a reply to:
muzzleflash
Here is a quote from Jesus:
"The downfall of nations, the crash of empires, the destruction of the unbelieving Jews, the end of an age, even the end of the world, what have these
things to do with one who believes this gospel, and who has hid his life in the surety of the eternal kingdom? You who are God-knowing and
gospel-believing have already received the assurances of eternal life. Since your lives have been lived in the spirit and for the Father, nothing can
be of serious concern to you. Kingdom builders, the accredited citizens of the heavenly worlds, are not to be disturbed by temporal upheavals or
perturbed by terrestrial cataclysms. What does it matter to you who believe this gospel of the kingdom if nations overturn, the age ends, or all
things visible crash, since you know that your life is the gift of the Son, and that it is eternally secure in the Father? Having lived the temporal
life by faith and having yielded the fruits of the spirit as the righteousness of loving service for your fellows, you can confidently look forward to
the next step in the eternal career with the same survival faith that has carried you through your first and earthly adventure in sonship with
God."
Some other things to consider.
The uncertainties of life and the vicissitudes of existence do not in any manner contradict the concept of the universal sovereignty of God. All
evolutionary creature life is beset by certain inevitabilities. Consider the following:
1. Is courage—strength of character—desirable? Then must man be reared in an environment which necessitates grappling with hardships and reacting
to disappointments.
2. Is altruism—service of one’s fellows—desirable? Then must life experience provide for encountering situations of social inequality.
3. Is hope—the grandeur of trust—desirable? Then human existence must constantly be confronted with insecurities and recurrent uncertainties.
4. Is faith—the supreme assertion of human thought—desirable? Then must the mind of man find itself in that troublesome predicament where it ever
knows less than it can believe.
5. Is the love of truth and the willingness to go wherever it leads, desirable? Then must man grow up in a world where error is present and falsehood
always possible.
6. Is idealism—the approaching concept of the divine—desirable? Then must man struggle in an environment of relative goodness and beauty,
surroundings stimulative of the irrepressible reach for better things.
7. Is loyalty—devotion to highest duty—desirable? Then must man carry on amid the possibilities of betrayal and desertion. The valor of devotion
to duty consists in the implied danger of default.
8. Is unselfishness—the spirit of self-forgetfulness—desirable? Then must mortal man live face to face with the incessant clamoring of an
inescapable self for recognition and honor. Man could not dynamically choose the divine life if there were no self-life to forsake. Man could never
lay saving hold on righteousness if there were no potential evil to exalt and differentiate the good by contrast.
9. Is pleasure—the satisfaction of happiness—desirable? Then must man live in a world where the alternative of pain and the likelihood of
suffering are ever-present experiential possibilities.