Are You Ready For Armageddon?

Here it is in full force in the media. The end of civilization as we know it is upon us. What? You haven't seen the movie 2012? Shame on you. How can you be prepared for what's coming? What? You haven't been watching the brand new series on the History Channel? Hey, get with it, because we are probably all going to be wiped out, except for a few intelligent humans. It will be a catastrophe very like the end of the dinosaurs. Bang, bam! Earthquakes, volcanos erupting, meteors from the sky, hurricanes and tsunamis—and its all over.

Scared yet? Maybe you need to start playing the game and get with the 2012 experience. It will help to read a fictional novel (is it really fiction?). Its on Facebook.


As part of the total 2012 experience you can join in and hope to be chosen to live in one of the underwater cities to be developed by the IHC. This is really getting thrilling.


I've been wringing my hands and sweating all night since I watched the latest installment on the History Channel. I'm going to record every chapter and watch them again and again until my adrenaline is pumping so furiously I'll not be able to sleep at all. Want to join me in my fear, anxiety and terror? And don't say I didn't warn you this was coming.


But I did write something that should also comfort and strengthen you. And this time I'm serious. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you should review it. If you don't yet know Christ, you should check it out.

To that let me add a few notes from Scripture, the true source of information about the future of planet earth, far more reliable than Nostradamus and the Mayan calendar, Edgar Cayce, the Sybilline oracles, , Hopi Indians, etc., etc. By the way, in all the hype, note how the media ignores the sober comments of the Bible, especially what is written by the Apostles in the New Testament. That is, of course, to be expected.

Let's look at the most detailed and explicit Scriptural account of the end of the world in 2 Peter 3:10-12.

"But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
"Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat."

To understand what St. Peter writes you must add verse 13, a reference to the promise of new heavens and a new earth from Isaiah 65:17 and Isaiah 66:22.

"But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness."

No question about it. The apostle teaches the annihilation of the present creation. You cannot argue that when he speaks of the 'elements' (Greek stoixeia) he is not talking about the material elements of the world, but rather superhuman spirits. Note that 'elements' and 'the heavens' are both to be destroyed. The governing image is that it is all about to be dissolved and melted. Let us be very sober about this. In that sense the current hype about the end is accurate. In that sense, parts of the movie 2012 are helpful. Everything that now exists will be discontinued. This chapter is about to end!

But that's not the end of the story: "But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward—to a new heaven and a new earth!" Got it? That's the promise. Whose promise? The promise of the Creator who became one with us in the Child of Bethlehem.

More on this the next time. 

Completion of the Ages

Many are troubled by the events going on around the world. One young woman asked me this past week—as many have—whether the signs listed in the Bible point to the imminent return of Christ. Will it be soon? When will it be?

As noted in an earlier Blog, movie makers are aware of this angst and are using it to their own ends. Friday of this very week the movie 2012 will be released, supposedly documenting some heretofore unknown Mayan prophecy about the end of the world as we know it, a very scary concept to say the least.

At the same time the Christian church approaches the end of yet another year of public worship. Those of us who follow the ancient liturgical tradition will hear many lessons reflecting upon the end of the present era and the promise of a new and eternal succession of eras led by Christ, the returning and victorious Lord.

 In the next several days I will reflect upon this passage from the New Testament letter to the Hebrews:

"For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.  25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own,  26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.  27 And just as oit is appointed for man to die once, and  after that comes judgment,  28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, tnot to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly uwaiting for him" (Hebrews 9:24-28).

Today I will focus upon but one phrase, "the end of the ages." 


The word for "end" in this passage is—in NT Greek—synteleia. This is a compound word that speaks of completion, consummation, where the whole business has been heading. We are the folks that live in that day and time when God's plans for us humans and our planet are coming to completion. We are about to see the plans completed in Christ. 

Our Lord Jesus spoke about those matters with His disciples. They used the same language when they asked Him,"Tell us, when will these things be (He had just foretold that the temple would be torn down), and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close (synteleia) of the age?" (see Matthew 24).

To start with, Jesus warns them of the dangers of being led astray and deceived by folks who mess with the Bible or throw it out altogether in favor of some human science or philosophy. And that's good advice for us as well, because there are plenty of deceptive teachings and ideas being thrown around.

One of those will come popping up this coming weekend when the 2012 movie opens. As one of my friends-in-the-know says about the Mayans, "Strange that we should take seriously the prophecies of a people who couldn't even foresee the end of their own civilization."

He Will Keep You Strong To The End

There remains much talk among Christians about the end of this age. For instance, millions around the world have purchased books from the Left Behind series. As I continue my meditation upon the Apostle Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, I see that from the outset of the proclamation of the Gospel the apostles wanted believers to be concerned about this issue. He writes in chapter one:

"Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful (1:7-9).

Some of the questions that come to mind:

• What does it mean to wait for our Lord Jesus and to wait eagerly?
• How will He be revealed?
• When is the end? The end of what?
• What is the day of our Lord Jesus Christ?
• Is there to be more than one day?

In that connection I've been reading a few books and doing more surfing of the Net about the year 2012. Soon the movie will be out. My oh my but the trailers are scary. If you are vulnerable to this sort of thing--and the movie folks are counting on it--you will be spending sleepless nights pondering how you might escape the upcoming disaster.

Some tie this in with the global warming issue to point out that the planet is warming up rapidly. The polar ice caps will soon melt and release clear water into the salt oceans. This will disrupt the transporter currents around the world, causing cataclysmic storms and an instant rise in the temperature.

Add to this, the probability that sunspot storms will most likely occur in December, 2012. And what do you have? THE END, friend, THE END!

Let me respond to all of this scare stuff by going back to 1 Corinthians. In v.23 Paul teaches simply and profoundly, "We teach Christ crucified." That means that God loved the world, including you and me, so much that He was not willing that a single one of us should be lost to eternal death and separation from Him. In His mercy he has called us to faith in Jesus, granted us forgiveness and holiness in Christ and the absolute certainty that He will never leave us nor forsake us. We are, when all is said and done, His children. And He completely and fully intends that we will spend endless ages with Him in endless bliss, peace and contentment.

When the doomsayers come at you in books and the media, find your comfort in the wonder producing words of that most familiar psalm:

"God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging." Psalm 46:1-3

And also take courage from the words quoted above: "He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful."