“And the world knew Him not” (Jn.1:10)
Fr. Campbell
“God
so loved the world,” says St. John, “that he gave his only-begotten
Son, that those who believe in him may not perish, but may have life
everlasting” (Jn.3:16).
And
the devil hated God and His creation so much, that he offered other
choices to confuse human beings, so that they would never find the God,
and would spend their eternity in Hell.
You
can have the IQ of a Da Vinci or a Mozart, but if you do not know Jesus
Christ, your life in this world is a failure. Why is Jesus the one and
only Way to God the Father? Why not Moses? Why not Mohammed? Why not
Gautama Buddha? Were they not the founders, or leaders, of some of the
world’s so-called great religions? The fact is that Jesus Christ is
God’s Divine Son, and those other “founders” were merely sinful men.
Only in knowing Jesus Christ can we know the Father. It has to be God’s
way, because there is no other way. The words of Our Lord are
straightforward:
“The
Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hands. He who
believes in the Son has everlasting life; he who is unbelieving towards
the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him”
(Jn.3:35,36).
Again the Lord speaks of the judgment of unbelievers:
“Now
this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, yet men have
loved the darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil”
(Jn.3:18).
Once when Jesus was speaking to His Apostles, Philip asked him to show them the Father. Our astonished Savior said to him:
“Have
I been so long a time with you, and you have not known me? Philip, he
who sees me sees also the Father. How canst thou say, ‘Show us the
Father’? Dost thou not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in
me?” (Jn.14:9,10).
We
see that it is possible, even for an Apostle, to see the Lord, talk to
Him, and listen to Him, and still not realize who He is. We need the
grace of God, and the light of understanding. When Jesus asked His
Apostles, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, inspired by grace:
“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt.16:16).
St. John speaks of Jesus Christ as the Word made flesh:
“In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God; and the Word was
God. He was in the beginning with God… But to as many as received him
he gave the power of becoming sons of God; to those who believe in his
name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of
the will of man, but of God” (Jn.1:1,2;12,13).
How
we need the light of the Gospel! We should thank God on our knees for
sending His Son, Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, who has shown us
the way to the Father. It’s Jesus Christ who is our Light! The other
would-be saviors are Darkness. But if we have Jesus Christ we do not
walk in the dark because we have the Light of life. So then, why is it
so important to believe in Jesus Christ? This is what Jesus said to His
adversaries, the Pharisees:
“You
are from below, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of
this world. Therefore I have said to you that you will die in your sins;
for if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sin”
(Jn.8:23,24).
No
sane human being wants to die unrepentant. We must repent while there
is still time. But “Late Breaking News” gives us reason to be concerned
about the state of the world and the readiness of most of the human race
to meet our Divine Savior when He comes to judge the living and the
dead.
There
is an observable shift in the places where the sun rises and sets. The
magnetic North Pole is no longer in Canada. It has drifted across the
Arctic Ocean and is now somewhere in Siberia near Alaska. This has
resulted in an imbalance of the earth, giving rise to earthquakes and
activating volcanos in various places. Even the natural progression of
the seasons has been altered. The British Isles and other parts of
Europe are suffering from extreme record cold and mountains of snow. We
are on the verge of worldwide famine due to the failure of crops in many
places. There is convincing evidence that this is the result of
“geoengineering”, and that the goal of the elite is to diminish the
population to a fraction of present numbers. Why is it that poisoning or
starving to death millions of people is called population control, but
shooting your next door neighbor is called murder?
Our Lord speaks of some of the signs that will occur before His coming at the end of the world:
