The framework of this post comes from a book titled, “The Timetables of History”, by Bernard Grun, published by Simon and Schuster. Some of this framework has been fleshed out to help the reader understand the content easier.
The above book quotes Henry David Thoreau (whom they refer to as an American philosopher-idler) as saying: “Time is but the stream I go fishing in.”
But time is a precious gift and is not a place for fishing or constant idle thought, but for use with the knowledge that we all have but a limited amount of it.
“Lord make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You; certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Selah [pause and consider]. Surely every man walks about like a shadow; surely they busy themselves in vain; he heaps up riches, and does not know who will gather them. And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You.” Psalm 39:4-7.
Time is like a small island in the endless sea of eternity. Men and women are born on one end of this island and they journey to the other end. And when they reach the far shore, they do not turn back; they step into the sea of eternity.
The German philosopher Nietzsche (1844-1900) had a concept of what he called ubermensch, or superman. The ubermensch was someone who lived in a world where, in Nietzsche’s opinion, God was dead; so dead in fact that He never existed.
The ubermensch is one who would live life as he pleased and when it came to an end he would step fearlessly into the abyss. There is a reason men should fear the abyss.
The Zen Buddhist have said, “Man enters the water and he leaves no ripple.” I believe that there is a great deal of truth to this truly frightening statement.
When those who reject Christ, the ubermensch, the dictator, tycoon, hedonist, cowardly, lazy, idolater, or those who disdain God enter the sea of eternity they will leave no ripple.
The pyramids, the bridges, skyscrapers, statues, the riches amassed along with those who built or accrued them will all pass away and be remembered no more.
The acts of men like sadism, rape, pedophilia, murder, torture, Islamic terrorism, liberal politics, socialism, communism, genocide, abortion, Planned Parenthood, and organ harvesting by murder, will be forgotten, and their effects nullified for those in Christ when the island of time is no more.
But the full weight of these acts and their eternal remembrance will be upon the shoulders of those thrown into the lake of fire along with Satan and his fallen angels on judgment day.
“And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment…” Hebrews 9:27.
There is no reincarnation, no do-overs, and no second chance to change one’s mind after death.
Each of us wakes up with 86,400 seconds a day, when they are gone, they are gone, and they slip by unnoticed by those who are not determined to make the best use of their time. The devil and his angels will make sure of that.
“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’” James 4:13-15.
As for the Christian, remember this, time, this lifetime, is the only time in all of eternity when you can serve the Lord by faith. Once we set eyes on God in glory the things we do will no longer be by faith, but by sight.
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6.
When you, Christian, wake up in the morning with your 86,400 seconds ahead of you, how will you spend them?
What has occurred in the approximately 31,536,000 seconds of the year 2018? What will occur in the next 31,536,000 seconds to come in 2019? What has happened in the past 600 years?
1415: Henry V (1387-1422) sailed to France and took Harfleur and went on to defeat the French at Agincourt.
Pope John XXIII (1370-1419) was deposed and called the Antipope because he opposed the Pope the Catholic Church would recognize as Martin V in 1417. These were turbulent times for the Catholic Church with too many things going on to go into here. Pope John was eventually tried for heresy, simony, schism, and immorality. The Vicar of Christ was accused of, but not tried for, piracy, rape, sodomy, murder, and incest. He was imprisoned for several months, released and imprisoned again in Germany, ransomed from prison, moved to Florence, where he died a few months later.
Jan Hus (1369-1415), a Czech priest and early Christian reformer, was tried for heresy against the doctrine of the Catholic Church and burned at the stake.
1416: Jerome of Prague (1379-1416), a follower of Hus was burned at the stake for heresy after he went before the Council of Constance in defense of Jan Hus. Both men were treated in the most treacherous and despicable manner possible.
1515: Anglo-French Peace Treaty signed.
Selim I, sultan of Turkey, conquered eastern Anatolia, and Kurdistan. Eastern Anatolia now makes up the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey. And Kurdistan is part of eastern and southeastern Turkey and is known by the Kurds as northern Kurdistan. The other three parts are known as western Kurdistan located in northern Syria, southern Kurdistan located in northern Iraq, and eastern Kurdistan located in northwestern Iran. The Kurds are descendants of the Medes mentioned in the Bible.
1516: Selim I, defeated Egyptian forces near Aleppo and annexed Syria. Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth. It is also within a few miles of the Turkish border.
Treaty of Freiburg pledged perpetual peace between France and the Swiss. Treaty remained in effect until the French Revolution of 1789.
Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) published the New Testament with Greek and Latin text.
1615: Lady Arabella Stuart (1575-1615) great great granddaughter of Henry VII of England married without the approval of King James VI. She was eventually sent to the Tower of London where she refused to eat, became ill and died there. Quite a bit of this story has been omitted for brevities sake.
England defeats the Portuguese off the coast of Bombay.
Dutch seize the Moluccas from the Portuguese. The Moluccas are a collection of islands in Indonesia, just west of New Guinea.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) who has been called the father of science faced the Inquisition for the first time for saying that the earth circled the sun. It was found that this could only be supported as a possibility not as a fact.
1616: Tartars of Manchu invaded China, lasted until 1620.
War between Venice and Austria.
Catholic oppression intensified in Bohemia, birthplace of both Jan Hus and Jerome of Prague.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) whose wife’s name by the way was Anne Hathaway, died on April 23, 1616.
Galileo Galilei after writing a book defending his work which was mistaken for a criticism of Pope Urban VIII is tried by the Inquisition and found to be “vehemently suspect of heresy”. He was forced to recant, prohibited from further scientific work, and placed under house arrest, which lasted for the rest of his life.
1715: the first Parliament of King George I opened.
Mir Abdullah became ruler in Afghan province of Kandahar.
British mathematician Brook Taylor (1685-1731) invented the calculus of finite differences
1716: Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI (1685-1740), King of Bohemia, King of Hungary and Croatia, King of Serbia etc. declared war on Turkey, winning the Austro-Turkish war 1716-1718.
Russia’s Peter the Great visited Europe for the second time.
Christian religious teaching is prohibited in China.
1815: United States defeated the British at the Battle of New Orleans.
Wellington and Blucher defeat Napoleon at Waterloo on June 18, 1815.
Otto von Bismarck, German statesman born on April 1, 1815, died on July 30, 1898.
Humphry Davy invented the miner’s safety lamp.
The eruption of the Mount Tambora volcano on the island of Sumbawa in Indonesia killed more than 50,000 people (one of various estimates). It is one of the most powerful eruptions in recorded history making a noise which was heard 1600 miles away. The latter eruption of Krakatoa, also in Indonesia, near Java, in 1883, killed 36,417 people, and made such a noise that it was heard 3,000 miles away. A tsunami 151 feet high wiped out the town of Merak.
1816: Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar granted the first German Constitution.
Indiana became the 19th state in the Union on December 11, 1816.
American Bible Society was founded.
Frenchman R.T. Laennec (1781-1826) invented the stethoscope.
1915: WW I, first German submarine attack off Le Havre (a major port in upper France).
German submarine sank the Lusitania.
Anglo-French landing at Gallipoli, which was an unsuccessful attempt by the allies to block the sea route from Europe to Russia.
Booker T. Washington born in 1856, founder of the Tuskegee Institute died.
Einstein postulates his General Theory of Relativity.
Ford produced its one millionth automobile.
Speed record of 102.6 mph set at Sheepshead Bay, New York by Gil Anderson driving a Stutz.
1916: WW I, Battle of Verdun.
Italy declared war on Germany.
John Dewey, the architect of the destruction of American education authored, “Democracy and Education”.
Blood for transfusions are refrigerated.
Theory of Shell Shock suggested by F.W. Mott.
Frenchman Paul Langevin constructed an underwater ultrasonic source for submarine detection.
Harold Wilson and Edward Heath, British statesmen born.
Russian Monk Rasputin (1869-1916) dies. Mystery still surrounds his disappearance from the night he disappeared until he was dragged from a river.
Margaret Sanger, a racist and eugenicist stated that the handicapped, blind, deaf, dumb, mute, and epileptics along with delinquents were human waste. Founded Planned Parenthood, and in 1916 joined in opening the first birth control center. A eugenicist believes that by careful selection of humans who mate and reproduce the human race can be improved.
Twelve years out of 600, men come and they go, and everyone wonders what the New Year will bring.
“What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? One generation passes away, and another generation comes; but the earth abides forever. The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it arose. The wind goes toward the south, and turns around to the north; the wind whirls about continually, and comes again on its circuit. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; to the place from which the rivers come, there they return again. All things are full of labor; man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.” Ecclesiastes 1:3-8.
Men have driven themselves mad considering the futility of life, or they have concocted ridiculous theories to answer the questions that they have because they refuse to consider God the Creator in their search for answers.
But the answers are quite simple if one is willing to have the open mind that so many complain that Christians do not have.
“God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as thought He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’” Acts 17:24-28.
Socrates is quoted as saying, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” While I agree, I like to word it in this manner, “The unexamined life is a life not lived.”
God expects everyone to use whatever intelligence we have to seek Him out and examine the evidence He has given us.
“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” James 4:8a.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6:33.
“For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles – when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.” 1 Peter 4:3-5.
For the Christian who looks back at this year with regret, let it be known that in Christ you can confess any failures and they will be forgiven and forgotten by Him.
And as you look forward you will know that in Christ you have the power to turn away from the things that have caused you to stumble and have robbed you of joy and a sense of accomplishment.
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13.
And for the unbeliever, no matter what you have done in this past year or even throughout your life, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin and leaves a peace which passes understanding.
“…if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9.
Even if you are alone right now, just say it out loud to Jesus, and when you get an opportunity, tell someone, even if it is just someone from church, tell them that Jesus is your Lord.
“For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’” Romans 10:13.
“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27.
Time! Taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 12-31-15, updated on 2-20-19.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.