The End of All

Try to imagine what it must have been like for God to speak the cosmos into existence. Those first words echoed through the formless and empty void of darkness, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:1-3) To know that God had a plan in mind is evident by the way He created an increasingly more complex infrastructure to support the pinnacle of His plan—mankind! Yet, the first scene we read, after mankind was created, was mistrust, rebellion, and deception. The story just gets worse from there; read Acts 7 some time to hear Stephen’s recount of the “chosen people” of God. It’s quite dismal!

Isaiah 46:9-10, “Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I [planned].’”

As God had a plan in the very beginning, He knew how the very end would happen, too. That didn’t stop Him from making great efforts to convince His creation to trust Him, to obey Him, and to live by His truth. He has given mankind plenty of reasons to put our faith in Him, and yet…

Jesus spent much of His time on earth preparing His followers, those who trusted Him, how to stay faithful even through hardships. In Luke 21 Jesus informed them that the things they’ve put a lot of trust in (like the temple), wouldn’t be what would “get them through” the difficulty.

Paul would remind Timothy of the need for a deep faith in Jesus (not the temple) in 2 Timothy 3:1-5, “There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.”

Peter would tell God’s elect, exiles, scattered throughout [Asia] that we have so much to praise God for, giving us an amazing inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade; protected by our faith in Jesus! But he told them, “for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” But these “opportunities” make our faith stronger than ever, and because of that strong faith, we will be filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy—the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:3-9).

Thinking about “the End” can be a scary thought. But it’s one that God has had in mind from the beginning, and it doesn’t have to be awful—if we trust Him.