Wow, I'm really grateful for blogs. They're a great way of processing a mash of thoughts in a way that makes them open to the feedback of the world. SO much fun. I wanted to create a place like this way back in college, but at that point I was afraid of having my thoughts open to just about anyone (I had not yet developed a tough and sympathetic skin) and so I wanted one I could open to just a handful. Which actually can be done with blogs, which I didn't realize at the time, but now I don't even need to. Which is nice. Yay for growth.
So now for the subject of this blog. WHAT IF? Wow, I'm so excited. Get this idea:
What if Christ has not returned yet BECAUSE THE CHURCH IS DOING SUCH A GOOD JOB? What if... what in the world do I mean? Ok, think about it this way.
The end of all things ("I'm glad to be here with you, Sam, at the end of all things") will come, I think, when the world can no longer bear its own weight. When the O-zone is so depleted, global warming has reached such a state, etc, etc, etc that the world starts to fall apart... destroyed by earthquakes and fire, as Revelation indicates. When the ring bearer DOESN'T make it to Mount Doom with the ring of power OR the ring overwhelms him and he truly becomes corrupt. However, before that happens, before the final judgement is brought about not so much by God's desire but by our own dreadful, deathly mistakes, or by the end of His patience (if THAT'S what it depends on, no WONDER its taking several thousand years post-Christ), WE have to become totally degenerate. The O-zone won't deplete if we follow God's initial command to take care of our world and God won't run out of patience if we keep doing what we're supposed to. After all, who is to say what would have happened if Frodo had kept the ring? If Gollum HAD been killed earlier and hadn't been there to interfere? Would the eye have been more powerful than the bearer of its own ring? There probably would have been a terrible war between two forces of evil. Hitler and Stalin. IF Frodo had won, which seems unlikely, it would have been much like the lady of the forest said - she would have become the great goddess; Frodo would have become the diminutive and dreadful giant and set up towers and gates of his own, because that's the way the ring works. If Mordor had won... will... the rest is history. We all know that TRULY would have been the end of all things good. Although, in point of fact, good takes an awefully long time to die and keeps on springing up when you least expect it. Like the coming of the eagles in that final battle.
That reminds me. Where are the dwarves in the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy? Other than good old Gimli, they seem to dissapear after the Hobbit. Why? They may have been another source of rescue for men if it had come to that. ANYWAY...
So let's say Frodo brandishes the ring. A terrible battle ensues. The outcome, in the end, would probably depend on more Frodo-like characters. Small, seeminlgy insignificant creatures who have life-changing roles to play. Like you and me :). Not so insignificant after all, right?
In other words... the fellowship - the Church, the true church of Christ - might be the true reason this world hasn't ended yet. Because there is still SO MUCH hope in this real world, infinitely more than in the Lord of the Rings where Gandalf says, "there never was much hope. Only a fool's hope". Instead, we get to see good ALL around us ALL the time if we choose to notice it. So much fun! And we have so much opportunity! Because we don't have just a Gandalf. WE have the Holy Spirit, the very presence of Christ in us, guiding us each step of the way! WE have a counselor who will NEVER abandon us, can never be pulled into the abyss by the demon-like creature (what's it called again) or stuck on the top of Saramun's tower and who can actually be right within us at the same time he is with and within every single other good person in the world. There's SO much chance to make this world more the way it is supposed to be - because His Kingdom IS still coming on Earth as it is in heaven. WOW.
When hope truly disappears, when we can no longer do anything more, even with His help, when all goodness on this Earth is gone and the very saints are being put to death because they are no longer tolerated ANYWHERE anymore, THEN I think Christ will return. And a glorious day it will be. But until then, let's keep on hoping it will take a VERY long time, as does our Lord himself:
"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9, NIV, emphasis mine).
If the world could become heaven before it becomes hell, our Lord would be infinitely pleased. Maybe THAT's the meaning of the millenia. MAYBE we ARE progressing, as Marx liked to think. Maybe this place WILL become truly wondeful - the whole ALL of it under the invisible leadership of our Lord. And maybe at THAT point Jesus WILL com and walk among us physically once again. Wow. Wouldn't that be something. And wouldn't it be worth it to have all of that happen BEFORE the end? While we still live on this beautiful Earth He created, BEFORE the new heavens and the new Earth? That would be really cool.
So maybe that's where we are in history... we're heading for the millenia, recognizing our wrongs, making this world a better place, banishing our Hitler's, criticizing our genocides, becoming more tolerant of differences, learning to take care of our natural environment... and learning to show Christ to the world in a whole new way. Maybe... if the Lord wills it... our children or grandchildren will get to see Christ walk this world once again in the flesh. Now that is worth living for. Wow.
Because all the suffering in all the world is worth it if flowers continue to grow.
Maybe that's why the book of Revelation starts with the letters to all the churches that can't quite get it right - because when the church can no longer get it right and all the ones who do are dieing, than the judgments of Revelation will begin. Scary thought.
"After this [the letters] I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, 'Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.' At once... [I saw God on his throne]" (Rev. 4:1-2).
Then (chapter 5)... the lamb opens the scroll...
Chapter 6 - terrible suffering - famine - is decreed on the Earth
Chapter 7 - 144,000 (a remnant - isn't that just like God) are sealed with protection; tribulation is decreed
Chapter 8 - the seventh seal is opened. There is SILENCE in heaven for half an hour. Something that surely hasn't happened since the fall. Hope fails ... then... the silence is broken: "13 As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: "Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth" (last verse of chapter 8)
Chapter 9 - locusts and other plagues are sent by God as judgement but cannot touch the elect (sound familiar?). What God has done for Israel he will do for the church...
Chapter 10 - "Then I was told, "You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings." (v. 11). THAT'S not going to be any fun. Talk about leading to suffering... a prophet is never welcome in his own home (on his own Earth).
Chatper 11- God realizes the above and sends two prophets from heaven to help us out. But they too are killed by the creature from the abyss in the end. Gandalf-like.
Then - hope! " 1A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head." (Rev. 12:1) ... "And there was war in heaven" (v. 7)... Satan is hurled to Earth; the woman gives birth to her Son... "17Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus."
Chapter 13 - the rise of the anti-Christ(s?). "This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666" (v. 18) Could it be that their are actually 666 anti-Christ's that have lived and will live throughout time, not one? Each of them men led astray and inhabited by the beast - Satan? I can think of a few... Mohammad (sorry, Karis), Hitler and Stalin (I WOULD NOT include Marx or Nietzsche in their number, believe it or not. But that's a conversation for another time. They only spoke the truths of their time - they did not create it) among them. People who caused thousands of others to deviate from the truth of Christ. Not irreparably, but nonetheless, deviate. It could be nonetheless, that there will be one final anti-Christ that will trump all the rest. Not unlikely. We'll see.
Uh oh, I have to go pick up a teenager who is spending the night with me from school. More later!
Love and hope,
Rachel
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