This is now the big question! Who can redeem the world? Who can liberate it? Who can set mankind free? Who is able to bring the earth and humanity back to their rightful owner? Who can take up in his hands the history of the world in such a way as to ensure a happy ending? It is remarkable that the content of the scroll is never mentioned again in the Book of Revelation. It is very obvious when the scroll has been openend it will be unrolled until the very end. It is about the world and mankind and what will happen to them, and it contains the counsel of God with its ‘outside and inside’ aspects. He has started the process to move history forward now. Towards His goal. And His goal is the coming of His Kingdom and the Coming of the King of that Kingdom, Who is no other that Jesus Christ, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and the Messiah of Israel.
But to start that process, the scroll must be opened. But who can do it? The opening of the scroll, the breaking of the seven seals, is what must happen first. Who is able to do this? Who can start the process? Is there indeed anyone who can open the scroll? Anyone who can break the seals? Or will history remain to be a great, meaningless and goalless ‘joke’, as some say? It is remarkable that the question as to the reason of history remains unanswered in our age. The question is not even put on the table anymore. People say: Who can still believe in a meaningful purpose in history, in divine direction, in the involvement of a ‘God’ and His involvement as a ‘Person’ after two World Wars and Auschwitz? Did evolutionary science not prove and establish as a fact in our days that ‘blind’ arbitrary forces of nature, matter, chance and time, are steering the ‘blind’ processes of evolution forward up to now? But it is up to man now, to lead these blind forces of evolution forward, by the means of science and technology, they say.
How many people, in just the 19th and 20th century, have presented themselves as great leaders who would guide humanity towards a splendid goal, a paradise on earth? Individuals like Karl Marx, Lenin, Hitler and Mao-tse-Tung, along with many others? Driven by right-wing and left-wing and middle-of-the-road ideologies with humanistic ideas and ideals? Through democracy and/or dictatorship? However, their versions of ‘paradise’ and revolutions all ended in bloodbaths and ruin, rivers of blood of millions of people. Look at the French Revolution, or the Communist Revolution, or the Fascist Revolution, for instance.
But what to do today? How should we then live? How about your personal life? What decisions should you make? Which way to go now? How do you know that you will be alright if you someday have to choose to go to the left or to the right? Or should I try to keep a middle of the road course? The Lord says in His Word: “How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to Your word. I seek You with all my heart; do not let me stray from Your Commands. I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.” Psalm 119: 9-11. And Deuteronomy 17: 17 says – speaking about the priests educating the people of Israel how to walk according to God’s Commandments: “Act according to whatever they teach you and the decisions they give you. Do not turn aside from what they tell you, to the right or to the left.” And about the king of Israel it is said in verses 18-20: “When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this Law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this Law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the Law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.”
Who is worthy to open the scroll and to break its seals? Everyone in Heaven holds his breath. Who has the wisdom and the power to do so? Is there anyone? The four living creatures perhaps? Can the powers and the wisdom to lead the process of world history forward be found in Creation itself? Is pantheism or panentheism correct in attributing to matter itself an indwelling, directive, divine power and wisdom? Like for instance in Hinduism? Is everyone a ‘god’, ‘divine’ in the depths of their thoughts? The answer is no.
But then, perhaps, one of the angelic princes, one of the archangels—who indeed wear crowns—possesses enough intelligence, wisdom and power to do it? No, their crowns are tied to the throne and to Him who sits upon it; they possess no wisdom or power in themselves. But there must be Someone who can do it! If not, things will go one forever, and history will go on in circles! Yet, He, the Lord God that sits upon the throne, does not do it. He does indeed hold the scroll in His right hand. And He makes it clear that it is His will that the scroll be taken and opened. History must achieve its goal. This is not a blind process. But who will, and can, and may do it? Heaven holds its breath! John as well! And we—human beings and the world—with him too.
• Since the Renaissance many philosophers have been rejecting the Christian view of history, the Christian vision of the world as being created by God and that the origin of life is divine.
• By rejecting God the history of the earth and the Universe became a problem for them until the theory of evolution came along, with its rational optimistic perspective that things would get better and better. This theory claims that we are on the way up, and we are getting there by ourselves. We will automatically end up in paradise!
• Karl Marx thought to achieve this end would require a few revolutionary shockwaves. He even wanted to dedicate his book ‘Das Kapital’, the ‘bible’ of communism, to Darwin! And the German philosopher Nietzsche suggested that we would become a world of ‘Ubermenschen’, super-humans.
• Hitler – who admired Darwin and Nietzsche very much – set to work this out ‘scientifically’ and for that purpose he carried out horrific ‘medical’ experiments to fulfil the dream. These evolutionary ideas sometimes even became a motivation behind modern genetic research.
• Today rationalistic optimism has given way to deep pessimism in our time. Seeking for a purpose to history is pointless, say modern philosophers.
Bible References:
1.NIV
