The Day of Man Draws to a Close
The history of man's self-exaltation helps us understand the significance of The Day of The Lord. Since Eden, man has tended to choose autonomy, i.e., self-rule, rather than God's lordship. That human autonomy led eventually to the Nazi holocaust and the Stalinist purges. Now we know what a world without God looks like. It looks like man's most depraved nature unleashed.
True, religionists have also started wars and oppressed their peoples. However, upon close inspection we discover that the motives and impetuses of religious wars and oppressions since the time of Christ have not been divine, but born of human rapacity using religion as a cloak. At the core, even religious oppressions expresses human autonomy -- a refusal to submit to God's law.
The propensity of man to exalt himself and assert his independence from God will come to a head in The Man of Lawlessness described by Paul in 2Th 2. By this Autonomous Man's Satanic agency, a spiritual night will descend upon the eastern Mediterranean world that will make advancement of God's kingdom nearly impossible in that region (cf. John 9.4). Nevertheless, the devastation caused by this one man will provide a final demonstration of fallen man's inability to rule himself.
The Day of Man will close with the dark night of Antichrist, but then "the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings" (Mal 4.2): the God-Man, Jesus Christ, will return to show the Earth God's way of shepherding the nations. Man will have had his day; The Day of the Lord will begin.
True, religionists have also started wars and oppressed their peoples. However, upon close inspection we discover that the motives and impetuses of religious wars and oppressions since the time of Christ have not been divine, but born of human rapacity using religion as a cloak. At the core, even religious oppressions expresses human autonomy -- a refusal to submit to God's law.
The propensity of man to exalt himself and assert his independence from God will come to a head in The Man of Lawlessness described by Paul in 2Th 2. By this Autonomous Man's Satanic agency, a spiritual night will descend upon the eastern Mediterranean world that will make advancement of God's kingdom nearly impossible in that region (cf. John 9.4). Nevertheless, the devastation caused by this one man will provide a final demonstration of fallen man's inability to rule himself.
The Day of Man will close with the dark night of Antichrist, but then "the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings" (Mal 4.2): the God-Man, Jesus Christ, will return to show the Earth God's way of shepherding the nations. Man will have had his day; The Day of the Lord will begin.
posted by Roderick of TMin at 8:35 AM
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