Image: Kingdom Economics

The View Ahead Is Different from The View Backward.

WARNING: Multiple Metaphor Alert!

Pastor J.D. Farag’s December 20 “The End of The World” Bible Prophecy Update featured the term ‘exponential’ in discussing the rapidly-intensifying pace of events leading up to the Rapture of the Church.  As Pastor Farag noted, we are closer to that great gathering to the Lord in the air—our Blessed Hope—than any of us can even imagine.

I think two simple metaphorical meditations on the concept and nature of exponential curves can explain why it’s difficult to imagine how close our “gathering together to the Lord” of 2 Thessalonians 2 truly is, and also why the going seems so rough as we live in these last days.

(Metaphor #1: Technological Development and Rate of Change)

Let’s start with the image above the tagline in this article. Human technology took almost 6,000 years to evolve past the use of horses and oxen as primary movers. But in less than a century, we went from the automobile to putting someone on the Moon.

In similar fashion, humanity spent the better part of 5,000 years recording ideas and events in scratches on stone or metal, and then with ink and parchment. Then the Gutenberg press changed everything.  After that, we sped from movable type to computer-based word processing in less than 600 years. Improving communication technology from the telegraph (1830s), to wireless telegraphy and radio communication (late 1880s), and then to modern mobile telephones (the first-generation iPhone debuted in 2007) was a mere 175-year process. The pace of the rate of change has quickened over time; hence its exponential nature.

So, whenever you put yourself on the curve of technological development over time, “progress” may have seemed very slow—however easy—in hindsight. If you’re looking forward in time, though, progress is labor-intensive. First-mover advantage is bought at great price, usually involving more money than all prior development combined.

While hindsight may be clear, looking forward is for the adventurous. History may be within humanity’s understanding, but prophecy is exclusively divine.

(Metaphor #2: Geography and Mountaineering)

Growing up in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, I learned at an early age that the view uphill from below can be deceptively monolithic: It seems like you’re facing a wall—insurmountable, if you’ll pardon the pun. “It’s all uphill from here” can be discouraging if not heard in the right context.

In general, the Sierra Nevada mountains are like that, at least viewed in cross-section from west-to-east: A more or less level area slowly rises in elevation, but grade increases with distance in exponential fashion.  A more or less flat valley births grassy foothills. Those gentle hills give way to precipitous rises; giant granite plutons, deep canyons, seasoned with grasses, chapparal, by oak and conifers, make narrow, switchbacked-roads upward essential. Glacier-sculpted near-vertical and vertical rock faces mark the Great Western Divide at 12-14,000-foot heights.

Regardless of where you are, the view forward (uphill) looks like you’re facing a wall. It’s all vertical.

The view back (downhill), though, reveals a marvelous vista—assuming clear skies, it might look like you can see forever, across hundreds of miles, if not thousands of years. How very far we’ve come, one might think, even if you hadn’t taken all of those steps (lived all of those years) yourself. It’s magnificent.  You might feel expansive, privileged, even blessed. Excitement or glorious might be words that would occur to you as you describe what you see and feel looking downslope. I can’t believe I actually made it this far.

Looking forward (uphill) is entirely different. Canyons and passes notwithstanding, the Sierra Nevada massif, composed of billions of tons of granite and folded marble, is the longest mountain range in the continental United States not crossed by a single roadway. In other words, a literal wall stands in front of you.

Yet the same way you got where (or when) you are now is the same way you’ll get to the Rapture of the Church of Christ: One step (week, day, hour or moment) at a time, believing in the God of the Word every single step (week, day, hour or moment). Was the mercy of God new yesterday morning? Yes. Is it new this morning? Yes. Will His mercy be new tomorrow morning—even five minutes from now? I absolutely need it to be.

We need that belief and dependence to stand our ground at present and to take our very next step, and so on.

Exponentiality comes into the picture as one moves from west to east, uphill—or forward—in time. This side of eternity, time flows in only one direction: Forward. And—this side of the Rapture—the grade steepens with time. The “degree of difficulty” increases with every month, week, or day, even. I certainly experience life that way. I suspect that you do as well.

Facing uphill can be daunting, even discouraging, particularly when the stresses of the present crowd out the victories of faith in one’s (recent) past. 2020, and certainly the COVID and associated traumas of this year, can appear…insurmountable.

The irony of exponentiality is that it’s very difficult, if not dangerous, to walk backwards uphill. At some point you must face the wall and keep walking. Every step forward from this point is an act of faith, faith that He Who called you is faithful. Each stride must be taken onward in the conviction that the God Who saved you will faithfully empower you, and will soon call you home.

But be sure to count the cost of this path. You are defying gravity and thermodynamics. You are walking against the sin and unbelief of this kosmos. You must not be distracted by the chaos and lawlessness that, like rock-strewn cliffs that fall away on all sides except for your path upward, scream for your attention.

Faith in Christ is precious for this very reason: The price of every step forward increases; the strength and power required to walk rises with each stride. Our reward – especially given that we are closer to finally reaching the end of our time in this age – is nearer than when we first believed (Romans 13:11); it’s even closer than we dare imagine at present and is worth much, much more than we can now comprehend.

Keep walking. Face the apparent wall of the rest of today and each of your remaining tomorrows, knowing that the Spirit of God Who raised Jesus from the dead is at work in everyone who believes.  God will make a way for you. He will strengthen your stride. Keep breathing in His grace and faithfulness. The air may be thin up here, but it’s fresh, invigorating, and clean.

And—before you know it—you’ll have reached the Divide, and you’ll never, ever have to look back.  Beulah-land is just ahead.

“But the path of the just (righteous) is like the light of dawn,
That shines brighter and brighter until [it reaches its full strength and glory in] the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18, Amp.).

Jeffrey C. Ady, Ph.D.

December 22, 2020

 

 

A Poem: Mystery of Iniquity Part 7: Everlasting Destruction¹

(with footnotes)

Based on Revelation Chapter 20

Lay hold on the dragon. Advance the chain.²
Wrap the bonds around him secure and tight,
Because in the abyss, he will remain

For one thousand years in the dark midnight.
There he will stay because of God’s decree;
No longer the nations can he incite.

In that darkness, that rancid consignee,
Can’t, for that time, the people deceive.
Shut and sealed! That is the Lord’s guarantee

That Satan will never that prison leave,
Until, arranged at God’s time appointed,
The deceiver then has a short reprieve,

God’s Kingdom on earth won’t be disjointed,
When through sin he won’t deceptively glide.
What person then, could be disappointed?

God, to His people has drawn alongside –
All in His Kingdom are certainly blessed.
Blessed are His people who in Him confide,

For Christ is Messiah who loves you best.
Wicked Satan will never be allowed
In any context, to achieve his quest

To overthrow the promise God has vowed,
For everlasting righteousness and peace.
Let the glorious heavens shout aloud,

For nefarious Satan’s work will cease.
The time has come for the final showdown,
But first, Satan has been granted release.

The point is reached on earth for a shakedown,
Because for one thousand years, discontent
Festered, but now it is to be shut down.³

With crooked zeal spewing spiteful intent,
Satan will deceive the mischief-makers.
They come; action for war, he will ferment;

Gog and Magog⁴ called, also partakers
In the final, fruitless insanity
To overthrow God, with troublemakers;

To overpower with great profanity,
The holy city and the saints of God –
Those places of redeemed humanity.

Fiery hot is God’s avenging rod
As the account tells us how it’s applied.
For battle, the feet of the Lord are shod.

Rebellious one, you summon to your side
Those false, and like yourself, rebellious are
Who through the reign of Jesus Christ, abide

Not in His love, but from Him live afar,
And secretly, aligned to you, they dwell
While all at once, you snatch their souls to mar.

Demonic powers work the ranks to swell
With captivated minds you have estranged,
Those sorry souls you’ll usher into hell.

What evil sees the human soul deranged
In such a time when Christ the King will reign?
How can this Kingdom bliss be quickly changed?

They come in swarms upon a certain plain
That’s broad in scope, believing what’s not true;
Deceived they are, part of a plan insane.

O, Gog, you’re called, and Magog gathered too;
Now hasten quickly to the fray for war!
Commander Satan’s plans, you construe.

One thousand years of hatred makes its roar
Against the saints camped peacefully at rest.
Beloved city, all their threats ignore!

Against you⁵ come the hordes that are deceived;
Who number as the shores are filled with sand;
Embraced the message, they like drones received

To follow Satan’s lead for hatred planned.
Deceived, the hoodwinked march for war unjust.
Against our God they come to take their stand.

Your murd’rous hunt, O Lucifer, is lust
For blood to spill in total wickedness.
Your serpent agent was condemned to dust,

But you will be exposed in nakedness.
God’s judgment strikes you down conclusively,
And great torment will claim your wretchedness.

Fire from heaven devours decisively⁶
Satan’s Gog troop, in a moment of time –
Gone, and the saints rejoice effusively.

Satan’s defeated by his pantomime.
His armies devoured in fiercest fire!
They receive what they deserve for their crime.

To think, against our God, they could conspire
In arrogance, and rebellious loathing.
Now condemned forever with judgment dire.

Those who sadly did the devil’s bidding
And to Satan, but not to God, drew near,
From Cain to vile Gog, will have their lodging –

The lake of fire⁷, whose origins are clear:
For punishment, from ages past, arranged:
The devil and his band, the place they fear.

The goodness of God, the devil exchanged;
(The conscious choice all have in creation),
But sin and rebellion makes one estranged.

Eve to Satan’s demise – that duration,
His fetid filth invaded the atmosphere.
Sin, hurt, pain, war, all will find cessation.

In the Lord’s presence, all will be sincere,
The love and light of God, with us forever;
All will be revealed, and nothing unclear.

With Him, in His Person, naught can sever
The precious treasures, His blood did obtain.
With iniquity gone, nothing whatever

Wrong, but knowledge and wisdom will we gain
As redeemed members of His blood-bought Bride.,
And with Christ forever, PRAISE GOD, we will reign!

——————- END OF PART SEVEN ——————–

1. Part 7 with its title, “Everlasting Destruction,” is the very final mopping up of sin from the world. That only happens when Satan is cast into the lake of fire, and there will be no more sin ever in God’s creation. Following this event in Revelation 20, we read of the great white throne judgment of all the unsaved from all the ages. It is a topic not covered in this poem.

The Revelation passage under consideration for Part 7 is Satan’s final battle and defeat, but I think I will attach the verses here – Revelation 20 v 7-10 “And when the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war. The number of them is like the sand of the seashore. And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them. The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (NASB).

It is wrong to call Revelation an allegory or an account of some unstated event in the past.  Revelation is in three parts (Rev 1 v 19) – “The things which you have seen,” Chapter 1. “The things which are,” Chapters 2 and 3, and lastly, “The things which shall take place after these things,” Chapters 4 – 22, all of which is future.

2. Satan is chained. When at the Second Coming, Jesus returns to earth to reign for 1,000 years (Read chapter 14 of Zechariah), it will be a time of glorious peace, and to ensure His reign will be without interference, Satan is bound and chained in the abyss for the 1,000 years of the Kingdom reign of Christ (Rev 20 v 1-3).
3. This is the start of the final rebellion that will see Satan’s end in the lake of fire. One might wonder how sin and discontent is present in the world when Satan has been bound for 1,000 years. Sin does not rely on Satan. Human beings are born with sinful natures, and it is those natures that lead to sin. During the 1,000 years, Jesus reigns in Jerusalem with the Bride (the Church) and with all the redeemed of Israel (called “saints” in Revelation). Nations which survive the separation of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25 v 31-46) are the Gentiles who are in the worldwide kingdom.

Human nature is always bent on going astray, and it will happen also in the Kingdom rule. There will be malcontents and dissatisfied people with the Lord (Why, I can’t possibly imagine). Children are born all through this time, and most don’t know the great turmoil of the past, so they are careless still and rebellious of heart. These ones will gather themselves under Satan’s command to try to destroy the righteous ones in Israel and Jerusalem. It is the final attempt to overthrow God.

In the Millennial reign of Christ, people will live longer. Isaiah 65 v 19-20 “I will also rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in My people, and there will no longer be heard in her the voice of weeping and the sound of crying. No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his days, for the youth will die at the age of one hundred, and the one who does not reach the age of one hundred shall be thought accursed.”

With the great blessings of God, one is astounded that there is a ferment of rebellion among the people, but this verse reveals the state of the human heart – Jeremiah 17 v 9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Who can understand it?”

4. Gog and Magog. This may seem a bit confusing if you remember the first mention of Gog and Magog – See Footnotes 5 and 23 of Part 6. However, here, according to the context, Gog and Magog are considered all the deceived of the nations in the four corners of the earth. It is nothing more than that, a generic group, as it were.
5. “You” = the beloved city (Jerusalem) and the camp of the saints at the end of the 1,000-year reign after Satan is released from the abyss.
6. God’s wrath is a fearsome thing. God’s jealousy is very protective. His fierce anger will be outpoured against that huge group gathered for and with Satan on that broad plain, and they will be devoured and instantly dismissed. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Satan will be taken and his fate is described.
7. The lake of fire. Liberal theologians dismiss the lake of fire as they do hell (and miracles, and a host of things). God is clear. The lake of fire exists, but there is no one contained there right now. The first to enter that place will be the Antichrist (coming world leader in the Tribulation) and the false prophet (Rev 19 v 20). Satan is next to enter there (Rev 20 v 10). Then a countless number follow shortly after (Rev 20 v 14:15).

You don’t want to be there. If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, repent and give him your life. His death was for you, and you owe Him an eternal gratitude. If His gift of salvation is refused, then judgment rests on the head of the one refusing. Actually, in the first instance, hell was made for the fallen angels – Matthew 25 v 41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.’” The Bible calls the lake of fire the second death.

From gotquestions.org – Fire is often used as a symbol of God’s judgment. The symbolism stems from real-life examples of God’s use of fire to punish the wicked—the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19 v 24), for example, and the destruction of Elijah’s enemies (2 Kings 1 v 12). Prophets often described God with a stream of fire coming from His throne, a symbol of His holy punishment of sin (e.g., Daniel 7 v 10; Isaiah 30 v 33). The fact that the destiny of those who reject God is described as a “lake of fire” speaks to how serious the judgment is. When God finally abolishes sin and death, all sinners will be condemned to the worst possible fate, described in the Bible using the most horrific terms.

EPILOGUE

All things visible and created, except God’s messengers, the angels, must come to an end in their present form. This poem has come to an end, and the central adversary in the poem will meet his end in the lake of fire. After that, the entire created universe comes to an end when God fashions/creates the new heavens and earth wherein resides righteousness for all eternity. For us now living in a sinful world, that concept will be such a revelation.

2Peter 3 v 10 “but the day of the Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.” Revelation 21 v 1 “I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.”

This poem touched on the deeper mysteries of ungodliness and the insidious and permeating working of iniquity, which belong to the enemy of souls; but it has not tried to delve into any theological or philosophical areas concerning the great arguments about evil. Let us take the practical parts of the poem for reflection.

The term “mystery of iniquity” is taken from the King James Version, from this verse – 2Thess 2 v 7 “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.”  For modern readers, the NASB is probably clearer – 2Thess 2 v 7 “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.” What the verse says is that there is a mysterious working of lawlessness, but its full bloom is held back by the Holy Spirit, and will be until the Holy Spirit is taken from the world at the time of the Rapture of the Church. What a shocking place this world would be if it was not for the Holy Spirit restraining the onslaught of wickedness.

Although we live in days of great evil, we also live with great promises. Paul urges the Thessalonians to wait for the Lord in view of the fact that Jesus will deliver us from the coming wrath – 1Thess 1 v 10 “and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”

In the parable of the Tares, it was while the farmer was asleep that the enemy crept in and sowed wild wheat, darnel, weeds, tares (whichever you prefer). Satan sows relentlessly, and we must be on our guard unless we are caught out unaware. Romans 13 v 11 “This do, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep, for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.”

The poem suggested that wickedness would increase as the end of the Church age approaches. Not only would evil be more manifested as the writer believes it is today, but those who resist wickedness by living righteously will suffer in a variety of ways. As I write this Epilogue, we hear of reports of dismissals from work by having a Bible in the desk drawer at work. Christians are denied promotions, and people like Israel Folau (Rugby Union player 2019) will be condemned for supporting and quoting the Bible. 2Timothy 3 v 12-13 “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”

Nothing unclean can ever exist in God’s presence, but we have been cleansed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are clothed in the righteousness of God. One day we will be taken out of the very presence of iniquity in this world and will have an unblameable holiness. 1Thess 3 v 13 “so that He may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints” (NASB). Jesus is coming, and He comes with His reward – Rev 22 v 12 “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.”

To close, let us embrace the great words Paul wrote to the Christians at Thessalonica in 1Thess 5 v 23 –

“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

ronaldf@aapt.net.au