Standing on The Edge of The Abyss

Today America quivers between two diametrically opposed points.  Will the Trumpian rebellion and its drive to exalt American sovereignty, power, and exceptionalism continue and pick up steam.  Or will the establishment return to unquestioned power and frog march masked and cowed citislaves to globalism, amnesty, socialized everything, reparations, and the Green New Deal?  According to the Democrats who identify as journalists and the Tech Giants who seek total control, most Americans want the latter while a radical fringe of 69 or 70 million people wants the former. 

Eventually the Supreme Court, often the arbiter of political reality in modern America, will probably make the decision.  An easy prediction is that no matter which side wins the other side will call the result illegitimate.  Here’s another easy prediction.  If Trump is victorious look for Biden’s supporters to grace us with riots, pillage, and plunder (I mean reparations).  If Biden wins look for Trump’s rabid supporters to go to work the next day.  They may do quite a bit of mumbling and complaining but they will go to work the next day like normal. 

If Trump wins and the Democrats retain the House, he will be impeached again in 2021 probably for winning.  If Biden wins look for executive orders to be flushed out of the Oval Office taking us back to the glory days of the Obama boom, strangulation by regulation, four dollar gas, mask mandates, and the corrupt media telling us how wonderful everything is now that Bad Orange Man is gone. 

Either way everything I’ve described above is merely a part of this world.   

The abyss I refer to in the title to this is not political, economic, or philosophical.  It’s something much more fundamental and real than any of those things, it’s spiritual.  Some people believe that reality consists only of what they can see, touch, or smell.  These people are of this world and their understanding is restricted to this world.  For, “the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”  Some even believe this world exists completely on a physical plain when those who believe the Bible know, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” 

While the news of the day may thrill us or make us wretch, we should realize it’s all confined to the here and now.  And all of these world-shaking events and heart stopping cliffhangers are just passing fancies, so much dust in the wind.  When we contemplate earthly things, we should be careful to keep them in perspective.  Here’s a historical riddle that may give some insight.  The largest empire ever created by man lasted for longer than the United States has so far.  It was still alive and strong when Columbus sailed off to the West.  I doubt if many people reading this can name that empire correctly.  It and all its glory have faded into the mist of History.  It’s easy for anyone with an historical perspective to believe that in six or seven hundred years the passions and nuances if not the events themselves of our tumultuous times will be long forgotten. 

Few Americans can name even one of their great-great-grand parents, though there were sixteen of them.  Most can’t name more than one or two of their great-grandparents though there were eight of them.  If they can, they might know a name.  Possibly even where they were born but what do they know of their lives?  The future slides into the present.  The present slides into the past.  Our lives are the history of the future.  And even in our own families the very sound of our names let alone the fabric of our lives dissolve into the mist of time in a few short generations. 

The here and now within this bubble we call the space-time continuum always has a definite beginning and a definite end.  There is nothing that last forever.  Nothing physical can.  Even stars that live for billions of years burn out.  Everything physical eventually wears out and dies. 

When we believe this is all there is, we tend to think we are the center of the universe.  This is easily explained since that’s the only physical perspective anyone can ever have.  However, if we live long enough, we come to realize that this world rolls around with little regard for us or our thoughts.  We slowly come to realize that we’re mere stagehands in this drama crawling across the stage of time.  If we could see the program, we’d realize we’re more like unwilling participants or paying customers than leading players.  Someone we never see writes the script and like self-aware marionettes we dance to the tune of whoever is pulling the strings. 

If that’s all there is … If that’s all there is … “If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing.  Let's break out the booze and have a ball.  If that's all there is.”   

I lived my life following that philosophy for thirty years.  And it led me to the emptiness of total despair.  Then I turned away from the darkness of self-absorbed materialism and into the marvelous light of Christ’s love.  I learned that the here and now is only here and now.  I learned that there’s an eternal God who lives outside this bubble, who created this bubble, and who keeps it in existence.  I also learned that He intervened in the senseless repetition of human history and made a way for us to have direct fellowship with Him.   

All we have to do is confess the Son He sent to live, die, and rise for us as the lord and leader of our life and believe in our heart God has raised Him from the dead and we will be saved.  We will enter into communion with Him and take our first step out of the here and now into eternity. 

Don’t let the temporary ups and downs of politics, economics, or anything else steal your peace.  Or as one song puts it: 

Keep your eyes on the prize.  Leave the world behind. 

And look to the One who really loves you. 

There’s no excuse for leaving the truth. 

Once you know Jesus is the One who loves you. 

By the way, the largest empire that ever existed was the Mongol Empire.  It strode across the stage like a colossus conquering all before it.  Then it crumbled into dust forgotten in the rushing stream of time like an earthquake whose massive signs of destruction have been erased by wind and waves. 

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, Global Studies, and Religion.  He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com  © 2020 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com   Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens or visit Dr. Owens Amazon Page / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens 

Excerpt: 

Few Americans can name even one of their great-great-grand parents. 

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Eternity, Dr. Robert Owens, Salvation, eternal life, life in Christ, what’s it all about