June 9 2013
What moves me to write my Columns? (Part 3)
My and your Sacrilege has caused Climate Change.
Matthew 24, the first book of the New Testament, is an interesting chapter. The heading tells why: Signs of the End of the Age. If you don’t have a Bible, go to Google. Verse 14 says that before Jesus returns, the gospel of the Kingdom will go world-wide. The WWW is the perfect medium to do that, with the Internet the miraculous tool for making the Gospel of the Kingdom known everywhere as a prelude to Jesus’ return. The Kingdom refers to the brand-new earth to come: brand-new is the proper term because a cosmic conflagration will completely cleanse it.
The next verse gives an indication that we are at the beginning of the end. Verse 15 simply says: “So when you see standing in the holy place the abomination that causes desolation, let the reader understand.” The holy place is God’s creation, his holy direct word, the artistic expression of the Sovereign Creator. The Scriptures are God’s holy secondary word, compiled by humans under the direction of God’s Spirit.
My Greek dictionary tells me that the Greek word here translated as ‘abomination’ can also be rendered as ‘sacrilege’, which is more fitting in this context, as sacrilege is an offence against something holy – his creation. The annotation ‘let the reader understand’ means that this text can only be understood when this sacrilege is actually happening as is the case now, purely the result of your and my sin.
This rest of the chapter provides us with a few hints of what is in store for us in our last days: pretty frightening. Verse 39 gives a perfect example how the “Rapture” enthusiasts misread the Bible. It plainly says that God’s people stay put while the sinners are swept away, the direct opposite of what the Rapture crowd have been proclaiming. My distant relative Harold Egbert Camping should have known better than to pick a specific day for the Lord’s return because this chapter also clearly states that the day and hour cannot be predicted. The Day of the Lord is like a pregnancy: we know that the approximate time of birth – after about nine months – but we can’t pinpoint the day and hour.
My battle with the church
I have a constant battle with the church about what comprises God’s WORD. The church sees the Scriptures as the most important source of God’s greatness. When God’s Creation is equally seen as His Holy Word then a complete redirecting of life is called for. Then strictly speaking driving to church in a polluting car would be a sin, as well as heating or cooling a church auditorium: mega churches, mega sins. Perhaps that’s why Jesus said that “Where two or three are together there I will be”, making small beautiful. With Luther I affirm that “we must sin bravely” here. I believe that the Bible and Creation together constitute God’s Holy Word. A French saying comes to mind: A bon entendeur demi mot suffit, which means that for a good listener only half a word is enough. An understanding listener also hears (Romans 8: 22) the groaning of creation. When we listen to what the Bible says- one half of The Word – and also have compassion with creation – the other half of The Word, then we get the complete picture.
“Let the reader understand.” Those who do understand both Words are, naturally, feeling very fretful about life on a stressed-out planet, because life as we know it is almost over. Most people avoid mentioning ‘apocalypse’. That’s a normal human reaction: we are conditioned to ignore unpleasant experiences. Also secular society has a vested interest in us believing that infinite growth in a finite world is perfectly acceptable even though it is astonishingly absurd.
Should I once again point out that we are staring down multiple cascading ecological crises, struggling with political and economic institutions that are unable even to acknowledge, let alone cope with, the threats to the human family and the larger living world? Should I once again repeat that we are intensifying our assault on the ecosystems, undermining the ability of that living world to sustain a large-scale human presence into the future? Should I once again emphasize that when the entire world darkens, looking on the bright side is not a virtue but a sign of irrationality?
Romans 8: 22-23 tell us that our planet is in deep pain. The bible plainly points out that our world is in torment and that we too, if we have any feeling left, if we have any love for God’s word, must make that torment our own. If we really believe the Bible then anxiety and anguish are the logical reaction: they are not signs of weakness but evidence of Christian courage. A deep grief over what we are losing—and have already lost – is needed. Jesus, when he saw that his friend Lazarus was dead “He wept” even though he knew that a few minutes later his friend would walk out of the grave alive and well. It is only fitting that we too cry our heart out. Weeping for the dying state of creation is a prerequisite for entering the new one. No crown – no entrance into the New Creation – without a cross, without groaning with creation subjected to such torture. After that, says Roman 8, “we eagerly anticipate becoming part of the New Creation.” Jesus wept. We must follow his example of weeping for a dying planet. Instead of repressing our emotions we must confront them, especially collectively, as church, as the Body of Believers. That’s why I suggested a Day of Repentance. Failing to do so is lining up with the world in false optimism.
The world is desperate
I find it fascinating how the likes of Bernanke and Carney, to name two major financials players, desperately try to rescue the system: they fail to see that the financial world is inseparable from the total which involves groundwater depletion, topsoil loss, chemical contamination, increased toxicity in our own bodies, the number and size of “dead zones” in the oceans, accelerating extinction of species, and reduction of biodiversity, just to name a few symptoms. The real question is: Where are the answers? The simple answer is that there are no answers because there are no solutions to our problems if we insist on maintaining the high-energy/high-technology structure of the industrialized world.
You better get used to it: we do live in end-times. The Bible tells us so. Jesus loves us so much that he will teach us all a lesson: in order to drill into us some common sense he will let the human race go ahead to destroy the world. Then, once this is almost done he will re-appear and straighten matters out.
That’s what I believe and here is how I picture it to play out. Let me be clear: it is not going to be a picnic. Never in human history have potential catastrophes been so global; never have social and ecological crises of this scale threatened at the same time; never have we had so much information about the threats we must come to terms with. Don’t expect the people in power to issue official warnings. Politicians will always protect their own privileged position, and capital will always continue to maximize profits and most people will always act as if times are normal. That’s why Jesus mentions that his re-appearance will be like ‘a thief in the night,’ that’s why in Revelation 18: 11 we read that the merchants will weep because they are stuck with their Gucci purses and Rolex watches and luxury cars. Never think that the Bible is not relevant.
An old man dreams dreams
Let me do a bit of dreaming about how and when our world will come crashing down. I was praying for wisdom in this matter and the Lord directed me to Revelation 11: 2. There it says that “they will trample on the holy city for 42 months,” the holy city being our world, of course. Revelation 13: 5 elaborates: “The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise authority for 42 months.”
Satan, God’s great Adversary, is the beast whose aim has been from the beginning – starting in Eden – to destroy God’s beloved cosmos. (John 3: 16).
The timespan of 42 months is 3.5 years, exactly half of that perfect number ‘7’. Matthew 24: 21-22 says that “For there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now – and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened,” so, not 7 years of agony but half that number.
Here is a riddle that illustrates the nature of exponential growth. A lily pond contains a single leaf. Each day the number of leaves doubles – two leaves the second day, four the third, eight the four, and so on. “If the pond is full on the thirtieth day,” the question goes, “at what point is it half full?” Answer: “On the twenty-ninth day.” There you have the Three years and Six months, rather than the full Seven years: it could quite well be that the Lord will appear at your doorstep and knock: are you ready for my return? And will you say “Hey Lord, wait a minute, the glass is still half-full.” No wonder the Bible mentions the “like a thief in the night”.
You probably have never heard of Primary Productivity which is the present net primary production in terrestrial ecosystems being co-opted by human beings each year. In plain words: the total percentage we mortals exploit of the earth’s treasures for our exclusive benefit. In 1980 two efforts were made to calculate Primary Productivity, one by a group at Stanford University, the other by biologist Stuart L. Pimm, professor of biology at Duke University in Durham N.C. They both concluded that we consume about 40 percent of Earth Primary Productivity: 40 percent of soil, water, air. In other words we humans have claimed for our greedy use at least 40 percent of all land, water and air, depriving all other creatures of their rightful share, which explains why the current extinction rate is 1,000 times higher than which existed before human domination of the planet. Jeffrey Bolster in his book The Mortal Sea shows that every year we withdraw from the seas 160 million tons of fish but deposit there 7 million tons of garbage. Poisonous chemicals in the Gulf of Mexico have formed a pool of dead water equivalent in size to the state of New Jersey; among the several hundred dead zones elsewhere in the world, one encircles the Chinese coastline. You get the idea. We use up so much oil that we have come to a point where we no longer eat food but oil as it takes at least 10 calories of oil to produce one food calorie. Primary Productivity now stands between 40 and 50, meaning that almost half of the world’s basic energy, vested in plants, trees, animals, is being used for our benefit in such a way that once it is consumed, it cannot be restored. Depleted oceans, soil degradation, disappeared species, cannot be re-created by human technology.
Due to the scramble for more oil to keep our economic system lubricated, and also the increasing pace of Global Warming, environmental destruction is greatly accelerating, rapidly approaching the 50 percent mark, the tipping point, which is the half- way to total chaos, just as 3.5 years is halfway to 7, the number of fullness.
I believe that the Lord in his grace will not return on Day 30, but Day 29, when, seemingly, the glass is still half full. Then the trumpet will sound and, all will be changed, in a flash, in the twinkling of the eye.
It is with that in mind that I write my columns. Click on ‘home’ to see previous columns.
I will skip a week. Next weekend is our 60th wedding anniversary. We will celebrate it in style with family and friends. There is a lot to celebrate: five children, all in wonderful marriages; 13 grandchildren, all well-adjusted and successful.
We started our marriage a bit hesitantly. We were married in First Christian Reformed Church in Hamilton on June 17 1953. We both were quite new to the country and the language. When Rev. T.C. van Kooten, with his American accent, married us, we had no prior rehearsal, so the old-fashioned form sounded quite incomprehensible. I did not know whether I should say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the questions, so I whispered ‘no’ and my wife did the same. That’s how our married life started. Sixty years later it has been a resounding ‘yes’.