“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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