While creative thought without ground, seeks to replace creation, without having the power to do it or mime it or mimic it, or achieve anything to the point, being endlessly testified itself to be quite simply the PRODUCT of creative power, but is so heady as to seek to become its FOCUS, there is a conglomeration of abysses and extremities which lies on the road of this race, which it eminently deserves.

Such is the abyss into which the flighty thoughts of man, followed by their thinkers, fall, such a wound in the earth to which they consign themselves, that a TIME OF CRUX COMES. In history, it happens with all but monotonous regularity. You ask for it - rebuke, overturning of false aspiration, the take-over of reality from empty pride, correction by fact when mere fiction appeals; and it may seem for a time as if the Power above does not look; but then THE TIME COMES.

	The death of Alexander the Great, in the toils of banqueting; or
	that of Hitler in the groins of the earth, a bunker at Berlin by his own hand or will;
	the overthrow of Mussolini in torturous manner;
	the vulnerable death of a Stalin;
	the humiliation of the Kaiser;
	the breach of the empire of Napoleon, so that he can disport himself more and more clumsily on horseback, while being poisoned ever so slowly with arsenic by his friends, a captive on an island;
	the literal bankruptcy of Communism in the USSR; or even, far earlier,
	the invasion of a Europe dallying with the papacy, a thing clearly visible from Julius as early as 341 A.D. and slowly but intractably developing*1: it came with a violent thrust that did not linger, moving by the scimitars and subduings of Islam, with a merciful escape from such a doom,  at the Battle of Tours in 732 A.D.;
	the decimation of Islamic power at the end of World War I;
	the bondage to debt of the generous USA, so helpful as to assist some of the enemies of righteousness such as Hussein of Iraq, before having to go to enormous lengths to remove his power  ...

it has come and gone. The scene moves; the principles remain.

What does not go, is not right,  tends always to come to a TIME WHEN IT commences to go rather than come; and often its passing is a memory, little disturbed by review, a pile in the sand like Nineveh, or a listless ruin as Babylon became, to shock the millenia in its blight.

In this world, this process is partial, since God has appointed times for the nations and their 'experiments' in philosophy, politics, morals and seeking Him, as pulses of power and retribution, folly and repentance are at work variously (Acts 17:26-27). Yet the ashes of folly remain to be seen by the eyes that search, the archeological exhibits of the dynamisms of human history. The aspirations of man, now to folly, now for wisdom, come and go like so many sea breezes, or squalls, or typhoons as the case may be.

Man is taken suddenly, and goes like a braying ass; realises and repents and comes like a cooing dove; makes new Leagues, United Nations, things of moral seeming, teeming with contrivance and moving without morality, merely mouthing preferences and applying them with powers that be, voting and disputing, while token service is given to truth, and truth lies stricken (^*2).

Judgment has shown its face; but in time, it will show its hand. Such is the biblical depiction (Acts 17:30), and it will come to the point of finale. In the end, the Degree of Advanced Torture and the Diploma of False Nurture has its result. The students are taken on at the end, to the real university of learning, at the judgment for all their complicated considerations, which have all but always, left out God, and plodded on with a singular disregard of need, while feeding the feeling for this extreme or that, from Rousseau to Hegel, from Schools of Authority to Spock, the latter leading to the Spock Shock, when he announced the unsatisfactory character of the fruit of the lavish freedoms from discipline which he had so ably advocated that many followed to their shame.

It is not however discipline alone, which can be a blithe butchery, nor is it liberty alone, a fastidious indulgence at times in education, allowing freedom to be a prison which dispels the knowledge which would make it productive: it is rather  truth which must be sought with zeal, and liberty to differ which must be allowed where reason is presented. It must be possible, without ethical breach or adverse report, to exercise what is needed. That, not least,  requires the liberty to displace the words of lecturer and professor, without account rendered at the hands of pride; or to have the thoughts of students displaced with reason, and not by fashion.

ONE class in Sydney University had a teacher who insisted on evolution^*3 as an alternative to jumping in the lake; and one seminary in Melbourne, had a professor who assumed we were all Barthians. So does fashion seek to fashion minds, and folly seek to replace logic with laughter, or reality with conformity.

But the time comes. So many of the philosophies and theologies of man have been so famous in their day, and such lost causes after it, mere flatulence of ideation, that one has to wonder why the fanfare proceeds, and people do not adhere to the Bible quite simply, master of millenia, never rebutted, its explanation unexceptionable^*4, source of verifiable prediction multitudinous, diagnosis extraordinary, with remedy attached. But this is too banal for the electric eclectics, who must have something new, novel, different, divergent. It exhibits, itself, the reasons for the rejection of Him who gave it (Romans 1:17ff., Ephesians 4, Isaiah 41, 48, Matthew 13). The rape of life, the theft of the cosmos, the imprisonment of vitality, the subduction of the spirit of man, these appeal to the spiritually licentious, to the devil, to his allies, and to the varied means of giving them ostensible legitimacy.

Thus does the fruit of liberty become the object of lust, and the wonder of opportunity become the subject of sensationalism, so that fame is wrought or bought by innovations without substance, destined for the dust, but given the glitter for the moment of wealth; for as Peter declared, from your own midst there will arise false teachers with doctrines utterly to be condemned, and they will make MERCHANDISE of many. As Christ exhibited, false christs as well as false prophets would come, the media of sin, the buccaneers of shame, the shanghai-gangs of a slavery that is worse than the physical.

Make merchandise ? They do. What was done to the bodies of slaves, in hideous self-indulgence, is done to the spirit of man with nothing less, and many fall, marshalled by the devil like a roaring lion; but after all, he is one to be resisted and not given the pleasure of subversion by subterfuge at which he excels.

The time has come with so many christs and godlets, sects and diversions, ludicrous misuses of the just fame of Jesus Christ to make divisions and revisions, exploiting His holiness for the sake of notoriety, that while the compliment of such continual use of HIS NAME is vast, the ship's complement of the Church of Christ is dwarfed in size by the pirate ships that plunder the truth and sell it. They then name their vessels, often enough, with HIS NAME, nautical pretenders, seeking oil.

The time does come; it is coming very fast, the ultimate come-uppance of pretence, the final confrontation with pretension, the confrontation of fiction by truth, of faction by reality. There comes the scaring of the scarred soul of man by what HE IS DOING with this world, and looks likely to do, and the bluster that follows making much sound as empty things tend to do when stricken.

The timeliness of the coming of the time for assessment, the end of the historic (rather than merely the academic) year is near. The endeavours to rid Jerusalem of Jewish control is one of the desperado moves of our present day, for it is clearly written that WHEN Jerusalem comes once more under the control of Israel, THEN the times of the other nations, the Gentiles, is fulfilled. The time is now near when writers must put up their quills, and have their works assessed; and those who write in the dust of time have their drawings characterised once and for all.

Now look at the USA with the pedal on the accelerator for Islamic acceptance, on the pedal for Jerusalem's division, as that formerly great American nation is brought into subjection to this world's more ordinary powers, and polluted pre-occupations. Look at Russia, with its foot on the pedal of pride, blustering about military means to collect its self-defined parts of the Arctic, turning off and on Europe's gas, and sending bombers near to the sea borders of Britain, expressly imitating the times of the Cold War, having not done so brightly there, and seeking new fields to conquer.

Indeed, regard North Korea, adjudged to have failed in its recent missile test, but not lacking in highwayman belligerence, whether for panache or for food, as the case may be. Men are treating life as an thing of indifference, truth as mere name for what is convenient more and more, till the TIME COMES. It always does. Payment please! and then there comes what will make all of this world's past payments seem small: JUDGMENT ACCORDING TO TRUTH (Romans 2:1ff.).

It is a joy to the Christian, then,  to have it all over. It is a triumph at that time to see it finished;  for the victory of truth is permanent, accomplished when Jesus Christ once and for all completed the prophetically required, detailed specifications which formed His identikit, and showing Himself deity, overcame disease, death and delusion on the part of many. Sustaining the truth by His inability to be made into a corrupting corpse, He gave notice to this world both of His tender willingness for salvation for any (Luke 19:42ff., John 6:37), and His absolute power to exact judgment on those for whom mercy is but weakness, and meekness is but failure.

 

OVERVIEW

 

Today we are simultaneously looking at an Old Testament and a New Testament dénouement. Things had long been preparing. NOW there is to be NO MORE DELAY. The code is clear, the path is sure, the eye is not dimmed, the damage is done or about to be done. Now,  the results come!

We will find this situation of impending action, final result, both in Ezekiel in the Old Testament and in John in the New.

It is rather like the situation for Japan in 1945. The war in Europe was OVER. The scape-goat in Hitler was finished. The lack of metal for building war engines was terminal. The advance on Japan was happening. Desperation was on all sides; impositions had occurred, more to come, the homeland once the base and basis for absurd and unholy expansionist pretensions linked to a religion without warrant, using the name of God, was now the focus for wrath. A plane took off, and judgment followed. It was fearful. There was NO MORE DELAY.

It had been asked for (judgment, not this particular one necessarily) and it came. They had sown the wind (Hosea 8:7), and now they were to reap the whirl-wind.

This is not to singularise Japan. Germany did the same and so did Russia with its absurd Communist take-over, where idle dreams preceded what did not delay: abuse by famine to subdue a people, abuse by slave labour in Siberia, in some ways to match Belsen and Auschwitz; but this Russia directed against her own people the 'motherland' practising such atrocities.

All have suffered. Is it possible that NONE will learn ? Not all fall; but certainly the world as a whole WILL not learn as Revelation 19:19 shows most clearly. The next result then is for this world which, after some interims, itself will in fact go (II Peter 3)! So much for those who use it, rely on it, bandy with it, bond with it or beautify it in their imaginations, ignoring the heart.

It will with its leader,  deploy false religions this coming time on an INTERNATIONAL scale, planning to to RUN THINGS overall, while running many into the ground in the process. Its leader, the devil (John 14:30ff.) isn't so nice, but very popular, though like many, he does not normally appear direct, but uses sometimes charming adjutants (II Corinthians 11), human faces for his inhumane labours. 

There comes a time when there is no more delay. The fruit is ripe for the picking, or for the plight of rejection.

 

THERE WILL BE NO MORE DELAY

 

1) Old Testament

Such was the message of Ezekiel 12:25. The people had become cocky - or if you prefer, rather sated with themselves, wise in their own eyes,  secure in their opinions and moves. Though they had already suffered much in the way of military invasions from other nations, they did not repent. Indeed they were criticising the prophetic task force of God, in particular here Ezekiel, cheekily jibing about the proverbs, the indefinite sort of language he was deemed to be using.

What about it ? they were saying. Let's be clear: you and your proverbs. It’s all way away from now.

The reason for the procedure of review, reflection,  appeal and exhortation such as you see in Jeremiah 1-17, and the imaginative use of dramatic signals, symbols and illustrations and warning by Ezekiel (as in Chs. 4-10) was clear. Indeed, it was dual. Firstly, God being pitiful, was warning the people by various impactive methods (just as Christ used parables because of the hardness of their hearts - Matthew 13). With Jeremiah, these had included categorical offers and appeals (as in Jeremiah 17), but in Ezekiel the focus was devastating, although the method still used colourful, if baneful, imagery to warn and to grip.

They had been told that "the day is near" for devastation (Ezekiel 7); but the people preferred to concentrate, it seems, on the figures used and the imaginative language with its pathos, in order to pretend that the simple, final, factual basis was in some doubt or distance of an uncertain kind. Very well. In Ezekiel 12:25 the message hits that proclivity where, instead of repenting and seeking mercy (as Hezekiah successfully did as shown in Isaiah 37), the people kept up their pert and perky attitude, as you see sometimes in fallen former churches, where impudence is added to decline, with the result of dis-appointment, or if you prefer imagery, having the 'candlestick' on which they shine forth with light REMOVED by God , leaving them a dump house (cf. Revelation 2:5).

In Ezekiel 12, we find this interplay between people and prophet, the latter from the mouth of God giving response. The people: "The days are prolonged and every vision fails!" This is expressed as a witty or wise saying, and the idea is that, ONE AND ALL, the prophets are getting nowhere while disaster creeps. This is so like the present in this land and many another, where the idea is that religion is getting nowhere as far as God is concerned, so we might just as well wed various confused notations and religious nibbles, even if they contradict each other on a total scale, and make some mystic, pseudo-moral, quasi-worshipful sort of authority or other, so that we can live a bit longer in some sort of peace on this earth with some sort of religion.

In fact, as ALWAYS and with sickening consistency (for judgment does not normally make well!), the judgments of God and the mercies had come precisely as commanded, and people like Joseph and Daniel, not to say Moses and Isaiah, had predicted what would be with an accuracy so amazing that it was stunning, shots as from a stun gun being accurate, and remissions with passion, being received as the Lord relented from time to time and gave encouragement to them to return (as seen for example in Ezekiel 20 in the long parable, and Psalm 78 in the panoramic coverage of their earlier history).

On the other hand, false prophets were continually trying to make life easy and gain importance for themselves, by inventing messages from their own minds, more appealing to a rebellious people (as in Jeremiah 20, 23, Ezekiel 11). The divine response was layered in several time sites, one very early and personal, others in what soon followed and yet more to cover the distant future.

There had been centuries with various revivals, but now the Lord met their mocking catcalls about uncertain times and delays like this (Ezekiel 12:25): "For I am the Lord, I speak and the word which I speak will come to pass; it will no more be postponed; for in your days, O rebellious hose, I will say the word and perform it," says the Lord God." Did they mock, saying "The vision that he sees is for many days from now; and he prophesies of times far off" ? Then the Lord answers thus: " 'None of My words will be postponed any more, but the word which I speak will be done," says the Lord God.' "

Then of course there came such devastations by enemy powers as to make to the thoughtful, all the modes and delays and appeals and imagery, exhortations and meditations very worth-while. If a city is to be destroyed, a temple ruined, people to be taken into exile, distress to be multiplied by the severities of this world when the Lord withdraws His protection after centuries of appeal and desire to prevent or even annul judgment: then all the 'delay' that went before is MOST understandable. Mercy does not mock judgment; it seeks to intervene. When its place is fulfilled to the uttermost, then judgment likewise can come, to the uttermost. It is time to listen! THIS WORLD will not listen, but it is time for any in it, still with it, to listen and divorce from its mockeries, and find the Lord while time is held open (cf. II Corinthians 6:2). Long ? rather, but not for ever! Look then at II Peter 3:9.