Have you ever heard of the children’s poem about Chicken Little? The main character in this fable in the form of a cumulative tale is a chicken who believes the world is coming to an end. The phrase, “the sky is falling,” is repeated often in the story. This poem has passed onto our English language as a common idiom for a hysterical or mistaken belief that disaster is around the corner.
Just in case you’ve never read the story, Chicken Little has an acorn that drops on her head and she runs to tell her friends, Goosey Loosey, Ducky Lucky, and Turkey Lurkey, that the sky is falling! The panicked group runs off to tell the king what has happened. Before they get to the king, the cunning Foxy Loxy invites them into his den—but they never leave.
I believe the poet, whoever wrote it, wanted to make fun of those who speak or preach about the end of the world.
I believe Chicken Little was right!
When I survey church history, I am reminded of godly men and women who believed the second coming of Jesus was imminent. For example, John Wesley said, “The spirit in the heart of the true believer says with earnest desire, ‘Come Lord Jesus.’” D. L. Moody said, “I never preach a sermon without thinking that possibly the Lord might use that sermon to call out the last of the saints who should go to make up the full number of God’s elect and to bring about the Lord’s coming.”
Dr. G. Campbell Morgan (one of my favorite pastors) said, “I never began my work in the morning without thinking that perhaps He may interrupt my work and begin His own. I am not looking for death. I am looking for Him.”
Ruth Graham, wife of Billy Graham, offered many years before she died, that she expected the soon return of Jesus.
Of course, all of these saints were wrong.
But I believe, like Chicken Little, that the world will come to an end someday. The Bible teaches this.
When I was a young man in a small Southern Baptist Church, I heard frequent sermons on the end of the world—with a fiery judgment. The preachers painted a picture of intense fire, suffering, and judgment.
If you check your Bible, God sent a judgment similar to this in Noah’s day, but it was with water. 2 Peter 3:5-7 tells us that in the end times, because of the wickedness and sinfulness of people, the world will end with fire. “But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the Day of Judgment and destruction of the ungodly.”
God knows how to preserve us even when the earth and the cosmos are being destroyed. How can He destroy the earth and at the same time save and preserve us? That’s what 2 Peter 3:10-16 answers. “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.”
“Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.”
“So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”
Several applications follow:
1. What type of people should we be if our world will soon disappear with fire and judgment?
2. What do we hold onto that is not permanent? What needs to be given over to God?
3. Should we lose our hold on earth if He will soon destroy it?
4. Perhaps today you will start to dedicate your time, life, and possessions to that which will not end! What does that mean to you?
God Bless,
Woody
P.S. Chicken Little was telling us that truth—but her timing was wrong.
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