The angel swung his sickle over the earth and cut the earth’s vintage. He threw it into the great wine press of God’s fury. As the song put it, “He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.” The talk of the Bible about the end times continues to fascinate believers to this day. People try to parse out if these are the prophecised times. One scientist/theologian has a completely different take. Teilhard DeChardin believes we are at the beginning times. The coming of Jesus was the launching point toward God’s future which will proceed as evolution does, one small change at a time. And while we might be a mess humanity has made progress: war as national policy is detested, capital punishment is seen as unnecessary, slavery is inhumane. We might not be where we want to be but in the plan of God we are on the way.
