What IF??? the end of all things continued

So... I'm back

It started raining as I was about to leave the house, thankfully in time for me to decide to drive. My friend is safely here and ensconced in her homework, so I'm back to work. The big problem with writing too many blog updates, other than the fact that no one ever has time to read them all, is that it takes away from the other things I'm supposed to be doing... like updating the MAPI site. Oops. Sorry Dad! I will get to it, I promise. In fact, I'll work on this particular update only when I'm waiting for the internet to catch up with my updates on the site. How's that?

Isn't it fun when things in the Bible that were pretty much complete mysteries all of a sudden click into place, forming a bigger picture that makes sense? I'm excited - FINALLY the book of Revelation makes some sense to me! Woohoo!

At the end of my last blog I was talking about the anti-Christ and whether there are prophesied one or many. Many seem to be indicated also by Christ in Matthew 24 (v. 5) - "For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ' [the Savior] and will deceive many." Hmm, maybe Marx does fit in the anti-Christ category after all. He certainly thought himself a savior of mankind. Or just a describer of the eventual salvation of mankind? Its fascinating how much his final conclusion looks like heaven. Natural means leading atheistic men to true results. Kind of like the urbana article I put up recently.

Matthew 24: "^{15 '}So when you see standing in the holy place 'the abomination that causes desolation, spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ... ²¹For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. ... ²³At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'There he is!' do not believe it. ²⁴For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible. ²⁵ See, I have told you ahead of time."

"See I have told you ahead of time". Because in our times of distress we are most likely to look to false hope. Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy.

... "³⁰ At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. ³¹And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

³²"Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. ³³Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. ³⁴I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³⁵Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away" (Matthew 24 cont).

The meaning of "this generation" is interesting to speculate on, since Christ obviously did not return before the deaths of the apostles, but I'll leave that for another time. Its interesting also that he tells us to be sure to keep our eyes open for the signs of the coming of this time while also saying that it is impossible for us to know exactly when it will happen. So we can have a general knowledge that its coming soon, just not a specific knowledge of the moment.

³⁶"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ... ⁴²"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come" (Matthew 24 cont).

The idea that the timing of Christ's return depends in part on our decisions - how long we continue to follow God correctly and keep hope in this world, keep on giving Him reason to be patient - would explain why not even Christ knows the time of his coming! How very typical of God. And COOL!

Keep watch... you DON'T know... keep watch. Yes, Lord, may we indeed have our lamps ready and full of oil when you come.

Back to the book of Revelation, chapter 14.

Chapter 14 - "Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb" (v. 1) - hurray!!! In this chapter the saints overcome Babylon the great and all becomes beautiful again! All that is evil is destroyed.

Chapter 15 and 16 - God's judgement against evil is described.

Chapters 17 and 18 - The fall of Babylon continues. God certainly isn't in a hurry, is he?

Chapter 19 - "¹After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting:

"Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
²for true and just are his judgments.
He has condemned the great prostitute
who corrupted the earth by her adulteries.
He has avenged on her the blood of his servants." ³And again they shouted:
"Hallelujah!
The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever."

⁴The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried:
"Amen, Hallelujah!""

Judgement is both just and over. Christ and His saints are clothed in white and celebrated in victory!

Chapter 20 - " ¹And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. ²He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. ³He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time."

Hmm, so apparently the culmination of evil does come first, THEN the millenia. Too bad. But not entirely surprising, given the state of our world.

^"7When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison ⁸and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. 9 They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them.
"10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever."

So, people are given the chance to see clearly and obviously the full goodness of God in the millenia and THEN when they still rebel they are sen to the lake of fire. Poor people. I shudder at the thought.

Rev. 21 - the new Jerusalem! Once all who choose to rebel against God are judged, the rest are taken to a place without pain. Wow.

Rev. 22 - the conclusion. Jesus declares, "'Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book.'" And after a book about judgement, John ends with the following significant and important words: "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen."

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. In the proper time. But meanwhile, come always and continuously and more and more, in our hearts, minds, souls, homes, relationships, jobs and every other aspect of who we are, what we think, what we do... BE! Make us Frodos... Sams... Merrys... Pippins... Gimlis... Legolases... Gandalfs... Aragorns... each according to our particular characteristics. Or, not to leave out the important females in the story... Eowyns, Galadriels and Arwens. In Jesus' name, Amen

P.S. Other than the movie version of "The Return of the King" which partially inspired this and the previous blog, another excellent movie I saw recently, although it only spells out the salvation of one family instead of a whole age of the world, is called "I'll Be There". I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it.