By Dr. Robert Hickson

Reflections on the End of Time: Transcending the Dialectic of Liberal and Conservative

Doctor Hickson presented many challenging reflections on the “End of Time,” enriching it in the light of his subtitle, “Fortifying Convictions for the Sake of Courage and a Final Fidelity (Transcending the Dialectic of Liberal and Conservative).” Taking the work of his mentor, Josef Pieper’s The End of Time, Doctor Hickson captured enough of Pieper’s sobering insights to lift the spirits of his listeners (and all who took a copy of his much more in-depth seventeen-page essay on the subject)  to the higher realities and ultimate challenge of preparing oneself daily to face the end of time with hope and fortitude. Quoting extensively from Doctor Pieper’s chaste insights, the speaker stressed the double aspect of finis, that is to say the end as cessation of time, and the end as the final goal, salvation — achieved in grace — or lost in the final negation of grace by those dying in despair. Our “end” could be, in view of these times, blood martyrdom. Do we believe this? asked the speaker. Or, do we turn away from reality and abandon ourselves to the futile distractions of the moment?

(From 2013 SBC Conference)

See handout here.

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