The Clock is Ticking…

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Last week in London a Climate Click was unveiled and launched by King Charles III along with the London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

The clock will count down to the year 2030 when climate activists claim the world will be in serious trouble if we don’t reverse global warning by 1.5 degrees.

“The Climate Clock tells us what to do and by when. The Deadline and Lifelines on the Climate Clock make explicit the speed and scope of action that we must take to limit the worst climate impacts,” a spokesperson for London Climate Week wrote on social media.

“This powerful illustration of the scale of the climate emergency also reminds us there is still time to avert disaster,” said Nick Henry, CEO and Founder of Climate Action.

In the past few years, other Climate Clocks have been erected around the world including, Berlin, Paris and New York City, to remind us of the impending peril. Each group seems to have varying predictions of when the world will end, much like religious groups that have been predicting Christ’s return for centuries.

This reminds me, however, that there is another clock ticking that ought to concern us more than any climate clock. It’s God’s Divine clock that warns us that the world will indeed one day come to an end. And that we will meet the Lord in judgment.

By inspiration the apostle Peter put it this way.

8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,
12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?

When will this happen? What means will the Lord employ? How will He end the world?

The Bible doesn’t answer these questions. Jesus did say, however, when asked, “When will the end be?” That neither He nor the angels in heaven knew the day nor hour the Father had appointed to end the world (Mk. 13:32-33).

But no doubt the clock is ticking. God will not allow this world to last forever. Peter’s pronouncement is clear. The earth will be destroyed. “The elements will melt with fervent heat.” Global warning? Hmmm?

The clocking is ticking on the ungodliness of our generation. How long will the Lord allow it to continue? When you consider the sexual immorality, the disgusting perversion, the brutal violence, the prideful rejection of righteousness, the social injustice, the grasping greed, and man’s inhumanity to man along with his insolent attitude toward God, how long will He wait?

The clocking is ticking for the unrighteous to repent. For the unfaithful to return. For parents to train their children in the Lord. For Shepherds to watch out for the souls entrusted to their charge. For preachers to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ. And for churches to fulfill their scriptural mission and ministry.

The clock is ticking, but God doesn’t deal in time as we do. One day? A thousand years? He operates apart from the limitations of time and space. Jesus came to die for our sins “in the fullness of time” (Gal. 4:4). This means when the time was right. When the world was ready. When events in God’s providence called for Christ’s coming. The same will be true when the world ends.

The clock is ticking. One day the righteous will receive their eternal heavenly reward. And the wicked will suffer the penalty of everlasting punishment.

The clocking is ticking, but there is time for us to personally avert spiritual disaster. We have a Book, the Bible, which provides the answers. It tells us what to do. Where to turn. And how to live.

The clock is ticking…tick-tock…tick-tock…tick-tock…

—Ken Weliever, The Preacherman