{"id":8435,"date":"2022-11-14T14:40:22","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T21:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=8435"},"modified":"2022-11-14T14:40:24","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T21:40:24","slug":"the-justification-of-the-ungodly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=8435","title":{"rendered":"
The Justification of the Ungodly<\/div>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Click here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Romans 4:5<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sermon for Christ the King Sunday<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today marks the end of the season of Pentecost in the Christian calendar. We\u2019re usually not conscious of the fact that the season of Pentecost is divided into four parts. The first part is about the greening, the awakening of nature, the second about seeding, the third part about growth, and the fourth part of the Pentecost season is about harvest. The same is true for the hymns. They, too, are about the harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What will be the yield and the quality of the harvest? When will the end come? We know that people are calculating the time of the end. There was a time when some people misused the Mayan calendar to figure out the time of the end. And more recently New Age spiritualists have said that because of the alignment of the planets, we know the end is coming, and you had better get ready. We kind of smile and tolerate these prophets of the end times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also know about the Jehovah Witnesses and the Branch Davidians, cults that are just outside the limits of Christianity. This kind of apocalyptic thinking is found not only among Christians but also found in some Jewish groups and in Islam. This kind of apocalyptic thinking is about having the inside track, having a leg up. \u201cWe are the elite. We have an advantage. We\u2019re on the inside. We\u2019re in the know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Second and Third Centuries there was a kind of apocalyptic thinking called Gnosticism, having a spark of the divine, already knowing the mind of God. It\u2019s the greatest danger the church has faced in the 2,000 years of its existence. \u201cWe\u2019ll make it because we have the inside track, gnosis\/special knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two illustrations: In 1913 people were optimistic. Although there had been the great stock market crash of 1893-94, it was soon over. There was a saying from that time that you surely know: \u201cEvery day in every way we\u2019re getting better and better.\u201d In 1913 things were going well, and there were six great world empires. There was the Ottoman-Turkish Empire that had the whole Eastern end of the Mediterranean. There was the Russian Empire. The Austrian-Hungarian Empire which had the lower half of Central Europe. The German Empire which had the upper half of Central Europe. And then there were the French and the English Empires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five years later four of those empires had disappeared. The Ottoman-Turkish, the Austrian-Hungarian, the Russian, and the German. And the English and French empires were so weakened that they did not last another thirty years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The point is that in 1913 no one imagined that five years later there could have been such massive change. All the optimism about progress disappeared. These were the civilized nations. Who could imagine that this could happen in the nations that produced Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Shakespeare, Goethe, and Dante.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second illustration: In his ancient Greek tragedies Sophocles wrote about Nemesis.<\/em> The ancients knew that there was this madness in the human race that we think we can outmaneuver the tragedies of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again and again the Bible warns against our apocalyptic way of thinking. Mark 13:32: \u201cNo one knows the time of the end, not the angels, not even the Son, but only the Father.\u201d There are five places in the New Testament where it says that the end will come like a thief<\/strong> in the night:<\/p>\n\n\n\n