Hope In A Hopeless World

Today’s world seems to be completely dysfunctional. Every time I turn on the news I don’t know about you, but I get disgusted. Depressed even. Shootings occurring just blocks from my house. Robberies and break-ins in my own neighborhood!

This past October someone went on a murder spree in a little town in the state of Maine. So sad and despicable. Did you know there has already been over 530 mass shootings this year in the US? A mass shooting is defined when more than three people are shot. Over 530!! In 10 months!

Then we have Hamas invading Israel

Israel responds and invades Gaza

Mass graves are found in Sudan

Of course, there is the ongoing war in Ukraine

China and the Philippines arguing over an island only 5 sq miles big.

Senseless! Endless death. Endless wars. Desperate famine growing over the earth.

I think it is time for a reset don’t you? Otherwise, things seem rather hopeless on this little blue marble in the galaxy. I believe the book of Revelation gives us some hope.

PRAYER

Revelation gives us so much information. Some off it may be distressful, some scary but, some is very hopeful to those of us weary from what we are living with today on earth.

This last of the 66 books of the Bible kind of brings us full circle. Back in Genesis we begin our journey in the Bible with an empty hole in space. Verse 1 of Genesis 1 starts with “in the beginning.” God creates earth, stars and the moon. Day and night is created. Followed by God forming the earth with mountains and seas, plants and animals and ends with man.

God then places man in the Garden of Eden and tells him that he, man, has dominion over all of earth. (Genesis 1:26, 28) The dominion God granted man included all creation and the earth itself. He also instructed man to be fruitful and multiply.

As we all know, man sinned and was kicked out of Eden. Eventually, Eden was removed from earth. However, God’s authority granted to man to have dominion was never rescinded. David mentions it in Psalms 8.

So, what has man done with that authority? He has domesticated many animals to be food or pets. He has tilled the soil to grow crops and gardens.

He has built villages, towns and cities.

He has developed commerce and art.

He has beautified and destroyed.

Plundered and exploited. In other words, man has done both useful things and ruined things.

Over the millennia’s that man has been on earth God has watched, walked, assisted and spoke with man. At the same time he has rejoiced and cried. But, one thing is certain God has never forgotten about man nor left man alone. Yet, Satan has continued his inexorable determination to separate man from God. While pursuing this course of action all of man’s activities and creative endeavors have been tinged with the corrupting influence of sin.

Over the centuries, man has built and created. Wonderful cities have been built. The Bible and historians have mentioned many such as;

Babylon

Jerusalem

Ninevah

Sodom

Athens

Rome.

All of these cities demonstrated the ingenuity and creativity of man. Yet, they have also come short of what man intended because of sin. Man has also taken the meaning God intended with the phrase to exercise ‘dominion’ over the earth by creating powerful political entities and empires such as:

Babylon

Persia

Greece

Rome. But, again each of these failed and interestingly, each empire was weaker than the empire before it. Just as Daniel told us would happen in Daniel 2.

In spite of all the bad and terrible things that have occurred over the millenia since God created man and breathed life into his nostrils, man still has been able to create beauty.

In what is often referred to as the ancient world we can see the beauty of architecture in the Pyramids on the plains outside Cairo, Egypt and the temples to Anubis in Luxor. Then there is the Parthenon in Greece. The Van Fortress in Turkey. Persepolis in Persia. All of these were constructed before Christ was crucified on the cross. With the exception of Persepolis, all are still standing.

In art man has also created beauty. There is the bust of Nefertiti in Egypt which was created over 1,300 years before Christ. The statue of Poseidon crafted in Greece 400 years before Christ. There is the Terracotta warriors of China which were created 300 years before Christ.

These are just some examples of the beauty man has created in ancient history.

During the Middle Ages man decided that beautiful architecture should be prominently displayed by the churches and cathedrals they entered to worship God. Some beautiful examples can be found in Duomo in Florence, Italy, St. Peter’s in Rome, Notre Dome in Paris, France and Westminster Abbey in London, England. Additionally, you have the Palace of Versailles in Paris.