G. F. Handel: Messiah HWV 56

I know I've said this in the past, but it bears repeating. Especially now, if you need comfort--after all, the opening words are "Comfort ye my people." If you never have, take two hours, do nothing else; this is the perfect time for it; sit down, and just listen. Let it soak through your soul, into your spirit. Let the waves of the music wash over your body. And attend to the words--they're all Scripture. If you have never truly listened to The Messiah, then you have missed out on one of the most profound and important experiences in human history. Seriously. Your life is not complete unless you've heard this, watched Hamlet, and read War and Peace.

Why This is Not the End of the World

...and why everyone who tries to predict when it will be is wrong.

I mentioned the other day that I'm confident this is not The End, and then I got to thinking that maybe I'd share why.

If you have a Bible, open it to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 24. If you have two Bibles, open the other one to the Revelation (or Apocalypse, depending on your version) of St. John, chapter 6, and lay them beside each other. If not, just put a bookmark in Revelation, or your finger. We're going to be going back and forth between the two.

In Matthew 24, Jesus has just predicted the destruction of the Temple. Then, later, when they are alone, his disciples ask him to explain, following the pattern established elsewhere, in which he speaks in parables and riddles to the public, but tells the secrets of the Kingdom to his followers in private.

As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying 'Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming at the end of the age?" -- Matt 24:3

I'm going to pause here to point something out which is very important to understanding the rest of the passage: and that is that there are two questions here: when will these things (the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem) happen, and what will be the signs of His return at the end of the age? Did the disciples understand that they were asking two separate things? Most likely not. There is a mystery here, which Jesus addresses later in the passage when he says, in verse 36 "But concerning that day and hour no man knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only." So Jesus entrusted the Twelve with all things regarding the Kingdom of Heaven, and they established the Church, passing on not only what became the Scriptures themselves, but the body of teaching and practice which became orthodox Christianity. But this one thing, Jesus specifically said they were not being told, and we see both in the New Testament and in the history of the early church, that they indeed did not understand it. Because it had been hidden from them. The apostles and the earliest church fathers all lived in expectation that Jesus was going to return soon: very soon; within their lifetimes. This is acknowledged historical fact, and has been called by some who do not really understand (including C.S. Lewis)  the most embarrassing fact of church history. Much has been made of it, including its being used as ammunition to oppose the idea of a literal return or especially a literal Millennium at all. But really all it is, is the fulfillment of Jesus's words, that NO MAN KNOWS THE DAY OR THE HOUR. More on that later.

The second thing to understand is that prophecies are not always given in the Bible in logical, sequential, chronological order. Often prophecy is embedded into prophecy, passages have multiple meanings and levels, and one thing is hidden inside another. For instance, passages in the Psalms and the Prophets of the Old Testament which were universally understood among Jews in Jesus's time, and which were explicitly stated by the New Testament writers, to be referring to the Messiah, are found within passages which, on the surface, have another meaning and application. Part of a passage may be talking about events in the time and place in which it was written, then the writer will slip into a prophetic utterance, then back out again. Prophecy does not come from the rational mind, but from the spirit realm, and as such does not conform to the pattern which we would like to see in order to make it easily comprehensible. Prophecy is more like dreams, which don't make any sense whatsoever to the rational mind until they are decoded, deciphered, and interpreted.

The point is that the prophets themselves, or the transcribers of the words of Jesus, when writing the New Testament, often do not themselves fully understand what they are writing. Their words are true, and inspired, and authoritative, but the Holy Spirit who was working through them allowed certain things to remain obscure, for reasons of his own. "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter." (Prov 25:2). This is further evidenced by the fact that both Daniel and John are given strange and cryptic instructions regarding their prophetic visions and what to do with them (Dan 12:4, Rev 10:4). Also, it helps us to understand that many Old Testament prophecies had their fulfillment in the history of Israel, but still have a further fulfillment to come in the Last Days. This is also true of Jesus's prediction of the destruction of the Temple: there was a fulfillment in A.D. 70, but that does not mean that there cannot be another and greater one to come. The perfect example of this is that it was not clear at all, in Old Testament messianic prophecy, that there would be two advents of the Messiah, until after the fact, after He came and revealed it to us, and then, looking back, it becomes plain that it was there all along: there was to be a first coming, as a suffering servant, and there is still to be another and more glorious one, as the conquering king.

So, what I'm preparing you for is to look at Matthew 24 and its synoptic equivalents in Mark 13 and Luke 21 with the understanding that neither the apostles who heard Jesus's words and passed them on, nor the evangelists who wrote the Gospels, had been given a full revelation of the interpretation of the prophecies contained in them.

This all helps us to understand why the predictions are ordered so differently in the three Gospels--the authors just didn't fully understand (and nor can we claim to today, and anyone who does is guilty of hubris). However, we do have a knowledge of history looking back which they did not have looking forward, and so we can see that perhaps parts of Jesus's predictions were actually about events which were near from their perspective, that is the destruction of A.D. 70, and others were far away, that is still future to us. Or perhaps they were about both--scripture does have a habit of having multiple levels and layers, all of which are simultaneously true. After all, God is rather complex.

In one case, the Gospel writer and the apostle who heard the prediction personally were the same man: Matthew. This, and the fact that, as you will see, his chronology matches so closely with that of St. John in the Revelation, is why I take his as being the best account of the words in the order in which they were originally given. So, with that, back to the Gospel:

And Jesus answered them, "See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying 'I am the Christ,' and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. -- Matt 24:4-8

So here, Jesus is giving us a picture of the time preceding the time of the end. He uses the image of a woman's labor before giving birth to illustrate it, implying that as the time draws nearer, the contractions will become more intense and more frequent. This, I believe, is where we are now: in the era of birth pangs. Wars, famines, plagues, and natural disasters have been growing in frequency and intensity over my lifetime, and the one before it, in fact all through the 20th century. This thing is just one of those things: it's not nothing, but it's not the end. Although the world's reaction to it is a tiny foretaste of what the end is going to be like.

It's important to note that Jesus is saying two different things: first, that wars and all that are not the end, but part of the normal course of human history: "All this must take place, but the end is not yet." But, then, he gives a list of things which are the signs of the end, starting with "Nation will rise against nation," etc. This, to my mind, corresponds to our period of history, beginning with the world wars.

Now turn to Revelation 6:

And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with famine, and with pestilence, and with the beasts of the earth. Rev 6:1-8

These two passages are parallel: the period of the birth pangs corresponds to the period of the opening of the first four seals. Or rather, the latter period of the birth pangs, once they reach a certain point of intensity, does. What the four horsemen represent:

1) White horse = conquest, that is, power and authority, the building of empire, political control, etc. We live in an era in which governments have a degree of control over every aspect of our lives as never before. Some say the white horseman represents Christ, but this doesn't make any sense in the context, because it would be the only positive in a long list of negatives, and also this horseman doesn't match the description of Christ on a white horse at the end of the book: this horseman has one crown, Christ has many, this horseman has a bow, Christ has a sword, etc. But the fact that Christ is described as coming on a white horse makes it appear to me that this horseman represents the rise of the Antichrist, or of the political environment which will allow him to come to power. My personal belief is that this is exactly where we are on the timeline right now: the Antichrist is alive and in the world, and the way is being prepared for him to appear as a public figure and begin to gain authority.

I don't personally believe that there will be a true one world government, as evangelical Christian thought predicts of the Antichrist's reign. For one thing, logically, if there were, how would there then be the major wars which are predicted in the end times? I think the Antichrist will be a figure who unites the Muslim world into one political entity and makes it a major power block, then wars and the rest will follow.

2) Red horse = war. We have seen the previous contractions, in the two world wars and the cold war with all its subconflicts, and now the war between the free world and Islam. But probably, there is going to be something worse coming; a true World War III.

3) Black horse = economic collapse. Which naturally follows war (and probably the poor economic policies of the Antichrist's government). Look what's happening to the economy right now from this little thing, and extrapolate.

4) Pale horse = death. By sword, that is war, probably meaning the continued smaller conflicts in the wake of or on the periphery of the major war, by starvation caused by the economic collapse, by pestilence or disease, and--this one is interesting--by wild beasts. This could either mean literal attacks by wild animals, or by predatory men, like what is happening in Africa already today--wild packs of violent, evil men, preying upon the weak and vulnerable like beasts. The word, therion, is used in this sense in other places in scripture, for instance in Titus 1:12. It, and its Hebrew equivalent in the Old Testament (as in Eze 14:15), can mean wild animals like lions and bears, or evil, violent men, or monsters, like dragon in Revelation. Monster would actually probably be the best translation, as we use that word to describe men like Hitler and Ted Bundy. Anyway, the pale horse represents basically total chaos in the earth. All the scenarios like in the post-apocalyptic movies and books come true: brutality and survival of the strongest. It says that Death and Hell will be given authority over a fourth of the earth; it's not clear whether this means that these conditions will reign over a quarter of the world geographically or population-wise, or whether it means the conditions will prevail over the whole earth and one quarter of the population will die. Either is possible, but the former sounds like it fits better with my idea that the Antichrist's authority will be over a certain geographical region. But it doesn't mean the rest of the world will escape problems altogether: even if that is the case, the whole world will suffer to one degree or another.

An interesting note on this passage is that in the Greek original, the names of the horseman and his esquire are Thanatos and Hades, both of whom were Greek deities. I believe that St. John saw them as real spiritual beings, what St. Paul referred to as "thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers,"  and what Daniel was told about by the Archangel Gabriel when he said that he was delayed twenty-one days by the Prince of Persia. St. Paul did say that the gods whom the pagans worshiped were demons. I believe this means that these beings will be given authority over the earth to work their evil unchecked, or relatively unchecked, as Satan was given authority to persecute Job.

Okay, now turn back to Matthew 24, verse 9:

Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

And compare it to Revelation 6:9:

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

The previous parallels are somewhat vague, as Jesus wasn't very specific and detailed in his description of the birth pangs. But here it starts to become very clear that the two chronologies are the same: the birth pangs and the four horsemen will be followed by a massive, world-wide persecution of Christians, by mass apostasy and betrayal, and by mass executions. This, also, supports the idea that the Antichrist will come out of Islam, as they are already at it right now.

Another common error of the evangelical teachers is that "And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." means that we, the church, have to make sure that the Gospel, in general, has to reach every single nation, group, tribe, culture, and language, before Jesus can return. But I think, in the context, Jesus is saying that this gospel, that is, that of martyrdom, will be given as a witness all over the earth in those times, and then the end will come.

Next, Jesus makes an aside, or coda, in Matthew, describing the abomination of desolation and telling those who are in Judea (Israel) to flee when they see it, and giving another warning about following false Christs, which will appear in that time, and not to be fooled by them, because when He comes again, there will be no mistaking it. I won't transcribe it all here, because it kind of interrupts the chronology. Not that it's unimportant, just that it's a bit tangential to my main argument here.

So skip to Matthew 24:39, and Revelation 6:12. Here is where there is no mistaking the parallels.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. -- Matt 24:29-31

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? -- Rev 6:12-16

Sorry, I have to pause here for a little Handel:

At this point, the Revelation zooms in to show in great detail the days that follow, where the Matthew account ends here, with two warnings: one, that we should watch out for the signs so that we know that the day is coming, and the other, the one I mentioned before, that no one will know exactly when it is going to be until it actually comes. I want to talk about both of these. Then I will come back to briefly touch on the events after where we left off.

First, Matthew 24:32-35:

From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

There is a popular evangelical teaching that the sign of the fig tree is the restoration of Israel. But there is no textual warrant in the scripture for this. It is based on the fact that, in some places, the fig tree is used as a metaphor for Israel. But so are a lot of other things, like a wife, or a woman in labor, or a prostitute, but that doesn't mean that every time these things are mentioned, it is a reference to the nation of Israel. This doctrine says that, since Israel was restored in 1948, either Christ's coming must be within 40 years (what they call a 'biblical generation") of that event, or within the lifetime of at least some who were alive in 1948. Hal Lindsey wrote a book based on the former, predicting, as many others did, the end by 1988. This is obviously false. I predict that the other is false too. I say that when Jesus says "This generation shall not pass away", he is referring to the generation that sees the things he was just talking about: "So also, when you see all these things" (emphasis mine). I especially think that the most important sign is the darkening of the sun, moon, and stars, because these are given in multiple other passages as being the sign of the coming of the Day of the Lord:

Isaiah 13:9-11: Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light.

Joel 2:31: The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.

Joel 3:13-15: Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great. Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! The sun and moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

Again, there is a popular current evangelical teaching that this refers to some kind of eclipse or series of eclipses: "blood moons" and such. I don't think this is right. Eclipses and red moons occur all the time. They say, well, it's a certain number, or combination, of eclipses and blood moons, that we have to watch out for. But that's not what the text says. Jesus says it will be a sign by which we will know that the end is near, even as the fig tree putting forth leaves means spring is coming. That means it is clear and unmistakable. Saying that we have to calculate eclipses or count blood moons is anything but unequivocal. It's like the Jewish claim that Isaiah 7:14 says "Behold, the Lord himself will give you a sign: a young woman shall conceive." Well that's not a sign at all! Young women conceive all the time, so how could that be a sign from the Lord himself? Likewise with blood moons and eclipses: something that happens routinely is not a sign. I'm not saying that there won't be some kind of astronomical explanation for what is happening--there probably will. Just as, at the parting of the Red Sea, it says that a wind blowing all day and all night caused it. But it was still the work of the Lord. What I am saying, is that it will be something extraordinary and unprecedented, so that those who know and are looking for the sign can be sure that this is it. Just as a theory, perhaps there will be a meteor shower ("the stars falling from heaven") of such a magnitude that it will create a dust cloud which darkens the sky afterward.

Next, Jesus says:

But concerning that day and hour no man knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will the be coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming." -- Matt 24:36-42

This is the first source of the doctrine that is commonly called "the Rapture," about which there has also been much debate, much wrong teaching, and to be honest, quite a bit of silliness. I'll come back to this later. The point I want to make now is that Jesus says that NO MAN KNOWS THE DAY OR THE HOUR. Period. HE didn't even know, at least at that time. Whether he does now, after his ascension, I won't speculate on. But by this you can be sure that ANYONE who says that they've figured, and calculated, and deciphered, or have been shown, or seen, that the end is such-and-such a date, is wrong. Whether they are sincere but mistaken, or are intentional deceivers, the fact is that they are wrong. They are the people Jesus warned us about, saying "So if anyone tells you, 'There he is, out in the wilderness,' do not go out; or, 'Here he is, in the inner rooms,' do not believe it." in verse 26 of Matthew 24.

Here the Revelation leaves the Matthew account and goes off into a much more detailed narrative of what happens both on the spiritual and material planes, in-between the opening of the sixth seal and the blowing of the last trumpet. I will summarize for the sake of brevity and clarity. The structure of the Apocalypse is that there are Seven Seals, which the Lamb opens in heaven, and then corresponding things happen on earth. With the opening of each seal, certain events are released. Then, with the opening of the seventh seal, a new series of events is released, in the blowing of the trumpets. The pattern repeats with the trumpets, culminating in the pouring out of the seven last plagues, the seven bowls of God's wrath, upon the earth at the blowing of the last trumpet. A good way to think of it, is that all of the events of the trumpets are contained within the last seal, and all of the events of the bowls of wrath are contained within the last trumpet. Also, there are more asides and codas, which depart temporarily from the narrative flow to make certain points, then come back to it later, or are events which occur within or alongside of or during the time of the seals, trumpets, and bowls. We don't need to go into them all here, as much of it is outside the scope of this essay, and tangential to its argument. What is important to understand here is that the End Times begin with the birth pangs and the four horsemen, then stuff happens, then we reach the point of the Last Days in which the seventh of seven trumpets is sounded.

So, skip to Revelation 14:14-20:

And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.

Now look at Matthew 24:31:

And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. 

Now, and this is coming to the primary point I want to make, look at 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (emphasis mine):

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

And 1 Corinthians 15:52:

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

Same thing, right? In all four passages. Note especially that St. Paul to the Corinthians says "the last trump. Coincidence? I think not. "But," say historicists, "Paul didn't have the Apocalypse of St. John, which was written after his death." Correct. But St. Paul was "caught up into heaven" where he saw "unspeakable things". If St. John's account is true, and accurate, and from God, then wouldn't any revelation given to St. Paul match it exactly? Unfortunately, Paul either didn't write his Apocalypse, or it was not preserved. But there is no reason to think that, if you are a Christian, and believe that the deposit of the faith given to the apostles by Christ is truly divine revelation, and that the scriptures are divinely inspired and authoritative, that there is any conflict or discrepancy between St. Paul's teaching and St. John's.

So, here is what has come to be called the Rapture. Opponents of it will dismissively say, "There is no rapture. The word rapture never even appears in the Bible." True. But neither does Trinity, nor a lot of other terms which are used in discussing theological concepts, including theology itself. They're just words which are used to refer to things which actually are in the Bible, for the sake of clarity and mutual comprehension. I'm not here to engage in a debate or discussion of this doctrine. But here it is, in scripture, in four separate passages (there are more). It's there. It says what it says. And so I believe it (which is my approach to all things in life and the Bible).

What I will say, as briefly as possible, is that the whole discussion, again among evangelicals, about a pre-, mid-, and post-tribulation rapture is misguided and erroneous, as the whole idea of a seven-year tribulation is wrong. There are some references within Revelation, and in Old Testament prophecies, to seven-year periods, or to two three-and-a-half year periods, but it is not at all clear either that they refer to the same period, or that they say that the entire content of the book is to occur within such a period, or that the period is even a literal count of years or days: it could be symbolic, seven meaning perfection or completion, three and a half meaning half of that, etc. Numerology is big in the Bible.

However, it seems abundantly clear to me here that this is the point in the End of Times at which Jesus gathers his people to himself, both living and dead. And he does not do so secretly. All men will see the sign of the Son of Man, and will mourn. He will appear in the heaven, as lightning flashes from one end of the heaven to the other. There will not be a day, as in the Christian movies, when everyone wakes up and half the people they know are missing, and they don't know why. Everyone will know why. And then, the end will truly come: those who are left on the earth will experience the full outpouring of the wrath of God in the seven bowls of his judgment.

And Jesus said, “I AM, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven." -- Mark 14:62

 Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. -- Matt 24:30

And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. -- Luke 21:27

Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. -- Rev 1:7

I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. -- Dan 7:13

BUT, getting back to the main point, none of this will happen until the signs have been given, as in the passages quoted above: the astronomical signs, the world events, we're given a clear picture of what to watch for. Also look at 2 Thessalonians 2:1-9, where St. Paul gives a third sign:

Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders.

The coming of the Antichrist, which Revelation also references very clearly, usually referring to him as the Beast.

So, and here I'm finally done: until you see all these signs fulfilled, do not fear that the end of the world has come. It has not. It is coming, but it is not here yet. Learn the lesson of the fig tree. And comfort one another with these words.

"Don't Panic."

-- Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

When I was a boy, my stepfather, who was at the time a homicide detective for the Atlanta PD, and a Vietnam veteran, used to tell me: "The main thing is not to panic." This is very true, has served me well throughout my life, has saved my life on at least one occasion, and is still true and very applicable right now. 

The coronavirus is mildly lethal, but less so than the flu, or driving down the highway. Far more potentially lethal is coronapanic--and much more to be feared. As is usual on this earth, the deadliest thing is the stupidity of human beings.

So relax, take reasonable precautions, but keep living your life. Just watch out for stupid, panicky people, for they are the real threat. And use this time to deepen your relationship with, and your reliance on, God, and as a learning experience and opportunity for personal growth. This is Not the End of the World. As someone who has spent his life studying the End of the World, I assure you that this is not it. 

So then, that raises the question, "Wait, what's going on with you two? I thought you broke up."

We did break up. But we're still talking. Neither of us is completely sure whether we should, or want to, truly move on or keep trying with each other. We both love each other, deeply. We both miss each other, a lot. But we're both thinking that that may just be emotional attachment, and that we should be more rational and prudent in making our decisions than just following our feelings. She has met someone else (obviously, a woman that beautiful is always going to have someone, or several someones, interested), whom, although she's not actually in a relationship with him, likes her a lot, and she sees the possibility on a practical scale of them being better-suited to each other than she and I were, and I agree (although my feelings and desires do not) that it sounds like a better choice for her. Like I said before, I want what's best for her happiness even if it makes me jealous and alone.

And for my part, I still...well, you know.

And also, we just like having each other to talk to. I suppose at some point, if we do decide to truly move on, we're going to have to stop. I know if I were the new man in her life, I wouldn't want her talking regularly with her old lover. And also, at some point, if she does enter into an actual relationship, it will become too painful for me to continue. But for now, everything is still up in the air. It may still go the other way too, that we decide that we really can't live without each other, and just get married. Even if it does mean having children at my age. After all, it's the only thing I've ever really felt totally fulfilled at, being a father. At Adina's funeral, I just fell so naturally into my role again, taking charge, taking care of everything and everyone, thinking of them and not myself, that it was like I'd found myself again after being lost for a very long time. And maybe that's where I need to go, to find my way again.

Light and Joy

Something very amazing happened a few days ago.

I had one of those nights in which, although I couldn't really remember any of my dreams distinctly, I had the sense of the Lord's presence, speaking and ministering to me, throughout the night. Then, in the morning, I woke up to Carolina having sent me this:

"May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out."

-- J.R.R. Tolkien

And as I sat in bed, as I often do, and reflected, and prayed, and meditated about the night before and the day to come, I began to think about those lights, and colored lights in general and how beautiful and magical they are--how something like a Christmas tree or an outdoor trellis strung with strings of colored lights transports us to a wonderland, a place of peace and beauty and joy out of time, and about how the key to all beauty in visual art is light. And I was also thinking about Hobbits (I began re-reading The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings when I thought I was dying), and their ineffable cheerful resilience. And I realized, I think simultaneously, that a) light represents in material form the goodness and joy of God; b) that the secret to Hobbits' strength is their deep wells of unshakable joy; and c) that joy is a spiritual virtue, not just a feeling. 

And as I came to this realization, I began to experience waves of deep, and true, and profound supernatural joy rolling over me, passing through me, welling up from within me. And suddenly, the world looks beautiful again.