In the Last Days, it is inevitable that such devastation take place in order to vanquish the power of evil and erect the rule of good. In the midst of such wretchedness, God without fail will establish the center of the emerging good sovereignty in order to usher in a new age. Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus were among those whom God raised up as the central figures of their respective new eras. Today, at this historical transition period, we must find the person whom God has designated as the central figure of the new dispensation in order that we might participate in this new age and give honor to God’s wishes. The providence of the new age does not begin on the ashes of the old age. On the contrary, the new age sprouts and grows amidst the final phases of the old age and comes into conflict with that age. Accordingly, it is difficult for a person steeped in the old tradition to understand or accept the new providence. This is why the saints and sages leading the dispensation of a new age were often persecuted and martyred as victims of the old age. Jesus, for example, who inaugurated the New Testament Age, came at the close of the Old Testament Age in such a way as to bewilder the faithful adherents of the Mosaic Law. He was ostracized by the Jewish people and eventually crucified. This is why Jesus said, “New wine must be put into fresh wineskins” (Luke 5:38). Jesus is to come again at the close of the New Testament Age. He will give us the new truth with which to found a new age, signified by the Bible’s vision of a new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1-7). Just as Jesus at his first coming was derided by the Jews as one possessed by Beelzebul (Matt. 12:24), he will similarly be persecuted by the Christians when he comes again. Jesus therefore prophesied that at his Second Advent, “he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation” (Luke 17:25). At this historical transition period, those who are comfortably entrenched in the ways of the old age will surely face judgment, along with the old age. |