Last Sunday after Pentecost 21 November 2021 End times
It is hard to adjust to the language of the end times when most of our lives are routine and very quiet by comparison.
The Bible is full of reminders that the world as we see it is going to be turned on its head at some point. All sorts of signs in nature; all sorts of change. It will be a very disturbing or joyful time depending on how close we are to Our Lord, when He returns.
The end of the world is the same thing as the Second Coming of Christ.
We are told we should be ready at all times for either that event, or any other that might originate from Heaven.
We express our readiness not by simply watching for supernatural intervention, but by carrying on our normal lives as in 1 Thess 4,9-12: We exhort you, brethren… to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we charged you.’
We should work to the end like the servants who are busy when the Master returns (Mt 24,46).
Our Lord wants us to be aware of the last times without being preoccupied with them..
There is an end, a judgment, but not an end to those in union with Him.
It certainly is necessary to remember there is an end coming so we do not become too engrossed in this life. This life is just the preface, the opening scene.
It keeps us level-headed knowing that there are superior forces watching over us, and higher destinies involved. (If mankind were the highest intelligence we really would be in trouble!)
It keeps us in a state of urgency regarding the need for all people to repent, and to pray for those who will not.
We have not seen many of these future realities. We have not died; we have not seen Heaven; we have not experienced the Last Day or other cosmic upheavals.
We can still believe in these things, however. Our Lord’s promises of future events are just as reliable as the past events such as the Resurrection.
God never changes. His word is reliable, far more so than ordinary
human words.
We can manage to deal with the ordinary times and at the same time be aware of the apocalyptic.
We understand we can influence the timing of apocalyptic events by our response.
God waits on us to see how much we want Him to return. If we pray, Come, Lord Jesus, it is because we want Him to come - even if it means we might have to abandon our own plans.
But nothing we can devise for ourselves could match what He can do for us.
We reach this point every year. We are tempted to give up… They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”2 P 3,3-4
God is testing us to see if we love Him enough to wait for Him.
We prove that we do love him by being faithful across many years, and between us over millennia.
Every time we think of Our Lord’s second coming it can draw us closer to readiness.
We have to stay awake for ourselves and for the world, which is generally asleep.
The world has no concept that it faces judgment. We have to keep the idea current - to soften the blow, as it were.
And to lead people to the happiness that is found only in a proper understanding of this life and its relationship to the next.
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