An Earth Meant for Destruction: Life in the Light of Judgment Day

[Steven Yeadon]

I did a bible study in the last several months, that has reshaped my world. I thought I would share it.

The Jews of Jesus’ time did not understand the End Times, thinking it was about the Jewish people and their messiah, who would rule and reign over all the earth in the near future.

Jesus’ reception in Jerusalem was the last thing the world, and the disciples picked from it, would have believed would come true.

Until Jesus is arrested in Gethsemane, almost the whole world seems content to believe he is the messiah who will found a powerful kingdom in Jerusalem (John 12:12-19). The disciples all seem to believe this too, even debating who would be second and third in this soon to be earthly Kingdom (Mark 10:35-40). That is until they find out that Jesus is here to save us from our sins as a sacrifice, and is not a conquering messiah before his second coming. Jesus’ response in Mark 10:39-45 is probably only understood by the disciples after Jesus was crucified. It is thus a haunting response by Jesus, like many leading up to the Cross

The eternal values of the Kingdom turn out to be radically different than the common values of the world. The world would tell us that someone who dies a criminal instead of reigning in glory on earth is a failure. The reason they say this is that they value supremacy in this world above all else, whereas Jesus’ aim is for supremacy in the heavenlies and over all things (Colossians 1:18-20).

This shows us that God’s ways are so foreign to us that for His Son to inherit supremacy in all things he must live the life he did on earth as Jesus Christ. Our reason and logic would never point in this direction, since we are so much less than God in wisdom.

God’s ways are shown to be higher and loftier than anyone expected when Jesus set his journey towards Jerusalem. Despite what Satan, our flesh, and the world are telling us all the time; This world is not everything. This one observation demolishes the world we live in and its system. It also destroys the this-worldly beliefs of the Sadducees and all those like them.

Jesus prepares his disciples, through his teachings on the Kingdom and a heavenly reward, for this the whole time. He even warns them of his arrest and crucifixion, even though the disciples reject this truth.

Jesus’ Kingdom is not a Kingdom of this world. Relatedly, this world is not the only thing that matters.

Instead to be a friend of this world we live in is to be an enemy of God (James 4:3-4). To live for this world and its pleasures is to be an adulteress before our Bridegroom, God, and King.

Christians are thus strangers, exiles, and foreigners here on earth (1 Peter 1:17; 1 Peter 2:11; Hebrews 11:13). And our citizenship is in heaven and we do not set our minds on earthly things (Philippians 3:18-21).

Jesus lived like he was passing through this world, and the bible tells us so are we. The earth will one day be destroyed by fire (2 Peter 3:7, 2 Peter 3:10-12). A failure of the world is to misunderstand the ending in which the earth and stars dissolve.

Thus, to my horror at first, the Earth is a City Meant for Destruction. As John Bunyan put it in The Pilgrim’s Progress. We live in a world around us that will fade away. A world meant for destruction one day.

Thus, we must live for what is not seen instead of that which is. I was shaken to my core and even cried out when I realized this, it was so against how I had lived for years. I am now learning to embrace these truths, though, and live in what I call Life in the Light of Judgment Day. The terrible Day of the LORD.


I open this bible study I did to discussion. Comments? Criticisms?

 

[agedman]

John Bunyan was a man of great testimony to the grace and redemption of God.

"Love not the world, nor the things in the world..."

Sadly, imo, the world has so infiltrated the life and living of the believer, there is rarely anyone willing to be distinguished as a believer living as separated from the world.

Yet, the warning is not just about the world, but the philosophy and human rationalizations that would replace the sovereign with human thinking.

It is that condition Satan brought to the ears of Eve. "The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!""

This world will pass away.

 

[Martin Marprelate]

I did a bible study in the last several months, that has reshaped my world. I thought I would share it

Thanks for sharing, Steven.
You are correct; the world is heading for destruction, 'but he who does the will of God abides forever' (1 John 2:17).
However, we are not be become ascetics or hermits; 'God...gives us all things richly to enjoy' (1 Timothy 6:17). It's just that we are not to set our hearts on the things of the world, 'for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.'

 

[Steven Yeadon]

Thanks for sharing, Steven.
You are correct; the world is heading for destruction, 'but he who does the will of God abides forever' (1 John 2:17).
However, we are not be become ascetics or hermits; 'God...gives us all things richly to enjoy' (1 Timothy 6:17). It's just that we are not to set our hearts on the things of the world, 'for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.'

Absolutely. Being an ascetic hermit or a reveler are two temptations to resist. I just realized the context of the passage you quoted gives away what you said. I will quote it for others:

1 Timothy 6:17-19
17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

Another thing that strikes me is that this is just after Paul's explanation of what to be content with:

1 Timothy 6:6-8
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

I have food, drinks, and clothes in abundance. I even live in a very nice house that gives shelter, apparently more than is needed to be content. I am a man on disability who gets to live like a rich man to most people in the world or in history. That always keeps me mindful of how much I have been given and how much I should share.

 

[Steven Yeadon]

Whoa! I made a mistake by not checking to see if the bible has the following in it already with a google search.

Thus, we must live for what is not seen instead of that which is.

It does have this already in it as a command in 2 Corinthians 4:18:

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.​

 

[MartyF]

I agree for the most part. But I think his kingdom will come to Earth as the end of Revelation says.

Yeah, if something doesn't intervene, our own sun will make us nice and crispy, eventually.

 

[Steven Yeadon]

I actually just found this passage in Isaiah that seems to give a glimpse of the desolations of the End: Isaiah 24

It seems to give details not even in the chapters on the future given in the three synoptic Gospels. (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21:5-38).

 

[agedman]

I actually just found this passage in Isaiah that seems to give a glimpse of the desolations of the End: Isaiah 24

It seems to give details not even in the chapters on the future given in the three synoptic Gospels. (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21:5-38).

There are times when the prophets would present what was going to happen in the immediate future - in this case the great army of the Assyrians plundering the people and land - but also reveal that in the distance a great higher peak of the tribulation and millennium times that John wrote about in the Revelation.

If one continues with chapters 25, 26, and 27 there is wonderful promise given to the people of Israel in spite of the horrible devastation brought by Sennacherib but more, there is that certainty of the promise to the saints.

What is interesting to me, as one reads through the Isaiah 24 chapter, is that the parallel to what the apostles stated will happen in the last days (were there will be a great apostasy that consumes the church) was also the condition of the people of Israel in Isaiah's day. Prior (just as in our modern church) folks looked for God's approval through health and wealth. They would perhaps say, "God wouldn't be blessing us with such great success if He were not pleased."

About half way through the passage or better, there is this great praising going on in the west and east which is oblivious to the coming destruction. Yet, betrayal upon betrayal is actually what is being done. Treachery is in the heart and deceitfulness.

As Isaiah declares in his day, to the people of his day, he truly was also addressing the folks of these last days.

One thinks that they may sing and praise with the mouth and get all worked up with the emotions, and yet the heart remains far from the truth of the Holy Spirit. The betrayal and treachery that is becoming more and more prevalent will encompass the globe. It will result in fear filled hearts who view all as treacherous and folks barring their doors in dread.

Yet, the Lord does not leave Isaiah to only write about destruction without sharing that He will also preserve. So, although these chapters of Isaiah run a course in history, with that promise to the people then of a future hope, the same should rest in the heart of believers in our day of that future hope. The prophecy will again run its course in history, yet it also to contains promise to the believers of a future hope, secure in the examples given to us by God of His steadfastness and faithfulness.

 

[HankD]

The Book of Revelation supports the premise of a world (cosmos) under the sentence of destruction.

On the other hand there is ALWAYS mercy with our God.

Malachi 4
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.
6 And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse."

Lets pray to see that fiery chariot in the sky - of course Elijah showing up would be for the benefit of the remnant of the redeemed Jewish saints in the nation of Israel.