The Age To Come

This week I received the kind of dream I’ve learned to take notice of.

I was in my office, and I looked outside, to see a storm on the horizon. Dark clouds descending to the surface, resembling a squall line. Quickly I perceived it was travelling fast in my direction, there was not much time to do anything other that to shelter in place and give myself to God. I don’t remember much about the passing, other than it was violent and mercifully limited in duration.

After it had passed, I went out to see that so much had been swept away. Walls down, sheds gone. Most houses I think remained with limited damage.

Anybody that’s read what I’ve posted over the years would be familiar with the theme. Back in 2006, I posted

It is the twilight of the current age, and we bask in its fading gleams.  Much that can be shaken, soon will be.

I am convinced we will see wave after wave, shaking the edifices in which we trust, till only that which cannot be shaken remains.

The line on the horizon is here, and we are warned yet again. To which I can only reiterate:

My Church, you are going to Prepare one way or the other. Either you will Prepare to endure the coming storm, or you will Prepare to surrender. There will be no middle way. All will come to the decision point – to walk the path I trod, or to turn away.

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways.

Isaiah 55 v8

In our minds, we often want to pit Justice against Mercy – as if they sit on either side of the scales. As if they are somehow in conflict.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Justice is not held back by a dam of mercy until it breaks forth.

Mercy does not exhaust itself.

Justice is not restrained by a cheap grace of our own making.

The truth is they are deep manifestations of different facets of the loving Father heart of God. It is His love that bestows mercy. It is His love that judges evil. Justice and Mercy run and bleed together into the River of Life.

We cannot see, veiled as we are in our own mortality and futile thinking – projecting our own finite nature onto God. We cannot see – not yet at any rate – as we are seen.

Today is the moment when Justice and Mercy meet. Now is the time when we must choose how we shall respond.

Why is it the Church in the West lacks so much in terms of power? The kind of power that led Peter to say:

“Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”

Acts 3 v6

The power of the Holy Spirit, working in and through clean vessels reflecting His light.

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

John 14 v12

Maybe it is because we ignore the harder parts of Jesus message. In the Church’s working Bible, Mark 1 v14-15 reads:

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and Believe the good news!’

In so much of the Church, we don’t ‘do’ repentance. If we get close to it, it so often comes out as a version of saying sorry. And that’s not repentance.

Repentance is literally turning away, turning back, no longer doing the things you once did. Even, and especially, the things you enjoy doing, and have now covered with a ‘Christian’ veneer.

To repent is literally to consider all the attractions of the world as dust. In the light of knowing the One who eclipses all. In the words of Bonhoeffer – grace is free, but it is not cheap.

And a cheap gospel is a counterfeit gospel – it is no gospel at all and contains no saving power. It inoculates you just enough against the real thing so that you might never catch the Father heart of God.

There is no power, because there is no cost. We do not want to take up our cross, and walk the Golgotha road.

But there is hope. Because He is merciful, He is kind, He is forbearant. He knocks on a persons heart, to listen, to test, to see whether there is the faintest of responses. He does not treat us as our sins deserve, but is a patient and loving Father.

But we cannot presume, to resist, to wait forever. There is always the window of opportunity. When it is gone, it is gone. Some decisions are final.

These are the times that will test. The next wave comes. We have a choice to make – to turn on to the narrow, rocky and steep road that leads to salvation, or to continue on the gradual, easy, downward sloping road, arcing smoothly to hell.

Wake up slumberer, and see the times that are here. Do not wait until it is too late. Open your heart to the One who yearns to welcome you home.

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.

Genesis 11 v1-7

A story written thousands of years ago, for a radically different people, with no relevance today. Or so it would seem to many. But it’s worth digging a little deeper, first to understand the story, and then see the parallels with modern life.

What was really going on here? Why were they building a tower, and why did God come down and mess it up? Remember that God sees the heart. And what, under other circumstances, might be understood to be a good endeavour – an expression of our creativity – was not, because of what lay at its heart. They were building themselves a city, reaching towards the heavens, and seeking to make a name for themselves. Ultimately this came down to another manifestation of the very first transgression -‘wanting to become like God’ – in our own strength. And so whilst there may be an element of judgment from God in this, there is actually a bigger element of mercy. By imposing limitation on human endeavour, the worst excesses implicit in the tower were also limited. One of the acts of the Holy Spirit – to restrain – was seen in play here.

So, how then does this relate to us? Well, over the past centuries we have slowly recreated the Tower of Babel; a new tower, not built of bricks and mortar, but of scientific discoveries, of technology, of engineering, of multinational organisations, companies, economies, military, social and other forms of cooperation. Of an internet that spans the globe, connecting us all, and allowing us to communicate and trade instantaneously. Of instant translations that allow us to understand each other.

Now, this new tower is not all evil – far from it! So much of the new building has improved our lives, such that many of the problems our ancestors faced are but a dim and distant memory. If I had been born 100 years ago, I would have been a squint-eyed cripple. The benefit of modern medicine is real. Similarly in so many other areas of our life.

However, there is another side. Taking medicine as an example, the advances that allow us to cure diseases have also facilitated the murder of millions of our own children. The same technology that blesses we have also used to curse in ways that were never before possible.

Each advancement brings the shadow and well as the light. And as we build higher the contrast grows greater – we create new highs, but also manage to introduce darker depths. Take a more modern example. AI doesn’t frighten me. AI in the hands of humans does.

The building of this tower seems to be increasing exponentially, and as it reaches its zenith we must see where it will end. Where it was always going to end. At the pinnacle, the tip of the tower, exerting ourselves with the might of our technology to make ourselves ‘gods’. In a way, I do believe we will succeed in this endeavour – but our shining triumph, which will seem marvelous to so many, will contain in itself a shadow darker than we have ever beheld, or ever will behold again. We will then see in fullness where our godless desire for godhood has led us.

The truth is, the wish to be like God was never wrong, just perverted. Jesus Christ, through His death and resurrection has provided the Way and through repentance and surrender we can receive what we have always desired. But there is always a choice. Always. And for those that reject His offer, He has allowed us to build this Modern Babel – named In Ourselves Do we Trust. This Tower, He will not restrain and will permit us to build it to its pinnacle, and see it completed. Only then will it fall under the weight of its own contradictions and darkness – and terrible will be that day.

But there is another structure being built. This structure is disregarded by the world – both the cornerstone and the living stones rejected as worthless. But it is a structure that will outlast the Ages. In which place will you be found on the day all buildings will be tested?

The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
    and it is marvelous in our eyes.

Ps 118 v22-23