The end of the world…It's a chilling thought, isn't it? Whenever the phrase, "end of the world" would come wafting across my ears, I leaned a little closer to hear more about what was being said.
I heard a lot about signs in the heavens and once, when Venus was sharply visible in the evening sky, I remember wondering if that was Jesus returning, it was so very bright.
Indeed, today we hear some preachers proclaiming that Jesus could in fact return as soon as tonight. Others think His return will not be for a long, long time.
The uncertainty of it all can be quite disconcerting, especially for young people.
Unlike some of us older folks with aches and pains and mortgages over our heads, young people are dismayed at the thought that Christ could come back tomorrow and take away the world as we know it. Young people have plans. They want to grow up, to get married, to have a life. It is a terrifying prospect that they may not get the opportunity to live that life.
There have been those who believed in the eminence of Jesus' return and made major life decisions on the expectation that this life would not last much longer. Some people decided they would never have occasion to retire, so why bother saving for it? Others chose not to get necessary dental work done because, after all, what would be the point?
Still others never saved a dime for their children's college education because by the time the kids were old enough for college, they reasoned, Jesus would have done away with all that.
Everyone has their own ideas about the "end of the world" and what it will be like. There are many variations on the theme, but there is one common assumption that need correcting: "The end of the world is going to take place at a point in time that has already been determined."
You may have heard the theory that God ordained seven thousand years to work out His plan here below. The first six thousand years are the time allocated for man to experiment and the seventh thousand-year period is a Sabbath of rest for the earth, with God in charge of everything. If this is true, then the return of Christ to usher in the millennium takes place at the end of six thousand years.
It is calendar driven, and if you know the chronology, you know the time of Christ's return. Since the angels have been with the Father from the start, they surely know the chronology and would know the time of Christ's return. The problem? Christ said that no one, not even the angels in heaven, knows the time of that event.
This suggests that the return of Christ is event driven, not calendar driven. His return is in response to a sequence of events, it is determined by things that happen, not by the ticking of a clock.
We tend to think that the future already exists and we simply work our way through the future one day at a time. We may have been told that prophecy is history written in advance. The problem with this idea is that the future does not yet exist. It is determined one day at a time by the decisions of God and the choices of men.
Perhaps the most classic illustration of this is found in the book of Jonah. Everyone knows the story of Jonah and the great fish, but not everyone has considered the implications of the prophecy Jonah told the great city of Nineveh. "Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown," Jonah cried, walking the streets of the city. But 40 days later, Nineveh was still there.
What went wrong?
Nothing.
Everything worked exactly as God wanted.
The prophecy caused the people of Nineveh to make a choice. They repented, and God relented. This is what prophecy is all about. Prophecy is a warning of what will happen if we do not change, if we fail to repent.
So if it is possible at any time to repent, how can we say that there is a timetable of prophecy? The events of the last days are horrifying and they happen because of the depravity of man, not because civilization is 6,000 years old. If God's message today caused our country to repent and seek His face, the future could be different.
Right now, man seems hell bent on a course of destruction, but maybe we can repent, maybe that course can be changed. Even the repentance of one person can make a huge difference. How many people had to repent to save Sodom and Gomorrah? (Genesis 18:32).
Paul said, whether there be prophecies they will fail (1 Corinthians 13:8). It is possible for prophecies to fail because it's possible for people to repent. When people repent, God will relent (2 Chronicles 7:14). – Ronald L. Dart, CEM (Repost)
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