Conspiracy Futility

There is a new pope in town...or at least in Vatican City. His name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio, but he has chosen the name Francis to be known by. Interestingly, he is the first pope to do several things:
1. He is the first pope from the Americas.
2. He is the first pope born from outside Europe since Gregory III.
3. He is the first Jesuit pope.

That last one is the one that has many people talking. Especially Adventists. The election of this pope has caused a firestorm of controversy in thinking that a Jesuit pope is going to be the one to bring the final events to a close. Thanks to folks like Walter Veith and others of his ilk, many have unwittingly become date setters. Just because a Jesuit pope has been elected is not a guarantee that THIS pope will be the one who causes the downfall of the world.

In fact, many people have even taken to an old prophecy of the seven popes to justify that it HAS to be Francis. For those who do know, Revelation 17 talks about 7 kings: 5 fallen, 1 is, and 1 is yet to come and when he comes he is only in power a short time. Now some Adventists have taken the idea that the healing of the wound of the beast was in 1929, so they then count 7 popes from that period. The seventh pope was Benedict who was in power for a "short" time. There are several problems with this:
1. Who determines what a "short" time is? What does that mean? I mean, Jesus Himself said He was coming quickly...is "short" shorter than "quickly"? The Bible doesn't clear this up.
2. There are two popes who came before Benedict (John XXIII and John Paul I) who both served shorter terms than Benedict. In fact, Benedict served longer than both of the aforementioned popes COMBINED.

Some will not care about this, but the unfortunate problem is that some will. Jesus is coming when He comes. We have to rely and live according to the timing of God not our own. Remember when the writer of Hebrews said:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.-Heb. 11:1

We are called to live by faith. That means we won't have all the answers now. It is safer to live by what God has revealed, than what we think. God knows the end from the beginning...we don't.