The End: The World Cannot Know What We Know (By William G. Carter) Neill Hamilton, who taught at Drew University for many years, once observed how people in our time lose hope for the future. It happens whenever we let our culture call the shots on how the world is going to end. At this stage of technological advancement, the only way the culture can make sense of the future is through the picture of everything blowing up in a nuclear holocaust or some other major worldwide destructive event such as asteroids hitting the earth or a giant tidal wave. The world cannot know what we know, that everything has changed in the death and resurrection of Jesus, that the same Christ is coming to judge the world and give birth to a new creation. And so, people lose hope because all they have to look forward to is mankind destroying themselves. Many try to spend all their efforts in preventing this, manifesting in such vigilance in issues such as global warming and nuclear reduction, yet if they are honest with themselves, they still are terrified deep-down because they have no assurance, no hope that all will be okay. Disaster movies play on these fears which is one reason why they often do so well at the box office. As Hamilton puts it: This substitution of an image of nuclear holocaust for the coming of Christ is a parable of what happens to Christians when they cease to believe in their own eschatological heritage. The culture supplies its own images for the end when we default by ceasing to believe in biblical images of Gods triumph at the end. The great news of the Bible is this: when all is said and done, God wins. Hope IS available for all today - and it is found only in the person of Jesus Christ. No matter how scary times may seem, as Christians we can rest secure in our faith relationship with Jesus, knowing and believing that He is our living hope - and that He will take care of us, come what may - through this life and the life to come. We have hope! Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade - kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by Gods power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5 NIV)
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 11:42:42 +0000
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