Chill Out

By Steve Dennie
Acts 5:33-42

People freak out way too easily.

When the year 2000 rolled around, thousands of people horded freeze-dried food and built underground shelters, fearing the Y2K bug...which turned out to be nothing.

I’ve seen people get all worked up about End Times prophecies. A high school friend told me he didn’t intend to go to college, because his church told him Christ would return in a couple years. That was in 1973.

People get way too worked up about politics. They see George Bush, or Barack Obama, or the Tea Baggers, or whatever sinister forces Glenn Beck imagines, as leading to the end of America. They see socialists, communists, Nazis, gun confiscators, progressives, fundamentalists—whatever they fear--lurking under every bush.

Today, people keep talking about the Mayan calendar, which ends in 2012, implying that that’s when the world ends. The Mayans themselves pretty much ended in the 1400s, so I’m not too concerned.

Working for the denomination, I’ve seen younger ministers, excited about a certain proposal, grow apocalyptic when it doesn’t pass. As if the whole Great Commission is now stymied.

Anyway, people need to chill out.

That was Gamaliel’s advice in Acts 5. People in Jerusalem saw all these people flocking to Christianity, and verse 33 says, “They were furious and wanted to put them to death.”

I don’t know what Gamaliel thought of the Christians, whether he was for or against them. But here, he was the voice of reason. He stood up and basically said: “Hey, everybody—take a breath. Chill.”

He told people that this Christianity thing, if it’s false, will die out on its own. Just give it time, and it’ll go away. Prophets have come and gone, leaving no lasting impact. This Jesus will probably be the same way. So don’t get all worked up.

He also added that if it was the real thing, then there was nothing they could do to stop it. Which turned out to be the case.

But regardless, it was good advice. We need to quit listening to the alarmists who tell us the sky is falling, and just chill out. Things will work out.