Last week New Zealanders were urged to prepare. Get ready. Stock up. Be alert.
And many did — batteries, bottled water, toilet paper, the usual panic buying staples. Some even checked their torches or filled the car. But let’s be honest: how many actually had a grab bag ready? How many genuinely prepared? And how many shrugged, scoffed, and said, “It won’t happen.”
In the end, for most of the country, it was a non event. The storm fizzled. Life carried on.
But that reaction — the warnings, the scoffing, the last minute scrambling — is exactly the pattern Jesus pointed to when He said, “Just as it was in the days of Noah…” (Matthew 24). People heard the warnings. They laughed. They carried on. And then the moment arrived.
For years, God’s people have been sounding a far greater alarm than any MetService bulletin. Even Jesus Himself warned His disciples: “Watch out that no one deceives you.” Yet the world treats biblical warnings the same way it treats weather alerts — with a mix of mild interest, mild irritation, and mild disbelief.
But in the back of people’s minds, there’s always that nagging question:
What if this one is real?
We live in a coastal nation where storms can form overnight and tear through communities without warning. We accept that reality. We prepare for it. We know we’re vulnerable to the elements.
But we are also vulnerable to something far bigger — the global shifts happening around us. The world is aligning, reshaping, and centralising power in ways that match the very warnings Scripture has spoken about for centuries. The rise of a global system. The tightening of economic control. The increasing expectation that people comply “for the greater good.” The Bible describes a time when buying, selling, and travelling will be restricted without allegiance to that system.
For many, that still sounds far fetched. But so did the idea of a global shutdown — until it happened. So did the idea of digital passes — until they arrived. So did the idea of worldwide coordination — until we watched it unfold.
The Bible is clear: a leader will emerge who offers the world what it desperately wants — peace. A charismatic figure who seems to have the answers. A stabiliser. A unifier. A counterfeit saviour. Scripture calls him the man of lawlessness, the antichrist. And yes, there will be peace for a time. A deceptive peace.
The world is waiting for leadership. But not everyone is waiting for the leader Paul warned the Thessalonians about. A smaller number — shrinking by the day — are waiting for the true Saviour, Jesus Christ, who promised He would return.
Some will scoff. They always have. They scoffed at Noah. They scoff at weather warnings. They scoff at biblical prophecy.
But scoffing doesn’t stop storms.
And scoffing won’t stop what God has said will come.
The question isn’t whether these momentous events will happen.
The question is simple, confronting, and unavoidable:
Are you ready?
You can laugh it off. You can roll your eyes. You can say, “I’ve heard it all before.”
But deep down, many are quietly wondering:
What if this time… it’s real?
