Since I last wrote we had a new patio put in. The contractors had worked for hours the day before yesterday setting in place the forms for the coming concrete and getting the base of gravel leveled out. Then yesterday the concrete was poured. As the thick, gray, soupy concrete flowed down the trough from the turning drum of the truck, the contractors worked quickly to move it around and level it out in the forms. I was anxious as I watched them work, because I knew they had only so much time before the concrete set. Having grown up on a farm where we poured concrete on occasion, I knew that there’s a small window of opportunity to decide how you want the concrete to be forever. After that, there’s no more deciding. The contractors did a good job and today I sat out on our new patio reading your last letter.

I can understand your bewilderment as to whether or not perseverance always pays. Your example of martyrs who gave their lives because of their obedience to God certainly doesn’t seem as if perseverance paid for these saints. Life often doesn’t turn out right for people. Bad things often happen to good people and good things often happen to bad people. It doesn’t seem fair. The whole world seems messed up. According to the Bible, God couldn’t agree more! He is painfully aware of the sad shape the world is in, and He has a plan to make things right.

History as we know it won’t always exist. It had a beginning, and it will have an end. Specifically, Jesus said that He would be coming back again at some future time and initiate a new kind of creation, what’s called a new heaven and a new earth.

Let me be really honest. The whole idea of Jesus coming back to earth and stopping history is difficult for me to imagine. It is for a lot of people. I suspect some of the skepticism about Christ’s return and a re-making of existence is a reaction to the doomsday crackpots. You know the image: the long-haired, sandaled, bearded figure holding a sign that says something about the end of the world.

Our experience is of history slowly unfolding one day at a time for a long time, and we can’t picture it doing anything else. Yet there have been numerous times throughout the history of creation when cataclysmic events have happened. Telescopes peering into the far reaches of space reveal evidence of entire galaxies colliding. The ice age on our own planet changed the face of the earth, relocating mountain ranges, plains and lakes. And it’s believed that a direct hit by an asteroid may have spelled doom for the dinosaur. We’re warned that a collision with an asteroid will happen again some day, that it’s just a matter of time. Then there’s the real possibility of the human race obliterating itself with a nuclear holocaust. If somehow we manage to keep from blowing ourselves up and succeed at dodging any hits by asteroids, we’re told that eventually our own sun will burn out, but that first it will grow bigger and hotter, destroying the solar system and human life in an inferno. No, our assumption that life as we know it will always continue isn’t very realistic, even if you take a purely scientific view.

If I can at least begin to imagine human existence being wiped out by natural or man-made events, then shouldn’t I believe that it’s possible for God to someday bring history to a conclusion? What has convinced me that this will happen is that Jesus said it would. Jesus indicated that this change would be initiated by His return into human history a second time.

It’s at this point that justice will be done and things will be made right. Injustices that occurred throughout history will be brought to a just end in what is called the Final Judgement.

Thankfully, those of us who have responded to God’s desire to have a relationship with Him will find our guilt and punishment already paid for by Jesus’ death on the cross that took place at His first coming to earth. We will still be judged as to how we carried out His specific mission for us in this life, but our entry into a new existence with Him is guaranteed.

Perhaps the best way to view the end of history as we know it is to see this current life and existence as a proving ground. We each have our own time here on earth to make our choice as to whether we spend eternity within the presence and will of God. God has given humanity as a whole a limited time to "make history."

In a way, it’s sort of like the concrete I had poured for the patio. I had a brief time to smooth out the surface or shift a form a few inches to change the shape of the patio. Now it’s too late; the window of opportunity is gone. There was a limited time to make choices and changes. It’s a principle that extends beyond the laying of concrete.

I appreciate your desire to grapple with these issues of faith. You’ve been honest and open with your questions and in expressing your doubts. I hope you feel I’ve been honest and open in my responses.

A fellow seeker after truth,
Dave