Until the End
Until The End Of The WorldHaven't seen you in quite a while
I was down the hold just passing time
Last time we met was a low-lit room
We were as close together as a bride and groom
We ate the food, we drank the wine
Everybody having a good time
Except you
You were talking about the end of the world
I took the money
I spiked your drink
You miss too much these days if you stop to think
You lead me on with those innocent eyes
You know I love the element of surprise
In the garden I was playing the tart
I kissed your lips and broke your heart
You...you were acting like it was
The end of the world
(Love...love...)
In my dream I was drowning my sorrows
But my sorrows, they learned to swim
Surrounding me, going down on me
Spilling over the brim
Waves of regret and waves of joy
I reached out for the one I tried to destroy
You...you said you'd wait
'til the end of the world
This session reflects a Christian perspective on the end of the world. Soon a Hebrew viewpoint will be added.
A Portrait of the End of the World
by: Desmond Ford
Only 42 days of our Lord’s life are referred to in the Gospels—one day out of every 350. Yet, with the last seven days, one-third to one-half of the Gospel record is devoted to Passion Week.
These days are primarily important because they demonstrate that the suffering God is at the heart of Christianity—the God who loved us and gave himself for us.
But, second, the week is important because it prefigures the last events of earth’s history.
- Pride (In the Name of Love)
- Love & Peace or Else
- The Fly
- When Love Comes to Town
- Love is a Higher Law
- Beautiful Day
- Innocent Eyes & The Element of Surprise
- I Kissed Your Lips and Broke your Heart
- A Kiss—Love or Betrayal?
- Waves of Regret and Waves of Joy
- All Because of You
- One
- Everybody Having a Good Time
- Love is a Temple
- Wake Up Dead Man
- Can't Help Falling in Love
- Grace
- Even Better Than The Real Thing
- Pride (In the Name of Love)
- Let me remind you of the things that led up to Christ’s finishing of his work on the cross. On the Sunday before Good Friday, there was Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
The religious world was polarized. Opposing religions—were united—prepared a plot to join with the Roman state to get rid of their mutual enemy, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus had challenged and questioned many religious traditions of his time. To avoid answering Christ, the religious leaders decided it was easier to kill him.
Here we have the loud cry, the polarization, the union of church and state, the death decree, the little time of trouble in Gethsemane, and the bigger time of trouble at the cross—all events that will be replayed by the church in the Last Days.
Counseling Wisdom: Power is the ability to give and serve others. Some prefer to define power as the ability to deceive, control and oppress others. The implications of these views are huge: the first makes the world a better place for all, the second destroys personal dignity to satisfy the power hunger of political and spiritual rapists.
- Love & Peace or Else
- Jesus declares his cross to be the judgment of this world. The cross divides the world into the redeemed and the lost and, thereby, prefigures the world’s last day.
We are not saved by our goodness or lost by our badness. We are redeemed in love by our relationship to Christ. Are we in Christ or out of Christ? If our standing is “in Christ,” we are "found". If we are out of Christ, we are lost. That’s the meaning of the cross.
Christ was crucified between two thieves. He also divided the two thieves—-one called on him; one cursed him. We are all thieves. The narrative says, There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But in our time some- thing new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God - setting - things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this (Romans 3:21,22).
What makes the difference is my attitude towards the Man on the central cross. It is not the sin question, but the son question. Love and Peace or Else...
The darkness that engulfed the cross prefigured the last great Day of Judgment. The earthquake at the moment of Christ’s death when many dead were raised, What’s more, tombs were opened up, and many bodies of believers asleep in their graves were raised (Matthew 27:52) prefigured the final call to judgment. And there, on the cross, was the King-Judge high and lifted up.
Counseling Wisdom: Love & Peace with God and humanity are at the core of ethics. The violation of this principle brings inevitable consequences upon oneself. There is nothing arbitrary about this principle, that's a natural law. What some call divine punishment and "acts of God" are nothing more of man made self-inflicted tragedies.
- The Fly
- The world is desperately trying to conserve itself. It is perilously balanced, as the fragile globe contracts ever smaller and smaller, becoming a neighborhood, but never a brotherhood. In that tremulous, fearful condition, the governments of earth will be afraid of those who do not conform.
True gospel Christians will be outlawed because they refuse to bow to the King of this world, They will go to war against the Lamb but the Lamb will defeat them, proof that he is Lord over all lords, King over all kings, and those with him will be the called, chosen, and faithful. Revelation 17:14. They have another lord, King Jesus. Christians will be proscribed, outlawed, and threatened with death. They will have a time of trouble such as never was, and many will be killed. Many will be beheaded - I saw thrones. Those put in charge of judgment sat on the thrones. I also saw the souls of those beheaded because of their witness to Jesus and the Word of God, who refused to worship either the Beast or his image, refused to take his mark on forehead or hand—they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years! Revelation 20:4.
But then will come the great day of resurrection. Then the King of kings and Lord of lords will return. The balances of judgment will be adjusted.
Counseling Wisdom: It is true that God moves in mysterious ways, but his ways are reasonable and respectful of personal freedom. Judas let his heart run though twisted and deceptive ways in bondage to his lower nature. Eventually, we all have to make a choice between addictive/compulsive self-destruction or liberating and compassionate investment in humanity as a whole. at the end, the investment of giving will emerge as the most profitable and rewarding.
- When Love Comes to Town
- Because the events at the end of the Old Testament era prefigure the events at the end of the New Testament era, our brief outline of Passion Week tells us what is to come in the Last Days.
The Message is to have its final, triumphant proclamation through the power of the Spirit. The Message will go to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, as predicted in Matthew 24:14: All during this time, the good news—the Message of the kingdom—will be preached all over the world, a witness staked out in every country. And then the end will come.
The day will come when the church really takes hold of the Message. Not the good advice of our own subjective feelings, but the genuine, historical, objective Message of Scripture.
The result will be a polarized world. Some will hate the good news, and some will love it. But those who present it to the world will be called troublemakers.
- Love is a Higher Law
- Let us now consider the events at the very beginning of Passion Week. They are recorded in all four Gospels, if we accept as the same anointing mentioned in the other three Gospels. This was the view held by the translators of the KJV, John Bunyan, and many others. [It’s important to remember that Luke often wrote topically and not chronologically.]
Very few events in our Lord’s life are mentioned by all four gospels, so this fact underlines the importance of what we are about to consider. Read Luke 7:36-50:
One of the Pharisees asked him over for a meal. He went to the Pharisee’s house and sat down at the dinner table.
Just then a woman of the village, the town harlot, having learned that Jesus was a guest in the home of the Pharisee, came with a bottle of very expensive perfume
and stood at his feet, weeping, raining tears on his feet. Letting down her hair, she dried his feet, kissed them, and anointed them with the perfume.
When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man was the prophet I thought he was, he would have known what kind of woman this is who is falling all over him.”
Jesus said to him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Oh? Tell me.”
“Two men were in debt to a banker. One owed five hundred silver pieces, the other fifty.
Neither of them could pay up, and so the banker canceled both debts. Which of the two would be more grateful?”
Simon answered, “I suppose the one who was forgiven the most.”
“That’s right,” said Jesus.
Then turning to the woman, but speaking to Simon, he said, “Do you see this woman? I came to your home; you provided no water for my feet, but she rained tears on my feet and dried them with her hair.
You gave me no greeting, but from the time I arrived she hasn’t quit kissing my feet.
You provided nothing for freshening up, but she has soothed my feet with perfume.
Impressive, isn’t it? She was forgiven many, many sins, and so she is very, very grateful. If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal.”
Then he spoke to her: “I forgive your sins.”
That set the dinner guests talking behind his back: “Who does he think he is, forgiving sins!”
He ignored them and said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
- Beautiful Day
- The anointing by Mary is sandwiched between allusions to the murderous plans of the religious leaders of the day
tells of the decision to do away with the Saviour, and John's records a similar resolution concerning the man Christ had raised from the dead.
We are reminded of the psalmist’s famous words:
“You prepare a table for me in the presence of mine enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over” Psalm 23:5.
What Happens to the Head Will Happen to the Body
The story is remarkable for many things, but we will mention only a few. The experience of the Head of the church is to be repeated by his body. As Christ was anointed in his last days, so the church is to be anointed by the Pentecostal Spirit when the hour dawns for the final proclamation of the gospel.
In every city of the globe, Pentecost will be repeated.
- Innocent Eyes & The Element of Surprise
- You lead me on with those innocent eyes
You know I love the element of surprise
In the garden I was playing the tart
I kissed your lips and broke your heart
You...you were acting like it was
The end of the world
Wherever love is displayed to our Lord, the spirit of hatred and antagonism is aroused. Matthew, Mark, and Luke each emphasize in this story that it was this event that finally motivated Judas to betray his Lord. - I Kissed Your Lips and Broke your Heart
- Antichrist is a genus which has had many fulfillments through the ages—for instance, Nimrod, Pharaoh, Goliath, Antiochus Epiphanes, and the union of church and state through the Middle Ages, and so on. But the crowning fulfillment will be at the end. As Judas was an accredited apostle, working miracles and proclaiming the kingdom, so the final Antichrist will spring from professed Christianity. It will work great signs and wonders, and these will fool most of the world (see 2 Thess 2)
- A Kiss—Love or Betrayal?
- Only two people are ever said to have kissed Christ—Mary and Judas. Mary’s gave him a kiss of loving self-sacrifice, but Judas gave a kiss of betrayal. Judas told the Roman captors they would recognize Jesus because he was “the one I shall kiss.” The kiss Judas gave in Gethsemane becomes a sign of betrayal, which points to the antitype in Revelation 13. Here Antichrist has a sign of false worship, which he will impose on the world. The Greek word for worship springs from a root related to the word “kiss.”
- Waves of Regret and Waves of Joy
- In harmony with Mark 2:29 which promises a world harvest when the spiritual grain is mature, we see in John 12 the maturing of love in Christ’s children, represented by Mary, and contrasted with the maturing of alienation in the devil’s own, represented by Judas. So it shall be at the end of time when good and evil ripen into maturity.
Before the end of the world the word of love will be made flesh in all who believe the gospel and who receive the final Pentecostal outpouring. They will give the final message to all that God is love—a message that says, “Only God is given away, and only heaven can be had for the asking.” - All Because of You
- Christ saw in the generosity of Mary an emblem of the heart of God to be wondrously displayed on the cross. The broken alabaster box pointed to his broken body, which would soon fill the universe with its unique fragrance—the fragrance of God’s rich grace in making possible the forgiveness of sins through the Atonement.
It reminds us that unless we are broken we are useless. The unbroken heart contains only sewage.
- One
- This feast, one week before Christ’s funeral, also points to the marriage supper of the Lamb, when all the righteous dead will be raised, like Lazarus; when all who have been cleansed from sin, like Mary Magdalene, will continue to worship and adore; when all who have been healed of the leprosy of sin, like Simon, will gather together in joyous eternal fellowship; and when all will offer the worship of service, like Martha.
It is written that Christ himself shall again wear the attire of a servant in order to minister to us. Mark the infinite condescension of true love!
- Everybody Having a Good Time
- We were as close together as a bride and groom
We ate the food, we drank the wine
Everybody having a good time
Except you
You were talking about the end of the world
A party is Christ’s favorite symbol of his own message—the good, glad and merry tidings, which make the heart to sing and the feet to dance. He began his ministry with a week long marriage feast, where kosher wine yet made glad the heart of man. He ended his ministry with two feasts in the final week, the second being the feast of Passover. The wine’s crushed grapes yield nourishment and tell of God’s love to us in the shedding of Christ’s blood. And so the broken grapes parallel the broken alabaster box. - Love is a Temple
- When Mary prepared Christ for burial by her anointing, the story taught that Christ would not perish in the grave but live forever. In so doing, she also sealed her own act in the memory of saints down the ages. For Christ promised that wherever the Message would be communicated, her loving kindness would always be remembered. Here is evidence that the one about to die held the future of the world in his hands. How else could Christ know his words would last?
In saying this, Christ teaches us that nothing in the world is as important as genuine love, unselfish kindness manifested in look, word, and deed. This is the evidence that convinces the world about Christ and Christianity—not a creed or denominational statement. - Wake Up Dead Man
- Simon, the Pharisee, though healed of leprosy, looks with disdain on Mary’s act. His demeanor is frigid, and his countenance disparaging.
Christ lovingly tells him a story about two debtors. One owed much, and the other owed little, but each was freely forgiven. “Which of the two debtors,” Christ asks Simon, “will love the master most?”
Not sensing that he was the focus of the story, the Pharisee affirms that, of course, the one who owed the most would love the most.
Then the Lord, like Nathan of old, thrusts home the point of the parable. He points to the cringing Mary, her hair dishevelled and her hands covering her face.
“Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house, you gave me no water to wash my feet; but she has washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
“You gave me no kiss; but this woman, from the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet.
“My head with oil you did not anoint, but this woman has anointed my feet with ointment.
“Therefore I say to you that her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she has loved much.
“But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little” Luke 7:44-47.
- Can't Help Falling in Love
- Mary’s love was the consequence, not the condition of her forgiveness. It was the effect not the cause, the fruit not the root. It was after the debtor was forgiven that love sprang up.
But what if one feels, like Simon, that their sins have been few and that their need of forgiveness is slight? Then there is little love and little service.
Only those who see the height and depth, length and breadth of the requirements of God’s holy law can experience a love like Mary’s. Only they know how much they have been forgiven.
The law of God calls for infinite love revealed in thought, word, and deed. All of us fall short by a trillion light years. The worst man on earth knows more about duty than the best man does.
- Grace
- The church constantly demands service from its members. However, the desired result will never be forthcoming until the Message is truly experienced with the forgiveness of sins at its heart.
Then all who believe will give their hearts like Mary. There will be a harvest, which God will reap in this life, but, particularly, in the Day of Judgment. - Even Better Than The Real Thing
- Judas only thought about the cost of the ointment and the money that could have lined his moneybag.
“To what purpose is this waste? It could have been sold and given to the poor.”
He did not see the precious broken heart of Mary. He did not anticipate the priceless broken body of his Lord. He did not see that it was given to the poor—the one who became poor for our sakes. The heart of stone only sees the superficial, the worldly, the outward, and the material and is blind to the supreme value of love.
Do the angels look at our cold hearts and selfish service and say of us: “To what purpose is this waste?”