The March 7 Far Side calendar cartoon shows Gary Larson’s usual hell scene, except there’s a snowball whizzing by the heads of a couple of the devil’s helpers as they stand guard over the poor schmucks in hell. One guard turns to the other and says, “Look, Sid! Another snowball!...I tell you, this place is slipping.”
Some of you may think this kind of humor is sacrilegious. Others may think that Larson is nuts. Some may enjoy the humor, and some will never “get it.” I happen to think most of his stuff is exceedingly funny, and still enjoy it years after he quit drawing new cartoons. I have, courtesy of a gift from my son, the two volume set of every cartoon he ever printed, as well as some that never got to print.
Larson is more theologically correct in this cartoon than he knows, I suspect. As time wears on and we come ever closer to the time when Jesus Christ himself appears, the devil’s power and control are ever more slipping away. As folks continue to grow and mature in Christ, the power of Satan continues to ebb. And as the almighty church of the Living God continues to display the power and majesty of the One who created it all, hell itself shrivels and shrinks back into irrelevance and decay.
My guess is that you probably don’t quite believe what I’ve just said about hell. You probably think that it would be nice if…but it really isn’t that way. If you’re one of those folks, I ask you to back up and look at the big picture. Understand truly what the church is and does. Understand without hesitation what God says about his adversary. And know with certainty the victory that is ours through our Lord and Savior.
No comments:
Post a Comment