Jesus Welcomes Little Children

‘People were also bringing babies to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”’ Luke 18:15-17

What can anyone say at a time like this? We’re all left stunned. We’re shocked that little baby **** is gone! It breaks our hearts. Why ****? Why not me? Why now? Why not when he was 100 years old? Yes, what can anyone say that would bring us some little comfort at this time of our grief?

We read in the Bible that people were bringing their babies to Jesus. They wanted Him to bless their little children. They believed that there was something very special about Jesus. Some even believed that He was God in human form. Jesus believed Himself to be the Son of God.

The Disciples of Jesus, His close followers, tried to stop the parents from bringing their babies to Him. They were telling the people off. But what did Jesus say? “Jesus called the children to Him and said, ‘Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.’”

When I was training to become a minister I knew that as part of my job-description I would have to conduct weddings – and funerals. The thing I dreaded most is to conduct the funeral of an infant child! What will I tell the parents if they ask: “Where is my baby now?”

What would I say? Well, we just heard what someone far greater than me has to say: “The kingdom of God belongs to such as these!” I believe, therefore, that little **** has entered into the kingdom of God. To know that baby **** has gone to be with Jesus and is safe with Him in His kingdom should at least give us some little comfort.

What is the kingdom of God? Well, for a start, it belongs to God. And if it belongs to God we know that nothing can destroy it. But Jesus says that it also belongs to little children, like ****, and adults who receive it like a little child would, i.e, believing. Think about it: little children believe what their parents tell them.

According to what the Bible says, the kingdom of God is really just another name for Heaven. And though invisible at the moment, it’s a real place, where there are no more tears, no more sorrow, no more crying, no more pain and certainly no more death. It is a place of happiness, a place of everlasting bliss. It’s a place of safety. It is true Paradise!

I grew up in Scotland, and Scotland, a bit like New Zealand, is known for its sheep. I used to live next to a farm where they had cattle, chooks and sheep, lots of sheep! I went to school with the shepherd’s son. During the spring lambing-season we used to do the rounds with the shepherd, trying to make sure that the newborn lambs were safe. We would chase away stray dogs, foxes, crows and the like.

In the Bible, Jesus is called the Good Shepherd. He is a Shepherd who lays down His life to save His sheep! Even today He still looks after His flock, which includes His little lambs, such as ****. The shepherd’s son and I used to hear about Jesus, when, along with the rest of the kids at the school we attended, we would all be marched to the local church at Easter and again at Christmas.

At Easter we’d hear about how the Good Shepherd had laid down His life for His sheep, and perhaps we’d hear how the thief, who was dying on a cross next to Him, had said, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And what did Jesus say to him? “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

We would also hear how Jesus was dead and laid in a tomb, only to be raised back to life again after three days! This, of course, points to our future resurrection when the, for the moment, invisible kingdom of God becomes visible.

At Christmas we’d hear about the baby Jesus in the manger, and we’d always get to sing the little children’s hymn, the words of which are:

“Away in a Manger, no crib for a bed,

The little Lord Jesus, laid down His sweet head,

The stars in the bright sky looked down where He lay,

The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.

“The cattle are lowing, the Baby awakes,

But little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes,

I love You, Lord Jesus, look down from the sky,

And stay by my side until morning is nigh.

“Be near me Lord Jesus, I ask You to stay,

Close by me forever, and love me, I pray,

Bless all the dear children in Your tender care,

And fit us for Heaven, to dwell with You there.”

It is hard for those of us who have never lost a child to know the pain the family is going through right now – especially as Christmas approaches. We all know that Christmas is a special time – especially for all the dear children.

So, what can we say? Well, it is my hope that God will wipe away the tears of grief by reminding us this Christmas and beyond that His only Son Jesus, the Good Shepherd, has wrapped His everlasting arms around one of His little lambs, ****. - In the arms of THE Angel!

For Jesus says, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

R.I.P. Lenyx Sydney Clarke 04 July 2016 - 01 December 2016.

History & Geography

History & Geography

History and Geography weren’t exactly my two most favourite subjects while in high School in Scotland, mainly because we never heard much at all about Scotland! However, since leaving Scotland to live in Canada and then Australia, everyone assumes me to be the subject-matter-expert on Scotland’s history and geography! I love the story of Scotland, its people and its topography. We learn better when we are interested in the subject matter. True? I am interested in God as well as Scotland.

History has been called His-story in reference to God and what He has done in history. In reference to God (Gr. Theos) and geography I’d like to coin a new word, a pun: Theography. God has as much to do with geography as with history. In the past, at the very beginning of time, God created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them (e.g., Exodus 20:11). Over a period of six days He shaped and formed what He had made, including the planet earth with its land, sea, animals (i.e., birds, sea-creatures, land-creatures etc.) and also humans (Genesis 1:1-2:2; Psalm 104). Subsequently, He sent a great global flood and reshaped the planet earth, forming the great continents and islands with their varied climates and topography, to which people began to flow from Babel (Genesis 11). From Eskimo to Pigmy, from Scot to Japanese each group can trace its heritage back to one of Noah’s three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth (Genesis 10). Says Albert Edersheim, ‘It may be said generally, that Asia was given to Shem, Africa to Ham, and Europe to Japheth … beginning with the youngest, Japheth, we find of those known to the general reader, the Cymry of Wales and Brittany (Gomer), the Scythians (Magog) … the Greeks (Ionians, Javan) ... Among their descendants, the Germans, Celts, and Armenians have been traced to the three sons of Gomer.’

Naturally I am interested in those other Celts, i.e., the Irish with their Scottish offspring. According to The Declaration of Arbroath (1320), these were the Scythians, the progeny of Magog. ‘We know and from the chronicles and books of the ancients we find that among other famous nations our own, the Scots ... journeyed from Greater Scythia.’ (See e.g., Colossians 3:11).

To be sure, some may laugh at my brief account of Scottish history, just as others may mock the Biblical record. But, if ‘History is written by the victors’ (Walter Benjamin?), then it is His-story. For, ‘He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they may grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, “For we are also His offspring”’ Acts 17:26-28.

So we see then that God is the victor, because He has written the history of the world. For, as we have just read, He has sovereignly assigned each nation its geographical location and the time it will spend there. And it is all about Him. Thus, God is the best interpreter of history and geography. Why did He put the Scots in mountainous Scotland and the Dutch in the flatlands of the Netherlands? Why Icelanders in Iceland and Welsh in Wales? It is ‘so that they should seek the Lord’!

His-story and Theo-graphy! May God receive the glory!

Christ-mas

Christmas

Will Christmas survive or are its days numbered? In November I saw a notice by non-Christians on social media that read:  ‘Brace yourselves: “The Keep Christ in Christmas” posts are coming!’ Then there are some Christians who object to the word ‘mas’ in Christmas because of its association with the Roman Catholic Mass – against which they make much protestation! But won’t Christmas as we know it disappear upon the removal of either of these words?

The Nativity Scene usually comprises of Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus, all in a stable surrounded by farm animals, three wise men, some shepherds and maybe an angel or two. Some wish the removal of Nativity scenes from public places. Others wish only to remove the three wise men, claiming they are add-ons. (The Bible doesn’t say that they visited Jesus when He was in the stable or even that there were only three!)

What would remain if Christ and the Nativity Scene were to be removed from Christmas? Well, the extras, such as the red-suited Santa, a tinselled-tree, some elves and some reindeer, would remain. Wait! What do any of these things have to do with Christmas? Nothing really. So, there are some Christians who would like Santa, Christmas trees, elves and reindeer removed from Christmas…

Others argue over the 25^th December date. We don’t know the exact date upon which Jesus was born. Then there’s the Julian Calendar which uses the 7^th January date for celebrating the birth of Christ. Then there’s the Jehovah’s Witness do not celebrate any birthdays, especially not Jesus’s. They also deny that God also became a man in Jesus.  

Such conflict of opinion over Christmas! Should we just call the whole thing off to keep everyone happy? Let’s see: If we remove God, Christ, ‘mass’, the whole stable Nativity, what are we left with? Father Christmas instead of Father God. Santa’s sled instead of Christ’s manger. Reindeer instead of angels. Elves instead of wise men. Christmas wrapping without the Christmas present!

But what does the Bible say? ‘For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.’ Luke 2:11-12. So we see then that someone was born to you and to me in Bethlehem on a certain day. That Someone is a Saviour, and He is none other than Christ who is the Lord. So, the main thing that Christmas is about is acknowledging and celebrating the birth of Christ. ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us’ John 1:14a.

In some ways the battle to add things to Christmas is reminiscent of what people do to God’s Word and to His Gospel message. But we receive these warnings: ‘What is His name and what is His Son’s name, if you know? … Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you and you be found a liar’ Proverbs 30:4b;6. ‘But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed’ Galatians 1:8.

What is the Gospel? Well, Christmas is a huge part of it: ‘For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father’ Isaiah 9:6. Thus, Christmas will survive!

Entertaining Strangers

Entertaining Strangers

What would spring to mind if you were asked to describe an angel? Would you picture a fat little cherub or perhaps Cupid with his bow and arrow? Or maybe an effete man with wings of white feathers? Would you actually recognise an angel if you saw one? The Bible says, ‘Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels’ Hebrews 13:2. Perhaps this primarily alludes to the time that Abraham entertained three ‘men’ (Genesis 18).

Now, it’s true that an angel appeared before a bunch of shepherds tending their flocks, scaring the living daylights out of them! (Luke 2:8f.). However, this angel was no cartoon-like bumblebee, i.e., a fat little cherub with stubby little wings struggling to stay in the air. The shepherds knew that this angel was one of God’s messengers. But notice that the writer to the Hebrews is talking about ‘unwittingly’ entertaining angels. The idea, therefore, is that of you not knowing that the angel is an angel.

Maybe the person who sat next to you on the bus, boat, train or plane was an angel. Maybe the beggar you walked past on the street was an angel. I was astounded at some of the beggars I saw on the streets of Paris and of Rome. People with blatantly obvious and grotesque physical deformities laying on sidewalks with the obligatory cup in front of them. At times this would reduce me tears, compelling me to dig deep into my pockets to offer them some miniscule relief from their afflictions. It horrified me. Couldn’t some charity or altruistic person offer to pay for an operation or something to ease their suffering?

Of course, a lowly beggar does not fit the other traditional picture of an angel: strong, noble, handsome, wings extended, sword in hand etc. (see e.g., Josh. 5:13; Num. 22:31; 1 Chron. 21:16). To be sure, there is no mention of the angel in the aforementioned passages being handsome or having wings. However, angels certainly are beautiful creatures that can fly. (We need to be careful with the word ‘creature’ if we are speaking of the Lord.) But back to ‘entertaining strangers.’

We are being encouraged to be hospitable to strangers, i.e., people we don’t know. They might be angels! Whatever else it is, an angel is a spirit-being that can temporarily materialise itself in the form of a human being. Have I ever seen one? Who knows? But I do know that over the years I have bumped into lots of strangers!

Before conversion, Jesus is a stranger to us, and as such, we are inhospitable to Him. Jesus once was a stranger to me. To me He was just some man that you read about in a book. Then, when I started to entertain Him, I soon discovered that He is the (uncreated) Angel of the LORD. No, He didn’t materialise to me. He didn’t need to. He simply opened up my eyes so that I understood who He is. I know that this sounds like so much mumbo-jumbo to the unconverted. It’s like trying to explain a beautiful sunset to someone who has been blind from birth. You wish that they could see for themselves what you can see!

What then are angels? ‘Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?’ Hebrews 1:14. Be really careful then when you’re entertaining strangers. One of them might be an angel and you, therefore, may just end up inheriting salvation!

May God be pleased to enable us to entertain strangers.      

SIMPLICITY

Simplicity

If simplicity is ‘the quality or condition of being easy to understand or do’, then the following sentence fails miserably: ‘Never use a big word where a diminutive one will suffice.’ Like lawyers and auto mechanics, when theologians use their own specialist language, we can be left bewildered. Simplicity is needed if we are to understand.

Preaching is the science of homiletics. It involves exegetical skills. However, the finished product, i.e., the sermon, is where simplicity comes in. To be effective, the message must be communicated to the audience in language it understands. Jesus was the Master communicator: ‘You are the salt of the earth…’, ‘Do not hide your light under a bushel’, ‘No one can serve two masters…’ ‘Consider the lilies of the field…’, ‘Judge not that you be not judged’ etc. Jesus had a way with words because He was/is the Word that became flesh. He simplified the profound.

Theologians speak of the Simplicity of God or Divine Simplicity, whereby, ‘there is but one only, living and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, [is] a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions' (Westminster Confession of Faith). Notice that God is a most pure spirit without a body or parts. Thus, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit are not three parts of God. Rather, they are the three Persons who are one God. ‘In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons of one substance, power, and eternity’ (WCF). Thus, God is not the sum total of His attributes. He does not have Omniscience, Omnipresence, and Omnipotence. Rather, He is these attributes, (i.e., all-knowing, everywhere present, and almighty). In other words, we do not tally-up a list of items that we think makes God God. Rather, He is the Omniscient, Omnipresent, and Omnipotent Being. There is no other! The Simplicity of God is that His Being is identical to His attributes. His attributes are not part of who He is. Rather, they are who He is. Simplicity? Think about it: To talk about God’s attributes is the same as talking about God. Unlike God, you and I have bodies and we have parts. If we talk about bodies and parts we are not talking about God. In the same way, if we talk about Omniscience, Omnipresence, and Omnipotence, we are not talking about human or angelic beings. We are talking about the Being who is God. The less parts a thing has, the less complicated it is. Well, God has no parts. Simplicity!

True, it is difficult to understand a Being who knows everything, is everywhere, and is all powerful. But, the Word became flesh. I can relate to a human being who was like us in every way apart from sin. Jesus said, ‘He who has seen Me has seen the Father’ John 14:9. Therefore, if God were a human being (which He is not), He would look like Jesus. But isn’t Jesus God? Yes, but we must not confuse His human nature with His divine nature! With Jesus, ‘two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one Person, without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which person is very God, and very Man, yet one Christ, the only Mediator between God and man’ (WCF).

Then there is the simplicity of the Gospel: ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.’ John 3:16.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

RANDOM THOUGHTS

 

It was great growing up in the Vale of Leven (“the Vale”) during the 60s and 70s. Perhaps it more aptly could have been called “Smollettsville” on account of the Smollett family owning vast tracts of land there back in the day. Indeed, the Vale of Leven town of Alexandria was named after Alexander Smollett, and Renton was named after a daughter-in-law of Jane Telfer Smollett in 1762.

As a kid I used to pick strawberries for Patrick Tobias Telfer Smollett at his Cameron House on the southwest shore of Loch Lomond. He died in 1997. During the late 60s he kindly let me build a pigeon-hut as a young teenager on a piece of his land at the old ruin of Tullichewan Castle. Kilt-clad he would stop his car and come over for a chat whenever he saw me tending to my pigeons. A gentleman. I read a book written by one of his ancestors, one Tobias Smollett. The book, written in 1748, is called “The Adventures of Roderick Random.” There was a road in the Vale called “Random Street” apparently after this novel. Of course, like most of old Alexandria, this street has disappeared forever.

I read “The Adventures of Roderick Random” on a trip to Hawaii my wife and I made back in 2012. Forget about flight movies, I couldn’t put this book down! (Actually, it was a Kindle version.) Anyway, here was this red-headed Scotsman, back in 1748, getting himself into all sorts of exciting, humorous, and romantic adventures. I was riveted to the story while lying soaking up the tropical sun on the golden sands of Waikiki Beach. The bit where the gold-digger Random attempts to visit in person the rich, and as he thought, very beautiful woman in her stately home is particularly hilarious. All is not as it seems. Surely Robert Louis Stevenson got the idea for his “Treasure Island” after reading about Random’s exploits in the Caribbean after he was press-ganged into service on the high seas. Apparently the great English novelist Charles Dickens tipped his hat to Tobias Smollett. Wow!

I finished the book on the flight home from Hawaii wanting more, much more.

On a trip back to Scotland from Australia, I visited the Tobias Smollett monument which, though it used to stand in front of the Renton Primary School, still stands in (the) Renton.

My very good friends, Graham and Jacqui Black visited his grave in Livorno, Italy where Tobias died and was buried in 1771.



(The following is my review of the book on US Amazon):

The Adventures of Roderick Random is a great read! Written in the mid-1700s by a man from the same town in Scotland in which I grew up (Vale of Leven). Smollett has a beautifully descriptive and poetic turn of phrase, is witty, and has an acute eye for human foibles and our fallen disposition. This is Stevenson's Treasure Island and Scott's Rob Roy rolled into one! This novel is surprisingly modern, not in language (which nevertheless is exquisite), but in its vivid description of human nature when faced with feast or famine. Loved it!

I REMEMBER...

I Remember

Do faces and places stick in my mind like flies to a strip of flypaper hanging in an old butcher’s shop? How do I remember what I remember? How many megabytes or gigabytes of memory do I have? Why do some memories fade as I grow older? Some things I can’t remember while other things I can’t forget. Why do songs and smells sometimes trigger memories? A lost love? A lost loved one?

Our Maker created us with the ability to remember things, including Himself: ‘Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come, and the years draw near when you say, “I have no pleasure in them”’ Ecclesiastes 12:1. However, rather than remember, unless He converts us, we go through life trying hard to keep a lid on our knowledge of God (Romans 1:18). Yet it is hard not to remember Him, because He gives us so many reminders of Himself. Everything we smell, taste, touch, hear and see is revelation of the Creator. We exist because He exists. We remember because God remembers.

However, when it comes to God, is our flypaper too full of flies for any memory of Him to stick? Or are we not, as the Bible says, simply suppressing the knowledge of God, just as we try to do with any bad memory? He made us in His image, yet He had to send His Son into the world to remind us what He looks like! ‘The Son is … the exact representation of His being’ Hebrews 1:3. ‘Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror, and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like’ James 1:23-24. We have forgotten what God looks look like, and, we can so quickly forget what we ourselves look like. What’s wrong with us? Well, it is only when He converts us that we remember what God and we ourselves really look like.

Understanding what Christ did on the cross has been referred to derogatorily as ‘butcher shop theology’, wherein the Old Testament Temple sacrifice of every animal culminated in the shedding of Christ’s blood on the cross as a substitutionary atonement. However, in Christ’s ‘butcher shop’ there hangs no flypaper clogged up with flies. For the believer, it is as when God had finished with sending His plague of flies on Pharaoh and his household: ‘Not one remained’ Exodus 8:31a. Not one fly. God is very exact!

I remember when I was converted in my early thirties being amazed that I could remember so much of what the Bible taught. I had never been that interested in God’s Word until then, but had read bits and pieces here and there and had heard stories as a child at school and in the Boys’ Brigade. Nothing had seemed to stick. But it all came flooding back to me! That putrid strip of flypaper hanging in the centre of my mind was taken down and thrown out along with my sins! I was transformed and my whole mind was renewed. No flies on me! For, ‘God made Him who had no sin to be sin [i.e., a sin-offering] for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God’ 2 Corinthians 5:21.

I remember that it is Christ that saves me and not I myself. I remember what I look like, a sinner saved by grace alone. Dear reader, ask God to remove that old flypaper strip from your mind. Remember Him.

TRUTH

Truth

‘Tell the truth and shame the devil’: an adage all ought to live by. Hugh Latimer said it was a common saying in his day in 1555, and William Shakespeare immortalised it in Henry IV in 1597. Shakespeare also wrote, ‘Honesty is the best policy. If I lose mine honor, I lose myself.’ Of the devil and lies? Jesus says that the devil ‘is the father of lies’ John 8:44b. Thus, as Satan opposes Christ, so a lie opposes truth. Contradiction is the habitat of lies. This is where the head devil and his cohorts live.

When Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate (or was it the other way round?!) He said, ‘“Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” “What is truth?” retorted Pilate” John 18:37b-38a. Jesus says that God’s Word, i.e., the Bible, is truth (John 17:17) and that He, Himself, is the Truth (John 14:6). After His resurrection Jesus berated a couple of His disciples on the road to Emmaus. He said to them, ‘“How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself’ Luke 12:25-27. And, to those opposing Him He said, ‘“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies”’ John 8:44. Thus, Christ Jesus is the Truth, as is the Bible that reveals Him as such.

Enter Postmodernism, i.e., the devil’s latest strategy in his war on truth! Postmodernism can be hard to define, but at its base it is a rejection of absolutes, including God and His Word. Postmodernism is happy with contradiction, such as its dogmatic mantra: ‘There is no such thing as absolute truth!’ To which Christianity responds by asking Postmodernism, ‘How can this be true since this is an absolute statement?’ Thus, ‘In war, truth is the first casualty.’ Aeschylus, Greek tragic dramatist (525-456 BC). Which war? The war being waged by the devil (and those he has blinded) against God and His Anointed (i.e., Christ), (see e.g., Psalm 2:1-3 & 2 Corinthians 4:4).

The war was begun by Satan who subsequently deceived Eve who in turn offered her husband, Adam, the forbidden fruit which he willfully ate. Thus, Adam consciously joined the devil in rebellion against God. How did the serpent manage to pull it off? By asking a very pointed question, ‘Did God really say?’ Genesis 3:1. Questioning God and His Word, Adam and Eve set themselves up as the arbiters of truth, not God. Like Postmodernism, they rejected absolute truth and made it relative, i.e., relative to themselves. Regardless of contradiction, one person’s truth is as good as any another’s – as far as it agrees with the Postmodernist narrative of no-absolutes! However, Jesus makes an absolute statement by saying, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me’ John 14:6. As does His Apostle Paul, ‘Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved’ Acts 4:12. The truth is that, ‘For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil’ 1 John 3:8. Thus, the Truth will shame the devil!

The Future

The Future

‘Because He lives, I can face tomorrow, because He lives, all fear is gone; because I know He holds the future…’ (Gaither), so goes the chorus of an assuring hymn. Jesus “holds the future” because God is the God of time, past, present and future. The Triune God pushes time forward as He keeps it ticking as He drags it behind Him. The resurrected and ascended Jesus awaits the arrival of the final destination of all things (including you, me and death): ‘For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive …Then the end will come, when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father after He has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death’ 1 Corinthians 15:22;24-26 NIV. No matter how long dead you are, you’ll be made alive in the future!

It’s not hard to see that the Christian has a far different take on the future than everyone else. For the Christian the future is all about the resurrected Jesus putting death to death on the Last Day and then living with His resurrected people forever on the resurrected (i.e., renewed) earth. We see then why Christianity lives or dies by Christ’s resurrection. That’s why the Apostle says, ‘If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile…’ 1 Corinthians 15:17a. For the Christian living in the present the future is tied to an event in the past. Without the physical resurrection of Jesus the Christian has no future. But again, as the Apostle says, ‘But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep’ 1 Corinthians 15:20.

The Christian would much rather look into God’s Word than gaze into a crystal ball. Therein God says, ‘I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure”’ Isaiah 46:9b-10. Jesus holds the future, not the fortune-teller. And He says, ‘Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble’ Matthew 6:34. Therefore, whether it’s the near future or the far future it all belongs to Jesus.

There are three main views (each with variants within) that Christians hold regarding what the Bible says about the future: Premillennialism, Postmillennialism, and Amillennialism. (The word ‘millennium’ means a thousand, as in a thousand years. See e.g., Revelation 20.) The first view holds that things on earth will progressively grow worse before Jesus physically returns to set up a thousand year ministry, a “Millennial Reign.’ The second holds that Jesus will come back only after there has been a thousand year (or an extensive) period of peace of earth. And the third view is that things will carry on pretty much in the same dismal state until Jesus’s Second Coming. The first and the last views are pessimistic about the present and the near future. However, all three are optimistic about the distant future.

Why the different schools of thought? You may as well ask: Why the different Christian Denominations?! However, every Christians is agreed that, ‘Jesus shall reign where’er the sun, doth his successive journeys run; His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, Till moons shall wax and wane no more.’ Isaac Watts (1674-1748).