Last One Standing

"O Lord our God, other lords beside Thee have had dominion over us: but by Thee only will we make mention of Thy name. They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise..." Isaiah 26:13, 14

Other men have claimed peace on earth; other men have claimed to have found the solution to all ills. They have founded institutions, created organizations, started movements, and begun great works. They have rallied, protested, fasted, practised non-resistance and violence, shook hands and stabbed the backs of politicians, and been the father and tyrant of the people. They have protected and served, and punished and enslaved. They have brought crops and famine, bounty and loss, booms and depressions. The have etched their legacies of blood and iron throughout the history books. So, where are they now? Dead and buried. Their institutions and works? Dead and buried with them, or monolithic corruptions that will die when the people get sick of them. It is the key to history.

Man is easily eaten up by man. When crisis and tragedy strikes the halls of history, it is easy to be swept up in the ecstasy wrought by the opportunistic and the charismatic. Even the Church has fallen into this trap, inadvertently (or maybe advertently) placing all their hopes in the newest "answer man." Within a generation or two, all such hopes are lost. Many cultural, societal, and political fads and fashions will come and go, each one condescendingly asking God to step back a bit because it's their time now. One by one, however, these fads rise and then crash like waves against immovable rocks, and dissipate just as quickly. When the smoke clears and all the noise and confusion has past, mankind will stagger back onto their once drunken feet and stare soberly at the only thing still left standing: the Lord God Almighty, the Immovable Mountain, towering like an immortal citadel over the world. True hope and peace are still only found in the cleft of His rock, where He covers us still with His hands.

"The Lord God stands like rock undaunted

Mid the raging storm of time

His presence burns with the Truth Eternal,

And shines with a light sublime.

"The Lord God stands

Though the fashions tumble

He will surely stand

Though the fads shall crumble.

I will plant my feet on His firm foundation

For the Lord God stands."

("God is not a Fad," by Jon Vowell [adapted from "The Bible Stands"])