A gospel artist I enjoy listening to regularly is Jon Gibson.
I hope there will be time to allow me to go into why I like listening to his music. That time won’t be now.
One of the songs I enjoy of his is called “The End“. In my brief time on the planet, I’ve heard a lot said about what might bring about the end of the earth. There has been a long-running narrative of how the climate or environment is being ruined by humanity. I heard back in the 1990s that by the 2020s, the world would be devastated by what we’re doing to the planet. In the 2020s, I’m hearing that something has to be done, or the earth will be done by the 2050s.
There has been another narrative going around since I have been conscious about how the nations are arranged, how those of a Caucasian disposition are set against those of an Asian disposition who are set against those of an African disposition. And how nations around the world will be put in certain formations and, with the assistance of religious beliefs, battle each other and then align with each other under a single governmental order to bring in an oppressive regime.
Then I’ve been around circles that insist that when you read the Bible “properly”, if you decipher it like the code that it is, this means you add that scripture there to that scripture over there, and you minus it from what that scripture says and multiply it by what that scripture means over there to come to a result that means that Jesus will be returning at this time in this way. When you follow those codes, you should beware of the leader in that country at that time; that’s a clear sign that the Antichrist has emerged.
You can gather by the way I’ve outlined these narratives that I’m not overly convinced about the ways of viewing how the end will come. However, if you pick up on even this sentence, you’d be right to assume that I do have a belief about the end. My current understanding of scripture indicates that what I know of the earth around me will end. I’m not in a position to confidently outline every event that will take place, and then the end comes. I’m very comfortable being in a position to lean into the knowledge that only God knows when the end will come.
That position of believing God knows also informs how I behave now in the knowledge that the end will come. Whether He comes now or in decades to come, there is another end that is even more inevitable than the end of the world – the end of my life. I do not know the time of my departure. I know the departure is inevitable, though. There’s enough to be getting on with to make the most of the life God has graciously given me to be far more concerned with getting His story across that is both timely and timeless. It ushers in an urgency over the now without a desperation that leads to living by fear.
Gibson’s song encourages me every time I hear it. I live today because of Jesus, who gave His life to show me the way to live. That way informs the importance of now in the knowledge of what will happen in time to come. That time won’t be determined by humanity. That time has been determined by the one who holds all time as well as the universe in His hands.
For His Name’s Sake
C. L. J. Dryden
Shalom
