Then, the End

    When everything has run its predestined course, when time shall be no more, when this earth is dissolved in a ball of fire, the resurrection is past, and the judgment is over, we read, “Then cometh THE END!” The text might better be translated — “Then, the end!”
 
    Though creation has revolted against God and sin has marred his handiwork, though it appears that everything here is in utter chaos, though antichrist seems to reign among men without rival, though Babylon (the great whore of free-will, works religion) has made all the earth drunk with the wine of her fornications, there is a day coming called “the times of the restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:21).
 
    Though today all the world, all men, and all events appear to be set in direct opposition to Christ, there is a day coming called “the dispensation of the fulness of times,” in which the Lord God will “gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth; even in him” (Ephesians 1:10).
 
    Though all men by nature despise his rule, there is a day appointed by God, in the which “at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11).
 
    Though all men by nature are the enemies of God, though Satan and all the demons of hell oppose his purpose, though men and devils unite as one in thought, word, and deed to rob the triune God of his glory, in the end, through the blood of his cross, by our Lord Jesus Christ, almighty God shall “reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven” (Colossians 1:20).
 
    The Lord our God tells us exactly how things shall be in the end (Isaiah 45:20-25). In the end every creature in heaven, earth, and hell, every deed performed in God’s creation by men, angels, devils, and Satan himself, (Every deed!) great and small, good and evil, and every event of providence shall magnify, honor, exalt, and praise our great and glorious God.
 
    May God the Holy Spirit graciously turn our hearts and minds away from the cares and burdens, heartaches and sorrows, trials and temptations, difficulties and disappointments of this world of time and sense. It is my prayer that he will even take our hearts away from the pleasures, joys, and comforts of this world and this brief existence.
 
    Come, O Spirit of God, come! Set our hearts and minds upon “the end.” Teach us, O Holy Spirit of God, teach us to live for eternity! When everything that shall be has been, when everything that must be has come to pass, when all the will, purpose, desire and pleasure of the triune God has been perfectly accomplished and fulfilled in all things and by all things, “then,” the Scriptures declare, and not until then, “the end!”