10 minutes on End Times!

Here are 4 things that you will want to reference:

1) Best book on Revelation: Chalice Commentary by Farmer – it will become your favorite

2) Partial reasoning of the 1968-1973 change:

  • 1969 pronounced the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius.
  • 1968 saw the cover of Time magazine ask “Is God Dead”?
  • 1972 is pinned as the beginning of the post-modern era with the demolition of the Pruitt Igoe housing projects in St. Louis, Missouri (July 15, 1972 at 3:32 pm).
  • The Vietnam War left many in the early 70’s disillusioned on the heels of Watergate, Woodstock and the earlier assassinations of JFK and MLK.
  • In 1971 John Cobb was already asking if it was too late for the environment.
  • Hal Lindsay had put out the Late Great Planet Earth.
  • t was also in this window that global conceptions changes with 1969’s first moon landing, 1970’s first Earth Day celebration, 1971’s founding of Green Peace and the famous 1972 picture of Earth as a ‘small blue marble’ provided by Apollo 17.

3) The 4 D’s of the Delayed Parousia:

  • Discouragement
  • Dysfunction
  • Decline
  • Disaster

Discouragement can be perceived in a range of manifestations from a pervasive malaise, to widespread depression and eventually outright despair. We are plagued by a boredom of epidemic proportions and defeated resignation in the face of endless consumerism and unsatisfying work and family commitments.Dark-Clouds

Dysfunction is represented in everything from divorce rates to the governmental gridlock as seen in our unproductive congressional system.

Decline is referenced in areas such as shrinking attendance in Mainline denominations (and faith as a whole) and American exceptionalism in the global community – as well as falling education standards for our young people.

Disaster is seen in visible examples of oil spills washing up on our shores, economic crashes resulting in bail outs of the ‘too big to fail’ banks and the automotive industry, and our dubious inability to end multiple wars.

4) That final quote:

“The end is approaching … has always been approaching … approaching from the beginning. Still, it seems closer today that ever before. We are on the edge of disaster, under its threat. That threat is real, and we delude ourselves by trying to deny or repress it. Can disaster be delayed? Will it be deferred? We cannot be sure. If there is hope, then it lies not in certainty but in uncertainty, not in security but in insecurity, not in foundations but in their faults, not in cures but in wounds – … That wound might be our hope. Small hope. Fragile hope. Nothing more. Nothing more … nothingness … impermanence … the world’s continual breathing … “

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