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

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?

 

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.

 

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

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.​

 

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).