Excerpts from: Armageddon Appetite
5/21/06
References: John 6:66

When I was in school I loved it when we covered current events in history class. Now as a grown man I watch the national and local news I am still intrigued with what goes on in the world. I am also intrigued with the age old rumbling question regarding the end times; are current events really evidence that the end of human existence is coming? Do highly destructive weather patterns-hurricanes, tsunamis-devastating earthquakes, emerging new diseases, terrorism and man-made disasters foretell an appending apocalypse?

Yes? No? Just what are we to do? Do you even care?

Read this text of rejection, John 6:66, one more time: "Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him."

The devastating nature of this message, coupled with the doomsday number it is assigned -- 666, the number of the Antichrist, the Mark of the Beast, "Satan's Six-Pack" -- has made this text a flash point favorite for those trying to figure out millennial mathematics. As we have crossed the threshold into the next millennium, there is an increased fervor over anything smacking of an apocalyptic message or a secret code.

It is time to ask the question: Is all this "millennial fever" really bringing us any closer to the presence of the Christ we profess to long for?

It is fitting and wise that we examine our culture, our faith and the unique spirit that we are taking with us into the second millennium. The Bible says that the tribe of Issacar was wise because they could discern the times-they understood what was going on around them and could still be productive and connected.

Our "maintenance needed" light also alerts us to the lurking reality of an Armageddon. AIDS, Ebola, flesh-eating bacteria, infectious microbes, global warming, ozone depletion, radioactive fallout, air pollution --form only a short list of the plagues that threaten us and the plethora of Armageddon scenarios. Is our end-time anxiety justified? The majority of us think it is.

According to a U.S. News & World Report poll:

• nearly 7 in 10 Americans believe the world will end or be destroyed,
• and a third of those think it will happen within a few years or decades.
• In addition, this same poll found that 44 percent believe the world will face the Apocalypse, with true believers whisked off the planet and called into heaven.
• Almost half -- 49 percent -- said they believe there will be an antichrist.

As our universe's odometer has turned over, the increasing outbreaks of Armageddon anxiety demand that people of faith respond with messages of hope like never before.

But when there are as many doctrines of "last things" as there are people on this planet with opinions, how can we hope to offer any kind of a coherent voice of hope and wholeness to this world?

Should Christians buy into the doomsday mentality and its accompanying spirit of apathy and inevitability? Or do we see all our problems solved by an escapism mentality where we are caught up with the Lord in the air?

In a chapter from the book Gahanna , We see several pudgy, furry devils, with their three-pronged forks and pointed tails, driving throngs of hapless human sinners through the licking flames of the Inferno. Sitting on a hot rock observing the scene is a rather reflective gentleman, hand on his chin. He has been down under for some time and knows the scene. Obviously, he has just been quizzed by a rather dazed, innocent looking gentleman, about what it is like farther down into the scorching caverns. As a frowning devil looks over his shoulder at them, the long-term human resident of Hades tells the expectant, hopeful arrival, deflatingly, "No, it's not going to be okay."

The world is desperate for "It's-going-to-be-okay" assurances. The politically correct thing to do is to say, "It's going to be okay." But it's not going to be okay. And sometimes it's the church's job to say to the culture, "Nope, there's bad news before there's good news: the bad news is, things are not going to be okay. The good news is, things can be okay.

The choice is yours. The choice is ours.

The genuine biblical witness offers words of comfort and words of judgment with equanimity. Throughout the Bible, no matter how many particular eschatological scenarios we may pick out, one message remains clear.

What the Bible does teach is that history is moving somewhere; that the one who brings justice will fulfill God's saving purpose in history.

• "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever" (Revelation 11:15 ).
• "Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father ... so that God may be all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:24 , 28).

In this week's gospel text, Jesus is deserted by "many of his disciples" because of his refusal to tell the people what they wanted to hear. His flesh and blood imagery was too gutsy and too graphic, too fantastic and too unreal for a large portion of his Jewish audience. The great irony of this text is that the very message that reveals how we may personally experience the intimacy of God in our lives is the message that leads us to turn our backs on Jesus -- the one who is the divine gift of life.

For many, as the mounting end time scenario approaches has done exactly the same thing. Intoxicated by Satan's six-pack speculations and calculations, heady over the "what ifs" and "whens" that await us in the next eon, we are beguiled by numbers, strategies and predictions. Instead of following Jesus, we follow the "last-times" headlines of world disasters, weather disasters, alien abductions, etc.

We can become so fixated on the Jesus who is to come that we do not see or hear the Jesus who is in the midst. Thus, many doom-and-gloomers tend to withdraw from this world, abandoning themselves to the powers of evil. Satan's six-pack gives us the greatest excuse not to know Christ and make Christ known for the times that God has given us.

Once upon a time, a bishop was presiding over the liturgy in a large cathedral. He sensed that the microphone wasn't working properly, and he was ready to begin the traditional "The Lord be with you," after which the congregation routinely responded, "And also with you."

He tapped the mike several times, but heard nothing. Then, as he thought he was speaking into a dead mike, he said, "There's something wrong with this blasted microphone." And the people responded, "And also with you."

Is there something wrong with us? What's our excuse for failing to make Christ alive today, in our family, our church, our community, our country, our world? In the history of the faith, we have never lacked for excuses.

What's our excuse? What will be our excuse in the year 2007? And then what will be our excuse in the year 2010? Will our apocalyptic anxieties cause us to "turn away," as some did in John 6:66?

Or will we remain standing with Peter? Will we continue to confess "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God" (vs.68-69).

Will it be that belief and that message that take us into the new millennium?