05 November 2023
We need to replace our western mythology.
When Christ returns, it will be the end of this world. The reference here is to our fallen condition, our mortal existence as part of the natural world. The rest of creation is not fallen; it will not end. Time and space will not end. The only thing that ends is our mortal condition.
Granted, everything fallen mankind has done to the natural world will be wiped away. It will all be reset back to its original condition. This is the meaning of "restore all things". I think we will be quite surprised at what has happened here on Planet Earth since we left the Garden of Eden. The Bible says that the separation of the tectonic plates came during man's existence. Indeed, whatever we had before the Flood would have to include a lot of water being put back inside the earth's crust and back into the skies.
We can only guess what that would look like, but Scripture makes it pretty clear it was a radically different world. The Bible doesn't bother to explain what kind of mechanics were involved in bringing about the changes between Adam's day and what we have now. Instead, we are told things like, "there was no longer any sea" as a symbolic statement of radical change when things are restored (Revelation 21:1).
There was an awful lot of stuff the ancient Hebrews simply never worried about. Our relentless curiosity about this world would be regarded as childish by the Hebrews. This world is not worthy of that kind of obsession. It's enough to know what God requires of us while we are here. This is something we can and should learn from them.
Instead, the Hebrews (at their best) simply assumed what God said was true. If certain things were supposed to work a certain way, then we should walk down that path and not worry about the mechanics. Whenever certain bad situations came along, their first question would have been, "Did we do something to anger the Lord?" Everything was viewed through the lens of whether they were at peace with God.
To western ears this sounds irresponsible. We are pickled in this obsession with knowing the mechanics of everything and taking charge, of remaking the world to suit our comforts. As one visit to this blog once commented: We have an obsession with knowing the code, not just using the program. We demand the power to rewrite the operating system. It's as if there is no God in Heaven who cares. He is, at best, someone who gets in the way.
It's not that there is anything wrong with knowing how stuff works, but what's wrong is the exclusion of God from routine consideration. He should be part of the calculus. Not just an afterthought, but He is rightly the foundation of every assumption. Don't ask, "Can we do this?" Rather, ask, "Should we do this?"
What we have today gets in the way of what ought to be.
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