Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
( Jude 1:3-4 )
Most people quote this passage as an exhortation to faith and good works among Christians. it is naturally fitting for the day in which we live because far from having crept in unawares, the denial of the Lord Jesus Christ is now mainstream. This passage is really a precursor to the next paragraph, which is a much more stark description of the consequences of denying Jesus Christ:
I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
( Jude 1:5-7 )
The reason why I think that this is appropriate today is that we are wrapping up the discussion of the six days of creation. We will shortly begin the discussion of the following six thousand years of decay which began at the fall of man in Genesis 3. There is an eerie symmetry to this, if we consider for a moment another oft misquoted passage from Psalms 90:
For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
( Psalms 90:4 )
Here it is again, rendered with fervent intensity by Peter:
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
( 2 Peter 3:8 )
Be not ignorant in this one thing. One of the many reasons why atheists mock Christians is that Christians have been preaching the return of Christ for about the last 2,000 years. Christ has not returned yet. The obvious conclusion is that he’s not coming, so shut up about it.
So here’s how the symmetry works out which should give us cause to buck up and pay attention: God created for six days and of the seventh day he rested. We are going to state that these were actual days of 24 hours because each one is associated with an evening and a morning. This was the creative part of creation. The decay and collapse of creation is happening because God is allowing the physical systems which he created, bound by the laws of thermodynamics and entropy, to run their courses. If God allocated 1,000 years to the decay of creation for each day that he spent creating it, that would give a total time span for this world of 7,000 years. We are currently at the 6,000 year mark. The reason why this is interesting is because we know that there is something prophesied for the future called the Millennial Kingdom. This is when Jesus Christ returns to the earth to establish his kingdom, and he will rule the earth for 1,000 years.
7,000 years minus 1,000 years is 6,000 years.
Time’s up.
Matty (Headwind) 