God's Final Week - 10

Dies Irae

CHAPTER 10

DIES IRAE

For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

— Psalm 37:10-11

The earthly kingdom we find ourselves in today is a toxic and inverted land, a bizzarro world. Good is called evil and evil good. Bitterness is called sweetness; death is called life. Love is called hatred, while hate is exalted as true love. So-called beauty is just about the ugliest thing you’ve ever seen.

Are you sick of this hellhole yet? Are you ready for the madness to end?

Well, ready or not, the end is almost upon us. I believe it has come into Yeshua’s heart to at last vindicate himself and his own; to bring healing to his people and vengeance upon the ungodly. The appointed time has nearly arrived. And all of human history will be rolled up like a scroll, forever finished.

Faced with this flaming future for the mortal realm, what is your heart’s posture towards this sin-sick world? Do you look more to what you will “lose” here than to what you stand to gain in the next life? Are you quite happy to have a light shown into all the dark places of your character, revealing all secrets? Or would you rather your deeds be hidden forever in the darkness?

For many centuries, the Catholic Church has performed the Gregorian chant “Dies irae” or “the Day of Wrath” as part of the Mass for the Dead. The first few verses translate roughly to this.

The day of wrath, that day, will dissolve the world in ashes: this is the testimony of David along with the Sibyl. How great will be the quaking, when the Judge is about to come, strictly investigating all things. The trumpet, scattering a wondrous sound through the sepulchres of the regions, will summon all before the throne. Death and nature will marvel, when the creature will rise again, to respond to the Judge. The written book will be brought forth, in which all is contained, from which the world shall be judged. When therefore the Judge will sit, whatever lies hidden, will appear: nothing will remain unpunished.

Truly, the Judge will soon come to strictly investigate all things. It is a sobering thought.

It is hard enough for us to imagine this day, much less to come to grips with the fact that it will soon be upon us. It will be a day like no other in history.

To find oneself on the cusp of something so monumental, so unfathomable, is truly surreal. What a blessing that God has seen fit to warn us in advance.

In the end, I can use the best of logic and the best of scriptural interpretation to make sound arguments regarding the nearness of this day. But if you yourself have not already sensed in your gut that something is dreadfully wrong in our world today, then nothing I can say has all that much hope of getting through to you. If you do not feel within your own soul that the wickedness and perversion of our own generation of vipers has become unsustainable, reaching that nearly insurmountable peak of irrational exuberance, then reason is useless. No logical argument will be of any avail if you are unable to see what is plainly placed before your eyes each day.

While most live in ignorance of the solemnity of this time, the world is even now undergoing the birth pains of Messiah’s kingdom.

Now, I realize that much of what the dragon and his minions are doing in the world today is hidden. But we are not in the darkness that we should be deceived as the world is. We have been told of these things beforehand that we might be ready.

I also realize all too well the deadly inertia of normalcy bias which holds so many of us down, tethered always to the familiar past. It is hard to envision a change so total and so unprecedented just around the corner of our lives. It is not easy, living on the edge as we do, to grapple with the incomprehensible future rushing in upon us. Instead, it is far easier to linger in the comfort and apparent normalcy of the present moment. No doubt those living in the days of Noah allowed this same instinctive delusion to steel their hearts against repentance, right up until the cataclysm caught them unawares.

God is gracious to provide time for repentance. But our time is not unlimited. Eventually, the clock runs out and our choice is locked in.

Of all the many signs of the times in these last days, perhaps none is so obvious as the rejoining and rebirth of the nation of Israel. The new State of Israel was established on May 14, 1948. In all the annals of the history of our world, we know of no other instance of a group of displaced people retaking their former homeland and reassembling their nation well over a thousand years after losing it. It is unheard of.

If this does not make you scratch your head and wonder exactly what God is up to in our generation, then I’m not sure what will.

Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

— Matthew 24:32-34

The parable of the fig tree is often contemplated for its eschatological meaning, yet seldom is it properly understood.

In Scripture, there are three trees used to symbolize Israel. The vine and the olive tree are often used as symbols of Israel’s spiritual and religious privileges. And the fig tree is often used as a symbol of Israel’s national privileges (Hosea 9:10 and Jeremiah 24).

With this in view, it is fairly straightforward to make the connection with Israel’s regathering as a nation and the end times. A careful reading of Jeremiah 30 – the same passage which contains the allusion to the time of Jacob’s trouble – should further convince you of this connection. National Israel is a sign intended for our use. And as many others have identified, the budding of the fig tree symbolizes the rebirth of Israel after a long winter. The Apocalypse of Peter contains a scene with Yeshua helping the disciples to make this very connection, proving that the link has been well known since the birth of Christianity. Yet many seem to have forgotten.

However, when Christ said that this generation would not pass, was he providing a timing detail to be used along with this regathering of Israel?

I believe the answer can be found in the only piece of Scripture attributed to Moses outside of the Torah.

The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

— Psalm 90:10

It appears that 80 years is the outside length of time for a human lifespan; or, in other words, for a generation. As usual, God always gives mankind as much time as possible for repentance, within the structure of his plan. Therefore, I believe we should logically expect either the 79 or the 80 year mark from Israel’s rebirth to be quite significant.

Now, there are two ways to think about this. You could argue that Moses’ declaration of 80 years as a lifespan means that in order for Matthew 24:34 to be true – “this generation shall not pass” – Yeshua must return before the 80th year begins. I do see some merit to this line of reasoning because based on Moses’ math how can we be certain that the generation does not end precisely on the 80th birthday? Mathematically speaking, why should it necessarily continue all the way up until just before the 81st birthday?

Viewed in isolation, this logic makes reasonable sense to me. And it would point to Tishri 1 of 2027 as the latest possible date of the Second Coming.

However, if we take other examples from Scripture, such as the 40 years from Ezekiel Chapter 4 – which we will be examining shortly – then I believe the probabilities shift in favor of the second viewpoint. Namely, to the 80th year itself being reckoned as part of the generation, as long as it is just shy of the 81st. This points us to Tishri 1 of 2028, though we may never know with absolute certainty which specific month this falls in, until it is upon us.

The regathering of Israel is but another reason that I greatly prefer 2027 and 2028 as the most likely years. In fact, I am highly confident that the Second Coming will take place sometime in the year 2028, specifically. We have about a seven-month window of interest from mid-May to mid-December of that year. That will be the RAPCON 1 alert state period.

The true power of this particular understanding of the regathering of the nation of Israel is that it is perfectly in line with how we have already come to understand God’s typical use of his chosen people. For many centuries, God used the people of Israel to display to all of mankind what a soul’s journey back to him looked like. They were, and in some sense still are, his living testimony. And once again, they are quietly prophesying of what is to come.

In AD 70, their destruction prefigured the future destruction of all nonbelievers worldwide (remember that many believing Jews, who heeded Yeshua’s words of warning concerning armies surrounding Jerusalem, were spared this destruction). And in 1948, their regathering quietly prophesied about the soon coming gathering of all believers.

And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

— Matthew 24:31

Shall this not be the greatest gathering the world has ever known?

While we are considering Israel, it is interesting to ponder another vantage point for pinpointing the year of the cross with a bit more precision. This perspective comes from the book of Ezekiel, where we find this highly prophetic story.

Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem: And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about. Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel. Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity. For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year. Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it.

— Ezekiel 4:1-7

The Northern Kingdom of Israel sinned when Jeroboam first caused the ten tribes to rebel against the house of David. Exactly 390 years later, the Temple and the city of Jerusalem were first besieged and then destroyed under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, during the 18th year of the Jews’ captivity. This was the fulfillment of the first half of Ezekiel’s prophecy.

The second part of the prophecy has Ezekiel lying specifically on his right side, signifying a weightier sin. After this grievance, the people of Judah are not given so many as 390 years for repentance. Instead, they are given only 40. I believe this prophecy foretells of the time between Yeshua’s crucifixion and the beginning of the AD 70 Roman siege of Jerusalem. In other words, the sin of Judah was that of murdering the only begotten Son of God. The abomination.

We know historically that the Roman siege of Jerusalem began three days before Passover in AD 70. Of course, Yeshua hung on the cross on Passover itself. If we assume AD 30 for the cross, as many do, then we are left with a 39.99-year time of repentance for Israel, and more specifically for Judah. This is close, but it does not seem quite right for God to fulfill the prophecy imprecisely by not allowing quite enough time for repentance. However, if the cross took place in the year AD 29, then there were 40 full years for repentance, but not quite 41. In a stunning display of his mercy, patience, and longsuffering, I believe God allowed the people of Israel as much time as possible while still fulfilling the prophecy, giving them just a few days shy of 41 years for repentance, or roughly 40.99 years.

Interestingly, the Jewish rabbis took note of certain curious happenings during these 40 years immediately preceding AD 70. These occurrences all had to do with the Temple. It was noticed, for example, that the western candle of the menorah would no longer stay lit overnight. Additionally, on the Day of Atonement, the lot for the Lord would never come up in the right hand for these 40 years. This is the equivalent of tossing a coin on heads 40 times in a row, the odds of which are vanishingly small. Nor would the crimson-colored strap become white, as it had done before. These anomalies, pointing to God’s clear departure from Israel, are recorded in the Talmud (Yoma 39a and 39b).

Given an AD 70 siege of Jerusalem, beginning three days before Passover, the only possible year for the cross becomes AD 29. It really is that simple.

I also find it interesting that early Christians in Rome and North Africa, when attempting to establish the date of the cross, arrived at this exact same year. They did this in only the second century AD, around the time of Tertullian. Who would know better than people living a mere 100 years after the event itself?

What’s more, given that his birth was in the fall of 3 BC – something I believe should be nearly indisputable at this point – this means Yeshua was actually 30.5 years old when he gave his life for us on the tree. It was the first possible Passover that he was old enough to be our High Priest. Does this not make perfect sense? If only you can unlearn the oft-repeated notion that he had to be 30 to start his ministry, you will be able to glimpse it.

Simply look at the biblical typology. Joseph began ruling over Egypt when he was thirty. David began ruling over Israel when he was thirty. And Yeshua began ruling over the freshly bought kingdom of heaven when he was thirty years old.

As we know, an AD 29 cross means that the year 4000 began on Tishri 1 of AD 28. And it therefore indicates that the year 6000 will begin on Tishri 1 of AD 2028.

But there is yet more to this story.

After the cross, God gave Israel 40 full years to repent before bringing them swift destruction. So likewise, I believe that God has planned a set period of time, given after the cross, for all of mankind to repent and believe. And afterward, he will again bring swift and total destruction upon unbelieving humanity.

Would you believe me if I told you that the amount of time given to humanity was mathematically related to the amount of time given to the Jews?

Once again, God is using the nation of Israel to quietly prophesy to all of mankind.

And here we have once again the precise link to the sign of Jonah, spoken of so often by our Savior.

Israel was given 40 full years for repentance. I believe that mankind will be given 40 full Jubilee cycles. The cross occurred in the middle of a Jubilee year, so that is our beginning point and must be reckoned as the first Jubilee year, since nearly six months remained. Two thousand years later is the end of the 40th Jubilee cycle, on the cusp of the start of the 41st. I believe the 41st Jubilee from the cross will not come without the judgment of flaming fire arriving first.

Is this not a stunning mathematical proof hidden by the Great Judge?

This, at long last, allows us to make sense of the rather cryptic reference to 120 years by God prior to the Flood.

And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

— Genesis 6:3

Many would argue the simplest literal interpretation is that God was giving the antediluvian world 120 years for repentance. I agree with this logic. However, the general vagueness of the text seems to suggest something more is afoot. And so, I believe there is a second meaning here as well. I believe that mankind as whole, throughout all ages, was also given 120 Jubilee years for repentance. After all, the Flood is the Bible’s greatest foreshadowing of the coming day of vengeance. What more fitting place to hide this 120 Jubilee year riddle.

In the end, these two structures of years and Jubilee years – both the 40 and the 120 – mirror each other. In both cases, a group of individuals (Israel and antediluvian society at large) serve as examples for all of mankind. Mankind is then given the same length of time to repent, only multiplied by the 50 years of the Jubilee cycle. What a stunning display of Yahweh’s ordering of all things.

If you have done the work to find the missing puzzle piece, which I alluded to in Chapter 8, then perhaps you will grasp its connection to Ezekiel 39:1-9 and the seven years of burning weapons. What are the odds that this signpost, too, aligns with all the rest?

What are the odds that the 80th year after the regathering of Israel is also the 21st year of God’s Final Week/Jacob’s Trouble, which is also the seventh year after the final fulfillment of Matthew 24:15, which is also the 40th Jubilee after the cross, which is also the 50th Jubilee after the decree mentioned in Daniel’s prophecy, which is also the 120th Jubilee after the creation, which is also the 2,000th year after the cross, which is also the 2,200th year after the desolation of the Temple, which is also the 6,000th year after the creation? If you think this sort of alignment happens more often than once in the history of mankind, then your grasp of mathematics leaves something to be desired. Do you really think this is all just a grand cosmic fake out?

When God reveals this complex alignment so beautifully to us in his Word, I for one choose to believe him. I take him at his word.

Imponderable as it may be the day in which the Son of Man is revealed will soon be upon us.

What I find most encouraging is that God has seen fit to unseal the prophecies and to reveal these things in our time. We live in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation, and yet God has reserved a portion for us his remnant in these last days.

Our generation will be cut off and the time for repentance for mankind will come to an end. But while, humanly speaking, it seems we have been given less of a chance than all the other generations before us, God has in fact provided for us by revealing his truth to us in more richness than perhaps at any other time since the Flood. Knowledge has truly increased, as Daniel foretold, and by God’s grace we are able to glimpse the story in nearly all its resplendent fullness.

Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age.

— Genesis 37:3

God does not age, and yet in a sense we here at the end of the world are the children of his old age. And he has loved us.

If you are ever tempted to feel small and insignificant compared to the noble patriarchs and saints of old, take heart from this verse. God has placed you here at the end for a purpose, and he has given you the dignity of a say in the matter. He has given you the choice to stand up and to fulfill the role he has cast for you in the great story.

I hope that before the end you will find your courage and take your stand. Remember, it is a great honor to battle with evil here at the height of its devilry, the jagged peak of its deceit.

The poet William Blake famously said, “Eternity is in love with the productions of time.” But you and I know full well that the time for laboring and producing will soon be at an end. And the time for reaping will begin.

How will you make your mark while there is still time left to us?

When Lot knew that destruction would soon rain down upon Sodom, he sought at once to warn his future sons-in-law. Will we do the same? In our own day of impending judgment, most people will react to the news much the same as the sons-in-law did; they will laugh and ignore the warning. But that fact does not free us from the burden of responsibility which our rare knowledge lays upon us. On the contrary, it is equally certain that some small, select few gifted with discernment, a remnant, will heed the many warnings of these final days. They will escape the soul traps Satan has placed for them, and they will flee from the wrath that is to come in just the nick of time.

And so, it is for the sake of the remnant that we must not fail to bear witness to the truth.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

— Mark 1:3

Preparing the way of the Lord begins in our own hearts, but it does not end there. This attitude of expectant watchfulness naturally flows out into all our actions and becomes a bold and powerful witness to an unbelieving world.

While the world around us wallows in depression, despair and hopelessness, we as Christians should be living in a way which reveals the hope that is within us. For that hope is not some tangential quality but is at the very core of our faith. Like Jesus, our forerunner, we and all those in his family will be raised incorruptible. As Peter encourages us, we must hope to the end for the divine favor that is to be brought us at the revelation (apokalupsis) of Jesus Christ.

A right understanding of the true nature of things means that the return of Yeshua could never be an interruption of my story. Instead, it is the beginning of my story as it was always meant to be told. I was made for the kingdom. And the tales we tell there will be far greater than any we have told from this side.

On earth, Jesus was spit upon, mocked and killed. His eleven faithful disciples, in boldly proclaiming his gospel, were nearly all martyred in their turn. And ever since those early beginnings, Christians have been hated and oppressed in most places around the world. We have been counted worthy to suffer for his name. But the hour of Yeshua’s vindication is at hand, and he will vindicate us as well. He will bring forth our righteousness as the light and our judgment as the noonday. And every knee will bow to him.

In the end, the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is a rather straightforward message.

God created man as his image bearers and gave us dominion over the realm of this earth. We were created to be friends and intimate allies of the living God, part of the divine council. However, being deceived by another being made in the image of the one true God – a fallen angel known as Satan, the dragon, the deceiver – our original forebears rebelled against God, bringing a curse upon themselves and upon earth’s whole created order.

Knowing the risk, God had created man with many gifts reflecting his own divine nature, including the gift of free will. This meant mankind had the choice to obey him or not, to love him or to rebel. Indeed, all our lives we have had this fundamental choice before us.

Nevertheless, God had not failed to foresee mankind’s fall. Instead, he had purposed from before the beginning to bring about redemption in his own good time and according to his own plan. He wanted us to be a part of his family for all time. And he was willing to pay the price.

The Father and the Son traveled the path of sacrifice together, just as Abraham and Isaac once had. They kept their own confidence, leaving the forces of darkness off balance, until the victory had been won.

In his first coming, Jesus Christ fulfilled hundreds of prophecies written down many hundreds of years before his arrival. He did this not only through the manner of his life and death, but also through the precise timing of these events, proving that he is the Son of God.

Jesus Christ, Yeshua HaMashiach, is the life-giving center of all human history. God loved us so much that he sent Jesus, his only begotten Son, into the world as a human man. However, when the forces of darkness saw God incarnate in the flesh, they said to themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance” (Matthew 21:38). Yet this, too, was all part of the divine plan. For no redemption could be bought for us without the shedding of blood.

Yeshua sacrificed himself for us on the tree, that whosoever would believe on him might have eternal life.

He was raised to life the third day, yet this was only a partial vindication. Our blessed hope is his promised return at the end of the age to reign as King and to restore all things. Heaven will come down to earth and God will dwell with us, his chosen people who have chosen to love him. We will become the sons and daughters of God, like the angels yet still distinctly human, living forever in his presence in a new worldwide Eden.

All this because of God’s great love for us. And all you must do to receive the gift of life is to believe from the heart in Yeshua.

In the end, the Bible is a love story, written in blood on a rugged wooden cross almost two thousand years ago.

Now, if you’ve spent any time around a church today, then you probably know that much is often made of the issue of belief versus repentance. Or faith versus works. Properly understood, though, there is little room for confusion. If you believe in God, then you believe his Word. And if you believe his Word, then you know that he will one day judge the entire world. Therefore, you will act accordingly. In other words, you will repent and turn from your sin, if you truly believe in God. They are but two sides of the same coin.

If, however, you say with your mouth that you believe in God, yet with your actions you disregard his law, you have made it plain that you do not consider yourself likely to ever come under his judgment. In other words, you believe only in what you can see with your eyes here and now. You do not believe in God. Your fruits have told the truth better than your mouth ever could.

The key distinction is that salvation is not earned by our works, but by Yeshua’s blood. Likewise, our choice of faith and our accepting of the free gift which God has provided is not itself a work. Instead, it is our decision to trust only in Yeshua’s work. We are saved by grace (unmerited favor) through faith alone, and that faith must be of our own free choice. And yet, good works will always naturally flow from true faith and from a redeemed, born-again heart.

In the end, as the Word declares, he that believeth in the Son of God will be saved (Mark 16:16). But for those who reject the gift and choose to love not our Lord Jesus, may they be accursed. The Lord is coming.

I hate to break it to you, but most of Christendom is not going to embrace the hard truth about the return of Christ before it comes upon them like a snare. In the face of logical scriptural arguments, many will only scoff, clinging anxiously to their all-too-familiar world of slight, gradual changes. And in doing so, while they may soothe their psyches, they will reject outright the many signs of the long-expected return of Jesus Christ.

No, this is the doctrine of the few. This is the rare creed.

In fact, should these ideas ever catch on too much, I would almost begin to question them. It is only because I know they will always be naturally distasteful to most, that I trust them so completely. For wisdom is not to be found in the company of the masses.

Should you choose to hold to these things, then realize that you too may be thought of as odd for this brief season of time. Even in Church circles. But remember, Noah’s fact checkers drowned. And Lot’s fact checkers burned up. Let us tread lightly, hoping that our fact checkers may escape such a fate, though it is surely coming for all scoffers and unbelievers.

When we come at last, after much struggle, to a firm and grounded understanding of the times we find ourselves in, and of the nearness of the end, it can be tempting to pat ourselves on the back and congratulate ourselves on our own cleverness. We have figured it all out. We are among the few. Certainly, I have felt this inward pull myself. But to take this narrow view is to miss the many privileges of our age which have accrued to us quite apart from our own supposed cleverness.

For my part, I have no doubt taken a certain pleasure in sitting down here at the end of the age and putting together these puzzle pieces found scattered throughout Scripture and across the ages. Yet, I have the highly advantageous vantage point of gazing back upon the fullness of human history from its waning hours. I also have the many marvelous research tools of my time. But it is the generations which have come before me that have done all the heavy lifting. Without the countless scholars throughout the centuries translating the Word, determining accurate dating for events, and teasing out various end times doctrines, I would never have been able to put the pieces together on my own. I am a beneficiary of those that have come before me and of my own happy circumstances. I am only grateful that God caused me to be born for this time and that he gave me the mind to glimpse the gestalt of this grand puzzle left here for us.

Without his leading, I know I would have missed the whole thing.

Remember, we are beyond blessed in these days to be watching prophecy unfold before our very eyes. Angels have long desired to look into these things. We get to live them.

As we ponder the mysteries of these last days, I believe it is important for us to remember that Jesus held the scribes and Pharisees of his day fully accountable for their ignorance of his first coming.

The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?

— Matthew 16:1-3

In another passage echoing this sentiment, Yeshua makes it plain that their ability to discern “this time” was the primary matter at issue.

And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass. Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?

— Luke 12:55-56

The not-so-subtle implication is that the Pharisees should have known that he – the Messiah – was due to arrive during this particular window of time. The truth had been placed directly in Old Testament prophecy for them and was written down by the prophet Daniel, among others. All that was required was the ability to discern the times. As self-professed students of the Tanakh, they should have known better. They should have remained watchful.

And what of us? For what will we be held to account, seeing we have been given the prophetic Word more fully confirmed?

Truly, we have been given much. I pray that we will each remain awake, with our lamps trimmed and ready, so that we may answer when the Master knocks. And in the meantime, may we each play our own unique role in this latter rain, sent from our heavenly Father. May our labors bear much fruit for the kingdom in these final hours.

And for you, my friend, I wish a fitting finale to your earthly tale. May you remember your original birthright as an intimate ally and imager of the eternal God. May you choose him, forsaking all others. May you love him with all your heart and soul and strength and mind, and may he grant you the fortitude to endure unto the end. When the dream ends and the morning begins, may you see for yourself the truth beyond all telling.

And in that last bright day, when Jesus Christ shatters the sky, may you be found in him for all time.