303: Levi Gelineau - Exhortation: The Final Consolation

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:13

   Welcome to good Krysofian talks. I’m Levi. I’m Chris. I’m Gisten. And I’m Brian, thank you for joining us this week. On this. Podcast. We select one. Talk a week to help. Us Get the Bible in our Daily News feed. Each week we post a talk that we previewed from suggestions sent in by listeners from around the world.

2. 0:30

   Then we record a short intro beforehand as a personalized recommendation to you on why we are sharing the talk. And now let’s talk more about this week’s talk.

3. 0:51

   This week’s talk is my own exhortation that I gave in August of 2023, as was a little over a year ago. It’s called the Final Consolation and I really enjoyed putting this exhortation together. I open with a reading of a portion of The Final Consolation by Brother Robert Roberts. And then? Talk about the reality of our hope being that there is kind of an apocalypse. And I think I have struggled with that for years. And I, I, I tell a personal story in this talk about that and just, you know, just how it, how it. Can be so.

4. 1:30

   Surreal or and sometimes feeling very illogical and just very strange to to maintain the faith that we have in saying yes, I believe the world’s going to end right, which a lot of people wouldn’t say right. And that’s, I think that’s this talk is me kind of struggling with that. I actually. Gave this version of the talk in at Verdugo Hills, which is Chris’s meeting, the long time meeting of Bob Lloyd. It’s a very nearby meeting.

5. 1:59

   Vaduga Hills and Simi Hills are about half an hour apart. And so I also wanted this, I wanted to post this version of it. I’m, I’m saying that because I gave this exhortation three times that summer and this is definitely the best performance of the exhortation, which is something I’ve, I, I thought was worth sharing ahead of time because there’s a reason I think, you know, that I haven’t been on good Chris, good Christopian talks yet.

6. 2:25

   And we’re all, you know, there’s a, there’s definitely a tongue in cheek to this July special of us posting our own talks. You know, it’s just, it’s just funny. And we’re. And we’re not, you know, and I’m not a particularly great speaker. I don’t get invited to teach a Bible school. And that’s OK. I wouldn’t, I would probably decline if someone said that I needed to give 5 lectures.

7. 2:47

   It’s just not my strength. It’s not, not, not, not not really the part of the body, you know, of First Corinthians 12 that I am. But I anyways, I, I was excited to share it And, and it is something that I’m still kind of learning at my age. I’ve been, I’ve been giving exertations for 20 years, but when I, this is the third, third time. And for me especially when I have actually given the talk, the 2nd and 3rd and 4th time is significantly better. So now it’s part of my preparation when I when I do take the time to properly prepare and actually taking a video recording of myself giving the talk 1st and then then going and giving it at at the ecclesia I’m speaking at. Anyways, so.

8. 3:29

   That’s the that’s some of my context before, before sharing this talk. It is the most recent exhortation I’ve given. So it’s also funny when I look back when I was asking myself what is the best talk I’ve ever given, I ended up with the last one. So that was also, you know, a funny thing.

9. 3:47

   But I’m, I’m, I’m excited to share it. I hope it’s helpful. I hope there are some ideas in here that are helpful. Thank you again to everyone for listening to the show for so long. I can’t believe we’re past 300 episodes. So here is the final consolation. Good morning, I’m going to start my exertation in a non advisable way. I’m going to read something for a long time. So.

10. 4:09

    Work really hard on your attention, please, if you or me, it’s this is a big struggle is a quote from the final Consolation written by Brother Robert Roberts in the the year 1895 The final. Consolation is a. Small pamphlet that Robert Roberts wrote and it was his vision of the Kingdom. We approach Jerusalem, or rather Yahweh. Shema, the new name of the new city from the South. It stands in the southernmost section of the Holy portion. It’s an immense city built upon a plan of perfect symmetry and proportion.

11. 4:40

    It is very unlike the huddled clusters of human dwellings called towns with which we have been familiar. The general plan is an exact square marked by an outer wall. The square is of enormous extent, measuring 9 miles through at any point. The wall is of bright stone and adorned with towers at regular distances.

12. 4:56

    Keep paying attention. We descended from the overlooking hill and entered by one of these gates. It would be pleasant to stay and inspect the city, but we want to hurry on to the temple, and therefore we must be content with a rapid passage to the central thoroughfare, which we have chosen to the northern exit by one of the gates in the north wall. Just before passing on, we notice at a glance the stately character of the city.

13. 5:17

    The streets are straight and wide and shaded with trees, and at regular distances open out onto squares and crescents. The houses are not high, and stand apart in gardens, except where here and there palatial blocks of buildings spring from the midst of the squares. We asked what these are, and informed that they are reception houses for the accommodation of the visitors, who daily come from all parts.

14. 5:37

    There’s an immense number of people in the city, but the city is so vast that they do not appear numerous except at certain points as we pass along. Their aspect is such as we never saw in any city crowd before, so quiet and yet so cheerful, so brightly interested in everything, yet so orderly and respectful, so apparently cultured and well to do, yet having none of the fussiness and arrogance usually associated with prosperity. All are well clad, clean, intelligent, good, righteous and happy.

15. 6:03

    No boisterous merrymaking, no foolish banter, no unseemly utterance. There are few. These are few of the happy subjects of the Kingdom of God. They’ve come from all parts of each of the earth, all parts of the earth, to do homage to the King, wives and families with them, leaving behind them prosperous homesteads and occupations to which they return in a little season.

16. 6:23

    We hasten in a straight line along our Nine Mile Ave. of picturesque and happy human habitation. We could take the help of an electric tram if we liked, for such has been provided in all the thoroughfares that’s fancy for the use of the people. But in our new state we prefer to walk. We can quicken our pace when we want to do so, by gliding along in the air, skimming the surface of the road as we dreamt of in our mortal days.

17. 6:50

    We get out at the gate of Judah, opposite which, after crossing an ornamental common of about half a mile in breadth that runs around the entire city, there opens a magnificent Hwy. running in a straight line in a northern direction towards the temple, which is distant about 30 miles. Along this highway we proceed again. That is written by Brother Rob Roberts in the year 1895. That’s why an electric tram is special, and that’s why I think it matters that people are clean. I thought that was funny.

18. 7:17

    Why does it matter that they’re clean? It’s been our hope as Christadelphians for a very long time for the Kingdom of God to come here on earth. Pretty neat that he wrote that 130 years ago. God will wipe every tear from our eye. We just read from every tear from every eye. A couple years ago, I was at dinner with a client who had grown to be a friend, and we started talking about religion.

19. 7:41

    His father was a pastor, but he’d sworn off organized religion when he was 17. And he asked me, so how then do you think it all ends? So he said. I said, well, there’s a big battle. All the nations of the earth will come together to fight against Jesus and the Saints. Jesus wins.

20. 8:04

    The armies and might of men are easily overthrown. Jesus rules from Jerusalem or Yahweh Shema for 1000 years. Streets are paved with gold. We float and you know we can. We can float instead of walk. Electric trams, all that stuff.

21. 8:20

    I didn’t say that exactly, but it was close. He started laughing and he said really like fantasy movie things. As he said. I laughed too, because it was the social thing to do. And I said, yeah, I guess I’m pretty apocalyptic when it comes down to it. And I never thought about that, that I’m I’m someone who believes in an apocalypse now some days. I don’t really disagree with him. Will the world really end with a trumpet sound? Will there really be a last battle? I was in a CYC class once where the brother described the final battle and he said the Saints will be able to shoot lasers out of their hands.

22. 9:15

    I’m looking forward to that. What? And after class, I stood with a friend of mine and I said that was crazy lasers out of the hands. And she said, yeah, and she doesn’t come around anymore. Our hope is not lasers out of our hands.

23. 9:38

    The complexity of revelation, what we just read, I think makes it easy to hand wave away. I think it makes it easy to ignore. I think it makes it easy for smart, intelligent people to say, well, this can’t be it. This is too confusing. There’s a philosophical argument that’s called the puddle analogy, which I’m going to try to explain, that you also can pair with revelation being confusing, and actually Douglas Adams described it in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

24. 10:11

    So here’s another short reading. This one’s shorter, but still funny. This is rather as if you imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, this is an interesting world I find myself in, an interesting hole I find myself in. This fits me rather neatly, doesn’t it? In fact, it fits me staggeringly well. Must have been made to have me in it. This is such a powerful idea for the puddle. And as the sun rises and the sky and the air heats up, and as gradually the puddle gets smaller and smaller, frantically hanging on to the notion that everything’s going to be all right.

25. 10:44

    Because the world was meant to have him in it was built to have him in it. So the moment that he disappears, it catches him rather by surprise. I think this may be something we need to watch out for. That’s what Adam said. And there’s a there’s a philosopher who describes it. William Lane Craig describes it as one appealing one appeals to a self selection effect in order to eliminate surprise that one observes, however improbable.

26. 11:08

    The anthropomorphized puddle can be surprised at its own existence only if the whole exists, so it shouldn’t be surprised how well the whole fit. If the whole were not there, the puddle would not exist to be surprised about it. A fear that I have sometimes when my faith is weak is have I used Revelation as an ending to the story I’ve made-up in my life to explain my own existence? I mean, it is pretty confusing.

27. 11:36

    I’m the wrong brother to invite to explain to you every part of Revelation 21. And am I really? Is it really fair for me to expect of myself or especially others to believe? To really believe that our regular day-to-day life and the real physical experiences that we have will all end in a moment or in a twinkling of an eye.

28. 12:04

    Well, yes, the answer is yes. Yes, Revelation is real. The river of life is real. The lion sleeping with the Lamb is real. The lame man leaping like a deer is real. All nations will come to Jerusalem, and they will come to Jerusalem to worship. There will be no more need for the sun.

29. 12:24

    This is reality. God has shown to keep His promises. Prophecies we read have been fulfilled, and if part of this Bible is true, then I think the whole thing is true. Does anyone know what the newest country in the world is? It’s South Sudan. South Sudan was founded in 2011 and actually right now South Sudan is competing in the World Cup of Basketball.

30. 12:53

    They have a basketball team that’s competing in the FIBA basketball tournament. South Sudan thirteen years old. I wonder if you know, so that that was 2011. I was baptized in in oh, shouldn’t, shouldn’t have said this. 2000 I was baptized in 2000. I wonder if I had been taught for years and years that there would be a nation called South Sudan, how that would impact me when it then happened. I’m saying that because, as we all know, as Bible students, Ezekiel 37 and other passages predicted the establishment of the nation of Israel, which happened in 1948. And Robert Roberts and John Thomas wrote about that almost 100 years before that, the nation of Israel would be founded, People would be drawn out from the world and the nation of Israel would be founded. I wonder, I think about South Sudan, just as an example, because I think for some it would be just that random, just that weird.

31. 13:57

    Like what if we had, what if we had spent 20 years? What if we’d spent 100 years predicting the establishment of South Sudan? Right then we would see it happen and we would see their team play in the basketball tournament and we’d think, wow, that’s amazing that the Bible said that we’ve got we’ve, we’ve come far now.

32. 14:14

    What’s it been 70 plus years since the establishment of Israel for my generation, It’s easy to forget how amazing of a miracle that was. It’s easy to forget that revelation is real. I think again, maybe it’s easy for me. It’s easy for me to forget this. I’m a very busy person. I have a baby.

33. 14:36

    You heard her before we started. She hit her head on the chair. It was really sad. I have stressful client relationships at work. I have so many people I’m concerned about. I have a mortgage. I have all these things, all these external pressures. Jess and I often quote in a joking way, Second Corinthians 11/28. Paul says, besides all this, I have the pressure every day of all the churches.

34. 15:02

    So we say besides all this, it’s when, when you get your, your head so clouded with so many things, it’s hard to remember that revelation is real. And I think as I’m, as I’m standing up here speaking to you, that’s different for some of us, for some of you, revelation is more real.

35. 15:26

    You think more about it, frankly, you’re older than me. You’re looking forward to that day and you look forward to it and you focus on it every day. And I’m, I’m envious of that focus. It’s hard to keep the faith that that the sun really will go away and all the light of the world will come from the temple. And really this apocalyptic reality, because we are a little apocalyptic, should inspire constant good, for we know that Jesus could come at any moment.

36. 16:05

    CS Lewis said the doctrine of the second coming has failed so far as we are concerned if it does not make us realize that at every moment of every year in our lives, Jesus is knocking at the door. That’s a warning for me. I believe in an apocalypse and an ending, but that should only inspire positive actions in everyday.

37. 16:24

    That doesn’t mean that I get to put my head in the sand and ignore injustice or ignore the sad things that happen in the world, not take action when I can.

38. 16:36

    I can’t just say, well, it’ll all be over soon and shrug off the terrible headlines in the paper. I need to respond to hunger or to climate issues. Matthew 25 says whatever you have done to the least of these, you have done to me. Our Father wants to be with us, and He looks forward to that day with nothing standing between us, with the end of this dispensation in the coming of the final consolation. He wants to hold us.

39. 17:07

    He wants to hear about us. He wants to hear about our story. Revelation is very real. Thankfully, that day is coming. We’re finished reading Revelation 22 at verse 5, but I’m going to close now with verse six and seven. And he said to me, these words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his Angel to show his servants what must soon take place.

40. 17:36

    And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Good Christadelphian Talks podcast. We hope this talk helped you in your walk and brightened your day. If you would like to hear more, please subscribe for new episodes.

41. 18:06

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42. 18:48

    God bless and talk to you next week.