The "Day" at the end of the age

Here’s a question for your Thursday morning. What’s really going to happen at the end of the day? Not this day, necessarily, but “The Day.” You know, the Day at the end of the age.

As in, “Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near…” like the prophet Joel, and many others, warned (Joel 1:15). And where we read, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief…” (2 Peter 3:10).

So what is that “Day” and what’s going to happen then?

Let me illustrate it this way. Right now there are just two football teams left playing for the Vince Lombardi trophy. Go Chiefs!

At the end of the season, every team goes through various processes of evaluation. Successes, disappointments, expectations, performances. From the coaching staff to the players to the guy who mixes the Gatorade, all aspects of the team are judged. Sometimes players get re-signed with big bonuses. Sometimes coaches get canned. Sometimes Gatorade guy gets to move up to guy who holds the headphone cable for the coach so he doesn’t trip over it.

That’s the day. And the Day of which the Bible speaks will be a day of judgment.

It will be a day in which, “The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:41-43).

I read recently where Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said, “I don’t know how you can believe in a God who wants to condemn most of the planet to a fiery hell. What type of loving, sensitive, omnipresent, omnipotent being wants to condemn this beautiful creation to a fiery hell at the end of all this?”

If I could sit down with Aaron I would humbly explain to him that God has absolutely no desire to condemn anyone to hell. Yes, our sins separate us from a holy and righteous God, and because of our sin we deserve death. But God, who is rich in mercy and because of the great love with which He loved us, sent His Son on a rescue mission to save us from a fiery hell and bring us into His everlasting Kingdom.

I would have Aaron read Ephesians 2:1-10 and 2 Peter 3:9 and John 3:16-21. I would walk him through Romans 5:6-11 and more, to show him the wonders of God’s love and pray that he would repent of his sin and believe in Christ for salvation, for “whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, for the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36).

Aaron Rodgers probably wouldn’t give me the time of day, but if you’d like to talk to someone about such things, give me a call at 217-632-2488. The season will be over soon, and I want you to be ready for that Day.