The end of the world as we know it podcast notes

For thousands of years people of asked it.  You’ve probably asked it.  What will happen at the end of the world.  This questions has been the subject of hundreds of books.

The stand

World War Z

The martian chronicles

Left Behind

The Postman

This question has been posed by hundreds of movies

War of the Worlds

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Night of the living dead

The planet of the apes

Soylent green

The matrix

Independence day

Wall-E

Oblivion

Book= The End of the World Survival Guide or Staying alive during the Zombie Apocalypse.  Here’s his advice.

I don’t know how many times I can say this, but—DON’T GO TO WALMART. Do you understand that if you go to Walmart to loot, you’ll run into every other idiot who thought looting Walmart was a good idea? Instead of finding the tools you’ll need, you’ll find yourself fighting off people that are desperate for supplies and if a zombie infection breaks out forget it. It’s like shopping on black Friday only ten times worse.

“Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” 4 Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  Matthew 24

God’s okay that life gets rough for you

The Rapture.  The idea of a rapture didn’t come up until the 17th century by American Puritans

John Nelson Darby first proposed and popularized the pre-tribulation rapture in 1827.

John Eldridge from the book Waking the Dead that speaks of this battle.  Tell me if you have experienced anything like this.  We’ve been told that we matter to God.  And part of us partly believes it.  But life has a way of chipping away at that conviction, undermining our settled belief that he means us well.  I mean, if that’s true, then why didn’t he _______ fill in the blank?  Heal your mom.  Save your marriage.  Get you married.  Help you out more.  Either (a) we are blowing it, or (b) God is holding out on us or some combination of both.  Until we come to terms with war as the context of our days we will not understand life.  We will misinterpret 90 percent of what is happening around us and to us.  It will be very hard to believe that God’s intentions toward us are life abundant; it will be even harder not to feel that somehow we are just blowing it.  Before he promised us life, Jesus warned us that a thief would try to steal, kill, and destroy it.  How come we don’t think that the thief then actually steals, kills and destroys?

We know we win in the end

Understanding that life doesn’t end with death changes everything

You… must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.  Matthew 24:44

51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53

 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”[i] 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Folks, I know how it ends.  We win.  Sure it will get rough around here.  You’re under attack.  But in the end we win.  Our bodies will be made right.  Our world will be put back together.  We win.   

Reason Jesus tells us it’s coming is to be ready

Matthew 25.  Jesus tells three stories that all have the same point. Be ready.  Be about what I’m about.  Parable of ten virgins.  The Parable of the Bags of Gold.  The parable of the sheep and goats.

‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

All the people who thought they knew when the savior was coming missed it. My fear is that all the people who think they have the second coming figured out will miss the point this time too