March 19, 2010

“However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows. 33 And since you don’t know when that time will come, be on guard! Stay alert! 34 “The coming of the Son of Man can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. When he left home, he gave each of his slaves instructions about the work they were to do, and he told the gatekeeper to watch for his return. 35 You, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know when the master of the household will return—in the evening, at midnight, before dawn, or at daybreak. 36 Don’t let him find you sleeping when he arrives without warning. 37 I say to you what I say to everyone: Watch for him!” Mark 13:32-37 (NLT)

This description also probably refers to God’s final shaking of the earth. No one not even Jesus knows when that day will be. Jesus gave details about the time frame for the destruction of Jerusalem but not here.

What do we learn?
1. Jesus will return personally and visibly. This is not symbolic. It is literal.
2. Jesus will return triumphantly. He will exercise his strength to defeat all evil. Nothing on earth works right yet. This keeps us from being utopian.
3. Jesus will return to restore, regenerate, repair, renew, consummate all things. Everything will be beautified, glorified and made whole. All suffering, injustice, disease, hunger, and poverty will be eliminated.
4. Jesus will return to claim his elect, implying that not everyone “gets in”. This means there is judgment for the evil. This means we do not have to live in anger and bitterness. Justice will be served. Here’s a brilliant thought from Yale Christian Scholar, Miroslav Wolf from Croatia who was eyewitness to horrific horrors.

“My thesis is that the practice of non violence requires a belief in divine vengeance. My thesis will be unpopular with many in the West. But imagine speaking to people (as I have) whose cities and villages have been first plundered, then burned, and leveled to the ground, whose daughters and sisters have been raped, whose fathers and brothers have had their throats slit. Your point to them ---- we should not retaliate??? Why not? I say – the only means of prohibiting violence by us is to insist that violence is only legitimate when comes from God . . .Violence thrives today, secretly nourished by the belief that God refuses to take the sword . .

It takes the quiet of a suburb for the birth of the thesis that human nonviolence is a result of a God who refuses to judge. (Italics Pastor Jeff’s).

In a scorched land -- soaked in the blood of the innocent, this idea will invariably die, like other pleasant captivities of the liberal mind . . . if God were NOT angry at injustice and deception and did NOT make a final end of violence, that God would not be worthy of our worship. (See his book “Exlusion and Embrace”)