End of Days
Are we ready for the day of judgment?
This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you; in them I am trying to arouse your sincere intention by reminding you that you should remember the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets, and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken through your apostles. First of all you must understand this, that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts and saying, "Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!" They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago and an earth was formed out of water and by means of water, through which the world of that time was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the godless. But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed. - 2 Peter 3:1-10
Peter talks about the day of the Lord, which will come when no one is expecting it.
During the Cold War, it was commonly believed that the final day will come as a nuclear war, with fire raining down on everyone from our mutual destruction.
But these days, even though that man-made threat remains real and possible, the focus has shifted to climate change, with its natural destructive forces of wind, rain, drought and fire.
We think we can control the forces that bear down on us, but that may be more wishful thinking than anything else.
The problem is, our anticipation of the day of destruction may hasten its arrival.
Maybe that is why we hear that we will not know when it comes.
Wouldn't it be ironic if the destruction of our planet, which would naturally happen when our sun explodes far into the future, is brought about sooner by our own doing?
The thing we fear most is what we cause to be.
Whether you believe the climate can be controlled or not, we probably should do all we can to avoid making things worse, and that includes avoiding nuclear war as well, since that threat will never go away.
Maybe we should start every day with a prayer of thanks that the end of days is still a day or more away.
More to come...