21 August 2022
Reminder: I am quite convinced that civilization will collapse in roughly 20 years or so. We are seeing the signs of approaching solar cataclysms that will come close to ending human life on this planet. But some will survive; they have before. There's no reason to suppose this is the End of All Things. But it will be rather like the Flood in the Bible, in that not many will survive. It depends on how many find grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Now, I'm old enough that surviving something like that is not that important to me. Also, I've spent a lifetime believing that this life isn't worth that much in the first place, except as a place to discover eternal life. So, I've devoted my whole adult existence to pursuing the Word of God. It was a choice I made as a teenager. We can discuss all the false ideas I had in my head about it, but that's not pertinent right now. What matters is where I've ended up on what the gospel ministry calling means now.
Civilization is not at all necessary, and is in many ways a hindrance, to walking by the Word of God. I regard human civilization as a poor substitute for Covenant living. It's just a way to seize from this world all the things we know the Gospel Covenant provides. We have come to the point where it's a lot like the days of Noah before the Flood. Read between the lines and you get the inkling that the sinners around Noah were trying to get back into the Garden of Eden without having to pass the Flaming Sword. They wanted the legendary powers of tending the Garden without having to remove the Curse of the Fall.
As I press upon readers the Covenant way, I often wonder if anyone is going to actually give it a shot. I'm not thinking about the mass of fallen humanity, just a handful of folks who have that sense of calling that our mainstream Christian religion is missing something critical. Yes, I'm sure a few of you are moved to seek that path. But I'm wondering if any of us will ever find local fellowship seeking the same thing. I wonder if God is actually going to call together covenant communities of faith. I have no doubt He could, but I have no sense of conviction that He will. On the other hand, I'm quite certain there will be individuals who will hear that call.
I certainly believe that the conditions will be right for faith communities to arise sometime between now and those catastrophes. I'm utterly convinced that we are facing tribulation and apocalypse, even without those solar catastrophes. If God didn't make the sun burp charged particles and dust all over us, civilization would collapse on its own, anyway. Frankly, I consider a micro-nova to be an act of mercy to keep us from having to go through the final death throes of civilization. I'm quite certain that things will get ugly enough sometime before that, and folks will be compelled to think about heretofore unthinkable decisions.
What the Covenant demands may become a lot easier when all the distractions are gone.
On the one hand, I've been careful to avoid nailing down too many details, making decisions I won't have to live with. On the other hand, I've also tried to depict at least a broad sense of what is fundamentally required. I walked through some of what I think the Code of Noah requires (now published as a PDF booklet). My faith says that the Lord will confirm as much of it as you need to hear with your heart. It calls for a radical departure from the life we live now, particularly in the West. There's a huge difference between doing your best to implement it here and now, versus gathering a community to actually go the whole way together.
Here's the thing: We have no idea just how big the blessings can be if we lived in a community that observed the Covenant boundaries. The mainstream churches have been outside the Covenant boundaries for so very long, I don't think anyone has a clue. They've gotten tiny tastes here and there, but nobody has tested the full Covenant blessings, so far as I can tell. We haven't seen what God is willing to do for us. The miracles are foreign to us.
The prophets in the Bible used imagery, because they couldn't find the words to express the bounty of shalom literally. It covers the Messianic Kingdom (AKA, Gospel Covenant) as we would experience it in this world. Whatever you can imagine, it pales in comparison.
We don't have that long, folks. Most of you reading this now will be alive in 20 years. Will you join me in praying that His people -- whomever He chooses -- will sense the call to the Covenant life in these times? I hunger and thirst for covenant fellowship, face-to-face with His people. I don't idealize what they will be like; real people have all kinds of flaws and moral wounds. I know for sure the guy in the mirror is exasperating at times. Still, I long for the fellowship of some people committed to the Covenant. How about you?
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