Wednesday, July 31, 2013

The Gathering Storms of Tomorrow in the Light of Today’s Responsibility


“Occupy till I come” (Luke 19:13).

It is interesting that when Jesus was crucified, just before he died on the cross, there was 3 HOURS of darkness (maybe presaging the three days he was to endure in the bowels of hell before God raised him from the dead).  Anyways, perhaps the resurrection, which took place immediately after he endured the darkness of hell and separation from God for our sakes, is like the coming Day of the Lord.  God arriving on the scene (the Second Coming or Day of the Lord), like Jesus arising from the dead, are both cataclysmic and cosmic events to be sure, and they both come only after dark periods of time, either 3 days/hours of time (or of some duration of time anyways). 

Of course, the resurrection was and is the most brilliant of all days, the most illuminated day of all time, resplendent in glory and a day of great joy for all of mankind.  Likewise, his Second Coming or the Day of the Lord ought to be a day of joy too, even eclipsing the resurrection dawn with its noontime zenith.  In other words, an end of a thing is greater than the beginning of a thing, and therefore his Second Coming is a brighter display of his glory than even that glorious day he first crested the horizon as he stepped out of the grave and into our hearts on Resurrection Day.

But because the Second Coming is an end of a thing, the culmination of all that the Resurrection Day started, promised, and represented, it is inherently also a day of judgment.  You and I and all these prophetic types are so prone to morose and dark foreboding—and this is no indictment for being that way—but it sometimes infuses everything we see with only the negative outcome possibility rather than the positive outcome possibility.  A soldier who had grossly sinned by participating in the crucifixion of the Lord of life witnessed 3 hours of darkness followed by Jesus’ death, an earthquake and the rending of the temple veil, and then the extraordinary resurrection of many “bodies of the saints” who was then seen by people walking about in the holy city; it was enough to seemingly convert him as he declared: “Truly this was the Son of God!”  Likewise, the Day of the Lord, which because of its enormity of scale and import, is both scary and invigorating, consisting of both darkness/gloom and light/joy.  Many will be undone, but some will be done, and done altogether.

Anyways, a pattern was established long ago, and the outcome is joy though the process be sad.  But when will these things be?  The apostles thought they would happen in their day, and I heard say “it’s imminent,” and a friend of mine heard “Rachael weeping for her children,” and we both heard “Jacob’s Trouble.”  Of these things I have no doubt.  But will planet X destroy us exactly in Sept. of this year as someone predicted?  Or will it ever be because of planet X that we get destroyed?  My head is looking up because of the things I am hearing, as instructed to be by Scripture, but I cannot rely on extant words the way I rely on the sure word of the Logos or Bible.  I believe in the cumulative and corporate spirit of all that has been said, but I am unsure of the literalness of it.  As someone said concerning interpretation, something like not knowing anything until it comes to pass, and correspondingly related to the final line of Wm Cowper’s poem Light Shining out of Darkness, which is: “God is his own interpreter, and he will make it plain,” I agree.  Ultimately, however, we must both work and anticipate, acting like He’ll never return on one hand, and acting like He’ll return at any moment on the other hand.          


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