I like Commentary online magazine. It speaks to issues in ways I don’t usually encounter. From the current edition, the article “The New Rednecks” talks about the middle class.

“Rather than be catered to by the elites who seek to make their living off their tastes and wants, the middle class is more likely to hear the elite talk about it as a problem: Middle-class Americans are racist, they complain too much about how expensive everything has become, and they won’t get on board either with the left’s social-engineering schemes or the populist right’s rage-driven apocalypticism.” (Seth Mandel, https://www.commentary.org/seth-mandel/the-new-rednecks/)

A friend sent me a paragraph from theologian Jurgen Moltmann whom I haven’t read much since seminary days. He says,

“Resurrection is not a consoling opium, soothing us with the promise of a better world in the hereafter. It is the energy for a rebirth of this life. The hope doesn’t point to another world. It is…on the redemption of this one.”

The Evangelical Right (not necessarily the “populist right) wraps its apocalypticism around the Second Coming of Jesus and Jesus’ comments on conditions preceding that event. (Luke 21:5ff & Matthew 24.)

Response to Moltmann’s thought: We don’t have to choose between a “promise of a better world in the hereafter” and “on the redemption of this one.” When Jesus does return, we—today’s Followers—may be referred to as “the early church.”

I believe in the imminent return of Jesus. Imminent meaning He may return to rapture His people at any moment. We are to so live that we will be ready. But Jesus also reminded us to be about the Father’s business. My personal most respected prophets speak of Jesus return but speak also of a coming awakening/revival/personal evangelism and the power of the unleashed, revealed and declared Kingdom, Gospel, Good News.

A beloved brother responded to a message on what God is calling us to and what He is planning to do.

“That is a powerful, scary, sobering, hopeful message from Dutch Sheets! In light of shaking, and changes, what am I to do differently than I am now? Purpose? Actively wait on God? How does that manifest itself in my station in life right now?  It makes me wonder, evaluate, contemplate”.

Keeping Gary’s questions before us put us on God’s time-line and in His employ whether He returns day after tomorrow or in 1000 years.

©2024 D. Dean Benton

My ebook, “Carafe Conspiracy” is now available from Smashwords or where you get your ebooks;

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1537105