“Everyone can see it!” they say. “This year of AD ____ is the worst in human history!”

It was the end of November when Elizabeth II gave a speech on the anniversary of her accession as Queen. At the outset she stated that the year had been an Annus horribilis, a dreadful year. The marriages of three of her children ended in divorce. Windsor Castle had a huge fire. This was years before Diana was killed, 9/11, two wars in the Middle East, the pandemic. It was only 1992. If she meant to say – as I think all would – that “this has been an awful year for me and my family,” no-one would contradict her.

Why do I bring up a 30+ year old speech?

I am hearing in these months that we live in the most horrible time ever of human history. And that we can claim that the return of Christ MUST be immediate. When I ask why they think so, they stare at me as if I lived in a cave.

“Why, the WARS! Why, the MIDDLE EAST! Why, this EARTHQUAKE! Why, that HURRICANE! The FALSE TEACHING! The problems in the SCHOOLS! The PANDEMIC! Why the INFLATION! Why the price of OIL!”

Of course, some of these are falser than others:

“While so-and-so has been president, there is massive unemployment, skyrocketing oil price, spiraling inflation” is in this election year a political mantra, not a statement of fact. I spent a few minutes examining gas prices over the past few years, and at this moment they are very low. These statements are more attacks than statements of literal fact, and a reasonable person would see by doing a bit of research.

But let’s look at the claim: “This (it is now the beginning of 2024) year is uniquely horrible. The Bible says the End Times would be uniquely horrible. Therefore, we just be in the End Times.”

I know absolutely nothing about whether we are in the End Times or not – my Lord told me specifically not to worry my head about date-setting. So I will just ask about the first bit, that “This year is uniquely horrible.”

“Unique” or “worst ever” or “best ever” are strong words, absolute terms. Suppose you are at a restaurant, and you exclaim, “These are absolutely the worst French Fries EVER IN HUMAN HISTORY!” If you merely want to make an exaggerated statement, and want the server to take them back to the kitchen, then feel free to say so. But if, let’s say, you are going to star in a cooking show on cable; or plan to write a book on The History of Potatoes from Ancient Peru to Today, we would expect you to be more guarded with your language. “These French Fries are very poor quality!” is not as entertaining as going a rant, but it is more truthful.

My thought: I read a fair amount of human history, and literature from the 18^th century onward. And the more I read of human history, the less this year of 2024 seems to be uniquely horrible. Or especially awful. Or anything where one could say, “Read Matthew 24, look at 2024, and you cannot possibly miss the connection.”

If someone says, “Things can’t possibly be worse,” I don’t think they are kidding – but I do suspect that they lack imagination, one that should be fueled by a study of history. Real history. Not The History Channel. Certainly not cable news, whose job is to sell advertising stay, and thus keep you glued to the screen with announcements of dire emergency.

Here are some events that make me doubt the “uniquely evil” claim about our days.

Hundred Years War. It’s a silly joke: “How long did the Hundred Years War last?” It was actually 116 years, from 1337-1453. Hundreds of thousands of deaths. Many thought it was the end.

AD 1453. The Ottoman Turks, after a long struggle, finally captured the eastern seat of Christianity, Constantinople; marched into the Hagia Sofia church and had a clergyman chant the Muslim creed; massacred and enslaved the population. May 29, 1453, one of the worst days in Christian history. Martin Luther folded those same Turks into his views on Rome and said, the Turks were “the agents of the Devil who, along with the Antichrist located in the heart of the Catholic Church, Rome, would usher in the Last Days and the Apocalypse.”

The whole 14^th century. In her A Distant Mirror: The calamitous 14^th century, Barbara Tuchman produced in her readers the equivalent of people rubbernecking at the scene of a gruesome accident. Besides the Hundred Years War, the Catholic church produced iniquitous popes. There was an escalation in anti-Semitism. Oh, and the Black Plague – over a decade it carried away, often overnight, perhaps 25-30 million people. Whole towns were left empty, and free houses were there for the choosing. One of the worst centuries in human history.

I also recommend the Ingmar Bergman classic, “The Seventh Seal”, which deals with the Crusades, the Plague, war, death.

Puritans, late 1600s. In England and in New England, many Puritans were dead certain that the world could not become any more wicked, and that the end was nigh. To give them more proof, Charles II and James II began to impose Anglicanism on their subjects. Since many thought the pope was the antichrist, anything that smacked of a liturgical faith was a sign of the end.

Hell’s Half Acre. Just heard about this one! It is of local interest to me, since it used to exist just a couple of miles from where I grew up in Rhode Island. This was the nickname for a few pubs, gin joints, bordellos. On the menu for most nights: murder, prostitutes, fights, gambling, theft. So, when was this den of iniquity active? 1975? 1925? No – way back in the 1820s. Today it is covered with forest, and a hiking trail leads you to see the bare foundation of an old building.

First half of the 20^th century. WWI killed 40 million. Spanish Influenza killed 17-50 million. Then the Depression and “anarchy” in the US. Oh, and Mussolini; then Hitler; then Stalin.

Hunger: Hunger needs to be tackled, but don’t let anyone tell you it’s worse now than ever before: mortality due to hunger has dropped precipitously since the 1950s.

Teen Crime: I have just watched a documentary, “Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare” on Netflix (not light entertainment, but worth a watch). It was supposedly a “survival boot camp” for recalcitrant young people. They sold their parents on the idea that, in the 1980s teenagers were “suddenly [remember that word!] out of control, skipping school, taking drugs. Parents don’t know how to control their kids!” And that the parents should pay tens of thousands of dollars to the guru of discipline. His methods, first, were cruel, and second, did not work! Kids went home and got right back into drugs, including the son of the camp’s founder. “Kidnapped for Christ” (2014) is another documentary, about Escuela Caribe – take away the kids’ passports, isolate them in the Dominican Republic, and miracles will happen! “Kidnapped for Christ”. Here in Costa Rica, there was a scandal a few years ago about a similar tough-love program, set up for teens who – uniquely, now more than ever! – were turning evil. My point? 35 years ago, this year, and ten years from now, it will be claimed that “Kids are out of control as never before!” Some further thoughts: I am reading Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones. Old Tom is affable and likeable; he also lies to, seduces and impregnates local girls; gets into fights. When does the story take place, 2021? No! The early 1700s! Again: take a look at the movie “Reefer Madness”, aka “Tell Your Children” (the original from 1936, not the campy musical based upon it).

The problem with teens in the 1930s? Alcohol, drugs, reckless driving, hit and run resulting in manslaughter, murder, accidental fatal shootings. The movie makers might have been exaggerating for effect, but they weren’t making these things up. Most telling: the arrival of Juvenile Delinquents, or JD’s. Dads came home from the war in 1945 and found their kids tearing up the streets with hotrods, alcohol, illicit sex, arrests. (Part of the spike in the arrest rate, some argue, is because the police tightened up their policies and thus arrested more minors). AND of course, for those who remember the 1960s, our culture barely squeaked through because of the music, the long hair, the drugs, the psychedelics, the sex, the disrespect for authority.

ALL to say that, if anyone tells you that the youth of 2024 are uniquely awful because of: sex, drugs, disrespect for authority, lawbreaking. And of course, sure, exercise your parental authority! But claiming that we are living in a unique time of moral breakdown is hard to prove.

School, school prayer, evolution. Just finished a book that describes a movement by Christians to stop the schools from indoctrinating kids into evolution; for telling them the Bible is a myth; for the resulting use of alcohol, drugs, wild music, sex, easy divorce, disrespect for parental authority, women looking for equality. When was this, in the 21st century? No – in 1925!  (This from Jarrett’s The Trial of the Century, an interesting – if poorly written – history of the Scopes Trial).

Poverty: with the rise of industrialization through the first half of the 20^th century, a tiny minority had huge wealth in the so-called Gilded Age; factory works made a pittance, and this included child labor.

War: I just finished reading the history of the Byzantine Empire – from the AD 300s to 1453, the empire was in near constant war, as in, annually. Most countries in Europe and the Middle East, the same. It’s hard to keep this in mind, when we hear about years, now, of war in Ukraine, that that was the situation for the majority of the nations globally for most of its history, and that large percentages of adult men served as warriors. As casually mentions 2 Samuel 11 – “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him.” As Sherman said, “War is hell,” but it’s not unusual.

Two further thoughts: One thing we can say that is unique about our time is the 24/7 news cycle of cable news. This has been ramping up for the past 100 years, when radios first became a common home appliance and the news came on at the start of every hour. So a 24/7 news is very new, but not absolutely unique. Philadelphians can attest that KYW News Radio 1060 AM has been broadcasting news 24/7 for 55 years.

If someone wants to claim, “2024 is not exactly the worst, but things are going rapidly downhill and it will turn out to be the worst” – well, this is nothing that you and I can claim to know. Since a guess is irrelevant, then truly, “your guess is as good as mine.”

I invite people to read their Bibles with the closest attention; to read history – not just what politicians say about history – with close attention; and to turn off cable news.

“‘Everyone can see it!’ they say. ‘This year of AD ___ is the worst in human history!'”, by Gary S. Shogren, Professor of New Testament, Seminario ESEPA, San José, Costa Rica