The End of the Age

Aurora Borealis

In the circus where truth and justice are perverted on every hand, and personal pleasures seem to override moral values; we sometimes look for new and better worlds. In the latter part of the twentieth century, we found hysteria associated with the coming new millennium. There were even those who predicted a cataclysmic event that would usher in the destruction of the world. This seems to occur at the end of every century. It makes little sense to associate the end of the world with a round number in a numbering system invented by mankind. After the fact, we now know that nothing cataclysmic happened unless you want to count the events of 9/11.

Putting aside the association of turning centuries with the end of the age, we still have placed our physical world as well as our civilization in jeopardy by exhibiting a lack of stewardship towards those things that the creator has given us. We could be facing many terrors in the years to come that are of our own making.

I thought it might be interesting to present two contrasting views of the end of the age. The first is by Archibald MacLeish. The second is from John the Revelator. I leave it to you to sort out the meaning of these two messages.

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The End of the World

Quite unexpectedly, as Vasserot
The armless ambidextrian was lighting
A match between his great and second toe,
And Ralph the lion was engaged in biting
The neck of Madame Sossman while the drum
Pointed, and Teeny was about to cough
In waltz-time swinging Jocko by the thumb--
Quite unexpectedly the top blew off:
And there, there overhead, there, there hung over
Those thousands of white faces, those dazed eyes,
There in the starless dark the poise, the hover,
There with vast wings across the cancelled skies,
There in the sudden blackness the black pall
Of nothing, nothing, nothing--nothing at all.

- Archibald MacLeish

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Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away."

And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true."

Revelation 21:1-5

And some say that the Revelation of John is scary?