The Day of the Lord (03/22/23)

Given the material here, and for the next few studies, I am glad to have taken time for that sojourn into matters of the Last Day before returning to this section.  It cannot be much of a surprise to discover, even among those commentaries I have come to value, a fair range of views on the topic.  There is variation in what various authors perceive to be indicated by this Day of the Lord, as well as where that Day falls within the general sequence of events.  I should note that in parallel to this, the back issue of Table Talk that I have been reading in the evenings has also turned to this topic of the Last Day.  I would note that I quite intentionally held off on reading that particular issue until I had completed my exercises.

I have long held that it is best to work through matters of Scripture and doctrine in one’s own power and with the guidance of the Spirit as a first effort, to see what one can see, and form views upon His Word alone.  But I also value the opportunity presented by these commentaries to both confirm and to correct what opinions I may have.  And in this case, given the variety of backgrounds presented – Arminian, Reformed, Dispensational – it is helpful, I think, to see those differing perspectives deal with such imponderables, and thus, be able to discern both the arguments and the agreements that become visible.

So, we have the Dispensationalists, here represented by Ironside, who firmly identify this Day of the Lord as separate from, and subsequent to the Rapture.  So, this view sees a period between Rapture and Judgment, which is taken to be the Great Tribulation of which Jesus spoke.  This is, at least historically, a pretty popular view, and why wouldn’t it be?  What believer is keen to hear that they get to go through the Tribulation?  Who would not prefer to be given a pass on that experience, to be a spectator in the stands, rather than a participant in the event?  But one also sees pretty immediately a challenge in maintaining this viewpoint, for we have mention of those elect who shall yet be there, still in the world at the time, to serve as witness to the nations.  Ironside makes this point explicitly.  But how can one read Paul’s description of Christ’s arrival in 1Corinthians 15, when ‘we shall all be changed’, having been ‘taken up’ to meet Him in the clouds, and still maintain that, well, sure, all who had died already, or who were alive at that very moment are taken up, but – I don’t know, maybe those yet to be born who come to faith remain?  I don’t see anything to suggest this is the explanation, though.  It’s just, yeah, there will be those among the elect who are left behind as witness.  And that just seems to me to be wholly at odds with what is clearly stated.  It seems to me, as well, that such a concession renders the Rapture almost pointless.  It’s no assurance, is it, if there’s the possibility that you don’t get to go early?

Clarke, who is my usual representative for the Arminian camp, tends to see a lot of that Day of the Lord talk focused first and foremost on the destruction of Jerusalem that came about in 70 AD.  He concedes, of course, that this was but a type, and the antitype remains in the final judgment, the final destruction.  But he does have a propensity for over-emphasizing judgment on the Jews.  It’s not wholly without basis, but it often comes across with greater vehemence than would seem properly applicable to the text at hand.

So, yes, we have this day of the Lord of which Paul speaks, and apparently spoke often.  No surprise there.  It is only recently, I think, that the Church has felt it necessary to shy away from talk of judgment and focus more exclusively on forgiveness.  But forgiveness is pointless without judgment in view.  Throw a lifesaver to a man who thinks himself to be swimming along quite strongly on his own, and he shall find no cause to lay hold of it.  Talk to a man of rescue when he sees no danger, and he will merely scratch his head and wonder what your problem is.  Offer a man the gospel without imparting to him a clear and profound understanding of his true predicament, and the dire, inescapable judgment pending against him, and what cause has he to pay you any notice?

Now, for Paul, and for any Jewish listeners hearing his message, this phrase would be loaded with meaning.  The Wycliffe Translator’s Commentary notes that this phrase goes back even earlier than the earliest of the writing prophets.  Even before Amos took to using it, it was in common use.  But prior to his correctives, it had been used to speak of certain judgment upon the Gentiles, and thus, a cause for joy so far as the Jews were concerned.  He put paid to that perspective.  No.  It will be darkness and gloom for you, as well, for it’s not like you’ve been devoting yourself to God, and living according to His Law.  And thus did the phrase come to be applied by those prophets who came along thereafter.  It is a day, as that commentary puts it, in which the Lord comes to ‘exact his rightful due from mankind’.  And I should say that day comes upon all, without exception, believer and unbeliever alike, those alive and those in the grave, and it being the Last Day, there really is no occasion for those who come after, or for that interim period of horror that the Dispensationalists propose.

This, then, is the day of the Lord, and one or the other of the commentaries observes how, in the New Testament, this clearly finds connection to the return of Christ, to that glorious moment of His universal manifestation, having come to fully and finally establish His kingdom, with all His enemies subdued, judgment rendered, and sentence meted out, such that there remains nothing of sin any longer throughout His eternal realm.  This is that day which none shall miss, for the sign of His appearance shall be visible world-wide – and beyond this world if man has by then managed to spread to other planets.  It changes nothing as regards the totality, the finality of this final moment.

As has been observed, if we take into account what Paul writes to this same church but a short time later, connection with ‘the great apostasy’, and with the appearance of Antichrist in full display, make clear that this Day is in fact the culmination of the Tribulation.  And that day, so far as I can see, is one and the same moment as we see the dead in Christ rise, and those yet alive transformed, called up on high to be with Him forevermore in the New Jerusalem come down from heaven.  I suppose that in spite of my efforts with that sidebar study, much of my perspective is likely heavily informed by past reading, though I have not tended to focus all that much on explorations of these last days matters.  It’s an unavoidable subject, really, because it so captures the imagination and the curiosity of the believer.  We want to know.  It’s only natural.  We are not keen on such uncertainties, and we feel we have this inside track with our Savior, so why shouldn’t we know?  Surely, the answers are in here somewhere, and we just haven’t looked closely enough.

But the answers aren’t there.  The only answer, so far as I can see, is, “You won’t know.”  Now, many will restrict that to matters of trying to pinpoint the time in advance, and will still hold that we can be certain about the general flow of events.  But I have to say that history says otherwise.  Just looking at the varied perceptions of Rapture, Tribulation, and Judgment, and how those three align would make pretty clear that such answers as there are in Scripture remain subject to interpretation.  It’s not that the Dispensationalist, or the Arminian, or the Calvinist are ungodly heretics for holding the views they do.  These are, to a man, individuals devoted to Christ and determined to know as best they may the truths revealed in Scripture and the significance of those truths to the life of faith.  And yet, they come to wildly divergent conclusions.  Well, get a clue.  We can formulate opinions.  We can reason as best we may, and be convinced of our perspective.  But we shall have need, I think, to leave room to be surprised by how things actually unfold.

In many ways, I should have to say that my guiding principle has not changed as regards this last day.  That would be that we ought to live as prepared for the Rapture to be post-Trib, but simultaneously to find it perfectly acceptable that we might hope it will be pre-Trib.  I might allow that my perspective has shifted sufficient to accept the proposition that we have been living through the Tribulation since about the time Jesus was nailed to the cross.  Yet, even with that perspective, I think we have need to recognize that it can still get whole lot worse before it’s over.  And looking around, it’s pretty easy to feel that present developments bear that out.  Yet, who knows how long this may persist before that appointed time arrives?  And in large part, it doesn’t matter how long.  What matters is that we be found ready.  What matters is that however long it may be, or however short the time, this holds true:  We are in His hands.

Timing is Nothing (03/23/23)

If there is wide-spread variation as to opinions regarding the day of the Lord and as to the sequence of events that are concerned with that day, there is one thing that all agree on:  You don’t need further details as to the timetable.  It is an unprofitable exercise, and works at odds with the clear intentions of our Lord.  Matthew Henry goes so far as to suggest that the pursuit of such lines of enquiry ought rightly to be accounted off-limits.  After all, the One we call our Lord already told us quite explicitly that nobody but the Father knows that schedule.  It is His knowledge, reserved to Him alone.  It is, then, not for us to know.  Honestly, if the Son for whom this is the culmination of His work is not to know, why would we suppose we should?  Is the slave greater than his master after all?  Is the student deserving of greater privilege and knowledge than his teacher?

Here, even Ironside and Barnes agree – and lest one think I am merely forming opinions based on the commentaries, I would observe that the first comment made here is pulled from my own earlier notes, well before consulting with these men of old.  We are in agreement, and the breadth of agreement merely drives home that there is good cause to be so.  Anyway, Ironside writes, “Any attempt to figure out the time when the Lord will return for His own leads to confusion.”  To which I would append Barnes’ observation that any such attempt must necessarily prove fallacious.  The only conclusions you could possibly reach in such an exercise are effectively guaranteed to be wrong.  Surely, then, such efforts are unprofitable.  If the best they can produce is guaranteed error, far better we should skip that nonsense and find something better to do.

But why is this the necessary and inevitable outcome?  Well, the simple answer is that this holds because God has determined we ought not to know, and that being His determination, we can determine that we won’t.  What does that leave us with?  It leaves us with the conclusion that if, at any point, we pursue the question anyway, and think that we have at last solved this great riddle, we have been led astray, whether by our own imagination, by the devil and his influence, or by God Himself, who has not only determined that He isn’t saying, but also that we shall not know.  It would work counter to His intentions for us to have knowledge of date certain.

Over and over we are told, as even in this passage, that this day of the Lord comes unannounced and suddenly.  It comes like a thief, we are told here.  It comes upon the world as birth pangs come upon a woman in labor.  Now, we may observe that these are not events totally unimaginable or with no cause to expect.  There’s a reason we tend to lock our doors at night, and it’s not to prevent squirrels from getting in.  It’s because we understand that however civilized our neighborhood, there will always be those elements who seek to take for themselves without labor what others have earned by theirs.  And surely, the pregnant woman is not so ignorant as to the nature of pregnancy as to be wholly unaware that such painful contractions are part of the deal.  She knows it will happen.  She knows not when.  So, what to do?

Well, that’s kind of the point to this whole business of not knowing.  The only reasonable response is that which is repeatedly encouraged in us.  As Calvin describes it here, be ‘constantly in a state of preparation for receiving Christ’.  But we don’t need Calvin to tell us.  Jesus says the same thing repeatedly, and does so, I would note, precisely at such moments as His disciples are asking to know the timetable.  It’s not for you to know.  You won’t know, so be ready.  Be always on the alert, for you don’t know when I am coming.  Blessed is that servant found doing as he was given to do when his master returns.  That’s where our enquiry ought to be focused, and our energy.

What is it, Lord, that You have for us to do while yet time and life continue?  You made me for a purpose, and You prepared good works for me to do.  You work in me to be willing and able to that work.  And yet, so often I feel that either the promptings of those who have been entrusted to lead run counter to my given purpose, insisting that this poor foot get with the program and start functioning like a hand, or that I really don’t grasp my purpose in the first place.  So many I see, Father, who, for all their years of faith, still have no sense of why they’re here, what it is they should be doing.  So many are anxiously seeking the works they must do if they would be truly saved.  And all I can see is that this clearly misses the point.  All of this tries to get us back in the driver’s seat, where You alone belong.  But the question does remain:  What is my purpose, and am I pursuing it as You would have me to do?  Or am I making excuses to pursue my own plans?  Well, this is a curious prayer, I guess.  But let me take it here:  Guide me into Your paths.  Open my eyes to Your intentions in the course of this day.  Work in me that how I live is in You, reflects You, gives expression to Your character in my own, that I may be a true son.  Let it be that I am indeed in a constant state of preparation for Your glorious return.

Ever Ready (03/23/23)

I’ve already more or less progressed onto this matter of being ready at all times.  And I am hardly alone in this understanding either.  Matthew Henry sees it as well as did Calvin.  The suddenness, the unexpected nature of His return – unexpected, I would note, not as to its certainty of happening, only as to its timing – gives us great cause to be ready whenever He comes.  The thoroughness of His dealings with the unbeliever, with the unrepentant, with the false and hypocritical poseurs among the faithful, the tares, if you will, is certainly reason to look to our own condition.  You don’t know when, but you know what shall result.  Then and there is that moment:  Sheep or goat?  Good and faithful servant, or worthless drain on expenses?  Well, we know which we would like to be found to be.  And we know how best to ensure that outcome, don’t we?  Be.

It’s interesting, isn’t it, that we have time noted in both its aspects here?  We have, as one or the other of the commentaries put it, both the quantity and the quality in view, or if you prefer, the chronology and the significance.  And in both cases, really, the answer is the same:  You don’t need further input.  You don’t really need to know.  You already know the bit that matters.  When He comes, there will be no missing it.  And when He comes, all that will matter is whether your name is written in His book of life.  And dear ones, hear the significance of this declaration in regard to that book.  It’s actually rather a jarring statement as it comes to us in Scripture.  “And all who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain” (Rev 13:8).

Is that not odd?  Those who weren’t in the book worship Him?  I don’t know as I can really make proper sense of that.  I suppose it to suggest that in spite of their having opposed Him even until it was too late, yet they are compelled to worship Him when He is revealed in fulness.  Yet, there is still, in what follows, that which suggests weighing and judgment in that remaining populace:  Those to be slain, and those who persevere.  Indeed, John goes so far as to say, “Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints” (Rev 13:10).  But these are those whose names were not in that book, are not in that book. 

Okay, I didn’t really come to these verses to focus on their oddity.  I came to them to observe that point that those whose names are in the book of life have had their names therein from the foundation of the world.  It’s kind of reading the verse in negative, but if those on the earth are those whose names weren’t there from that time, it does rather suggest that those whose names were are not on the earth at that point.  And this is really what I need to drive home, I think.  This business of being ready is not a case of earning one’s spot.  If I am reading this correctly, then that spot was determined long before you or I came into existence.  Mind you, we have a few references to names being removed from that book.  David sought such an outcome for his enemies (Ps 69:28).  May they be blotted out of the book of life, he prayed.  Now, to what degree he understood that phrase as we do, I couldn’t say.  It may have meant little more to him than that he understood that life, even this earthly life, was God’s to give or to take away.  And in that much, he would assuredly be correct.  He has determined the number of your days, of my days, of each man’s years on this planet.  For all that, He has determined the same for each and every animal and plant.  And if He has determined it, we can be assured that there’s no evading it.  Neither is there any reason for concern that we might not obtain to the full number assigned us.

But we also have that warning message of Christ to His Church, in this instance, the church in Sardis, but as with all Scripture, the message comes not solely to those initial recipients, but to all who are His.  “He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels” (Rev 3:5).  So perhaps David has the right of it, and this book is quite simply the record of who shall live when, and when one dies, his name is removed.  But this is something far more severe than physical death.  This is perishing.  This is judgment rendered and sentence determined, and none to stand for such a one and say, “I have paid his debt to this court.”

So, let us determine this.  There will indeed be signs, but they come not so that we may mark a date on our calendar and know that’s the point where He comes.  They are given, as the JFB suggests, to confirm our hope while still we wait.  But no matter the signs, still the actual moment will come of a sudden, not unannounced, but not on some schedule we have discerned, either.  To be sure, it is on a schedule, but again, that schedule is for the Father to know as it was His to determine, and He has determined that He alone shall have knowledge of it.

Ours is to be found ready.  Ours is to be ever ready.  I know I spent some time on this in my side study of the Last Day, but hear it again.  We have our Lord speaking, in this case, following Luke’s coverage of the message.  There will be signs in the heavens and dismay on the earth.  They will be perplexed by the roaring of sea and wave, men fainting from the fear and expectation of what is coming upon the world.  For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and glory.  But you:  When these things take place, straighten up, lift your heads, for your redemption draws nigh (Lk 21:25-28).  I looked at those signs that Jesus saw fit to indicate, and one can’t help but notice that they are the sort of event that is pretty much always happening.  Wars and rumors of war?  Rare indeed is the period of history when this wasn’t the case.  Earthquakes and famine?  Again, frequent enough as to be almost unworthy of notice, so long as it isn’t in your neighborhood.  To be sure, we still get our moment of sadness and concern when we hear of yet another earthquake hitting some poor, unfortunate populace, and all the more so if their last experience of such tragedy was not so very long ago.  But take the long view.  We had recent news of another earthquake in Turkey, and some immediately jump to,  “It’s a sign!  He’s coming!”   Well, yes, He is.  On the other hand, going back to the little church in Colassae, and learning a bit of their situation, well…  This was earthquake territory.  Indeed, one such earthquake had shifted the course of the river that fed their region.   Earthquakes had toppled Laodicea, a short distance away, and that proud city had paid for its own rebuilding, demurring from the offered aid from Rome.  We have allusions to this in the letter Christ sends to that church in the Revelation.  My point is simply that these signs are ever present, another indication that we are to be ever ready.

Signs will come, but as advance notice, they shall be of limited value.  They are more reminders, encouragements.  They are, as was said, cause to hope as we wait.  Nevertheless, however much we stare after signs, the actual coming of that day will be sudden.  However much we have expected and anticipated it, yet it will be a surprise to us when it comes.  So let us be ready.  Let us be about being ready.   Which is to say, let us be about doing that for which our Lord set us here in the first place.  Even so, Lord.  Let it be.

Expectation (03/24/23)

I want to spend a few moments this morning considering this analogy of birth pangs.  It is given in connection with the destruction to befall those who are not among the redeemed, those who have remained of the world and in their sins.  As such, there is none of that pleasantness we associate with expectation for them.  And as for us, though we have great expectations as to our Lord’s return and our resurrection, yet it is not for us to joyfully anticipate the punishment to befall those who remain outside the Church.  To be sure, there will be ample cause to glorify God as we witness His justice upheld, and there will be no occasion to express sorrow or regret that He has done so.  Yet, He Himself says that He finds no joy in the necessity of this.  Neither should we.

So, what have we here?  We have most fundamentally an expression of the suddenness, the unexpected arrival of this Day.  That has been the point and continues to be the point.  You won’t know the time.  Neither will they.  But that does not mean that either you or they will not know that it is coming.  You certainly know.  You have been taught.  That has been seen to.  But they know it, too.  They know it, on the one hand, because you and I have been telling them, if we have been doing our duty.  They have not been left uninformed anymore than the Apostles were willing that we should be.  No.  It is as evident as is the reality that there is a God, and that this is His Creation, we are His creation, and as such, we are answerable to Him.  That reality may be vehemently and intentionally suppressed in the mind of unbelief, but still, the knowledge is there, and being true, will not be denied.

So, we have this image of expectation.  The woman with child knows this must come.  It’s part of the deal; unavoidable.  The pain is part of the process.  What she does not know, and what no one can possibly tell her, is at what moment those pains are going to hit.  This is the state of man in regard to the day of the Lord.  We know it shall come.  We know there’s going to be pain involved.  But we also know that it is the path that leads to life – the only path.  There’s no other way.  Had there been, surely Jesus would have known different answer to His prayers in Gethsemane.  Nevertheless, Father, Thy will, not Mine.  This is the Way, so let it be done.

Clearly, in this context, the point of the analogy is not that joy the woman will feel when labor pains have run their course and life has come into the world.  That’s an image we do well to bear in mind, for it has its own application to this day, but here, it’s the agony, the debilitating pain that comes suddenly and unannounced.  They knew it must come.  Sin always knows that just punishment must come to pass.  Even Satan knows.  He knows that his long centuries of rebellion against God and of waylaying those who would come to Him must, in the end, be met with absolute Justice.  He’s seen the end of the book too, after all.  But he hasn’t seen the timetable.  He will know not when, anymore than we shall.  It will come of a sudden, unannounced, like a thief in the night.  It will come full force in an instant, like the pains that laboring woman encounters.  All is going along wonderfully.  She’s going about her daily routines, perhaps enjoying a meal, or even entertaining guests, when, bam!  The time is now.  There’s no negotiating or postponing this.  It’s happening, and that’s that.

Again, in the immediate context, what we have is the unavoidability of this outcome, and the unpredictable suddenness of its arrival.  No alarms are going to ring out.  There will be no two-minute warning.  Warning enough has long since been given.  I am mindful of those who came insisting Jesus give them a sign to prove His identity.  Of course, it is quite evident that those making the demand had no interest in seeing Him proven.  Indeed, no sign would suffice to bring them to a place of belief.  Why?  Because their hearts had been hardened.  More than enough evidence was already before them, already something they could witness to personally, had they the sense to do so.  So, “No sign will be given you, but the sign of Jonah.”  Yes, there is reference to the three days in the grave, and to the resurrection here.  But does it not strike you that the greater significance of that sign is how it was received by the inhabitants of Ninevah?  It’s not even clear how much they knew about Jonah’s arrival, about his time in the belly of the great fish.  I suppose the scent of that encounter would have made awareness somewhat inevitable.  But whether they knew of those three days or not, they knew this:  The word of the Lord had come to them, and there was only one reasonable response:  Repent!  So, too, those who came demanding signs when the evidence was already before them.

Well, let me offer you this:  So, too, those who, in spite of the clear and unmistakable message of our Lord on this question of timetables and dates certain, insist on trying to wheedle it out of the text, or out of their own imaginations, anyway.  You want signs.  The signs are all around.  You want to view every event of the modern era as further and further evidence that He must be coming soon and very soon.  Well, keep predicting.  Eventually, who knows?  Maybe you’ll be right.  Except that there’s that one little problem:  He ain’t tellin’.  No, and He’s sufficiently wise and powerful to be certain that however hard and however often you seek to make pronouncements as to just exactly how and when this is coming down, you’ll still be wrong.  You’ll still be taken by surprise.  And given that persistent prying into things He has already told you are not yours to know, I don’t know; it may just be that you find yourselves standing in the wrong line, come that day, queued up with the goats rather than the sheep.

But I speak of expectation in relation to this image of labor pains, and this applies to us as readily as to them.  We have cause to look forward to this day with joyful longing rather than fearful anticipation, even knowing the pain and suffering that must necessarily transpire.  We may or may not suppose that said pain and suffering will apply to us in some degree at least.  It’s hard to look upon those scenes of Judgment Day and not know at least a bit of trepidation.  We know ourselves too well, after all.  We are not perfect angels with nothing to confess.  We have not yet been rendered sinless, nor have we any great hope that we shall be this side of resurrection.  But we do have the absolute and certain hope that on that side of resurrection we shall be, for we have His word on it:  We shall be as He is, and properly fit to see Him as He truly is.  “Then, we shall be like Him.”

So, yes, there is expectation, even joyful expectation, because the eyes of faith look past these pains to the joy set before us, that same joy that was set before Him, the vastness of which gave Him strength to walk forward in perfect obedience, even unto death on the cross.  This is the strength that the martyrs have felt throughout the ages.  We know that we know.  We know that the most man or devil may do to us is put is in the grave.  Yes, the path to the grave may prove agonizingly painful, but that pain, however artful the tormenter, must eventually cease, and we enter our rest.  We know, as well, that there is no rushing or delaying our Savior’s schedule, not for events on a cosmic scale, not for our own individual lives.  If this is our time and the way He has chosen for us to conclude our earthly days, so be it.  Let us play the man and go forth to blessed rest, assured of an even more blessed resurrection into life that knows no end.  These are but the birth pangs, and life must issue of it.

For this, we can know anticipation.  I don’t suggest that we are intended to look forward to such torments as the world may choose to inflict.  I don’t suggest that we go through the trials of life with some idiot’s smile pasted on our face.  Pain hurts, and this isn’t intended to be denial of the fact.  Trepidation in the face of evil is not unwarranted.  But look beyond.  Turn your eyes upon Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.  Seek His kingdom.  Count it all joy, knowing that your God has found you sufficiently mature, sufficiently worthy to enter into this suffering on account of Him, and to come through it with true honor.  He will empower you, should it come to such an ending for your story.  And it is no ending.  It is the course to Life.  The only course.  Pains come.  They come suddenly, unwanted, but not wholly unexpected.  But pains pass, and indeed pass, if we take this as our example, almost as swiftly as they came.  And joy comes in the morning.  Hold onto that.  Take the hand of your King and know that you know that you know that joy comes in the morning.  Here in the evening, He is our strength and our peace.  And He has promised to be with us to the very end.  He will hold our hand as we undergo these pains of transition, and He will draw us forth into fulness of life.  He has promised.  He will do it.

Lord, this indeed is our blessed assurance.  You, Who have called us Your own, Who have accounted us as the very apple of Your eye, Your dearest possessions, will by no means suffer the loss of us.  You, Who have given so much to see us redeemed and brought this far will hardly see Your work laid waste and all Your effort rendered pointless.  No!  Your Word does not return to You without having accomplished all Your great and good purpose.  And we, those whom You have chosen from before the foundation of the created world, are found in Your great and good purpose, our names written in Your book of life, and our inheritance, in accord with Your promises, established and awaiting our arrival there in Your kingdom.  A house has been prepared, and it awaits only the time of our arrival.  Even so, Lord, come.  Even so, let us be doing what we can to see that all who are to be called according to Your purpose have opportunity to hear and to heed that call.  Nevertheless, Thy will be done.

Worldly Response (03/25/23)

One might think it would suffice, this message that our true King will come of a sudden, and He will have His due.  One might think that those who were told of this certainty, and told that it must certainly mean their utter destruction if they do not first receive this King as their own cherished Lord, would be swift to do so.  But to think thusly requires that we have forgotten our own past, at least for most of us.  I know that for my part there were long years when I had heard often enough of this Jesus but wanted nothing to do with Him.  Indeed, for a period there, I would have been more welcoming to most any other claimant to deity than He.  Such is the perversity of the mind trapped in darkness.  True, I had not, to my recollection, sat through the sort of fire and brimstone sermons that are so famously painted as the standard of American Protestant preaching.  No, by my time liberalism had sufficiently infiltrated that churches that they preached a message far more in keeping with the first half of verse three.  Here was Jesus meek and mild.  Here, all was peace and safety.  Jesus didn’t require much of anything from you, not even fealty.  He just wanted your company, or a donation, or something.

Even now, amongst the more conservative churches, or even among those of the Charismatic persuasion, with their eyes on end times issues, one isn’t all that likely to hear about the threat of destruction.  And I have to wonder:  Why not?  Why has the Church shied away from informing the sinner of the full scope of his danger?  You may not ask a drowning man if he wants to be saved, but offering salvation to one who sees no threat is pretty ineffective as well.  If indeed it produces converts at all, it seems likely that it produces converts who are also pretty ineffective.  It leaves them with having done little more than joined some club or society.  It might offer them a leg up in certain matters, might offer them access to some more trustworthy individuals with which to do business when needs arise, but eternity barely enters into it.  Jesus is a comfort, and little enough thought is given to questions of His return.  We in the church are, I think, at great danger of finding ourselves siding with those scoffers that Peter observes, seeing only that life continues on as it ever has, and becoming disinterested in the possibility that our Lord could come at any moment.  I mean, come on!  It’s been two thousand years already.  Yes, and Israel had been waiting for their Messiah how long before He came?

We are at risk, my friends, if we have let go the urgency of our position.  You know not when He is coming, so always be ready.  Remain alert at all times.  That is to be our response to this uncertain certainty.  But we certainly can’t expect such a response from those who do not believe this Jesus to be alive and ruling over Creation.  We certainly can’t expect such a response if we refuse to inform them of the fact.  Sadly, we can hardly be assured that they will respond as hoped if we do get past our reticence and take the time to make known to them their perilous position, doing so with all love and humility.

Ironside observes the reality of the situation.  The world has long heard the gospel, and remained asleep, groggily disinterested in that news.  From his perspective, what will finally grab their attention with inescapable strength is that point at which preaching has ceased and the gospel goes silent.  This, of course, reflects his Dispensationalist perspective, assured that the Rapture precedes this suddenly.  And in such a setting, yes, the sudden and immediate absence of a familiar background noise might very well prove more shocking, more attention-getting than the random explosion.  If you’ve ever lived on a busy street, you may relate to the idea.  How surprising is it when the noise of traffic has gone away completely?  At our house, I can about tell you the time of the night by that silence.  It could only be 3, maybe 4 in the morning.  But if the silence lasted through the day?  I recall during the period of the Covid shutdown just how eerily quiet the street was.  It was more noteworthy than the masks, this absence of a familiar noise.

The question is, though, whether there will be any such period in which they might finally notice such a wake-up call.  By my reading, the answer is no.  I will leave open the possibility, for I do not feel by any means that my understanding of things related to this day of the Lord are so certain and clear as to admit of no error.  But I don’t see it.  I see where one could, but I don’t.  I am, at least at this juncture, of the mind that Rapture and Judgment are so nearly simultaneous as to leave no space for that sort of wonder and dread.  The wake-up call already came.  Our King is seated on His throne, His own gathered around Him, to see Justice done and His kingdom fully prepared to receive Him.  That must require that all sin and all sinners have been swept away, no leaven remaining, nor any sin ever more to enter in through its gates.

That is the dread certainty.  This day comes.  We don’t know when.  The sinner doesn’t know when.  But somehow, down deep, he knows as certainly as we do that it must come.  He has, perhaps, convinced himself that this destruction is annihilation, a cessation of being and thus, of consciousness.  But that is not what the Scriptures reveal it to be.  No.  Eternity lies ahead for that one as well as for the redeemed.  Resurrection comes for that one as well as for the redeemed.  Except, for him it shall be a resurrection of judgment (Jn 5:29).  Their crimes having been against eternal God, the judgment they face is equally eternal.  And there will be no reprieve, no penance sufficient to obtain release, no other to pay their fine on their behalf.

Barnes had something to say to this which really strikes home for me.  He writes, “One of the most remarkable facts about the history of man is, that he takes no warning from his Maker; he never changes his plans, or feels any emotion, because his Creator ‘thunders damnation along his path,’ and threatens to destroy him in hell.”  This goes back to the fact that we don’t know when our own last day may come.  We are not given to dictate the time of our demise.  That has already been determined, was determined even as early as was our birth, and that points back well beyond the decision of a man and a woman to conceive.  It goes back, according to our Scriptures, before even Creation was conceived, for just so long ago were names set down in the Lamb’s book of life.  And that, I conclude, must likewise require that those whose names were not to be set down therein were determined.  God appoints to each man his time here on the earthly plane.  He has numbered each man’s days, even as He has numbered the precise duration of that robin’s life, which is just now waking up outside my office.  God ordains.  Man fulfills.  God decrees, and it is done.  It is unalterable, except it be that His decree has contained within it the terms of its alteration.  And yet, man remains responsible for his actions.  He remains so in a way that I don’t imagine the birds of the air or the beasts of the forest do.  For them, I don’t see a judgment day, a day of reckoning for their decisions, nor anything to answer for in their establishing of pecking orders or their taking of life.  For us, it is different.  For one, our actions are so often not matters of survival, but of lesser things, of desire and amusement, of pride and lust.  And we, unlike these other creatures, are moral agents, with a conscience to guide.  And we, unlike these other creatures, were set within Creation to have dominion, to rule as those who bear the image of Almighty God.  Fine job we’ve done of it.

But hear it, you sinner!  Destruction remains certain, and it remains not a threat of eternal punishment, but a promise, and assurance of that outcome.  It will come.  It will come with utmost certainty, and having come, it shall never leave.  “They shall not escape.”  If you remain a rebel against the rightful rule of our Living King, this is your only future.  It’s not a lottery.  There’s no special ticket such that dying before He comes back gets you out of that torment.  Oh, no.  Even in the grave, death awaits you, the second death of which the Revelation speaks, and that death does not stop.  It is a death in which the worms feasting on your body do not die, and the fire that should consume your remains is not quenched (Mk 9:48).  It is a death which doesn’t stop, a torment that never ends.  It is a full enforcement of the Justice required by perfect Holiness.

And yet even now comes the offer once again.  For now, it remains.  Come to Him, you who are so heavy-laden with your sins.  He will indeed give you rest, if you will indeed take His yoke upon you (Mt 11:28-29).  If you will confess your sins and repent of them, if you will freely choose to receive His forgiveness and truly acknowledge Him as your rightful Lord and King, then you shall find that He is also your very real and very certain Savior.  What seems such a burden to you in this call to a life in pursuit of godliness will be found to be light and easy, for it is not a question of you being oh, so careful to keep your nose clean and remain perfectly sinless from here on out.  To be sure, if this change has come, there will be a desire that such might be the case, and a frustration when this weak flesh, and the remnants of the old man of sin within cause you to stumble yet again.  But forgiveness remains as repentance arises.  The death by which He put paid to the sins of all those whom the Father has given Him yet pertains going forward, every bit as effectively as it has addressed the past.  Don’t hear this and sleep on.  Don’t let that day catch you unaware and unprepared.  Come to your King while yet time remains for you, for the day of the Lord is ever near, always imminent, and you will not know the time of its arrival for you.  Be found ready.  Choose Life.

Oh, Father!  So many I know who have need still to hear this, to hear You.  For my words are nothing.  My heartfelt concern for them is nothing.  It is Yours to deliver, Yours to send forth Your Holy Spirit into each of them that they might indeed hear and believe.  Apart from that there is no hope, no chance that my words, however earnestly delivered, however frequently repeated, will bring about this most desirous result.  Nor will all my pleading on their behalf cause You to change Your mind, if indeed You have already determined that these shall fulfill the full number of their sins.  Yet, I would ask.  I would ask humbly, and acceding to Your perfect judgment, but I would ask.  Would You, whether through my words or through whatever other means might suit You, bring them to know You.  Save them, Lord, if it be possible and within Your perfect will to do so.  I know Your heart, that You would that none should perish.  I know, too, that Your glory shall be upheld in the punishment of the wicked every bit as much as in the salvation of the elect.  Yet, if my preferences have any bearing, I will make them known.  Please God, might You see fit to save.  And for those of us who have heard Your call and answered, keep us strong, Lord.  Keep us steadfast, that we may indeed be found ready and doing the things You gave us to do when You come.