. Billions are stalked by starvation and
languish without water. Social anarchy rips through the Third World, and is creeping into the First.
National economies and the entire global financial system are on the lip of collapse. Instability is rife;
there are whispers of war all over the Earth. As the late Herbert Armstrong warned over and over,
“human survival” is now our number-one problem.

Like the antelope grazing on the prairie, the proximity of these many lethal predators is palpable. It
ought to arouse a sense of crisis inside us so deep that we feel a motivating urge to flee danger. But
sadly, most people simply stand there, obliviously grazing on the prairie.
Why?

There are two reasons. First, human nature dislikes and readily discards the truth when it threatens to
disrupt one’s own interests and desires. The human mind will go to extreme lengths to hide from the
truth or at least color it, if the truth demands a certain response. The thing about possessing a sense
of crisis is that it allows no leeway for inaction. When a human is frightened or faces immediate
danger, the brain demands fight or flight. A person either jumps up and fights, or quickly
takes flight. Either way, if your sense of crisis is working, you automatically react.

If you have no sense of crisis, you don’t react. The British and American societies as a whole are boats
that don’t want to be rocked. We want inaction and passivity—we want everything to just stay the
same. The U.S. and the UK manage external threats by relying on diplomacy and appeasement,
because for the moment this course of action doesn’t rock the boat. They create environments that
sanction economic irresponsibility rather than curbing it. We pass laws approving moral depravity or
suicidal national policies because that’s easier than creating and enforcing laws that would prevent
these crises.

Because we have a weak sense of crisis, and none at all in many cases, we have weak solutions, weak
reactions, and weak defenses against the creeping lion. Instead of sprinting toward safety, we’re
walking blithely into the mouth of the crises.

Second, this individual and collective lack of crisis detection is the by-product of a self-
gratifying culture. Too many people are like the antelope that is so consumed with gorging itself on
lush green grass that it fails to sense the predator stalking a meal of its own. Absorbed in materialism
and an unbalanced desire for satisfying the senses, our people have simply lost touch with reality!

We are blinded by selfishness!

In Matthew 24:36-39, Jesus Christ describes the time of Noah, when mankind was consumed with
gratifying fleshly lusts and had no sense of crisis. Mankind was then shocked when the heavens
opened and the flood came. Notice why Christ rehearsed the account of Moses before His disciples. In
verse 27, He states that just as the Flood came and struck the world at Noah’s time, “so shall also the
[second] coming of the Son of man be.”

Ask yourself: How keen is my sense of crisis?

When you look at this world do you see it as being full of deadly predators that can take your life? Do
you feel you must act? We all need this reality check from time to time. Like the antelope, we must go
about our daily activities, feeding and watering our minds and our bodies, and those of our families.
But these duties must be performed selflessly and with a watchful, vigilant, outward-focused mindset.
We must look for the danger and act on it!

“Watch ye therefore, and pray always,” Christ warned in Luke 21, “that ye may be accounted worthy
to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (verse 36).

When you get an accurate sense of the crises confronting your nation, your life and your family, you
will assuredly feel the urge to flee the danger. Confronted on every side, you might feel there is no
safe place to run. This is not true. In the same way God protected Noah from the Flood with the ark,
God’s promises to provide His faithful people a safe place to hide from the horrors of the events that
precede Jesus Christ’s return.

That’s the beautiful thing about possessing a godly sense of danger: It comes with a reassuring sense
of hope. When we sense danger, we can and must run to God!

To learn more about the place of safety that God will provide for His people, and how you can be
there, read Chapter 5 of our free booklet Daniel—Unsealed at Last! •

Brad Macdonald’s column appears every Thursday.

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