60 Seconds – Redemption of the Kingdom

A desert traveler was awakened in the night by a strange unearthly sound sweeping across the barren wastes, something like a sob and a sigh.

He awoke the old guide, who explained, “Ah, it is the desert crying.” Immediately, the traveler thought of the words from Romans 8:22, 23, “For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. And not only they, be we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of the body.”

The words “eagerly waiting” are translated “on tip-toe” by the Phillips translation. Moffatt states, “Even the creation waits with eager longing for the sons of God to be revealed…The hope being that creation, as well as man, would one day be freed from the thraldom of decay, and gain the glorious freedom of God’s children.” Godet wrote, “The more deeply the Church plants in the earth the stakes of her tent, and establishes her at ease here below, the more does the Apocalypse become to her a foreign and even repulsive book. The more, on the other hand, tempestuous winds shake the curtains of her temporary dwelling place and threaten to break the cords, the more does she feel the value of this marvelous book which teaches her to look up continually toward the Bridegroom Whose return she expects.”

James stated, “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord” (5:7). The word “coming” is parousia, and is used of the invasion of a country by an army and the visit of a king. The second coming of Christ is the final invasion of earth by heaven. Philip Yancey wrote, “Jurgen Moltmann has observed that the phrase, ‘Day of the Lord,’ in the Old Testament inspired fear; but in the New Testament it inspires confidence, because those authors had come to know the Lord whose Day it was. They now knew what to expect.”

A pious man who had a great love for and faith in God, was discussing the coming of Jesus Christ with some students. “Believe me,” he said, “if we had reached sundown of the last day the earth was to be destroyed, I still would not give up hope. I would continue to wait for His arrival.”

“It is the Christian’s conviction that Christ will return and take over when mortals have made a mess of self-government” (Paul Harvey).