07-07-2024 LIFTING THE CURSE AND THE VEIL

There is a curse that enchains mankind; there is a veil which condemns those under it. There is also a blindness cast on the lost that shuts out the light of the gospel ‘lest it should shine unto them’ (2 Cor. 4:4).

Because of this curse war, poverty, starvation and natural disasters persist in our time. Because of it economic collapse, disease and death stalk the earth. Result: Today many young people have lost hope and turn to dissipation and drugs, seeing only a darker future. Does the Bible explain why? Yes, it does; the reason for this calamity is found in Isaiah 24:1, 5-6:

The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away; the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth is also defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore, hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate; and they that dwell therein are burned (i.e. consumed), and few men left.

Well, that is how it is now for those outside of Christ and without the ‘hope of the gospel’ (Col. 1:23). For those in Christ there is the power of grace. That power saves fully, preserves fully and changes us fully to be fully acceptable to God in everlasting life. Today, sadly, it is greatly ignored and not understood, even by some Christians.

The good news is that soon the darkness that covers the people of earth will be destroyed. The chains will be broken; the light of God Himself will shine through to all people. This will happen in the ‘day of Christ’ (1 Cor. 1:8, Phil. 1: 6, 10) which begins at the Lord’s appearing (Titus 2:13 and 2 Tim. 4:1). And, thank God, bringing this about is the very next thing in the Lord’s programme of the ages to present the earth and mankind back to Himself in righteousness.

No, this is not the ‘Rapture’, nor the ‘Great Tribulation’, nor the ‘Second Coming’ of the Lord to earth. (In passing note that the misleading translation of ‘coming’. Often it should be ‘revealing’, as for example in 1 Cor. 1:7).  Sure, the above listed events will happen in their appointed time but long before then the Lord will bring into being the ‘kingdom of heaven’ He proclaimed in his three and a half years of ministry as Messiah on earth (Matt. 4:17, 5:3, 13:19, 13:31)..

Soon, while ruling from heaven until all things are put right (Acts 3:21) - that is until all the wonderful promises proclaimed by ‘all the prophets since the world began’ are fulfilled - the Lord will pour out his greatest blessing yet on all mankind. Picture this wonderful event as the Prophet Isaiah proclaimed it over 2,700 years ago (Isaiah 25:6-9):

And in this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, full of marrow, of wine on the lees well refined.

And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations

He will swallow up death in victory and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the rebuke of his people shall He take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.

And it shall be said in that day, Lo this is our God; we have waited for Him and He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. For in this mountain shall the hand of the Lord rest…

It’s important to understand that the ‘mountain’ is that of the Lord’s government which will be brought in in the ‘day of Christ’ (1 Cor. 1:8, Phil. 1:6, 10, 2:16, 2 Tim. 4:11, 1 Tim. 6:14-15). Simply put, we are awaiting the appearing of the Lord to bring in his kingdom in which evil, sickness, war poverty and slavery will be abolished and men will be turned back to God. What’s more the earth will be restored to its pre-Flood beauty (Acts 3:21).

It is in this governmental ‘mountain’ that the Lord will ‘…destroy the face of the covering cast over all people and the veil that is spread over all nations’ (Isaiah 25:7).  Until He does so efforts by Christians and non-Christians alike to improve society will yield no lasting improvement. A mere glance at the news shows the degradation caused by sin is only getting worse.

But in the kingdom age to come both man and the earth will be largely restored to their former creation glory (see Acts 3:21, Num. 14:21, Isaiah 11:9, 24:21-23, 27:1).

But, I hear you say, surely the Lord Jesus died on the cross to save us from sin, to conquer death and break the power of the curse? Can’t we and the world can have all the benefits of that now? Yes, He did indeed die for sin and make that possible but, as the Apostle Paul wrote (Rom. 8:19-24):

The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For we know the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now … and not only they but ourselves also … groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope but hope that is seen is not hope.

Right now we are saved by grace individually but the world at large is not. However, the Lord Jesus did indeed come to be ‘the Saviour of the world’ (John 4:42) not just of us as individuals. That is, He has a plan to save all people and all creation (Rom. 8:18-21).  He would have us grasp this ‘invisible hope’ as our legacy for the future. For there is indeed a day of great blessing about to come upon the whole world. And among the greatest blessings on mankind in that day will be the lifting of the curse and the removal of the veil.

I stress again, that that day is the ‘day of Christ’, the time when God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ will assert his authority to step in and take over government of the world. It begins with his appearing (Titus 2:13) when the Lord will shine out his glory from heaven so powerfully all on earth will see it. This was foreseen by the Prophet Isaiah who wrote:

Isaiah 40:5: And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

Isaiah 49:26 …and all flesh shall know that know that I am the Lord.

@John Dudley Aldworth, May 2024.

Email: john.aldworth@hotmail.com