Doomsday

Now, dear brothers and sisters, let us clarify some things about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and how we will be gathered to meet him. Don’t be so easily shaken or alarmed by those who say that the day of the Lord has already begun. Don’t believe them, even if they claim to have had a spiritual vision, a revelation, or a letter supposedly from us. Don’t be fooled by what they say. For that day will not come until there is a great rebellion against God and the man of lawlessness is revealed—the one who brings destruction.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 New Living Translation

Do you remember when people were on edge about the year two-thousand? I recall a fairly famous television preacher that touted the year two-thousand as the “year of our Lord’s return”. I remember New Year ’s Eve 1999. I watched the ball drop at Times Square in New York City as the New Year rolled in. I halfway expected that once the clock struck twelve, Jesus and that television preacher would brilliantly appear in the sky to rescue us from this world. Alas, I am writing this devotional with the hopes that you will be reading it. And, if you have not been paying attention, they (whoever they are) are at it again. 2012 is now the new doomsday (or year as it is). No one actually knows what will happen on doomsday, but everyone seems to fear it none the less.

Did you know that the Bible never speaks of a doomsday for those that follow Jesus? For those that are believers, the end, (I think that transformation is a better way to say it), is a time of great excitement. I use the word “transformation” because the world will not end in fire and explosions; it will last forever (Ecclesiastes 1:4) and can never be moved (Psalms 105:5). Our lives and our planet will experience a change of order, protocol and procedure in its modus operandi. In other words, the world and us will be changed back or into something God has intended.

Is talk of the future a subject of fear for you? Does it provoke thoughts of uncertainty? It need not. The Bible says in Isaiah 12:2 that, “God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.” God wants to be your salvation today. He wants you to be courageous and strong, full of singing and confident in His power to rescue you. Rescue you from “what” you ask? Rescue you from an afterlife that is fully and irrevocably disconnected from God (a.k.a. spiritual death). Maybe I should state it differently; you have two choices - a “doomsday” or a “life-day”. You choose by rejecting or accepting God’s Son.