Is this the end?

Is this the end?

Is this how the world ends?

In my country of Australia unprecedented summer bush fires tore through vast tracts of land leaving communities, habitats and livelihoods in tatters. In some place, dramatic storm events followed in the same places, resulting even more damage. An enduring drought means that much of the land is parched.

Other nations and regions have their own stories of natural disturbances. Alongside them, the evidence is that the globe is warming at human hands with yet unknown outcomes.

Meanwhile, global leaders such as Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Boris Johnson and Xi Jing Ping strut the stage in their respective spheres, alarming many with their ambitions.

In the moral sphere, the once largely Christian nations of the western world sink under their denial and defiance of the God they once worshiped. Self-worship in the new religion and the only absolute truth is that there is no absolute reality, truth or values.

A low-level virus event originating in Wuhan has elevated to a global event of pandemic scale, causing fear, restricting lives and commerce and prompting global stock markets to tumble.

Is this the end?

This could be the end. Many of the conditions in the following verses have been met: ⁵ For many will come in my name, claiming, “I am the Messiah,” and will deceive many. ⁶ You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ All these are the beginning of birth-pains. ⁹ ‘Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ¹⁰ At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹ and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹² Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³ but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matt 24, NIV).

It would be foolish to deny that this could be the end. However, it would be equally foolish to assert that it is the end. For Jesus equally said: ³⁶ ‘But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son^, but only the Father. ³⁷ As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸ For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; ³⁹ and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰ Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. ⁴¹ Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. (Matt 24, NIV). The key points here are that his return will happen at a time unknown even to him and amidst the normal ebb and flow of life events.

The present natural disturbances may be at the more severe end of the scale but are not unprecedented. The present virus is not the first global health emergency (consider the 1919 flu pandemic) and Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Boris Johnson and Xi Jing Ping are not the first national leaders with ambitious ambitions. Life rolls on.

Again, a little reading of the history of Biblical interpretation shows past times when people have incorrectly read the skies and predicted the imminent return of Jesus. Even apart from the predictions of cults, mainstream Christians have wondered at the end around the millennial turns of 1,000 and 2,000 AD, let alone during the English civil war, the rise of Napoleon and Hitler and the 1917 Russian revolution.

Is this the end?

It may be – and how good is that if Jesus does soon return and bring the fullness of the new creation. Or it may not be – the present events may be just another in those regular cyclical disturbances in the affairs of the heavens and of earth.

It’s time to listen to Jesus again: ⁴² ‘Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. ⁴³ But understand this: if the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴ So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. (Matt 24, NIV).

This is a time for Christian people to remain constant in faith, hope and love. It’s a time to love our neighbour by serving them with the gospel and with deeds of mercy to those to suffer. And it’s a time to love God by being about the Master’s business while we wait for his coming.

Let this be our prayer: Come Lord Jesus come! And let me be found faithful in you and for you as I wait for that glorious day when my Lord will be all in all to all.