Fires in Paris and Jerusalem

Two major religious buildings caught fire yesterday- Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral and Solomon’s Stables in Jerusalem, otherwise known as the Marwani Prayer Room, located under the southwestern corner of the Temple Mount. Regardless of my being a trinitarian Protestant, I take no pleasure from seeing others’ places of worship burn. Christian churches are being burnt down every day and I would be disappointed to see others rejoice at the sight. Nevertheless, I am minded that these two fires anticipate the day seen by the apostle Peter in his second letter (3:10):

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

All humanity’s ideas, beliefs, assumptions, pride and ‘knowledge’ will be burnt up when Christ returns. Similarly, Paul writes that men’s works and achievements

shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. (1 Cor 3:13).

Though I cannot endorse Roman Catholic cathedrals stuffed with idols and relics, and the hard, Christ-less monotheism of Islamic worship, I regret the losses each group might have suffered.

Image by Suhas Rawool from Pixabay