5
Of course, such notions of a creation which behaves "personally" is anathema to modern, materialistic (and many Christian?) people. But creation with God is the place where an ass can prophesy, scavenger birds feed a prophet, stones be turned into children of Abraham, and road metal sings praises out loud to Jesus! Is it then such a very strange thing to you that in this Age's final minutes, nature is appointed to chastise those who have so brutally misused it, before the sea roars, the field exults, and all the trees of the wood sing for joy before the Lord, "for he comes, for he comes to judge...the world with righteousness, and the peoples with his truth". (Ps 96.11-13)
The ungodly will angrily blame God Himself for the upheaval and carnage of the Last Days. And some of the Godly will zealously attribute every sad and bad thing which befalls their adversaries, as being by the very hand of the Lord. Both parties behave like this because they are actually drowning in the vomit of their own self-righteousness. The extreme pressure and affliction of the great tribulation will all take place beneath the sway of the Crucified One, who is not vindictively and spitefully lashing out against us, but is using all the means at His disposal to make sure His "house may be filled" for the great banquet celebrating His return and enthronement in Jerusalem. Never ever, ever forget in the days that lie ahead, that the Lord is being "forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up." (2 Pe 3.9-10)
What is coming upon us? What is to become of us? How then should we live?
(1) The symbol of "the sun, the moon and the stars" represents Israel in Scripture. (Rev 12.1, Gen 37.9-10) Israel is the prophetical key to discerning and interpreting events before the Lord returns. However, there will also be disturbances in the heavenly bodies concurrently, which will be important eschatological signs and markers, to help us understand the hour.
(2) We ought also to expect a sign similar to the "star in the East", which guided the wise men from the East to worship Jesus in His infancy. (Mt 2)
(3) Edith Stein, writing in "The Science of the Cross" (ICS Publications 2002); her treatise honours the life and theology of the Spanish contemplative, John of the Cross.
(4) A saying attributed to the novice master in a 20th C community of Carthusian hermits in England.
(5) The Scottish, NT scholar, William Barclay (1907-78) writes in his "Daily Bible Study" that "antichrist" can mean "either the opponent or adversary of Christ, or, the one who seeks to put himself in the place of Christ."
(6) The KJV renders verse 14, "These are they which have come out of great tribulation." The word "the" does not precede "great tribulation"?
