Newsletter #88
The Day of Man and The Day of the
Lord
The Day
of Man
New
Scientist magazine,
published in Great Britain, usually has one or two articles of interest in
every issue, in spite of the blatant, arrogant atheism of their editorial
staff. Their July 23 issue featured an article entitled The End is Not Nigh, reporting on a conference held this
summer at Oxford University. The presenters at that conference made it clear
that man was (as of now) in full control of his own destiny! The conferees assure us that modern
man, (finely tuned and highly refined by eons of evolutionary improvements),
now has all the resources he needs to cope with any future threats to his
prosperity, comfort and well being! Our destiny and our future are apparently
now entirely in our own hands.
Anyone who
backs off a bit from such rhetoric, taking a more objective look at the real
world, will surely see that our planet is a long way from being under
"man's control." On the
contrary, quite a few well-informed
people today see world events as increasing out of control with each
passing day.
No recourse
to religious arguments is necessary in looking soberly at the human condition
as it really is. Lasting progress towards peace on earth, good will toward men,
is still pure fantasy, judging by simple extrapolation from past known history.
Our human
mortality rate remains at a dismal100%. More people live on earth just about
now than we can hope to feed for very much longer. Man's ability to annihilate
our fellow man (often for arbitrary reasons) is greater now than ever. Bad guys
who start wars are often not even rational or predictable – many should
have been locked up a years ago.
Seemingly
minor social issues leading to horrific wars, the deaths of many innocents and
purposeless destruction, bubble up again and again, defying permanent
solutions. Even the well-intentioned actions of enlightened individuals and
groups often backfire, doing more long-term harm than good.
Surely
"mother" nature "herself" is not yet under our perfect
control either. The energy in a single hurricane is of the order of 200 times
greater than the total electrical generating capacity of our entire earth.
"Average" earthquakes (a million tons of TNT equivalent, or so) are
not puny in their energy releases. Our planet is already overdue for some above
average quakes any day now.
But no
matter. Information from a reliable outside Source, (that is, from
authoritative data given to us in the Bible), lets us know that we have been
living for a good many centuries on borrowed time, for a probationary season of
history we can think of as "man's day" or "the day of man."
But the
status quo of God's management of human affairs is about to change big time.
The change will be sudden, violent and irrevocable. We have been forewarned
C.S. Lewis
wrote,
God is going to invade
this earth in force. But what is the good of saying you are on His side then,
when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream, and
something else -- something it never entered your head to conceive -- comes
crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us, and so terrible to others,
that none of us will have any choice left? For this time it will be God without
disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible
love or irresistible horror into every creature.
It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no
use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up.
That will not be the time for choosing; it will be the time when we discover
which side we have really chosen, whether we realized it before or not. Now,
today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding
back, to give us that chance. It will not last forever. We must take it or leave
it.
Although
God has always existed as a mighty Spirit Being, consisting of three Persons
working together in perfect harmony, the created universe was brought into
existence a finite number of years ago by this eternal God acting according to
His own free will and for His own good purposes. Many clear statements to this
effect are found in the Bible.
"I am the LORD, and there is no other;
There is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, That
they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting That there is none
besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other; I form the light and create
darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things.'
"Rain down, you heavens, from above, And let the skies pour down righteousness;
Let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation, And let righteousness
spring up together. I, the LORD, have created it." (Isaiah 45:5-8)
Concerning
Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Godhead, the New Testament declares that
the created universe was brought into existence through the Son of God. That
is, Jesus was the active agent in our original creation from nothing. Jesus is,
at this very minute, the active sustainer and "upholder" of the
cosmos, micromanaging every detail. The entire cosmos, (the seen and the unseen
realms), were all created for Jesus. The cosmos was not made for us, but for
Jesus and His associates. If He is
the designated heir, Jesus has the right to do as He pleases with His universe.
In fact Jesus has been, and is now, directing the ages of history moving world
events rapidly now towards the day He will rule all the nations from Jerusalem.
"He [the Son of God] is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were
created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were
created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things [preeminent], and
in Him all things consist [are held together]." (Colossians 1:15-17)
The Day
of the Lord
As noted,
based on the Biblical revelation, human history from the first man Adam till
now can be considered "the day of man," or "man's day." A
fast approaching new epoch of history will be known as "the Day of
God," or "the Day of the Lord."
The
transition from the current state of affairs of "man's day" on earth
to "God's Day" will involve many traumatic and violent changes for us
all. We have already been warned about all this in Scripture for centuries in
advance. Probably many just hope it will never happen in our lifetimes. Even many followers of Jesus are none
to eager to see this new age dawn on our world. We don't all welcome change of
any kind when we are already reasonably comfortable. But, the Apostle Peter
warned "If the righteous man is scarcely saved, where will the sinner and
ungodly appear" (1 Peter 4:18).
Both the
Old and New Testaments are full of information on the approaching Day of the
Lord. Some of the strongest language in all the Bible is reserved for
descriptors about "the great and terrible day of the Lord." We are warned again and again to be
ready for this radical change as if it were to burst in upon us at any moment
now.
"I looked when He opened the sixth seal,
and behold, there was a great earthquake;
the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like
blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late
figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when
it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And
the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty
men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the
rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, 'Fall on us and
hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the
Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?'"
(Revelation 6:12-17)
During the
present period of history—which we have been calling "man's
day" God's interference in
the affairs of men has been minimal. This does not mean that human beings have
had total freedom to do as we please down through history, with no outside
interference from God. Ever since creation, God has ruled as Sovereign over the
entire creation and over all peoples, tribes and nations. We are far, far more
dependent upon God, even for our "daily bread" than we can possibly
imagine. But, so far the Lord has been less intrusive than He might have been.
Volumes
have been written about God's day to day involvement in the universe during
this long, extended period of grace called "day of man." Much of what God has been doing for us
has been "below the radar." We can not usually tell if a certain
natural disaster is a judgment on a city of a nation or simply a "natural
event" resulting from our living in a fallen universe. When disasters are
judgments from God, (as in the case of the confusion of languages at Babel, the
destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah or the destructions of Jerusalem in 586 BC
and AD 70) we are usually told that these were specific judgments. When asked
about disasters in a fallen world Jesus gave an enigmatic answer, "Unless
you repent, you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3,5) We ought not to
take circumstances in life for granted and we should always be ready to meet
our God at any time.
Based on
what we do know about human evil, (as God has explained the human condition to
us in detail in the Bible) our Creator's present-day involvement with our race
has mostly been devoted to restraining human evil so that life stays livable
for us most of the time. And we have been mercifully kept from utterly
destroying ourselves on any number of occasions. God has invariably acted with
great mercy, compassion and utmost restraint, greatly preferring kindness to
judgment.
"...Or do you despise the riches of His
goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God
leads you to repentance? But in accordance with your hardness and your
impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath
and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who "will render to each one
according to his deeds": eternal life to those who by patient continuance in
doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are
self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness--indignation
and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew
first and also of the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works
what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no
partiality with God." (Romans 2:4-11)
Suffice it
to say that we earth-dwellers are like house guests living in Someone else's
universe. Jesus described his relationship with Israel using a parable on this
very subject of an absent landlord and less than trustworthy renters in Matthew
21)
The Bible
assures us that we have actually been living in God's universe under a long
series of probationary tests and trials. So far we have failed every test rather badly.
Therefore there is coming a Day when the Owner-Landlord must intervene to set
things right.
Just what
can be expected when a God of love intervenes abruptly in our chaotic,
thoroughly mixed-up world of human affairs. He will clearly be coming to act in
our own best interests but will that intervention be smooth and peaceful? Will
Jesus not be openly welcomed everywhere as earth's long-expected Prince of
Peace?
Come, thou long-expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.
Israel's strength and consolation,
hope of all the earth thou art:
dear desire of every nation,
joy of every longing heart.
Born thy people to deliver,
born a child, and yet a king,
born to reign in us for ever,
now thy gracious kingdom bring.
By thine own eternal Spirit
rule in all our hearts alone;
by thine all-sufficient merit
raise us to thy glorious throne.
(Charles Wesley, 1744)
The sad
answer is that Jesus is the most hated man who has even lived! His rule on earth over the nations will
be resisted to the death by the vast armies of the world when they gather on
the plains of Esdraelon in Israel to oppose His return to rule the earth from
Israel. (See for example Revelation 19, Zephaniah 1, Zechariah 14, and don't
miss Psalm 2).
Over long
centuries, human governments, educational systems, religious organizations,
economic and financial entities have became more and more man-serving and less
and less God-serving. How can God bring in a whole new (righteous) world order
without first tearing down the old?
Many people
tolerate change when they benefit, but become threatened and angry when change
affects them adversely. Human violence resulting from the initial phases of the
return of the Lord Jesus to claim His throne can be expected to be mighty
violent indeed.
Our Creator
is a God of love but He is also just—and He much prefers mercy to
justice. How much longer will man be permitted to have "his day" in
the course of human government and man-made institutions on the planet?
Actually
God has already told us that He will tolerate (and allow) much more evil on
earth before the final return of Jesus Christ in full power with the armies of
heaven to back him up.
There is
much more bad stuff coming
down–evidently God will soon allow human evil to run its full
course openly and unfettered (for a short season). A counterfeit prince of
peace, a fake peace program, a counterfeit world church, a European union of
nations are already being crafted in our day. As history moves from the day of
man to the day of God, full blown evil will express itself with horrific
consequences on earth.
Every year
"the time of the end" as described in the Bible draws nearer. The
Apostles of the First Century felt the coming of their Lord was even then on
their horizon.
In spite of
many obvious indicators in Middle Eastern events, the indicators from the
economic markets of the world, the rumblings of nuclear war and more terrorist
attacks, should we not be up to speed and ready for the time of God's
intervention in our world?'
"But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts
be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that
Day come on you unexpectedly. "For it will come as a snare on all those who
dwell on the face of the whole earth. "Watch therefore, and pray always that
you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass,
and to stand before the Son of Man." (Luke 21:3436
Ray Stedman
has written,
"All through the Bible we see God's love is manifest to
men and women everywhere in urging them to escape this judgment. God in love
pleads with people, 'Do not go on to this end!' But ultimately he must judge
those who refuse his offer of grace. He says, in effect, 'I love you and I can
provide all you need. Therefore love me, and you will find the fulfillment your
heart is looking for. ' But many men and women say, 'No, I do not want that. I
will take your gifts, I will take all the good things you provide, but I do not
want you! Let me run my own life. Let me serve my own ends. Let me have my own
kingdom. ' To such, God ultimately says, 'All right, have it your way!'
"God has three choices: first, he can let rebellion go on forever and
never judge it. In that case the terrible things that are happening on earth,
all these distressing injustices, the cruelty, the anger, the hate, the malice,
the sorrow, the hurt, the pain, the death that now prevails, must go on
forever. God does not want that, and neither does man. Second, God can force
men to obey him and control them as robots. But he will never do that because
that means they cannot truly love him. Love cannot be forced. Therefore, third,
the only choice God really has is that he must withdraw ultimately from those
who refuse his love. He must let them have their own way forever. That results
in the terrible torment of godlessness. If God is necessary to us, then to take
him out of our lives is to plunge us into the most terrible sense of loneliness
and abandonment that mankind can know. We have all experienced it to some small
degree when we get what we want and then discover we do not want what we got!
For that sense of bored emptiness to go on forever, is unspeakable
torment." (Ray C. of Stedman, The Time Harvest, http://raystedman.org/revelation/)
------------------------
lambert@ldolphin.org
August 15,
2008
Past
Newsletters: http://ldolphin.org/news/
Web site:
http://ldolphin.org/asstbib.shtml