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Trim and physically fit at 70 years old, his hair and beard whitened by time, the man with a gentle face moved at a steady pace. He looked like a loving grandfather on his way to bring present to his grandchildren. At least, that's what anyone would think seeing him walk down the streets of the city, with his dark suit, a leather briefcase in his right hand.
But the truth is different. The man didn't have a present for anyone. His briefcase hid a bomb-that is, a "bomb" in the form of the news he was carrying. It was the news that would shake public opinion around the world and stir up controversy. As the news spread, a lot of people thought the old fellow was crazy. Others believed that he was engaged in an exercise of self promotion. At any rate, Ernie Chambers, independent state senator in Nebraska, was known as an old, argumentative, and irreverent politician.
On that morning of September 14, 2007, senator Chambers went into the Douglas County courthouse and filed a lawsuit against God. He demanded that God stop causing so much terror in the world.
In the petition that he filed the Afro-American attorney who had never practiced law accused God of causing” fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes, pestilential plagues, ferocious famines, devastating droughts, genocidal wars, birth defects and the like." He said the Deity was responsible for "calamitous catastrophes resulting in the wide-spread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants including innocent babes, infants, children, the aged and infirm without mercy or distinction," and he asked the court for an injunction ordering God to cease and desist.
Strange or quixotic though it may appear, Chambers' lawsuit against God shows at least two things: the irreverence of modern humanity, and more significantly, the anxiety that millions of people feel today because of the terrifying events taking place all around them. Strange things are, indeed, happening to our planet.
At no previous time in recorded history have we seen so many natural disasters in such a short period of time. They have leveled entire cities and snuffed out thousands of lives. According to a report of the U.N. International Panel on Climate Change, if global warming continues as its present rate, it could eradicate a fourth of the species of plants and animals of the earth by the year 2050. This same report assures us that if all the ice in the Antarctic were to melt, it would raise sea level by approximately 61 meters. Such a thing is terrifying if we realize that an increase of only 6 meters would flood London, New York, and all the national capitals close to the sea.
We can no longer fail to be concerned about such news. Senator's Chambers' lawsuit may appear frivolous or absurd, but it is coherent in its concern.
The atmospheric phenomena threatening the safety of the planet are nothing less than terrifying. Is something beyond human control about to take place? If not, how can we explain so many natural disasters, so much suffering and despair? How can we make sense of the scores of floods, earthquakes, fires volcanoes, and hurricanes? How can we cope with the terror, desolation, and death that face us on every hand? And the existential confusion that people are experiencing? How do we explain so many people destroying lives and dreams without mercy? For example, how could a human being, supposedly the most intelligent of creatures, drag a five-year-old child behind a car to kill it? Or Or how could he kidnap innocent children to humiliate them sexually and sell photos of them to the perverse world of pornography? What went on in the mind of a university student who opened fire indiscriminately, killing many of his classmates and afterward taking his own life? What would lead youth today to spend billion of dollars every year on drugs, supporting a vast criminal underworld? What is it that they are looking for so desperately and not finding? Why do they do such things, knowing that they are only destroying themselves? Something is wrong. The train of life has derailed and is hurtling out of control over a precipice.
This is book takes a look at what is behind such events. All of the seemingly incoherent acts of humanity and nature do have a rational explanation. Nature out of control, human perversity, senseless wars, and famines and epidemics are only the visible part of what is happening in the world. Behind the curtain of these apparently unrelated facts something is approaching as yet invisible and silent, but inexorable. While the present world doesn't understand, the Book predicted it centuries ago.
"Now we learn of the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near, so, you, too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door".
What is it that is near? What was Jesus talking about when He spoke those words? The answer to these questions will change the course of history. And it will most definitely affect your personal struggles and the destiny of the people you love. This is the story of the climactic end of the millennial conflict.
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