Friday, May 20, 2011

It's the End of the World As We Know It...

You might have heard that the end of the world  has been predicted for tomorrow... Harold Camping, a Christian radio broadcaster from  America, has made the call, after making a calculation of some kind  based on Biblical data. Unfortunately, in a pretty big hit to his credibility, he has been here before, predicting that the world would end in 1994...

...but it didn't, in case you were wondering why you are still here.

For some more info on this, you can watch a news video on the The Australian website by clicking here and/or go directly to the Family Radio website and read all about it (from the horse's mouth, so to speak) by clicking here... 

People are having a lot of fun with this, and it is hard to blame them. Having said that, this latest prediction provides an opportunity to ask the more serious question, "Where is it all actually heading?" The Jews of Old Testament times did talk about "the day of the Lord" - a time in the future when God would finally make everything that is wrong with the world, right again. A big part of this day would be  the judgement  of all people and the permanent establishment of God's new order of things... There are all kinds of theories about when this is going to happen and what it will involve, but most of the information used to work this stuff out comes from the New Testament book of Revelation, which is a pretty crazy read. You would have to be pretty game to make a hard call on anything based on the material in this book.

Jesus also referred to this "day of the Lord"; the time when the "Kingdom of God" would come once and for all. But his unique take on "the Kingdom" was that it was not just a future event to be expected or hoped for, but that is was something that was also happening in the present. He said things like "the Kingdom is near" and "the Kingdom is among you" and that he was at the centre of this activity. So, maybe Jesus' take on "the Kingdom" should inform our own take on the subject. Maybe we could focus on being a present day  outpost of the establishment of God's future rule over the cosmos. 

One of the things that Revelations does say about "the day of the Lord" is that there will be no more crying, sickness and death - that these "old things would have passed away" and that God will make "all things new". Now that sounds like something worth focusing on in the present. Let's get on with making God's future vision a reality in our own lives and world today.

That would bring about the end of the world as we know it and help to usher in a new world that we all might enjoy living in a whole lot more. 

You could say it might be like living in a kind of "heaven on earth"...

Shalom

Steve
     

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