Sharing is Caring

‘Before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord’     [Acts 2:14-21]     How should we interpret the frequent large-scale natural disasters that have occurred in the 21st century?   Environmentalists attribute them to human exploitation and devastation of nature.   In contrast, Christian fundamentalists say that this world is drawing near to the end prophesied in the Bible.   Regarding this, we, as Gospel believers standing in the Reformed tradition, should understand that these two perspectives are not contradictory but should rather hear God's voice, which He intends to show to humanity through natural disasters, within the providence of God's nature and history, connecting them with each other.   God's warning through natural disasters can be categorized into three points:   (1)     It is a warning regarding personal sin.   God, through natural disasters, warns us that we should live rig...

  Day 4: Acts 2:13-21, Joel 2:28-32       Before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord         Before the great and glorious day of the Lord arrives, we must not be drunk but receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit.  On the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended in tongues of fire, enabling the disciples to speak in various languages, some witnesses mocked, saying, "They are filled with new wine" (Acts 2:13).  However, Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, proclaimed that the disciples were not drunk as it was only the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel (Joel 2:28-32), and that the promised Holy Spirit had been poured out by the Lord.  He emphasized that as part of the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy, where "all people " (Acts 2:17) would receive the Holy Spirit, the 120 disciples received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and were filled.   The purpose of the wars and tumults in the...