How Long, O Lord?

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. (Philippians 1:21-23)

"Let them complain of the brevity of this earthly life whose portion is below, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame. They have all their hope in the things of this world. Beyond the horizon of the things of this present time, even the vision of their hope perishes. In the world they prosper. With the world they seek to be satisfied. To the world they cling with all their might. This world they dread to leave. For them the way through this world is all too brief. They may complain that time hastens on and that the end approaches too fast, but I will not.

...

The end of my days on the earth, although it is the end of much in this earthly house that is dear to me, is also the liberation from all that is a cause of grief to the inward man. It is the end of the body of this death, the end of the law of sin in my members that takes me captive, so that I do not what I would and often find myself doing that which I hate. It is the end of all my connection with the world that is crucified to me and I to it— the world with its glitter and vainglory, its temptations and persecutions, its boast of victory, and its prospering in iniquity. It is the end of my being exposed to the temptations of the devil and his host, the end of death and of the suffering of this present time, the end of the battle, and the end of all apparent defeat.

How many, then, are the days of thy servant, the days of battle and of the suffering of this present time?

I long for the end of them, for that end marks the beginning of everything for which my soul longs.

Beyond that end, I know and am persuaded, lies the glory of the eternal inheritance. There I expect perfection, freedom, life, victory, and glory. There I know that I will be in God’s tabernacle and see him face-to-face, as here I cannot see him . There I will respond with my whole being— body and soul, mind and will, heart and all my desires; eye and ear, mouth, hand, foot, and all my members— eternally, perfectly, in a heavenly fashion and on a heavenly plane, to that perfect vision of God. There I shall know even as I am known.

Beyond that end is the perfect being and fellowship with Christ and with his saints.

There is the incorruptible and undefilable inheritance that fades not away.

There I expect the new heavens and the new earth in which righteousness shall dwell.

How long, O Lord?"

(Herman Hoeksema, Ch. 14, How Long, Lord?, Peace for the Troubled Heart)

Some Eschatological Morsels from the "Avatar" Movie

Sure, Avatar reeked of pantheism, mysticism, gnosticism, and many of the stuff that makes the Emerging/Emergent "church" movement sickening. But there's this aspect of the movie that resonated with me, and perhaps even more so than for other people given that I am a lover of animals: it's the ability of the Na'vi to establish soul link-ups with the animals of Pandora by virtue of these tubular appendages that both of them possess. The movie portrayed the attempts of the Na'vi to "connect" with these creatures as life-threatening in most instances, but once the link is forged, the animal is their bondslave for life. The prospect of enjoying a Siberian Tiger in the same way appeals to me very much, and I don't think it would be stretching the text beyond its bounds to believe that it is a distinct possibility in the New Earth.

Think of the Earth as it is now, with all the sin, evil, destruction, disease, decay and chaos, purged pure by fire. It would still be recognizable as the Earth but, minus the Curse, the glories and wonders of God's creation could now be enjoyed fully by glorified man in what has become the New Earth. Indeed, Christ's life, death, and resurrection—the Gospel—accomplished much more than secure our right standing with God. It also negated the Curse that the Fall of Man brought upon the universe, as the wrath of God was propitiated by Christ's penal-substitutionary death, with the reality of this negation taking effect in the age of glory to come.

This coming age is physical, as Christ now is physical. There would be much work, but fruitful work, without the proverbial "thorns and thistles", as man now fulfills his destiny—forfeited by the first Adam but redeemed by the Second One—to rule the Earth under the Sovereign Lordship of Christ.

I want ten of them cats. Hehehehe.