What does the Gospel have to say to us as we face the future? Let me share with you a word from Jesus, and a word from the apostle Paul on this topic.

Jesus said, On the day that the "Son of Man is revealed...And you're out in the field, don't go back and get your coat. Remember what happened to Lot's wife. If you grasp and cling to life on your terms, you'll lose it, but if you let that life go, you'll get life on God's terms." (Luke 17:30-33. The Message)

There's a word to this kind of prophetic writing that projects God's final success onto the end of time: it's called "apocalyptic".

We need to beware of the fallacy of the theory of uniformity. Uniformity presupposes that whatever happens today has always happened this way, and that we can anticipate the future in the light of the processes we see in the past. On the basis of uniformity it is said that the future will mirror the way things have always been. But the Bible is premised on something other than uniformity. The sovereign God of creation and salvation intervenes to disclose himself to the world.

"All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them.