Gracing the Blood Moon with Truth

"It is not death a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live."

                                                                          ~ Marcus Aurelius 

Over the last several weeks or months as the case may be, the 'Blood Moon' and 'Super Blood Moon' caused havoc for many people on the edge of the Christian faith.

I cannot begin to state how many people asked me about this natural occurrence, while at the same time I tried to keep from blasting the television ministries who promoted this event as the end of the age.

One ministry in particular wrote a best-selling book and made literally millions of dollars.
Another ministry claimed that the world would come to an end between September 23rd and September 27th, 2015.

I guess I missed the end of the world....again.

Maybe it was the proclamations of the electronic preachers; maybe it was the phenomenon of the eclipses happening so close together (Four over a 1 1/2 year span and on Jewish Holidays,

which is why some easily exploited this as a 'sign from God'); maybe it was people wishing for an excuse to get their life in order.

I don't know why so many were fanatical about the shadow of the earth turning the moon red.
But I do know that if people were afraid, if people were dreading the end of the world, then those people need to get their lives right with God.

You see, people fear such phenomenons because they do not understand them; it is made worse when one in a supposedly religious seat of authority states that God is on the move.

People also fear such things because deep down, they are afraid of death.

Don't believe me that people are afraid of the death?
Just look to the modern gym or health club; today they stand as the modern pagan temple. Instead of going to a shrine to worship an idol, most people stand in front of a mirror each morning and adore themselves in such a way that they ought to just pull out a hymnal and sing a chorus of 'How Great Thou Art.'

And what's amazing is that people are working so hard to preserve the body, while the body is the least enduring part of the whole person.
The body will die and be put away, but the soul will go on living long after the sun and moon grow cold and every star burns out of existence. 

Yet, we cannot see our soul; only what is living within our soul.

The Blood Moon fiasco on the extreme fanatical side of religion reminds me greatly of the Y2K Scare years ago.
Nothing happened except a damage to the Christian witness because some Christians allowed themselves to get so wound up in something that wouldn't effect them even if it was true.

The only person who has ever lived that endured a true Apocalyptic natural disaster and lived to tell about it was Noah.
And from Scripture, we know that he didn't spend his time running around scared; he spent his time resting in the peace of God following God's instructions perfectly. 
As a result, Noah survived and remains one of the great heroes of the faith.

We would do well as Christians in the modern world, when the next person comes along trying to make money off of so-called 'prophecy' or off of Jesus' name or some type of healing power; that if we would just rest in the plan and provision of God we'd have His peace to move forward.

But I do understand how people get wound up in these proclamations of theological doom-day preachers.
They exploit our inner clock concerning death.

You see, human beings are the only creatures who know from our birth that we are going to die; this, in fact, is one way that we are distinguished from the animals.
Yet, we do all we can to place the thought of death out of our minds; many times when someone is dying, the questions that are most worth asking are the very questions the family beside them wish to ignore.

While every person bears the mark of their Creator, we also carry with us the mark of our sin and fallenness - we know we are winding down, we know we're not what we once were, we know we are going to one day die.

So, we do all that we can to disguise death; to hide death from our reality.

For example, people no longer die at home; sometimes, but not very often. Today, people are secluded into a hospital room or a nursing home.
Family use to watch people die; sometimes they do now, but many times it is only one or two of the closest members of the family. The days when extended family gathered with food and support are gone.
We don't see the pain of death any more, thanks to modern drugs. 
I remember my grandfather dying a horrible death due to lung cancer, gasping for every breath he could get. Today, he would not feel that pain nor would he have been at home when he passed; he would have been in hospice with so many drugs he would have not even known he was suffering.

And when a person dies, the men don't gather and dig graves on the hillside by hand any more on the family farm- not usually. Today, we take them to a cemetery as beautiful as a city park.

As more than 5,000 people die in America every day, I am reminded of what the church father Augustine said of death: We are 'deafened by the clanking chains of morality.'

For some, it is very difficult to live with such a blunt awareness of death as I do and as many other Cancer Survivors do; or even those who have lost a loved-one to the disease.
We realize how quickly life can disappear from our bodies and what it is to be in pain just because you are still breathing.

Yes, some have a hard time living with the approaching day of death's destiny; but more have a more difficult time living with an awareness of the Afterlife. 

Maybe that's why some were so frantic over Y2K or the Blood Moons; people are afraid of the unknown.
Let me speak to the briefly.

I often wonder why God doesn't destroy the world given the pain and sin and decadence that abounds; it must surely disgust Him.
Yet, He who has every right to destroy the world as He nearly did with Noah and his family, has chosen instead to love the world at any and every cost.

Knowing this, why would a natural phenomenon scare any Christian?

In my heart, I think to myself that it must be very hard at times for God not to act; for Him to know the wickedness in full of the people of the world that we only know in part.
Humanity was given a perfect and full world; yet, humanity has also destroyed creatures and some of the environment; all the while, God holds back His anger for another day, another time.

Even when the Jews were nearly annihilated, God restrained Himself.

Such events like the holocaust or the destruction of the planet's creatures/environment, makes us think of "why".
Why would God restrain Himself?
Why would God show mercy?
Why would God not intervene?

While I cannot fully answer these questions, I do know that God moved Heaven and Earth to save the humanity He dearly loves.
I do know that God gives mankind every chance to turn to Him in repentance and faith.
And while God may not always intervene with lightening bolts from the sky, I do know that God can, does and has used mankind's armies to defeat persistent evil wherever it exists.
He did so during the holocaust; when it is time, He will do so again. 

The truth is that we live between the memory of Paradise and the Foretaste of Eternity.
Biblically, we live between Genesis chapter 3 and Revelation 21. 
You see, the first two chapters of Genesis are devoted to the glories of Creation; Revelation 21 shows us a restored universe shouting the glory of God.
Every place between those two chapters in the Bible is simply the record of the agonizing curse which fell on mankind because of our disobedience.

Part of that curse is the aging process and our imminent death.

But my friend, unlike that doomsday preachers, I will tell you a wonderful truth.

Death, while imminent, is not the last word to our lives.
Death is not the final thing that happens to us; it is actually the 'next to last.'

Yes, our bodies will die but our souls will go on living.
That which is mortal and limited will be swallowed up by eternal, infinite life if you are a Christian.

It will be at that time, you will stand before Christ Himself, He will open the books which have recorded every action and word of your life and read them.
Do not be afraid of this for Scripture tells us that there are no tears in Heaven.
Therefore, I can only imagine that when my deeds or your deeds are read aloud, they will be followed by a thunderous voice from the throne room of God which declares, 'I forgive this...'

I believe it will be at that time, and for the first time, we as Believers will finally realize the enormous and infinite depths of God's grace.
The groaning of death will fall silent as the Redeemed from the ages shout His praises, knowing what it actually cost God to love His children to the fullest.

As those blinders are removed and the reality of eternity's God becomes our reality of eternal grace, we may wonder why we ever spent time even thinking about Blood Moons or Y2K or listening to fear mongers trying to make a dime off of our Lord.

Oh, one last thing about eternity and the end of time.
All that humanity has damaged, squandered, or maimed → All of it will be restored and redeemed in full.

How in the world could any believer fear a day such as that?

Until next time, win one for the good guys.