Armageddon

FRI., JUNE 21, 1985, 5:52 AM
FARM, STUDY

This is a story that you do not know very well. It is an apocalyptic ending to the earth story, but it therefore becomes a story in itself. Take a minute or two to find the reference and reread it. Oh, I can offer you the Teaching without this Scriptural reference, but it wouldn’t be quite as effective. Read the story, o son.

It is an awful tale of judgment upon the earth, which makes present happenings, bad as they are, seem less consequential. It seems unlikely to you, however, in what can be called a nuclear age, that great armies would assemble any where to challenge one another. So, is this Biblical vision wrong? No, not wrong, but suggestive of an end that should motivate Christians to live righteously and work for peace in the earth. Remember Jonah. He finally prophesied as I wished him to, and, to his surprise, the people repented and the judgment action was not necessary. Armageddon has not been necessary yet. The story remains… for its motivational value.

I have not given you, on paper or in your spiritual heart, a destructive message comparable to Armageddon. You know that destruction could come in a moment, given the quantities of nuclear warheads that are poised in readiness for firing. Yet you have lived forty years… two-thirds of your life… with this destructive force imminent, and you still rise from your bed on a pleasant summer morn to spend some time with Me. Have I made this possible? Well, give Me some credit, anyway.

The people of the original Biblical lands are in turmoil, which is made worse by their varying allegiances and dedications to Me. It is understandable that such conflict encourages the godless view of life which communism is. Yet the strength of this brings some closer to Me… and spiritual growth is realized in the midst of conflict, even as this is.

Your friend, and Mine, Andy, asked a question about the chosen and the covenant people. This is a question not easy to answer in the words of your language. The Holy Scriptures tell of My choosing a people, the Jews, an unlikely people. (Yet, given My nature, what would have been a likelier choice?). After a 2000 year history of relationship with me, told in a story they all knew, they resisted and denied My Presence, as Jesus, as the Messiah – the one to deliver them from their sin of disobedience and apartness. And so they rejected My new covenant, and that went to a motley group without a spiritual history. And I am pleased that the name of Jesus Christ is synonymous with Lord, and that Christians, of varying stripes, have accepted My covenant.

And yet it must be recognized that much of the present Mideast conflict stems from Christian peoples and nations supporting Israel, rather than letting them absorb the consequences of their poor playing of the “chosen role”. Christians and Jews have the same symbolic father, Abraham, but he is thus also to the Moslems. Should Christians support and help maintain this Jewish state? Most would say Yes.