JOHN BRADSHAW - It Is Written

Where There’s Smoke...
Except for one thing. Phoenix, while guarding some
key danger men, had ignored one player. John Paxson,
then 32 years old and averaging just seven points a game,
took the ball behind the three-point line on a pass from
Grant and launched the ball toward the basket.
As the final seconds ticked away, the Phoenix Suns
players could only stand and watch their chance at
victory slip from their grasp. They had been aggressively
defending the Bulls’ standout players, while leaving the
real danger man unmarked. John Paxson’s shot won
the game—and the NBA finals—for Chicago. While
Phoenix was anticipating trouble from one area of the
court, they did not realize that the greatest danger at
the time was lurking elsewhere, unrecognized.
Many Christians are doing the same thing today.
While the Bible talks about a beast with a mark, a beast
that will deceive the world and whose followers will be
lost when Jesus returns, many people are looking for
trouble in all the wrong places.
Which is not to say that the focus of their attention
is harmless. There was a good chance Jordan or Pippen
would make the game-winning basket for Chicago.
It made sense for the Phoenix team to guard them.
But while people are fretting about shadowy, secretive
groups with barely understood modes of operation,
they’re missing the point as to where the end-time
danger really is.
No, Ronald Reagan was never going to be the beast
of Bible prophecy. Neither was Mikhail Gorbachev
or Saddam Hussein or King Juan Carlos of Spain.
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