“Global Cooling”

Study Guide: May 3, 2015 – Chapel by the Sea, Pastor Clay Olsen

One of the most intriguing Bible accounts is when Samson carried out judgment on the Philistines by catching 300 foxes or jackals and tied their tails together in pairs and then tied a flaming torch to their tails and let them loose in the grain fields of the Philistines, burning up their crops.  Now that has to go down as one of the wildest events you would ever see, right? Why, just to catch 300 foxes or jackals is crazy enough.  Most commentators believe these were jackals, as jackals tend to travel in packs in the Middle East.  But then, after catching them, how do you go about tying their tails together, let alone then fastening a torch to the tails of each pair? And then to watch them running through grain fields setting everything on fire?  That’s definitely one of those  ‘Do not try this at home’ things.  The thing is, certainly none of the Philistines would have ever thought that such a thing like this would ever happen.

As we bring our series of Maxims For Maximum Discipleship to a close, for now, one of the maxims we need to point out has to do with this very idea.  You see, many people throughout history never thought that such things as did happen in the Bible would ever happen.  Which leads us to this maxim:  ‘Many people do not think that Biblical events are actually going to happen…until they actually happen.’  The Apostle Peter encountered this maxim and the mocking attitude that often accompanies it first hand as he proclaimed the truths of Christ and Christ’s coming Kingdom to his culture around him.  And he then told us that this mocking attitude would get even worse as the time approached for the Lord’s Second Coming.  Check this out from 2 Peter 3:3-7- “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.” NASU

The way that mockers look at life is through their own reasoning and experience.  And whatever does not fit into those ‘two small boxes’ gets mocked.  However, those who are wise look at life through God’s creation and God’s revelation and then adjust their reasoning and interpret their experiences according to those two books.  We get the understanding about the ‘two books’ from what Paul said about Creation being the unwritten witness to the world that this is God’s world, and then of course e have the Bible, which is the written revelation that this world is God’s world. Like we read in our Congregational Reading in Ps 24:1- “The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains.”

So this can all be put into a maxim as well. Maxim:  ‘You either live your life out of two small boxes or out of two Great Books.’  Again, the two Great Books are God’s creation and God’s revelation, and the two small boxes are people’s own reasoning about life and their own experiences throughout life.  But when people look at life through those two small boxes it creates serious problems.  One of which is when people make their own reasoning, or understanding, and their own experiences become the standard of what is right and wrong or what is true or false or what is good and bad and so on…then they lock themselves into these small boxes, basically enslaving themselves to their own reasoning and experience.  And then anything that doesn’t fit into their small boxes eventually gets mocked; for example, like facts.  Mocking minds can’t stand God’s facts, because God’s facts don’t fit into their small boxes of their own reasoning and experience.  But eventually that turns into a serious problem for mockers because of another time tested maxim that states:  ‘God’s Word always comes to pass.‘

A while back we pointed out that according to “The Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy” by J. Barton Payne, there are 1,239 prophecies in the Old Testament and 578 prophecies in the New Testament for a total of 1,817.  These prophecies are contained in 8,352 of the Bible’s verses.  Since there are 31,124 verses in the Bible, the 8,352 verses that contain prophecy constitutes 26.8 percent of the Bible’s volume.  And the thing is, all but about 500 prophecies are yet to be fulfilled. Meaning, the rest of the 1,317 prophecies have already been fulfilled…because God’s Word always come to pass.

So here we have a very strange dilemma.  The Bible is filled with already fulfilled prophecies, with many concerning the First Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to Earth.  The life and times and teachings of the Lord Jesus are confirmed in history and archaeology, and by both followers of Christ and even by those who were not followers of Christ. Jesus’ resurrection, that demonstrated that He was and is God, is one of the best attested events in history.  Yet still, when faced with the information and the warning about preparing for the Lord Jesus’ Second Coming, the response of many is what the Apostle said it would be from 2 Peter 3:3 “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”

Actually, the mocking has gotten even worse, because even the mockers of old still acknowledged that the world was at least a created world, and that this created world had an actual beginning, and was begun by an actual God.  Many today dismiss the bodily return of the Resurrected Creator and Lord Jesus Christ because they even dismiss that such a Creator exists or that such a creation ever occurred.  To them the ‘Heavens’ don’t declare the handiwork of God.  To the Humanist evolutionist, the heavens simply declare the ‘happenstance of chance’.

I remember watching several episodes of the PBS series of ‘The Cosmos’, narrated by a disciple of Carl Sagan.  And was Carl Sagan who is quoted as saying “The Cosmos is all there is, and ever was, or ever will be.”  And how, again, is that encouraging to know in order to give you hope for living and assurance for what lies ahead?  What an empty and hopeless belief system to have and spread to others.  But in this television series, after searching the planets and the stars for the origins of life, it all came down to the narrator of the program, Neil Tyson, concluding this: “Nobody knows how life got started.”  Humanism offers a whole lot of hype, but without any hope.

I remember the program also claiming that all human life is connected to the cosmos, and that even humans are made from the stuff of the stars in the heavens.  Right…however that did explain that strange thing about human behavior, in that since the natural mind thinks we are made from the stuff of stars, maybe that’s why so many people long to become a ‘star’ themselves, instead of longing to become a ‘son or daughter of the Creator Himself‘.

Interesting, isn’t is, that when you long for the wrong things, it never turns out all right.  But when you long for the right things, it turns out even better than you hoped. Look at what God says in Dan 12:3- “Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.”   You see, when you long to belong to God and to serve God, then your life will shine for God like the stars forever and ever. The natural man longs to ‘be a star’ for his own glory, but the spiritual man longs to ‘shine like a star’ for the glory of God.  And the first one finds emptiness and grief, but the second one finds fullness and joy.

It’s like the question that Billy Graham so often has asked, “Where is the hope?”  If you think your origin is just connected with the ‘Cosmos’, then where is your hope…that you’ll just return to the ‘Cosmos’?   There’s no hope in that!  There is no hope in humanism and evolution.  The hope is found in the fact that since the origin of mankind is connected to every person being created in the image of God Himself, our hope is to be able to be spiritually reconnected, to be reunited, not with the Cosmos, but with our very Creator!  And the hope that the Gospel tells us is through repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ, we can be reunited with our Creator because we will have been reborn in our spirit and reunited to the life of our Creator and Redeemer.

No matter how far humanists explore in outer space, until their soul is set free from sin and death, their minds will always be locked inside those two small boxes of their own human reasoning and their own personal experiences.  Their only hope is to surrender their mind and heart to the One who is  ‘The Blessed Hope’, the Lord Jesus Christ, who already came to Earth once, and He’s about to come back!

And yet, the mocking continues. The Apostle Peter told us we should expect it to continue.  In fact, the mocking and scoffing and rejection of the Redeemer is going to continue to get worse and worse.  And how do we know that?  Because, and let’s put it in terms of a maxim:  ‘The real problem with our world is not global warming; it’s global cooling.’  Here’s the problem in exact terms.  In Matthew 24 Jesus’ Disciples had just asked a question. The question was this: “…what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” (Matt 24:3 NASU) And Jesus then answers with several things to look for and then points out this one thing in particular: “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.” (vs 12)

The greatest problem facing our communities, our country, our world, is this global cooling of the most important resource of the planet.  It’s not oil or gold or oxygen or forests or water…no, it’s love.  The resource of ‘love’ is growing colder and colder in the hearts and minds of people world-wide, across the globe.  You can see it in every country and in every nation and people group around the world.  There is a growing callousness in the hearts of people world-wide toward one another; toward human life itself.  There is a growing coldness of the soul in the nations of the world. Jesus told us to watch for it.  When He said nation will rise up against nation, the word He used for ‘nation’ referred to ‘ethnic groups’.  He was telling us to watch for growing coldness in ethnic groups toward other ethnic groups.  This includes everything from social prejudices to religious persecution. And all of this is very evident, and both of these are on the rise world-wide.

But the question is, why is it that most people’s love is growing cold? And Jesus’ answer is: “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.” Lawlessness is the absence or the rejection of Law in life and practice. And the reason there is the growing practice of lawlessness world-wide is because there is a growing rejection of the Law Giver world-wide.

Even in our own country, God was often referred to as the Law Giver.  Many connected the laws of the land to the laws of the One to whom they knew established them in this land.  And while America was certainly established to be a land of the free and a refuge for people of different beliefs, it was also established upon the laws of the Law Giver, the Lord of the Bible. The laws of the land were based upon Biblical laws.  And as such, America was established to be like a city on a hill and a light to other nations.  And the ‘liberty’ that was meant for all was to be found in the ‘laws’ that were meant for all.  And those laws were determined by the laws given to all by the Creator of all mankind.

But like those who rejected Jesus and His words when He came the first time said,  “We will not have this man rule over us”, many many people today are essentially saying the same thing across our country and across the world.  And since they reject the Law Giver, their lawlessness increases and their love grows colder and colder.

Biblical love is the scarcest resource on the planet.  Oh, there’s a lot of worldly love, but worldly love is cold and without hope as well. How do you tell the difference? One of the ways you tell the difference between fools gold and real gold is that fools gold is actually the mineral ‘pyrite’ and is harder and will scratch other metals badly.  Real gold is softer and won’t damage other metals like fools gold. Worldly love may look like love, but there’s something hard and eventually damaging about it.  Actually, worldly love lacks what is the essential part of the make up of Biblical love; and that is – Truth. Love without truth is destructive and eventually tears people down, while love with truth is constructive and continues to build people up.

Remember, Jesus came in ‘grace and truth’;  He came in ‘love and truth’.  You cannot separate truth from love or you have something hard and damaging, regardless of how the world sees it. We are commanded to ‘love in truth’ and to ‘speak truth in love’.  If either one is absent, it’s like fool’s gold, it isn’t real love at all, and it will eventually damage people’s lives not build them up and help them.  Only real love does that; love that is united with truth.

But that is why the world mocks and chooses lawlessness instead of Biblical truth and love, because they are rejecting the rule over them of the One who is ‘The Way, The Truth, and The Life’.  And so love continues to grow cold.  But that doesn’t change the fact that Jesus is coming back!  It doesn’t change the fact that our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. It doesn’t change the fact that Jesus is our Blessed Hope, and that the Kingdom of the Son is about to become the Kingdom on Earth.

And so while the world grows colder God’s people can continue to grow warmer; warmer in their love toward God and in their ‘Biblical love’ toward the world and one another, by loving the Law Giver, loving the Savior, and loving the way our Lord commands us to love: Love others in truth and speaking truth to others in love.

– Pastor Clay Olsen

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