Stay Out of the Stirring Pot.

I have heard?  Yes.
Have I seen the report on the NBC network making a joke of Jesus Christ's return? No.
It is bothersome but Jesus doesn't need to be defended.  HE'S GOD.
A god that needs to be defended is no god at all.  Remember the bible story of Gideon?

"Bring out your son," they shouted to Joash. "He must die for destroying the altar of Baal and for cutting down the Asherah pole." But Joash shouted to the mob,"Why are you defending Baal?  Will you argue his case?  Whoever pleads his case will be put to death by morning! If Baal truly is a god, let him defend himself and destroy the one who knocked down the his alter!  From then on Gideon was called Jerubbaal, which means "Let Baal defend himself," because he knocked down Baal's alter." Judges 6:30-32

Am I surprised at this lack of respect by NBC?  No.  It is part of the world so is speaks as the world speaks.

Do I think this disregard will bring Jesus Christ to the forefront of people's minds?  We can hope for inquiring minds.  God can use anything to help save the lost - God can even use what the devil meant to destroy to bring people to himself.  

Why do we have to ask ourselves as Christians, "Why this scoffing and disregard for Jesus?"  Jesus foretold us that events like this would happen?  

 Later, Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives. His disciples came to him privately and said, “Tell us, when will all this happen? What sign will signal your return and the end of the world?” ⁴ Jesus told them, “Don’t let anyone mislead you, ⁵ for many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah.’ They will deceive many. ⁶ And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won’t follow immediately. ⁷ Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. ⁸ But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come.
⁹ “Then you will be arrested, persecuted, and killed. You will be hated all over the world because you are my followers.¹⁰ And many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other. ¹¹ And many false prophets will appear and will deceive many people. ¹² Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold. ¹³ But the one who endures to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come." Mathew 24:3-14

Jude spoke of this as well, "In the last times there would be scoffers who purpose in life is to enjoy themselves in every evil way imaginable.  Now they are here, and they are the ones creating divisions among you.  They live by natural instinct because they do not have God's Spirit living in them." Jude 1:18-19

Why this hate and persecution?  People foolishly deny the truth and make fun of the truth so they don't have to face the truth.  They make fun to make themselves feel better.  But that is dangerous if they continue to think that way.  "But God shows his anger from heaven against the sinful, wicked people who push the truth away from themselves." Romans 1:18

People hate and persecute what they don't understand but Jesus said what? 
18 "When the world hates you, remember it hated me before it hated you. 19 The world would love you if you belonged to it, but you don't. I chose you to come out of the world, and so it hates you. 20 Do you remember what I told you? 'A servant is not greater than the master.' Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you! 21 The people of the world will hate you because you belong to me, for they don't know God who sent me. 22 They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them. But now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Anyone who hates me hates my Father, too. 24 If I hadn't done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be counted guilty. But as it is, they saw all that I did and yet hated both of us -- me and my Father. 25 This has fulfilled what the Scriptures said: 'They hated me without cause.' John 15:18-25 (NLT)

Peter wrote, "Be happy if you are insulted for being a Christian, for then the glorious Spirit of God will come upon you.  If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing,  making trouble, or prying into other people's affairs.  But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian.  Praise God for the privilege of being called by his wonderful name!  For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin first among God's own children.  And if even we Christians must be judged, what terrible fate awaits those who have never believed God's Good News?  And 'If the righteous are barely saved, what chance will the godless and sinners have?'" 1Peter 4:14-18

People who do these hateful things don't understand the depth and truth and reality of Jesus Christ.  To them Jesus Christ is a religion.  They throw him on the stockpile of all other religions not realizing they are grouping God with mere idols and mere men.  They may know Jesus was a real man but they don't realize he is also God, the Son of God, who paid the price for our sin.  Can I blame them?  No!  For once I was just as blind and deaf to the truth as they are.  The true reality of Jesus Christ was not made known to me until I was born-again.  Even though I considered myself a Christian because I prayed to God on occasion and celebrated Easter, Christmas and participated in Christian activities, my measure faith was a mere skeleton of bones before I was born-again.   There was no organs, flesh, muscles of faith on me at that time.  I am reminded of Ezekiel.
   

Ezekiel 37:1-10 The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones. ² He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out. ³ Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?”

“O Sovereign Lord,” I replied, “you alone know the answer to that.”
⁴ Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord! ⁵ This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! ⁶ I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
⁷ So I spoke this message, just as he told me. Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons. ⁸ Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them.
⁹ Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’”
¹⁰ So I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies. They all came to life and stood up on their feet—a great army.

 
So try not to be hypocritical, you and I too were ONCE the same in as those who didn't consider anything sacred how how our sinful thinking and actions separated us God.

In order for them to see the truth and come to realize the truth, they must be born again just as we were born again.  This was not by any imagination or human effort but by faith in Jesus Christ and the grace of God.  This faith changed our heart and opened our eyes and ears.   We were born-again.  We became a new creature in Christ Jesus and now we know and truly believe.


Jesus said "I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God." John 3:3

Jesus continued, "I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.  Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.  So don't be surprised when I say, 'You must be born again'.  The wind blows wherever it wants.  Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit."  John 3:5-8

The Holy Spirit comes when you genuinely give your life to Jesus.  

2 Corinthians 5:17 says "This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!"

^"No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.  When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.  But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.  Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. For, “Who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?" 1 Corinthians 2:11-16

The Apostle Paul, who once use to help hunt down, kill, imprison, and persecute Christians because of their faith in Jesus Christ, was saved by the Lord Jesus Christ.   Paul dedicating the rest of his life to serve Jesus Christ said this:  ^"If the Good News we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing.  Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God."  2 Corinthians 4:3-4

Paul is saying these people are mere puppets of the devil. They are driven by the spirit of deception/ the spirit of this world.   They don't know what they are doing.  They don't care what they are doing because they have been blinded by the Devil.  Satan has them so wrapped up in HIS world and THE understanding he wants them to BELIEVE that they can't see or understand the saving message of Jesus Christ hence they will perish because they choose to be affirmed by the false ideals of this world instead of God.  (It reminds me of the movie of the matrix.  They believe what they see which is false then not believe in what they can't see which is true.)  

People put their value in the things of this world instead of in the Creator- who created them and has a plan for them.  A plan- out of the hamster wheel they continue to run on day after day chasing after "things" to give them a so-called "good life".  You might as well be a dog chasing their own tail.  In that scheme nothing will ever be good enough and/or satisfying enough.

I was watching a documentary called "happy" and it spoke of a phenomenon happening in Japan and is spreading across the world where people are dying in their thirties and forties from being over worked.   They call it Karoshi.   

(Australian Institute of Marketing) AIM website said this: "Over 10,000 people die from overwork each year in Japan alone, according to conservative estimates.  It affects workers of all ages and occupations, including middle and upper-level managers. The Japanese government now recognizes karoshi as a legal cause of death, and victim's families are entitled to compensation."

Little comfort that provides.  Money does not replace lives lost and maybe lost to all eternity.   The hamster wheel lie kills.
    
Busy people, lost in the hustle and bustle of life take little thought if any at all of their need for Jesus Christ as their Savior and Shepherd in life.   When I was up visiting family in the Pacific Northwest I loved to look at the islands and mountains and when I mentioned how much I missed them, my siblings told me that they forget they are even there sometimes.  God is like those beautiful surroundings that we forget to glance at and pay attention to - He is there for us.
 
The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:1-4 "But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: ² For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, ³ unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, ⁴ traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,"
 
The Apostle Peter writes,  "Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. ⁴ They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.” ⁵ They deliberately forget that God made the heavens by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water. ⁶ Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood. ⁷ And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed. ⁸ But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. ⁹ The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. ¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment. 2 Peter 3:3-10

God's word is living.  He knew what would be on our doorstep and what we would be faced with so it is a great gift to have these encouraging words to lift up our soul.   Jesus spoke them to his disciples knowing all what they would face.

“God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him,
    for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.  

God blesses those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted. 

 God blesses those who are humble,
    for they will inherit the whole earth.

 God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice,
    for they will be satisfied. 

God blesses those who are merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy. 

God blesses those whose hearts are pure,
    for they will see God.

 God blesses those who work for peace,
    for they will be called the children of God. 

 God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right,
    for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.   

“God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way. Matthew 5:3-12

Having God's assurance we then can see things a bit differently and we can have compassion and pity on those who don't know the LORD.  

  

God is our the source of our strength, comfort, and confidence, and peace Jesus tells us to do something we cannot due without having GOD being first or foremost focus in our life.  “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy.  But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!  In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that.  But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." Matthew 5:43-48

"May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you,  O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Psalm 19:14