The World's Last Night...

[seer]

By John Donne

What if this present were the world’s last night?
Mark in my heart, O soul, where thou dost dwell,
The picture of Christ crucified, and tell
Whether that countenance can thee affright,
Tears in his eyes quench the amazing light,
Blood fills his frowns, which from his pierced head fell.
And can that tongue adjudge thee unto hell,
Which prayed forgiveness for his foes’ fierce spite?
No, no; but as in my idolatry
I said to all my profane mistresses,
Beauty, of pity, foulness only is
A sign of rigour: so I say to thee,
To wicked spirits are horrid shapes assigned,
This beauteous form assures a piteous mind.


This past sunday night I was having coffee with an old friend. A hard bitten former Jar head like myself. A man who is not easily given to petty fears. So we were speaking about current events and he turned to me and said: Jim, I have never felt so uncertain about life. It feels like the bottom is about to drop out of everything. If you knew this man, you would realize how surprizing this statement was. It was also exactly what I was feeling.

That night I was talking to my girlfriend about the hurricane on her front and you know she turned to me and said: Life seems so uncertain now, I feel like the bottom is about to drop out. Almost the exact same words that Mike used. This of blew me away. "Out of the mouth of two or more witnesses."

I know almost evey Christian community expected to see the world's last night in their generation - but...

Has anyone else had this sense about the fate of the world recently?

[BenK]

Hmm... it's possible that Christians are supposed to live with a sense, not only of our own mortality, but of the mortality of the whole world. Just because they didn't see Christ's return in their own lifetimes doesn't mean that our ancestors were wrong to believe that the end was soon.

[smaller]

Has anyone else had this sense about the fate of the world recently?

Probably for the last 25 years or so now, but I've learned not to be in any hurry to see "the end" come about.

Ready is as much as we are asked to be. Anxious isn't a good place to be because when anxious remains unfulfilled it turns into anxiety.

The ends of our respective times "in the world" comes soon enough. The end of the world has came to many many people already in "my world" whom I loved dearly and that is sufficient cause for me to know that my end of "the world" is going to come soon enough as well.

What will "the world" be to me then?

Not much, if anything at all.

There is a big universe there in God's Hand.

enjoy!

smaller

[Pereynol of Sheer Dread]

By John Donne




This past sunday night I was having coffee with an old friend. A hard bitten former Jar head like myself. A man who is not easily given to petty fears. So we were speaking about current events and he turned to me and said: Jim, I have never felt so uncertain about life. It feels like the bottom is about to drop out of everything. If you knew this man, you would realize how surprizing this statement was. It was also exactly what I was feeling.

That night I was talking to my girlfriend about the hurricane on her front and you know she turned to me and said: Life seems so uncertain now, I feel like the bottom is about to drop out. Almost the exact same words that Mike used. This of blew me away. "Out of the mouth of two or more witnesses."

I know almost evey Christian community expected to see the world's last night in their generation - but...

Has anyone else had this sense about the fate of the world recently?


It seems that,anytime in history Christians have seen great upheaval, we have been reminded that this world is a flimsy, transitory place according to the gospel. We look towards the world's end and towards God as our rock. But when things go well, we tend to look with pleasure on the world, trying to project heaven on earth, ignoring that all the temporal good we experience will soon pass and fade. One day, the real end will come. God will take all of our temporal good and perpetuate it into vast eternity such that nothing of it will be lost. We don't know when the end will come; but it's easy to feel its presence during disaster---probably because both moral evils and natural disasters are metaphysically of a piece with all the amalgamated evil that will be finally conquered in the eschaton, just as all real temporal goodness is of a piece with God's goodness that will be perpetuated forever. Faith knows these truths and holds onto them, and faith forgets the illusion of heaven on earth.

I think we all can be fleshly as a "default setting" as we enjoy our world, expecting it to remain stable and amassing our treasures here. When something goes wrong, fears arise. The next thing that should arise is faith and then we should experience the Spirit's fruit and comfort. We're not very good at remembering these things, though. Maybe it's because we generally have things so good, we don't get much practice---and we don't want to gain that practice, either....

[NeilUnreal]

The last night comes for everybody at some point; always has, always will. That's the only last night we need to be prepared for.

-Neil

[seer]

It seems that,anytime in history Christians have seen great upheaval, we have been reminded that this world is a flimsy, transitory place according to the gospel. We look towards the world's end and towards God as our rock. But when things go well, we tend to look with pleasure on the world, trying to project heaven on earth, ignoring that all the temporal good we experience will soon pass and fade. One day, the real end will come. God will take all of our temporal good and perpetuate it into vast eternity such that nothing of it will be lost. We don't know when the end will come; but it's easy to feel its presence during disaster---probably because both moral evils and natural disasters are metaphysically of a piece with all the amalgamated evil that will be finally conquered in the eschaton, just as all real temporal goodness is of a piece with God's goodness that will be perpetuated forever. Faith knows these truths and holds onto them, and faith forgets the illusion of heaven on earth.

I think we all can be fleshly as a "default setting" as we enjoy our world, expecting it to remain stable and amassing our treasures here. When something goes wrong, fears arise. The next thing that should arise is faith and then we should experience the Spirit's fruit and comfort. We're not very good at remembering these things, though. Maybe it's because we generally have things so good, we don't get much practice---and we don't want to gain that practice, either....

Amen...

[seer]

The last night comes for everybody at some point; always has, always will. That's the only last night we need to be prepared for.

-Neil

True...

[lee_merrill]

Hi Seer, it's good to have you posting again. Yes, I agree that there is not much time left, as in the atomic scientist clock! It's almost midnight (http://www.thebulletin.org/doomsday_clock/current_time.htm). The problem is that terrorists will get more powerful bombs, and soon, it seems, and we may also conclude the military is not done thinking up more bombs yet.

Winston Churchill had it right, he asked Billy Graham if he had any hope, and Billy replied that he had hope in Christ. To which Churchill replied that this would be the only place of hope, for he saw none anywhere else.

I do wish the politicians would stop saying we will win the war on terrorism, for no, we won't. I suppose they have to say that (though Winston Churchill didn't), but it's delusional if they believe it, or lying, if they don't.

But "let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful"...

Blessings,
Lee