Apocalyptic Shock
Away in Asia last month person after person asked me about the fires in Australia. Then I had my own volcanic eruption to deal with! (Fortunately, I avoided the riots in Hong Kong.) In returning to Australia I found hailstorms had caused huge damage in Canberra (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-20/hail-canberra-act-hailstorm-parliament/11882840) (cf. Rev 16:21). Then I was confronted with a Bible-wielding preacher proclaiming that since 99% of fires in Australia were started by lightning God is responsible (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-11/australias-fires-reveal-arson-not-a-major-cause/11855022) (cf. Rev 8:5). The next day Christians from our local high school sought help from our regional ministers’ network to deal with the trauma of two suicides at the end of 2019. Praying the next morning (4/20) I felt the Lord speaking about apocalyptic shock. Then on the way home listening to ABC News radio the broadcaster spoke of the “apocalyptic smoke” over our nation’s capital (4/2/20). Later that day someone in our Bible study showed us a humorous picture and caption from his newsfeed reading, “Me telling my grandkids of the disease, locusts [ https://www.ecowatch.com/locusts-somalia-national-emergency-2645027649.html], fires, floods and volcanic eruptions of 2020….It was f… biblical mate.” (https://www.reddit.com/r/PeakyBlinders/comments/evjrs8/alfiee/) Then (still 4/2/20) Channel 7 were showing “Hellfire: The Battle of Cobargo”. When extreme disasters happen, our culture is constrained to return to the Bible to understand the severity of human affliction. And I have yet to mention the earthquake in Turkey and the global health crisis associated with the coronavirus! What can we say about all these tragedies?
Only Church can Hear
God speaks through natural disasters, as Jesus believed (Luke 21:11), but the only people who are initially able to receive the message are the churches. That is, those to whom the Gospels, Epistles and revelation were written. Others, under the wrath of God, are unable to spiritually discern (1 Cor 2:14) the purpose of the judgements of fire, flood, famine etc. that visit the earth generation after generation sent by the Lamb of God (Rev 6). “Apocalyptic shock” is first meant to shock us, the Church, into repentance (1 Pet 4:17). Whereas sinners curse God because of his judgements (Rev 16:9, 11, 21) we are called to hold fast to the testimony of Jesus and prophesy to a lost world (Rev 19:10). Usually a traumatised world is deep into God-avoidance, “Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”” (Rev 6:15-17). Revelation however suggests wrath can lead to repentance, “there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed…and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.” (Rev 11:13). The difference between these two incidents is the visible presence of suffering-and-overcoming witnesses (Rev 11:1-12). Indisputably, the church grew rapidly following the plagues which decimated the Roman Empire. For when the pagans fled the believers, unafraid of death, cared for all the sick without discrimination (https://biblemesh.com/blog/the-compassion-of-early-christians/)! This is a lesson for today.
Toxic Culture
Our teenagers are the modern equivalent of the miner’s canary, and are killing themselves because they are inescapably immersed, largely through social media, in a relationally toxic environment. A culture saturated with selfishness, hedonism, materialism progressively stripped of the selfless love which the gospel introduced to the world. Put bluntly, since “everything was created through Jesus and for Jesus” (Col 1:16), if you do not have Christ in your life then (objectively) you have no reason for living. It was such dark feelings that first brought me inescapably to Christ. Jesus said of Judas, “It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” (Matt 26:41), and this is surely the feeling of the denizens of hell (Matt 8:12; 25:30). These things are hard to hear. Scripture tells us where the Church needs to be in our day.
Wanting the Wilderness
The New Testament expects apocalyptic terror is the normal state of the world between the first and second comings of Christ. (The legacy of Christianity and the exceptional peace and prosperity of recent decades in the West should not obscure this fact.) The enablement of the Church to live above such traumas can only be found in another apocalyptic setting: the wilderness. The wilderness is the place where supernatural provision is experienced (Deut 2:7; 8:4), where the Word of the Lord comes and pioneers God’s kingdom (Isa 40:3; Luke 3:2), and where victory over temptation is achieved (Matt 4:1-11). The wilderness if God’s gift to his harassed people, “the dragon…pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time.” (Rev 12:13-14). The wilderness is a spiritual space away from the enticements of worldy power and influence where the Church is supernaturally sustained by her intense dependence of God. We desperately need the wilderness.
Conclusion
This message of Apocalyptic Shock is plainly true to anyone who has eyes to see and ears to hear “what the Spirit is saying to the churches” (Mark 8:18; Rev 2:7 etc.). C.S. Lewis famously said, “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”. Unlike those who are perishing, Christians can hear God through the labour pains of a cosmos (Rom 8:22) claimed by the sufferings and resurrection of Jesus. This perishing universe is an apocalyptic theatre because it belongs to the slain-and-risen Lamb (Rev 5:6). Knowing this brings incredible prophetic boldness in testifying of Jesus to those “without hope and without God in this world” (Eph 2:12). Wise children of God should be growing in understanding (Dan 12:1-4), through the paradox of the cross, that the Sovereign Lord has been showing favour in testifying to Australia through terrible disasters of the eternal significance of his kingdom. The fruit of such favour will first be seen in the Church: repentance for our sloth, turning to prayer and bearing fruits of mercy towards the fearful and afflicted. “Come Lord Jesus. Come quickly.” (1 Cor 16:22; Rev 22:20).