Marley: “My spirit never walked beyond our counting house. In life, my spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole.”
Scrooge: “No doubt of that. You always were a good man of business.”
Marley: “Business? Mankind was my business! The common welfare was my business. Charity, mercy, forbearance and benevolence were all my business!”
From A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
Periodically, the earth greets us with a disaster of some sort. On each occasion–whether it be an earthquake, a flood, a severe tropical storm, or in the present times, the onset of a deadly virus–we hear a familiar response from the Christian community. Typically, it begins with the following declarations:
“The end times are near!”
“Jesus is coming soon!”
