I. Introduction
II. Jubilee Jesus Savior of Planet Earth and its People
III. Jubilee Planet Earth Reconstituted
Figure 1. Humankind has big plans, is Jehovah God in the heart of those plans? Jehovah has some plans too…
This sermon is rooted in our “Jesus our Jubilee” study.
Jubilee planet earth? Not today, far from it. “Far from it” has always been the case spiritually down through the ages, but in recent times there is a sad, new twist. The governments of the so-called advanced countries of the earth recognize this new twist and have commissioned their space agencies to begin exploring the solar system for a new home for us all (Fig. 1). Why? The eco systems of the earth are in big trouble. When dead baby whales wash up on the shore with large quantities of plastic in their stomach it can hardly be otherwise that the earth’s most massive eco system is in big trouble. This can be corroborated in other ways besides the sore end of baby whales—there are waterways on earth that are clogged with plastic and human waste of all manner[1]. And as the oceans go, so will the land masses follow in due time[2]. The health of our oceans is a window to the physical health of our planet. So today not only is this planet a wreck spiritually owing to its anti-Jehovah God bent, it is duly a wreck physically[3]. And this is precisely what Scripture predicted would happen, but who would have imagined that the physical side would decline so rapidly from a seemingly healthy position not very long ago: assuming a relatively healthy planet physically at the beginning of the twentieth century, the physical side has gotten pretty sick in about one-hundred years or roughly one and one-half generations going by say a modern seventy-year generation (it is not the myriad particulars we emphasize here but the trend and especially the rate of decline, hence we use the imprecise term “pretty sick”). Plastic, for example, was invented in 1907 by L.H. Baekeland. But of course, as the spiritual side goes, so goes the physical side in due time, but given the rapid decline physically, one can only wonder if the spiritual side is leading this rapid physical decline due to its own exceedingly rapid decline in recent times. And while the spiritual side has been declining since Adam, the physical side cannot maintain its current rate of decline for even remotely the same amount of time as has elapsed since Adam. God has promised to redeem this earth physically (He has already done so spiritually: “A Letter of Invitation”), and maybe we are getting closer to that phase of God’s Program than we might imagine if for no other reason than the current rate of decline cannot be sustained much longer—can it be sustained for even another one-hundred years given the decline in the past one-hundred years? The consequences of this decline lend themselves well to the sort of end-time desperation we read about in the prophecy of Isaiah, the Gospel of Matthew, and in the Revelation prophecies—the perfect environment for antiChrist to seize control by showing himself ”a savior and a darling” and offering fake fixes and relief and whatnot (“Isaiah Chapter Twenty-four Commentary,” ”Matthew Chapter Twenty-four Commentary,” “Revelation Chapter Thirteen Commentary,” “Revelation Chapter Seventeen Commentary”). Satan and his crony antiChrist need really bad times to prevail so that they can rise to the occasion and pull off their mass deceptions and gain control of the world; it follows that things are not going to get better on this planet, they are only going to get worse, that is if God’s Word has any merit (which it does, of course). Our heart bleeds for the younger generations, for they will bear the brunt of this. We firmly believe that the near future (up until the Rapture) for planet earth is going to be very bad and get decidedly worse. The good news is that Jesus Christ will indeed stop the bleeding and proceed to regenerate this good earth of His with a holy people that have a disposition and spirit like unto His own (phase one of His Program, in progress) and He will regenerate the physical side with some new physics that we can’t wait to enjoy and learn (phase two of His Program which we realize at His second coming).
We are essentially faced with a spiritual problem that we must fix if we wish to save our planet—but it will not happen like that—the Word of God predicts this emphatically. But why? Because God intends to save our (His) planet and its people irrespective of any efforts, good or bad, on our part (it’s been largely bad so far anyway). One thing can be said with certainty—humankind will not mass-exodus off this planet to some new home in the solar system or elsewhere in the universe for that matter before Jesus Christ returns. Space exploration is just fine, no problem, but let us not count on that to save humankind. Either God’s Word is right here, or it is wrong and we eat these words. We foresee a better Banquet by the way (“The Fourth Cup”). Anyway, in the meantime, planet earth will spiral downward spiritually, and physically, until earth’s Savior reappears.
So why does He not intervene now? Because besides His people—a decided minority—largely nobody wants Him to. The answer is more Godless than that though—most moderns do not believe in the Savior Jesus Christ, that is, in Jubilee Jesus, and laugh at the notion of a Savior God. Such a notion is far beneath their erudite modernity (“Gospels Criticism 1”, “Gospels Criticism 2”). There are other reasons for His nonintervention of course. Humankind must learn that it is a failure apart from Jehovah God, which separation it prefers (which separation it requires in many instances these days). This preference (or requirement) is decidedly true in academia, ironically the very place that is supposed to teach us how not to be a failure by teaching us this practical thing and that and whatever (that unclean thing Satan likes to hoodwink folks like that). The sciences gave us plastic, but just look at the mess we have made of it (that is not science’s fault, we are not pointing a finger here). Nuclear fission is a source of energy, but that ended up being a deadly mess too. The point we wish to make is that Jehovah God should be intimately included in the affairs of humankind and that His rules should not be rewritten. And His nonintervention in the face of our painful failures is perhaps making the same point. No doubt He wants us to understand that we need Him and that apart from Him we are a failure. And so, when He does come and sets things back in order, no one can say to Him: ‘…we know better…’, or, ‘…we could have done better…’. To date the evidence says “uh-uh.” As it stands right now, we’ve wrecked His planet, and already are proceeding to litter the solar system. Not wanting to be outdone, or fall behind, everybody is sending their satellites everywhere to claim their stake, sort of like when ocean travel became possible, and recall how that mad race ended, as the haves (=knowledge, might, resources) squeezed out the have-nots, with not a little bloodletting along the way. Will it be any different with respect to this new frontier? Ah, but thus is the price of progress, right? Wrong: if you can’t do it right the first time, don’t do it, or better, follow the rules of the One who can do it right the first time and beyond and, importantly, is willing to explain and teach how to do it right, both physically (for example, we learned a lot through His servant James Clerk Maxwell, or say His environmentalists, or His social workers, and so on), and spiritually (His Word, His ministers, etc.). Clearly Jehovah God is not out of touch, it is just that large segments of humankind push Him out, which is the recipe for the sort of failures that must then be coped with in this decidedly anti-God, self-deified, modern age.
Jubilee is about the reinstatement and reconstitution of planet earth upon Jesus’ second coming, and Jesus’ coincidental millennial reign will be over a reconstituted earth that obeys new physical laws and over a redeemed and reconstituted people that will obey His Jubilee rules (yet there will be a falling away after the millennium [= short-memory, rule-rewriters—these too must learn that they are a failure apart from Jehovah God; the final estate of God’s Eternal Kingdom will not have any of these riff-raff failures in it, Revelation 20:7ff]). Jesus’ Jubilee is our Victory. Jubilee is Victory because of who is driving it. And when things get bad enough down here—and it will take just that—He will be welcomed with open arms and bowed knees, finally, as it should have been all along (Isaiah 45:23, Philippians 2:10). Too bad it took and will take so much failure and pain to recognize that.
Will Jesus reconstitute planet earth, or will He teach us how to reconstitute it (with His help) so that we can then maintain it aright according to His reconstitution guidelines? In other words, by having us do it, with His help, we better learn the lessons to maintain Jubilee planet earth aright going forward, ever cognizant of our negligent stewardship before, a negligent stewardship that corrupted an exceedingly good and excellent Creation. Either way, it is almost a given that He the Physicist and Mathematician and Engineer and Environmentalist and Social Worker extraordinaire, indeed He the Holy One will be doing most if not all the heavy lifting.
This study was motivated per our reading about a baby whale’s sore end due to its stomach being overloaded with plastic and other human waste. Too bad that happens, it just flat shouldn’t.
Much of this study addressed the decline on the physical side of things here on planet earth. It must be kept in mind that the physical side but follows the state of the spiritual side—it is always the case that the spiritual side leads, and the physical side follows.
In summary, we said that we are essentially faced with a spiritual problem that we must fix if we wish to save our planet but noted that, in the end, it will be Jehovah God who personally saves our (His) planet and its people. Some of the latter He has already saved and is saving and will save through our Savior Jesus Christ; we await the salvation of the former (the earth proper) and the blessed integration of the two. We said that until such time, planet earth will continue to be “out of sync” and accordingly will spiral downward spiritually, and physically, until earth’s Savior reappears.
We discussed God’s nonintervention presently and wondered why He does not intervene and offered that, besides His people, nobody wants Him to; in keeping with that, many do not believe in the Savior Jesus Christ, who is Jubilee Jesus (His first coming can certainly be understood as His direct intervention, so we must not overlook that). Moreover, continuing the nonintervention theme, we said that humankind must learn that it is a failure apart from Jehovah God, whom it willfully stiff-arms out of its affairs these days. We said that Jehovah God should be intimately included in all the affairs of humankind, and that His biblical rules should not be rewritten, and we thought that His nonintervention in the face of our painful failures is perhaps intended to bring sobriety here. We thought that God wants us to understand that we desperately need Him and that apart from Him we are not only a failure, but cannot survive, two facts we will hardly recognize much less acknowledge on our own, especially when the good times roll as it were.
We said that Jubilee is the reinstatement and reconstitution of planet earth upon Jesus’ second coming, and that Jesus’ coincidental millennial reign will be over a reconstituted earth that obeys new physical laws, and over a redeemed and reconstituted people that will obey His Jubilee Law. Notwithstanding, there will be one more defiant rule rewrite (=failure) that God allows after the magnificent millennial setting, for God proves humankind, even as He has hitherto, until by the evidence of their so-called handiwork all the failures expose themselves, even down through this end point in time, and are duly squeezed out of the Eternal Kingdom of God completely and forever, including and especially the biggest of all failures, Satan. Good riddance, all of them. With the removal of these willful failures, planet earth can finally become Jubilee Planet Earth and fulfill its role for God and humankind in the Eternal Kingdom of God on into eternity.
Finally, we wondered if Jesus will reconstitute planet earth or if somehow we will do it per His teaching and lead and certainly power, the motivation being that having us do it, or heavily involved here, with His help, we might better learn the lessons that maintain Jubilee planet earth aright going forward (and by association the rest of the physical universe), yet ever cognizant of our negligent stewardship before, which will stand in stark and dramatic contrast to our reconstituted earth. We thought that either way He will no doubt be doing most if not all the heavy lifting because only He can do this. He is the Creator after all.
Praised be your Name most efficacious and elegant and practical Jubilee Jesus, Holy Creator. Amen.
“A Letter of Invitation.”
Jesus, Amen.
< http://jesusamen.org/aletterofinvitation.html>
“Blue Letter Bible Study Tools.
Blue Letter Bible.
< http://blueletterbible.org >
“Isaiah Chapter Twenty-four Commentary.”
Jesus, Amen.
< http://jesusamen.org/commentaryisa24.html >
“Jesus our Jubilee.”
Jesus, Amen.
< http://jesusamen.org/jesusourjubilee.html >
“Matthew Chapter Twenty-four Commentary.”
Jesus, Amen.
< http://jesusamen.org/commentarymat24.html >
“Plastic.”
Wikipedia.
< https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic >
“Plastic Pollution.”
Wikipedia.
< https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_pollution >
“Revelation Chapter Thirteen.”
Jesus, Amen.
< http://jesusamen.org/commentaryrev13.html >
“Revelation Chapter Seventeen.”
Jesus, Amen.
< http://jesusamen.org/commentaryrev17.html >
“The Fourth Cup.”
Jesus, Amen.
< http://jesusamen.org/thefourthcup.html >
[1] We purposely do specify the geography and the data because this is a global problem for which, to various degrees, we are all responsible.
[2] Overpopulation of planet earth (exponential growth here) will only aggravate the problem and hasten the downward spiral on the physical side going by the trend heretofore by a smaller population. Our eco systems are the basis of our food chain but given weakened and polluted eco systems and a burgeoning population is a combination that is going to be problematic. We envision synthetically manufactured food, genetically modified food, and animal farming as normative at some point in time going forward. Humankind will defer to its sciences (not God) to stave off disaster. And rationing too, which is only going to heighten the tension in peoples, and we have already witnessed the attendant behavior of peoples in those societies that have gone through this tension—bloodshed and stealing and looting is bound to be the norm. This is the sort of environment that is perfect for antiChrist to show himself humankind’s “savior and darling.” And he will do it through humankind’s tech god.
[3] One need only mention the anti-God, self-deification sentiments of moderns as a case in point. Moderns have rewritten the rules—the rules of Jehovah God the Creator, Designer, and Engineer of physical things, and the Owner of consummate reality (=Truth), and not least have rewritten the rules of Jehovah God the Holy One (right here is the crux). That is the sort of folly that is bound to fold back on a brazenly defiant lawbreaking people and their environs.
Jesus, Amen