So, how ‘bout we start at the beginning. Creation vs. the big bang. Religion v. science. Everyone’s convinced they contradict, everyone thinks they’re mutually exclusive. But I hear the two sides debate and I don’t see the conflict. God (the one Abraham believed in) says He spoke it all into being out of nothingness, science tells us out of nothingness kaboom there it was. That same God says He took a single rib to separate the woman from the man… science tells us a single gene is all the separates the male and female zygotes. The world’s top propeller heads all say that 90% of what makes up the universe we can’t see or detect… but for their sub atomic theory to work there has to be an even larger plane of existence that we are separated from. The God of Abraham tells us there is indeed a whole ‘nother realm, one we are yes currently exiled from.
I’m sorry, but I just don’t see how those stories conflict. Maybe it’s in how it’s read to you. Or who reads it to you. The voices that read into humanity’s mind sure work hard and long to convince us they do. Them same voices that tell mankind what insane thing to do next – and makes it sound plausible enough that we go ahead and do it.
God creates… creation. The stars, planets, nebulas and such. He also creates life... animal, vegetable … the heavenly host. Ah yes, the heavenly host. Those Angels, Seraphim, Cherubim and such that everyone hears about at Christmas time but really have no idea who or what they are, other than looking pretty up on the tree.
Ok, I digress. Back to the story. God creates man, and gives man authority over creation. ‘I’ll walk with you, talk with you, lend you an ear and give you advice, but in the end what you say goes’ was God’s deal with Adam. As the authority over all creation, that meant man’s authority also fell over the heavenly host. It became their job to facilitate the exercise of man’s authority over creation, and man’s relationship with God. But 1/3 of the host didn’t like being servants, they wanted to call the shots and have man serve them. I call these the heavenly horde. So they get Adam to hand over his authority to them.
God comes along one morning and discovers this, and says ‘fine that’s the way you want it that’s the way you can have it; get outta my sight all of you’. And thus man and our little 10% of the universe were exiled. But as Adam was walking away God called out to him, and promised ‘some day I’ll send someone to make this right. Just hold on to that and believe in Me’.
Time marches on and man’s numbers grow. Under the authority of and accomplice to the heavenly horde man has abandoned God. It gets to the point where only one man in all of creation still believes in God, and that He’s going to do what He said He would. So one day God says ‘fine, Abraham, you’re the only one who wants it, you’re the only one who gets it. When I send someone to set this straight, that which He reclaims shall belong you and your family alone.’ That was the promise of God to Abraham, and how his family came to be known as ‘the chosen people’. God chose them to receive His redemption because they chose to want it when frankly no one else cared to.
Time marches on again, man’s numbers grow even more. Gets to a point where there are many outside the family of Abraham who have come to believe in God and His promise, while many inside the family have grown cold and stale to Him. But God can’t go back on His promise, that wouldn’t be, well, God like. He makes allowance for individuals who really want it to enter the family, but for redemption to be given en masse to the masses, those to whom it was promised must say sorry they don’t want it and take a pass.
And so that’s what they did. God sent His Messiah in a form which they would never recognize or accept. Which they didn’t, rejecting Him in the most assured way possible. But it is only because of their rejection of that which was promised to them that that Messiah is now able to say, ‘OK, is there anyone else out there who would like to be in on this deal?’
And I say Messiah, because I don’t want to push Jesus on anyone here. That turns most humans off these days. My feeling is, understanding what the Messiah does is far more important than who the Messiah is. And, once you understand the what, the who becomes a whole lot clearer.
Fast forward again. Some think we’re at the end of the age, end of the world, the end of something, but we’re not quite sure of what… We’d like to know what’s up ahead of us. There’s lots of passages that tell about it, and even more people willing to tell you what those passages say. But I’m really only interested in what one person has to say… I want to hear from the Guy who’s going to bring it all. So that’s what we will do here. We will pose a question, and see what Jesus had to say about it. And with that as a base we will then see how other passages build on His words.
Another point - we also need to understand how time and eternity interact. Most people think time is linear - there’s eternity at one end, then a time line, then eternity at the other end. But that’s wrong. What we need to picture is a wheel. A wheel has a hub and a rim. Imagine God and eternity existing in the hub, and time running along the rim. With this reference in mind we can see how, like randomly inserted spokes, God can reach out and touch any point in time, at any point in time. We also need to understand that what happens in one realm reflects upon the other… the two interact much like the light caught between two facing mirrors. What happens in one reflects in the other back to the first and returning again and again in an endless chain.
As a side note to that, this brings up the role of praise and thanksgiving for answered prayer, as our worship goes into the eternal hub before God, Who can then react upon it at any point in time, including our past, influencing the outcome of what we’re rejoicing over before it ever happens.
Confusing? You bet. So, we’ll worry more about what will happen, then if any clues come our way as to the timing we’ll note them.
OK, now that we’re together, let’s ask that most obvious of questions.
What will the end be like?
I’m sorry, but I just don’t see how those stories conflict. Maybe it’s in how it’s read to you. Or who reads it to you. The voices that read into humanity’s mind sure work hard and long to convince us they do. Them same voices that tell mankind what insane thing to do next – and makes it sound plausible enough that we go ahead and do it.
God creates… creation. The stars, planets, nebulas and such. He also creates life... animal, vegetable … the heavenly host. Ah yes, the heavenly host. Those Angels, Seraphim, Cherubim and such that everyone hears about at Christmas time but really have no idea who or what they are, other than looking pretty up on the tree.
Ok, I digress. Back to the story. God creates man, and gives man authority over creation. ‘I’ll walk with you, talk with you, lend you an ear and give you advice, but in the end what you say goes’ was God’s deal with Adam. As the authority over all creation, that meant man’s authority also fell over the heavenly host. It became their job to facilitate the exercise of man’s authority over creation, and man’s relationship with God. But 1/3 of the host didn’t like being servants, they wanted to call the shots and have man serve them. I call these the heavenly horde. So they get Adam to hand over his authority to them.
God comes along one morning and discovers this, and says ‘fine that’s the way you want it that’s the way you can have it; get outta my sight all of you’. And thus man and our little 10% of the universe were exiled. But as Adam was walking away God called out to him, and promised ‘some day I’ll send someone to make this right. Just hold on to that and believe in Me’.
Time marches on and man’s numbers grow. Under the authority of and accomplice to the heavenly horde man has abandoned God. It gets to the point where only one man in all of creation still believes in God, and that He’s going to do what He said He would. So one day God says ‘fine, Abraham, you’re the only one who wants it, you’re the only one who gets it. When I send someone to set this straight, that which He reclaims shall belong you and your family alone.’ That was the promise of God to Abraham, and how his family came to be known as ‘the chosen people’. God chose them to receive His redemption because they chose to want it when frankly no one else cared to.
Time marches on again, man’s numbers grow even more. Gets to a point where there are many outside the family of Abraham who have come to believe in God and His promise, while many inside the family have grown cold and stale to Him. But God can’t go back on His promise, that wouldn’t be, well, God like. He makes allowance for individuals who really want it to enter the family, but for redemption to be given en masse to the masses, those to whom it was promised must say sorry they don’t want it and take a pass.
And so that’s what they did. God sent His Messiah in a form which they would never recognize or accept. Which they didn’t, rejecting Him in the most assured way possible. But it is only because of their rejection of that which was promised to them that that Messiah is now able to say, ‘OK, is there anyone else out there who would like to be in on this deal?’
And I say Messiah, because I don’t want to push Jesus on anyone here. That turns most humans off these days. My feeling is, understanding what the Messiah does is far more important than who the Messiah is. And, once you understand the what, the who becomes a whole lot clearer.
Fast forward again. Some think we’re at the end of the age, end of the world, the end of something, but we’re not quite sure of what… We’d like to know what’s up ahead of us. There’s lots of passages that tell about it, and even more people willing to tell you what those passages say. But I’m really only interested in what one person has to say… I want to hear from the Guy who’s going to bring it all. So that’s what we will do here. We will pose a question, and see what Jesus had to say about it. And with that as a base we will then see how other passages build on His words.
Another point - we also need to understand how time and eternity interact. Most people think time is linear - there’s eternity at one end, then a time line, then eternity at the other end. But that’s wrong. What we need to picture is a wheel. A wheel has a hub and a rim. Imagine God and eternity existing in the hub, and time running along the rim. With this reference in mind we can see how, like randomly inserted spokes, God can reach out and touch any point in time, at any point in time. We also need to understand that what happens in one realm reflects upon the other… the two interact much like the light caught between two facing mirrors. What happens in one reflects in the other back to the first and returning again and again in an endless chain.
As a side note to that, this brings up the role of praise and thanksgiving for answered prayer, as our worship goes into the eternal hub before God, Who can then react upon it at any point in time, including our past, influencing the outcome of what we’re rejoicing over before it ever happens.
Confusing? You bet. So, we’ll worry more about what will happen, then if any clues come our way as to the timing we’ll note them.
OK, now that we’re together, let’s ask that most obvious of questions.
What will the end be like?