"By your words you shall be acquitted"

By your words you shall be acquitted, and by your words you shall be condemned. - Jesus (Matthew 12:37)

The Bible invites us to imagine the Last Day, and to wonder about the words that will be spoken to us. While Jesus has given us more than one picture of the Last Day, they share a common theme: "with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you." Jesus said that our own words would come back to us on the Last Day, not only for those who are condemned but even for those who would be acquitted:

I say to you: That every idle word that people shall speak, they shall give account for it on the Day of Judgment. For by your words you shall be acquitted, and by your words you shall be condemned. (Matthew 12:36-37)

So, if the words I hear on that day are words that I have used myself, I should ask myself: with what words would I like to be acquitted? When we imagine the Last Day, we might worry about what words we will hear, and we may wonder what words will be spoken to us. But if we are judged "by our own words", then we have a hand in choosing the words we will hear on that day.

May I never again say something I would not want to hear said back to me on that day. What words would I want to hear? When I think of words of forgiveness, these words would be sweet to my soul: 

• "There is so much good in you. We'll remember the best, and the rest will be like it never happened. You'll see. This is a new beginning."
• "Is that even worth comparing to all the kindnesses you have shown, day after day, week after week, year after year? How could I see only the bad and overlook all the good?"
• "You're remembering what you said? I know that's not the kind of person you want to be. Let's put that behind us."
• "I have waited for the day when we could get past that. Consider it forgotten." 
• "What I've really wanted is a chance to be reconciled to you. This place is better with you in it, and that's what matters to me now."

When Jesus said our words would be used to acquit us, he wasn't talking about a blog. He was talking about words we say to other people. So if we want to choose the words that we most want to hear on the Last Day, it's time we start saying those things to other people. Make your own list. Let yourself imagine what you'd most want to hear. And then make sure that someone hears it from you, from the heart. The words of judgment we hear on that day will be our own words. We are invited to live our lives in such a way that the Lord will have plenty of beautiful things to choose from.

On predicting the exact date of doomsday

The end of 2012 is near -- and for decades now, 2012 has been predicted by some as the end of the world. We all know that world will end one day, whether many ages from now when the sun goes dark, or next month as some have predicted. But as for those who claim to know the day, I'd ask Christians to consider not just the well-known quote, but some of its implications:

No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. (Mark 13:32)

Now, consider this: Jesus knew some remarkable things. He understood the Scriptures more fully than anyone before or since. He opened other peoples' minds to understand the Scriptures. He could trace all the references and all the nuances of Moses and the Psalms and the prophets. If the information about the day or the hour was hidden somewhere in the prophets, he would have known it. And if he didn't know it, then it is not there in the Scriptures, and no amount of searching them will truly discover what is not there. All the searching supposes that an answer is there, carefully concealed. But I think the answer is not concealed there at all: it's simply not there.

And for those who take literally, as I do, that Jesus is the Word of God made incarnate -- then everything that God has spoken to us, everything that God has revealed to us, everything that God has made known of his mind, is made known to us in Christ and through Christ. If the Father had revealed it, Christ would have known it. And if Christ didn't know it, it was because the Father hasn't revealed it. Again, no amount of searching or pondering will truly discover something that is not there. Again, I do not think it is a matter of being brilliant enough or godly enough or diligent enough or finding the right clue. I think the answer is simply not given, and the information needed to find the answer has not been made known. The answer is not there. That is why not even the Word of God knows the day or the hour.

When Jesus told us that the day and hour are unknown, he told us the point of this: that we should watch, and not grow lazy or careless. (Why would it be an issue with growing lazy or careless, except that the time would be longer than we would expect?) While the people naming doomsday dates are an embarrassment -- constantly exposing Christians to ridicule as the doomsday predictions fail time and again, and leading people astray, and weakening peoples' faith who actually believed their predictions -- while all these things are true against them, they do at least remind us to watch. And so as the next doomsday prediction rolls around, I'd encourage us all to do more than shake our heads at the failure of this prediction, or the next one -- I'd encourage us to go back to Jesus' words, and be ready because we do not know the day or the hour -- and to watch.

So "TEOTWAWKI" wasn't a character from the movie Avatar?

I recently met the acronym TEOTWAWKI: The End Of The World As We Know It. Kind of sad that it has its own acronym, isn't it?

But I came across it on some websites that were part of my research as I've taken up hobbyist-level gardening, and have been reading up on sustainability, re-using seeds (no hybrids!) and so forth. It's also the beginnings of hurricane season and I live in hurricane country, so I've been making sure my disaster preparedness plans are all set for the upcoming year. But these days, if you google "disaster preparedness plans", you generally find people worrying about something more interesting than hurricane season.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not bothered by people who try to live sustainable lives in their own back yards, or take their gardening to the next level as part of a survival plan, or do urban homesteading, or any of that. It has a kind of geeky appeal that I thoroughly understand. I mean, there were Victory Gardens in WWII, right? What bothers me is that some people are seriously discussing, as part of their TEOTWAWKI plans, having enough ammo to blast away the mobs that would steal all of their food. Sure, food is a survival matter; sure, stealing is wrong; sure, self-defense is justifiable. It's just that, if we're seriously planning for things we can buy to make us less likely to starve to death if a hungry mob comes along, how about enough seeds for them too, and some spare flour to keep them going until then? Just saying.

The main fault I see in the TEOTWAWKI discussions I've seen on-line is this: not taking seriously the need to *rebuild*, not just merely survive. And that takes being able to see people as a community -- even if they're too panicked to act like one at the moment.

Just food for thought, if we see the mythical TEOTWAWKI in our day.

Like a woman in childbirth: a quick note on End Times

(No, I'm not stopping my series. But it's not all I think about either.)

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I've kept an eye on some of the current news about troubles around the world, and I was thinking, "Here we go again." The Bible compares the end times to a woman in labor. I think there's more to that comparison than how nobody knows the day or the hour. I think there's more to it than it hurting a lot.

I have two children. I remember labor very vividly. And the pains weren't steady; they were contractions. It would be unbearable. Then it would be gone, absolutely fine for a few minutes. Then it would be unbearable again. Then it would be fine again.

We see the same cycles in the catastrophes in the world. Like a woman in labor.

I guess one question for end-time watchers is this: can you tell if the contractions are getting closer together?

I sometimes wonder, when the Bible mentions that the world to come does not have a sun or even need one, does that mean that we shouldn't expect the final end until after the sun has gone out?

Just musing.

The timing of Christ's return

Every now and then, someone will ask questions about the timing of Christ's return. Reading the New Testament accounts, there is some question whether Jesus' predictions of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. became mixed in with the predictions of his return and of the Last Judgment. After making a series of prophecies, Jesus states, "All this will come upon this generation" (Matthew 23:36), and likewise "this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened" (Matthew 24:34). Some of these prophecies are clearly about the destruction of Jerusalem, which did in fact take place in that generation. Others are often taken to be of the end of the world.

My concern for the moment is not to get to the bottom of that particular question -- whether the other prophecies were about the end of the world -- since I'm not sure it can be definitively answered before the end of the world, by which time the question will be moot. My only point here is to show why I do not think that Jesus taught the Last Judgment would take place during that generation.

In Matthew 23 and Matthew 24, there are a series of predictions bound to that generation. Next, starting at the end of Matthew 24 and through the majority of Matthew 25, there are three parables in a row that point out a long absence waiting for Christ's return: "My master is staying away a long time" (24:48), "The bridegroom was a long time in coming" (25:5), "After a long time the master of those servants returned" (25:19). In fact, the main point of the parable of the ten virgins is that the length of the wait for the bridegroom is so long as to cause trouble among those waiting.

It is only after the three Parables of the Long Absence that we have the teaching of the Last Judgment. That is why I am convinced that Christ did not teach the Last Judgment would take place "in this generation": the records of the prophecies anchored to that generation are separated from the description of the Last Judgment by the Parables of the Long Absence.