The Only Remedy

"Ye are they that forsake the Lord...therefore I will number you for the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter, because when I called, you did not answer, [and] when I spoke, ye did not hear, but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.... Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered, nor come to mind; but be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create, for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy." Isaiah 65:11, 12, 17, 18

Desolation and glory are not mere abstract principle; they are a part of rugged reality. All the moral motions within men, whether they know God or not (Romans 2:14, 15), cry out in testimony against us. We know (beyond all contentless academic posturing) that there is a right and a wrong, and that those who do evil will be punished, and those who do good will receive reward. Desolation on the wicked (vs. 1-7, 11-16) and glory to the faithful (vs. 8-10, 13-16) are two immutable facts not only of Christian philosophy but also rugged reality, as real and as practical as the ground beneath our feet.
As I have said before many times, desolation is the only pathway to glory, not only in individual lives (as in justification and sanctification) but also in universal existence. In order for the creation to be restored to the glory it was created for, it will mean the desolation of all that is not-God; that is one of the great facts of the book of Revelation. Dies irae is not an arbitrary assignment; it is a necessary remedy, the only remedy. In order to bring out the finest gold, all the dross must be removed; and the deeper the dross is, the hotter the fires must be.
It is the heritage of humanity to know that true happiness and joy is only possible with the destruction and desolation of all evil things. Those who decry God's wrath against the wicked are neither enlightened nor wise; they are fools who deny core elements of the very reality that they claim to be a part of. If the wicked perish with wickedness, so much the worse for the wicked. We should indeed pity them, but we have lost all of our sense if we demand that God end all of our miseries and then turn right round and condemn Him for doing so.

"We are cured, wounded,
Made whole or destroyed,
And destined only
For fire or Fire..."
-Jon Vowell

God With Us

"I have trodden the wine press alone...I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments...for the day of vengeance is in my heart....

"Surely they are my people...so He was their Savior. In all their affliction He was afflicted...He bare them, and carried them all the days of old...We are thine...." Isaiah 63:3, 4a, 8, 9, 19a

I think many misunderstand God's actions because they do not understand His intimate involvement with creation and history. Though He is independent from those things, He is also enmeshed in it, involved with it, and this drives skeptics insane. The God they hope and image to deny is aloof and distant, and thus any dealings with us come off as cruel or irrational, or both. The fact that God involves Himself in human affairs, as if He had a stake in its outcome, is not grasped properly by skeptic and believer alike.

What if God's wrath and judgment truly are not arbitrary? What if they are vengeance, i.e., God Himself has been offended against, and thus will repay the offender? We see Sin as our problem and our business; what if it is God's business? What if it is truly what the Bible calls it: outright rebellion against a deserving superior, a slap in God's face, to spit in His face, something upon which He must be avenged? Skeptics claim that God is merely immoral in His judgments; the Bible is actually much harsher in its opinion of God's judgments: He is not immoral, but vengeful, dishing out retribution to those who have committed a personal transgress against Him. The problem with skeptics is not that they view God's wrath too seriously; actually, they treat it with much levity. The wrath of the God of the Bible is more intimate in His judgments, as though He actually cared about what we humans do in this life.

Likewise, what if God's favor truly is not arbitrary either? What if it is truly based on love, i.e., the sovereign preference of another over yourself? Do we grasp the fullness of His love, that intimate connection that arouses jealousy and devotion even in the Divine? What if we took the Bible seriously that God is love, that He desires fellowship with us, that He is filled with indignation towards those who harm His beloved just as any husband would feel towards a man who attacked his wife? As with wrath, it is the intimate aspect of all this that skeptics either miss or stumble over. They desire an aloof God (or no God) because the God of the Bible is too close for comfort. He is in the very air they breath, in the midst of their truest lovings and hatings; for when we love and hate correctly, we reveal the image of God stamped upon all of us.

"Your vengeance and Your love

Reveal a God Who is with us..."

-Jon Vowell

When He Comes Again

"I have for a long time held my peace; I have be still, and restrained myself. Now will I cry like a woman travailing in birth; I will destroy and devour at once." Isaiah 42:14

An oft cited "air-tight" attack against God (either His character or His very existence) is that if He really was there, and really was good, then He would step in and fix this mess of a world right now. That He does not proves that he is either weak, callous, or both (or simply not there at all). Perhaps the problem of evil would not be such a problem if there was a clear example of God solving it in the here and now.
People who makes such claims are nonsensical, however, and here's why: they ave no idea what it is that they are really asking for. God stepping in is not a deus ex machina, a one shot fix-all-that-ails-you; it is the end of the world (we Christians like to call it the "apocalypse"). As Lewis put it, when the director steps onto the stage, it is not the end of the play's problems; it is the end of the play. When God "steps onto the stage," it is not merely the undoing of evil; it is the undoing of everything, the complete recreation of all things by the unleashing of His presence through all things that are of Him; and anyone or anything not found in Him (through being in Christ) will wither away into outer darkness. God's literal return to earth will literally when Heaven on earth, which means that all that cannot abide in Heaven (i.e., Sin, and everything bound up in it) will not abide in the end either. Therefore, clamoring for God's return so as to fix all evils is nonsensical because His return does not mean Heaven for all; it will mean Hell for some. There will be redemption; there will also be damnation.
That God is holding His peace and restraining Himself in the face of Sin (the only true pollutant in this world) is not proof of weakness, callousness, or nonexistence; it is proof of His love and patience. He is (oh, the very thought of it!) allowing us more time, more time to become one with Him in Christ. If God wanted to (if He was the atheist's desired "practical" God), He could usher in the end right now, and have every right to do so. Instead, however, He allows days, months, and years to go by. We would be wise to realize that such a stalling is in favor of our salvation. If He did as you wished and finally returned, with you outside His fold, then it would be the end of you as well as the evil world.
"Now will I cry..." There is a "payday someday," a day of reckoning, a day when all that men have done will be answered for. The only question is, are you one of those men? Are your sins covered by the blood, or are they wide open before the eyes of God? When our Lord steps on the mountain again, will He find you innocent, or will you be one of the guilty that He claws out of the earth and holds up against a ruby sky? When He comes to "fix all," will you be something that He "fixes"? In asking God to solve all our problems, are you blissfully unaware that you may be one of the "problems" that He solves"?

"When You come
To Balance all things,
How many will be weighed
And found wanting..."
-Jon Vowell

The Wasting of Strength and the End of "Mere"

"O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength...Howl, ye ships of Tarshish: for your strength is laid waste." Isaiah 23:10, 14

First we saw that the consummation of God's will for Tyre stained its once glorious pride (vs. 8, 9): all that seemed glorious was revealed as ugly and defiled. Now God's will has laid waste to Tyre's strength: all that seemed impervious and strong is revealed as weak and empty. Such is what comes when God's Reality brings its own divine check to the world.
The consummation of God's will is much more than mere wrath and judgment; it is that, but it is much more. It is indeed a revelation: of His Son, of course, but also of everything else. Just as the veil will be lifted and we will see Him "as He is" (I John 3:2), so also we will see all things as they are. The presence of Truth incarnate will shed the clear light of reality across the dense smog of the devil and lay bare all the smoke and mirrors of sin. At the presence of Christ, all that we thought glorious and strong will be revealed as nothingness, and all that we though nothing will be revealed as containing the presence of God, with all His glory and strength shining through it.
There will be no mere mortals in that moment, either. As Lewis put it, at that day you will either meet people "that you will be strongly tempted to worship...or such corruptions as only found in your nightmares." There will be nothing that is "mere" anymore. Every man and woman, work and institution, will be exposed as either substanced by the presence of God or hollowed out by the void of sin. It will be the end of all masks and pretensions.

The Staining of Pride

"Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city...? The Lord of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of glory, and to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth." Isaiah 23:8, 9

There are two types of works in this world: those done by and for the glory of man, and those done by and for the glory of God. That which is done in the strength of the presence of the Spirit of God will radiate the glory of God so that even the blind cannot deny its presence. That which is done in the strength of the arm of the flesh will rise up with a radiance all its own; but when Christ returns and the whole earth is filled with His glory, the radiance of the glory of God will make the radiance of the glory of men seem a stained and contemptible thing, for all we do outside of Him is as filthy rags.

The radiance of the glory of that done solely by and for men is founded on pride and nothing else. Charity and goodwill may augment it at times, but its roots are forever bound fast in the soil of self-gain. When the presence of God returns unveiled to the world, the false glow of pride will fade away as candlelight to the dawn; and when that once glorious thing is placed side by side with the glory of God, we will see it for what it is: ugly and defiled, tares in the midst of wheat, fit for the furnace. All that we thought was glorious and honorable will be seen as contemptible and corrupt if it not of God. Such is the way of all flesh when the Truth will bring every high place low and every low place high.

The Doom of God

"Watch in the watchtower...Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth...And [the watchman] answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen: and all the graven images of her gods He hath broken unto the ground." Isaiah 21:5, 6, 9

Babylon is merry and happy in her might, but like any good empire she is no fool. She sets watchmen up to warn against danger so she can play in peace. However, whereas the watchmen would normally give a cry to arms, now they only cry out that all is already lost. All the man-made barriers against God's will are rendered as chaff before the flame.

Here we see what can be called the "Doom of God," i.e., His inevitable victory over evil, revelation of His Son, and consummation of His will. It is why all the works of men (no matter how noble or wise) are all foolishness. If it is not of God, then it will not survive the coming again of eternity into time. Every grand institution, work, or ideology not built by God and for God is all but wood, hay, and stubble. No empire will stand the coming of His kingdom. No institution will survive the consummation of His will. No government will hold against the revelation of His Son. No work will bear the fire of His presence. All defenses are useless against the doom of God; it will be as sure a fact as the Incarnation.

To paraphrase Lewis: When the director steps onto the stage, then the play is over whether you want it to be or not. When God comes, His will will be done. There is no escaping the doom of God.

The Broom of Destruction

"...and I will sweep it with the [broom] of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts." Isaiah 14:23

What happens when God comes to clean house? You can be sure that everything with a spot, stain, corruption, or corrosion will be purged immediately. We can correctly assume that Babylon was corrupt to the core, for God's "cleaning" left it with nothing (Isaiah 14:22). All that is not of God is scrubbed away at His presence, and you can bet that it will be a thorough cleaning.
All that is not of God cannot stand His presence. This is true of works (see I Corinthians 3:13-15) and judgment. God does not simply reject a work because He does not like it or is not in the right mood, but because it did not have any of Him in it. No matter how noble or good it may seem, if it was not done for Him by Him through your person, then it is all filthy rags. Everything that is not of God will not survive His presence. His presence is always as a great cleaning that taketh away the sin of the world.
Look at it this way: material things can only survive through a fire when they have more substance to them. Air and gases are consumed immediately. Wood has more substance and is burned less quickly. Stone is full of substance, and is only consumed if the fire gets hotter. The hotter the fire, the more substance of a thing is required to survive the heat. Likewise, God is the source of all things, and the perfection of all things. The only thing that can survive the presence of perfection is perfection. Therefore, the only way anything can survive the presence of God is if they have God as a part of them, i.e., their bodies have become the temple for His presence.
Likewise, in judgment, people do not go to hell because God was having a bad day, or did not like so-and-so very much. They go because they have not God within them, and therefore cannot abide in His presence. When once they cross the threshold of this life and discover that God's presence is everywhere, then they have only two choices: stay in the presence of God and be consumed, or be put somewhere where God is not. The latter is what hell is, and if we can assume that God's justice works hand in hand with His love (which it does), we can also assume that all the horrors of hell pale in comparison to the utter consummation of a lost soul at the presence of God's cleaning. Those who believe that the annihilation of the soul is a mercy have a very naive view of the soul.