What Is Going On?

Hopeful answers to three of life's pressing questions

When the world is strewn with the remnants of bombs, when spirituality slumps in a population, when people seem far from God, what is going on?

When the rulers of the world seem to be getting more and more dysfunctional, who is in charge?

When the current plot lines and characters on the world stage don’t make sense, how will this end?

By Cast of Thousands

What’s going on, who is in charge, how will this end—these three questions are not just practical or emotional. They are important theological and spiritual questions. One or more of them trouble us at any given moment in life. When these questions persist without answers, it is destabilizing to our worldviews, erodes a hopeful future, and torments our souls. Unanswered questions easily turn to hopelessness and despair. We lose confidence in God—even if only subconsciously. When confidence in God is gone, we lose our balance and can’t stand. If we can’t stand, we are unable to be present to life as God’s agents of repair.

So let’s consider how to answer these three questions.

1. What is going on? God in his love, mercy, and wisdom has, temporarily, allowed rival kingdoms to exist on the earth. This explains the good of God’s kingdom expressed every day through the universal Church, and deeds of evil animated by the kingdom of darkness. This spiritual warfare causes all the ups and downs of human history. It can make life seem random—and make us wonder…

2. Who is in charge? An accurate and settling theological worldview reminds us that humanity is not a human project. Humanity is God’s project, and as Dallas Willard used to say, God has not abandoned it. The goodness innate in the Triune God will one day spill over onto the entirety of the world and time, and God’s project in creation will make sense. Our questions will be answered. Knowing who is in charge informs and empowers assurance of…

3. How will this end? Human history ends in the strong, secure, faithful hands of Jesus, the world's one true Messiah and Lord. John’s vision puts it this way:

Don’t weep. Look—the Lion from Tribe Judah, the Root of David’s Tree, has conquered. He can open the scroll [of human history], can rip through the seven seals [revealing the final will of God].

Revelation 5:5, MSG

When we see this and come to believe it, we join in the constant worship of heaven:

Worthy! Take the scroll, open its seals.
Slain! Paying in blood, you bought men and women,
Bought them back from all over the earth,
Bought them back for God.
Then you made them a Kingdom, Priests for our God,
Priest-kings to rule over the earth.

The slain Lamb is worthy!
Take the power, the wealth, the wisdom, the strength!
Take the honor, the glory, the blessing!

To the One on the Throne! To the Lamb!
The blessing, the honor, the glory, the strength,
For age after age after age.

From Revelation 5, MSG

To sum it all up, the world is moving to the fulfillment of God’s appointed purposes. God is in charge. This all ends in the new heaven and new earth.

In the Meantime

Be assured of God’s patience with you in the ups and downs of your faith, cherishing in your heart that he is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love (Psalm 103:8).

Be encouraged by the Apostle John, who, naming the fact that the world is full of false teachers and evil rulers, encourages his readers to remember that the Spirit in you is far stronger than anything in the world (1 John 4:4, MSG).

I don’t know if God uses slang, but if he did, he might encourage us:

I’ve got you. I’ve got this.