No I am not referring here to Ecthirion's debut ep (which is absolutely awesome btw!) but to my scripture reading this morning. I had been contemplating and musing on the idea of writing a blog about the holiness of God inspired by some of my reading of Derek Prince, however as I meditated on my scripture reading this morning I felt it was a very pertinant issue for our times.
The scripture was from Mark 13 and verses 1-13 in which Jesus prophesies what must happen before His second coming. Now I know that there are some Christians who are always seeing the apocalypse in world events and there are others who bury their heads in the sand and pretend it's not happening. I do not intend to fall into either of these extremes with this blog, only to highlight some of my thoughts and meditations on what is a very challenging area of faith.
Firstly Jesus warned not to be deceived by false messiahs (Mark 13:6). Since the birth of Christianity there have been many new religions and cults. Take Islam for example which claims to be the final revelation of the one true God (in Arabic Allah). Then there is Mormonism, which begun in America in the 19th Century, Rastafarianism and Jehova Witnesses. All these more recent cults and religions claim to be believe in the same Judao-Christian God. Yet all these 'revelations' are totally different from one another! How can the same monotheistic God give drastically different messages to so many people? Messages which blatently deny the authority and authenticity of the Bible, God's 'previous' revelation to humankind! Do not be deceived, Jesus has not returned in the form of Haile Selassie, nor will He return as a muslim.
Then Jesus went on to warn of wars and rumours of wars (Mark 13:7&8). Human history is replete with examples of extreme violence, inhumanity against our fellow man and wars. In European history alone there have been several major wars, let alone the factionalism of ancient China & Japan and the many feudal wars both countries experienced. There were the Crusades in the middle ages, the Crimean War and the Boer wars of the 19th Century and of course there were the two World Wars in the 20th Century, the likes of which the world had never seen, or has seen since. When you study world history the scale, atrocity, violence and consequences of war has been escalating all the time. For the latter part of the 20th Century humanity was on the precipice as the nations of America and the USSR fought a nuclear war of brinkmanship. Nuclear annhilation is still a threat, especially with Iran developing its own nuclear arsenal.
Jesus went on to explicate that families would be divided as brother would betray brother and children betray their parents (Mark 13:12). We have seen such heartbreaking, callous betrayel under the regimes of Facism and Communism as the governments sowed seeds of distrust into their populations in their attempt to route out and destroy the 'fifth columns' which threatened to undermine their existence.
Jesus also spoke of famines and natural disasters (Mark 13:8): again human history is full of examples of such suffering and human tragedy. Only a few years ago there was that horrendous tsunami, which devastated the far east, as well as the increasing severity of the hurricanes, which have brought catastrophe to the Carribean and Southern America. It seems that not a week goes by without some new tragedy ruining lives in the developing world being reported in the news.
Jesus described the 'signs' that would precede Him as 'birth pains' (Mark 13:8) and all of the many catalogue of 'signs' can be seen in our history: both long term and modern. What then does this mean? I believe that it means we must be living in the latter days of the end times, for all of Jesus' prophesies have been fulfilled to some degree or another. Roughly 2000 years have passed since He spoke those words and therefore there surely must be less time ahead of us as there is behind us. What must our response be? I believe faith: we must believe that Jesus was speaking the truth and that His prophesies serve to vindicate His divinity and messiahship. This is good news as Jesus died for our sins upon the Cross and we are guaranteed eternal salvation through faith in Him. Halleluyah! However we must also respond in a holy and reverant fear of the almighty God. The Bible teaches that we should work out our salvation through fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). This does not mean we can earn our salvation (that would contradict and negate Jesus' sacrifice), but rather that we must have a right respect for God as creator and judge of humanity. Some people often use the argument of the 'silence of God' as a reason for atheism. But God is not silent. God has given us His holy scriptures as well as prophesies which continue to be fulfilled either partially or in full. Do not be deceived. Believe in Christ and in His word. As a Christian I seek to be diligent and vigilant in being aware of the course of human history and the developments in world events as they will reach a climax eventually. I believe this could be sooner than many people realise.
Search the scriptures, meditate upon them and believe in them and in Jesus whom they reveal. We are now in the season of advent, the build up to Christmas. Christmas is generally a time, religiously speaking, of thinking about the birth of Christ and the new beginning of God's salvation plan. Conversely I want to encourage people not to forget the present state of the world and the near future and judgement, which await it.
No comments:
Post a Comment