"AT THE END OF THE DAY," Blessay 201

"But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. (1Peter 4:7)

One of my little quirks is that I have a habit of picking up on phrases that become cliches. "At this point in time" is one, but the current catch phrase is "at the end of the day"

It's good to have a new phrase to rattle around in conversation, or rather, end it. It can mean several things and it can mean absolutely nothing. It's like a spoken period, unseen punctuation. Everybody uses it ad naseum.

• Anthropology: The evolutionist said, "Our best guess is that at the end of the day man evolved from a drop of water in space."


• Astronomy: The “star gazer” said, "All kidding aside, our findings show that at the end of the day the moon really is made of green cheese."


• Health: The doctor said, "Bottom line: at the end of the day your back pain should get better in a couple of years. I'll see you then."


• Politics: The Senator says, "There's enough blame to go around, but at the end of the day, blah, blah, blah, and that means more blah, blah, blah!"


• Geriatrics: The pharmacist said, "It's a bitter pill to swallow, but at the end of the day the side effects are compatible with your other side effects."


• Construction: The carpenter said, "Let the chips fall where they may, at the end of the day, at least the dry wall will be finished.


• Religion: Pastor Bulldog says that "at the end of the day let's put an end to the mindless use of this phrase." (Yawn!) Do I hear an 'amen?'

God has a plan for the end of the day but it does not include a time table. God has no time table; he has a dispensation schedule because he exists in eternity past, present, and future where there is no time - heady, isn't it?

"Time" is man's restraint, categorized in heaven with chunks of years of time called "dispensations."

A "Dispensation" is explained in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia this way: "The Greek word (oikonomi´a) so translated signifies primarily, a stewardship, the management or disposition of affairs entrusted to one." Clarke's commentary refers to Dr. Macknight; “the plan which the master of a family, or his steward, has established for the management of the family;” If he is a selfless servant his dispensation is extended. If he is self-seeking, the master will end his dispensation of service and start a new one with a new servant.

The Bible dispensations or divisions in which God sets up man to manage or oversee the conditions, tasks and provisions under which God entrusts to him, are obvious to a committed KJV Bible reader. Understanding them aids the serious Bible lover to understand sound doctrine and reveals the progress of God's plan for the earth as it is guided through the ages to the end of the day and the establishment of the kingdom of heaven.

Two big examples in the Old Testament are: The dispensation given to Adam and Eve, called "Innocence." But at the end of the day he disobeyed God, and they were fired and sent away. A new dispensation was given to them and their families with different conditions. Another dispensation was from the giving of the Law to Moses at Sinai to the exiles of Israel and Judah. The Jews were entrusted with the stewardship of the dispensation of Law, but at the end of the day they disobeyed God and it ended.

We live in a new dispensation today, with the advent of Christ: It's called "Grace,"

• The gospel is the engine that ushers in the grace of God to bring people to Christ. Paul explains it this way: "If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to youward" (Ephesians 3:2).


• Paul also explains the mission of this dispensation, "Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God;" (Colossians 1:25).


• There are rewards for ministry and consequences for letting our dispensation just go by without doing the work of the "great commission" (Matthew 28:18-20)


• Jesus prophesied of the last dispensation at his second coming, "And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." (Revelation 22:12)


• Paul, who gave up his position in Jewry after meeting Jesus on the way to kill Christians, "For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me" (1Corinthians 9:17).


• So while we say "at the end of the day," Paul calls it "the fullness of times” in this dispensation that “he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:" (Ephesians 1:10).

But at the end of the day or in the fullness of times, is the mission completed? No! When it is the fullness of time, it will be too late to lament as Jeremiah did for Israel, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." (Jeremiah 8:20) Why is it so?

Physical Erosion: “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes” (1John 2:16). Our bodies break down from the abuse of civilization. Nothing ever stands still. It has to go one way or the other. When we hear the phrase at end of the day people past 65 years of age, like Helen and me, catch our breath and consider that it can mean that we have not much time to get back our health and to serve Jesus. Every believer is involved. There is so much that physically impaired people can do. But to those who are careless in their lifestyle, civilization clogs not only the arteries, but our service to Christ.

Baby Boomers, tasting the "good life" scarf down every buffet item they see, pastas with three of four kinds of cheese and lots of it, never pass up a barbecue shack, and guzzle a flood of carbonated drinks to wash it down. But not to worry, they go to the gym and work out.

Spiritual Erosion: “And the pride of life” (1John 2:16). Even secular historians, recording the rise and fall of civilizations and empires, use Bishop Usher's system of dating Bible history. Empires only last about 250 t0 300 years, but who is counting? It's called “civilization,” high living, and it decomposes what man is so proud of building up. Even that nation that God has chosen to be his peculiar people, a holy nation, a kingdom of priests: he raised them to the highest pinnacle, but at the end of the day, he brought them down because of their disobedience.

It should be no surprise to us that Jesus said, "And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares." (Luke 21:34)

So when asked by his disciples when the end would come, Jesus told them it was not for them to know the times or the seasons. It is all under the Father's control; it is for us to render our accountability, and for him to say when the end of the day will come.

"And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power." (Acts 1:7) Yet Paul points out that we can know and feel the end of the day at hand, "But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you." (1Thessalonians 5:1)

I have had discussions on the end of the day, but what is a day to God? Many have replied with a blaze and cavalier answer, which is like the parable of the five unconcerned virgins in Matthew 25:2. It could be a bad decision. Thinking they have a lot of time, their answer is that whatever the Bible says about the end times, it hasn't happened, so – Alfred E. Newman says, "What, me worry?"

However, the astute every day Bible reader has the advantage over nay sayers in that there are flags and pegs all through the word of God as to the rapture of the church and the return of the Lord to earth and to Jerusalem. It is perfectly clear as the angel told Daniel that the knowledge of it would be revealed. It is progressive revelation.

Peter wrote that one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like one day. Since Usher's dating is accurate enough for man to make a stab at dating, we are almost to the end of the sixth day. or the sixth thousandth year. The seventh day God ordained as a day of rest, which in the seventh millennium, will be a time of rest for the earth and renewal.

At the first end of the day the disciples watched as Jesus ascended into heaven and two angels spoke to them, " . . . why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven" (Acts 1:3-11)

Is the mission accomplished? Have you invested time in the commission Jesus gave to be witnesses in "our Jerusalem?" The Apostle John, a very positive and upbeat man because of his closeness and love for the Lord Jesus Christ, gave us the inspired hope of the glory of our seeing him as he is. And we shall be like him. "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." (1John 3:3)

by Pastor Bulldog