"Fear" Is More Than Respect
When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale; the sky vanished like a scroll that is rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the generals and the rich and the strong; slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand before it?" Rev. 6:12-17, RSV.
As I noted a few days ago, I want to be seated in the right section when the world sees Jesus coming in the clouds of heaven. Not all will be filled with joy when that happens.
The biblical descriptions of that day itself beggar the imagination from both the perspective of glory and from that of disaster. In today's passage John seems to be struggling with how to depict earth's end. Nothing will remain untouched.
The description reminds me of that day when I stood at ground zero in Hiroshima, Japan--the very spot above which the first atomic bomb used in wrath detonated. The impression in my mind was one of awe and fright as the destructive forces of even that simple (in the light of modern capabilities) bomb impressed themselves upon my mind. Yet that explosion is as nothing compared to what will happen at the end of world history.
"Fear" is the only word that we can use to capture the reaction of those who have chosen to live by destructive principles opposed to God and His kingdom. All they want to do is to escape from the Lamb. But that is nothing new. They have rejected Him throughout their lives.
When many modern people read that one of the Bible's last warnings is to call men and women to "fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come" (Rev. 14:7, RSV), they interpret fear merely as "respect." It is respect, but, as today's passage makes clear, it is much more than that.
When dominion gets reversed at the end of time many of those who created fear in others during their lives will suffer from fear themselves as they see their kingdoms and ways of life brought to an end.
This is not the Bible's most pleasant teaching. But it is an important one as we line up for seats in what will truly be "The Greatest Show on Earth."
When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale; the sky vanished like a scroll that is rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the generals and the rich and the strong; slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand before it?" Rev. 6:12-17, RSV.
As I noted a few days ago, I want to be seated in the right section when the world sees Jesus coming in the clouds of heaven. Not all will be filled with joy when that happens.
The biblical descriptions of that day itself beggar the imagination from both the perspective of glory and from that of disaster. In today's passage John seems to be struggling with how to depict earth's end. Nothing will remain untouched.
The description reminds me of that day when I stood at ground zero in Hiroshima, Japan--the very spot above which the first atomic bomb used in wrath detonated. The impression in my mind was one of awe and fright as the destructive forces of even that simple (in the light of modern capabilities) bomb impressed themselves upon my mind. Yet that explosion is as nothing compared to what will happen at the end of world history.
"Fear" is the only word that we can use to capture the reaction of those who have chosen to live by destructive principles opposed to God and His kingdom. All they want to do is to escape from the Lamb. But that is nothing new. They have rejected Him throughout their lives.
When many modern people read that one of the Bible's last warnings is to call men and women to "fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come" (Rev. 14:7, RSV), they interpret fear merely as "respect." It is respect, but, as today's passage makes clear, it is much more than that.
When dominion gets reversed at the end of time many of those who created fear in others during their lives will suffer from fear themselves as they see their kingdoms and ways of life brought to an end.
This is not the Bible's most pleasant teaching. But it is an important one as we line up for seats in what will truly be "The Greatest Show on Earth."
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