When Christ Comes to Make All Things New

     Advent is more than a season of preparing for Jesus’s birthday party. Advent

is the season of preparation for his coming again: “Behold, I am coming soon;

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.” (Rev. 22:12).

     Many Christians are hoping for the promised second coming of Jesus Christ

----I’m one of them: Come quickly, Lord Jesus, we need you. Amen. 

     Yes, we wait for the Lord Jesus to one day return to us, to his Church and his

people, in fact, to all nations. He will come to make right all that has been wrong.

We are talking about the ultimate making-right of everything by God’s saving power. 

     Let the Bible describe these future events for us. At first, it may seem quite

scary: “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars----the roaring of

the sea and the waves.” (The Bible sees no reason to die of fright.) “But when these

signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption

is at hand.” (Luke 21: 25-28).

     “We will see the Son of Man coming upon a cloud with power and great glory.”

It will not be a time to shake in our boots, no. There is nothing to fear about God’s

coming among us to share the delights of his kingdom. We’ll welcome him with joy.

     God will begin by initiating a final judgement of Satan and his demons. This entails

the inbreaking of God’s kingdom and his massive struggle with diabolical opposition.

God will begin his full onslaught against Sin, Death, and the devil. Satan and his demons

will quake in fear. Almighty God will cancel their evil powers. And they will pack their bags

but find no place to go. No place for evil anymore. Good riddance!

     There will also be humans who prefer to travel in cahoots with the devil. These deluded

people seemingly choose to hangout in hell rather than in God’s holy temple. May

they come to their senses, we pray.

     Planet Earth is where human beings were created to thrive. This is our home.

When God comes (who is always with us but we cannot see him) he will make Earth his

permanent home. God’s people will live with him as adopted children, free to delight in

the joys of his household where grace and peace flow in abundance.

     But there is work needed to be done before our planet is ready to receive God’s paradise.

There will be a re-fashioning of everything and an urgent correction of all things gone wrong.

     We are told that God will not come to condemn but to make things right, to govern the

world with justice, and the peoples with fairness. (Psalm 98).

     God will reward his loved ones by sharing his divinity with them. Free to gaze on his

beauty and lounge in his temple, God’s holy family will live in complete happiness. (Psalm 27).

     “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth

had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem,

coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband;

and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “‘Behold, the dwelling of God is with

men (and women). He will dwell with them and they shall be his people, and God himself

shall be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more,

neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have

passed away.” (Rev.21: 1-4)

     So that we all might enjoy the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Jerry Wickenhauser    Godfrey    467-0384