2024-08-11 A Meditation on End Times

“2 Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, 12 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thess 2:1-12 ESV)

All the unseen: the majestic ones, spirits regal and outfitted, unbland, courageous, and purposeful; all this, the demonic spirits properly to be hated but themselves magnificently portraying Evil in all its guises; all this, the denouement for the one who believes. Yes: it will be strange reward despite all our sinking and doubting whilst trying to walk a bit on the water. Yes: it will be hearkening to our pick-me-up go-get-’em wide latitude of employment and of labor, duty-bound soldiers gladsome and experiencing first-hand that strange dynamic: His Blood for my entire trespasses; His Time for my dalliance with the devil; His Life for my misfit and unhopeful, unconfident lazing about.

That is to say, the curtains will be torn back, and a wild ride will be on display; we will somehow be game and primed to participate, whilst also being mightily held and reassured: “I have done the heavy-lifting; I have served the time; I have painted you in the right colors, with the right demeanor, with answers to all that the judge petitions you over; I have made you over as My People, no longer storm-swept and tossed to-and-fro, but My People invited to no boring sitting-it-out, but participatory Grace, participatory Blessing of the younger or lessor or weaker set, participatory Justice for all who—yes, we echo the Apostle’s words—all who call on the Name of the Lord.

All who thus call, are all who thus shall be Saved, through a fire, through mad compromises or deals struck: for this one whom you love, would you undergo hardships and pain? For that one—today realizing after all it is Love, that we had there, numbers memorized and basic Friendship writ out—would you preserve your Holiness and Estate, because Someone relies on you or dare we say it, believes in you. You are not, after all, consigned to be a bad person in the final issue. You are not, after all, rejectamenta of the thinking classes, the conscientious ones. You are not, after all, victim and submissive to a bland constrained or boring dream experienced, of what compromises and immobility will accompany the Final Issue of Judges over the Earth. No, it will be on an amazing scale, the actors being spirits we actually Know and See in a dream state or in waking wonder, staring out the window at passing scenes that who knows have inspired this prophet or that to predict an End Times, a Future Unowned, Unmonopolized, Unpacific, but Helter-Skelter and Come-What-May. We are all these things and more, through Him who knew the slander and the morning slights, who knew the contrast between lazy discipleship and Actual Apostleship, that is, the sense of being sent out, with kind words for all who shun or despise the gift, but Proper Vision for any and all who were thirsting and not so keen to rise from bed this morning.