Years ago the media was filled with the dire Y2K predictions of the uninformed. The New Year came and went and airplanes did not drop out of the sky and our bank records were still less than we desired. I knew some folk who were actually disappointed. They were so hungry for Jesus to return they wanted civilization to go down the tubes. The logic being Jesus would come and rescue us if life only somehow got bad enough.
There are some among us who think we shouldn’t recycle nor drive fuel efficient cars. Their logic is the sooner we destroy our environment the sooner Jesus will return. There is something horribly twisted about this catastrophic theology.
All my life I have heard sermons based upon what I thought was Jesus’ message in Matthew 24. Then one day I read it for myself and was amazed. Jesus said, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.” I was amazed because Jesus was telling us just the opposite of the hype that fed my childhood theology. Every time a war or an earthquake occurred I heard that Jesus was coming soon. That is not what He said. He said, “Not yet.”
If Jesus were waiting for the earth to get more and more wicked He must have missed the Holocaust and a host of other genocides. It isn’t about wickedness, nor earthquakes, nor wars. It is about love and grace. God, a loving Father, is extremely reluctant to shut the door. Please read II Peter 3.
Written by Roger Bothwell on December 31, 2009
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