June 6th, 2006 at 6:06 am
I hope you survived that demonic attack on our temporal plane today. You missed it too, huh?
I’ve not read the Left Behind series, but The Ezekiel Option gave me a bit of a taste for events that play out in a possible End Times scenario. I have to ask: If you knew today (or any day) was THE day, what would you do? What could one do? If you saw four horsemen, or the sun turned to black, or the four living creatures, then what?
How would that differ than anything we should be doing today? Should we not be repenting, believing, praying, partaking in Word and Sacrament, now? Are some of us waiting until then to believe?
I’m curious as to what the big draw is regarding specific knowledge of the end times. Are some of us looking for the Divine Smackdown, where everyone who has done evil to us is getting their just desserts?
I’d repent. A little Divine Service with Holy Communion wouldn’t hurt. Then I’d have a beer.
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June 6th, 2006 at 8:53 pm
I would hope my pastor would be celebrating the Divine Service because that’s where I would need to be. Understanding that I’m a poor misirable sinner still gives me a healthy dose of fear. It’s not that I dont believe that Christ suffered all that I deserve, I do believe, really. I just sometimes I have that nasty habit of looking in the mirror instead of the cross for comfort. Knowing the end was here, my old Adam would rear his ugly head and try to measure up by my works. I would want to the Gospel preached by a called servant of the Word till the very end.
And still in all seriousness, Glenmorangie 12 year with a port wood finish would do nicely.
June 7th, 2006 at 10:38 am
I was “saved” at a rapture movie (a really, really bad one). That movie, of course, told me that I was not saved when I was baptized as an infant, but needed to make my own decision for Christ. I spent the next lose to 20 years living with that daily fear that Jesus would return any moment and that I needed to be ready. The fact that we could be raptured away any moment was my main “witnessing” tool. I grouped people into two sets: those who had asked Jesus into their hearts and those who hadn’t. I lived my life trying to be good enough to be found in Christ.
Obviously I had no idea what it really meant to be found in Christ and as the years went on and the burden of saving myself became too great, it all started to unravel for me and my family. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit was not limited by our poor understanding and used scripture to draw us away from the false teachings and into a solidly bible-based church.
So how are things different now? Well, I still believe that the rapture could happen any moment, but I now spend absolutely zero time wondering if we are good enough to be saved. Instead of trying to be good enough, we are humbled by our failings which draw us to the cross of Christ as our only hope.
Funny comment about that beer, Dan. In my former days, I would have thought that being found by Christ with a beer in my hand would be the end of my salvation. Now its a non-factor!