Chronos  and  Kairos

We are accustomed to interpreting history and our reality from the perspective of human space and time. For example, through geopolitics and geoculture, we try to explain the chronology  of events that have unfolded since earthly times. However, in our analyses, we don’t take into account  kairos , that is, the opportune time, the precise moment designed from Heaven that manifests on earth, where God intervenes in the lives of humankind in a supernatural and powerful way.

Recently, a Catholic priest challenged me with the following phrase:  “May God’s purpose be fulfilled in your life. According to God’s timing and plan,  all his promises will be fulfilled. God has a plan for you to make you happy.”

At that moment, I thought that no promise or prophecy expressed through the Word of God would go unfulfilled. Of course, it will happen at the right time, at the time God decides, and according to the perfect plan He has for our lives, humanity, the world, and all of His Creation.

Recently, a friend lent me Luis Eduardo López Padilla’s book  “God’s Great Warning of the End of Times”  in its 2002 edition. Due to his interest in relation to the previous reflections, I would like to briefly summarize what the author develops magnificently in the aforementioned book and share it, with the aim of providing – from a Christian worldview – some light and hope in these times of confusion and general ignorance about God’s Times and His Plan for the history of humanity.

The Great Hope

We are closing an era in which humanity has turned its back on God, to usher in a new era, one of peace with God. We are therefore entering a period where the Creator’s mercy is manifesting itself in an extraordinary way, giving us the opportunity for authentic personal and integral conversion. It is a period of grace.

In this way, from our freedom, we have the opportunity to see ourselves as we are, from the inside out. The Spirit of God at this time wishes to instruct all created souls and enlighten the present world, which has become a spiritual desert.

We are facing a spiritual emergency much more significant and profound than the climate emergency, without wishing to diminish the importance of this latest natural phenomenon that seriously affects our Common Home, planet Earth.

We are thus entering a period that the Holy Scriptures call the End of Time, defined as the successive period of Grace that is marked by the different stages of Revelation.

From a Christian worldview, the history of salvation can be divided into distinct periods that have occurred from Creation to the end of the world. And precisely at this moment in which we live, we are at the turning point in this history.

Following López Padilla’s scheme, the Times and that Plan revealed by God would be the following:

• Paradise Times (Adam and Eve before Original Sin).
• Times of the Patriarchs (until Abraham).
• Times of Israel (until Jesus Christ).
• Fullness of Time (until the Ascension).
• Times of the Nations (2,000 years of Christianity).
• End of Times (until the Parousia).
  • Darkness
  • Silence
  • Great Tribulation

• Messianic Times (Kingdom of Christ on Earth).
• End of the World Times (Final Judgment).

God’s Times

1. Paradise times

Our first parents, Adam and Eve, lived in a state of original innocence and familiarity with God. In the Garden of Eden, peace reigned among all creatures, order and harmony among all creation. There was eternal peace and perfect love.

However, the man and woman broke their communion of friendship with their Creator. Their consciences, darkened by sin, could no longer  “see”  God, and their wills became fragile and weak.

God’s work was thus profaned by man’s original sin, and the devil—the ancient serpent—began his reign by building a  “world”  of which he wants to be the prince and which is radically opposed to the Kingdom of God.

It was therefore necessary to save lost humanity and for God to turn his attention to his Creation. This work of salvation, through the Son who is Christ, true God and true Man, will be progressively accomplished in the following stages of Grace.

2. Times of the Patriarchs

The only Light of Faith that illuminates the men and women of this time is the mysterious announcement of a Woman who, through her Son, will crush the head of the ancient serpent (Genesis III, 15).

This is the time of the unknown God, in which deeply religious men of great spiritual stature will emerge, guiding humanity toward salvation and goodness (Abel, Enos, Enoch, Noah, Melchizedek, etc.). It is to the Patriarch Abraham, father of all believers, that the Creator revealed himself as the Living and Eternal God.

3. Times of Israel

Faith was born in Abraham’s heart and began to be a revealed faith. God is no longer unknown; He is Someone who speaks to the heart of man, either directly or later through the Prophets.

This Living God will shape the hearts of an entire people in the descendants of Abraham, the People of Israel.

This is the time of Revelation or Time of Promise because for centuries we will await the fulfillment of the Promise centered on the mysterious and virginal birth of a child who will be the Messiah and whose destiny will be to defeat the Enemy of man, sin and death.

4. Fullness of Time

The Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us. It is the time of the Messiah. Jesus Christ, our Lord and God,  “through whom all things were made .” This is the time of the fulfillment of the Promise.

The Messiah did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it. In this way, Jesus founded his one true Church, the New People of Israel.

5. Time of the Nations or of the Gentiles

As part of the Mystery of Evil that has been at work since the beginning of time, the People of Israel rejected the Messiah himself and handed him over to the Romans to be crucified.

Thus, when this Messiah Christ was rejected by Israel, the inheritance of the Promise passed to all other Peoples or Nations. That is, to all the Gentiles. Faith in Christ spread to the entire world.

6. End of Times

However, this era of the nations is coming to an end. Although Christ already reigns in the world, he does not reign over all hearts. Christians await the Parousia, or Second Coming of Jesus Christ to Earth in all his glory.

The Nations, like Israel in its time, after having received the Light of Faith,  “have turned against God and against his Christ”  (Psalm II and CX), allowing the Adversary – the ancient serpent who has now become the Dragon – to extend his entire empire and all his power, subjecting men to all kinds of slavery.

It is prophesied that in Christ’s battle against the Antichrist, Jesus Christ will defeat his adversary, casting him into outer darkness. Then the Messianic Age will begin.

But before that, at the End of Times, the Darkness of Times must come first, then the Silence of Times and the Time of Great Tribulation.

6.1 Darkness of the Times

At this stage of history, man walks with his back to the Light. He delves so deeply into darkness and becomes so accustomed to it that he is unable to recognize any Light.

Currently, it seems that we are already living through this stage, due to the seemingly irresistible and dizzying escalation of the Mystery of Evil in the world.

Nevertheless, Christian hope awaits in this dark period of the Ages a Great Light offered to all men and women of the world. A profound grace that God will give to human beings for their purification and repentance, with a view to their own conversion.

This  “illumination of consciences”  will be for everyone, for the world is so far removed from it that only with this illumination will some remember and others know what true life in the Light of God is. It will be God’s Great Warning to all men and women of good will. Ours, therefore, are times of Mercy.

6.2 Times of the Great Silence

In the very heart of this Dark Ages, from the Christian worldview, the Time of the Great Silence will take place (Rev. VIII, 1) which will result in the temporary suspension of all signs, apparitions and messages from Heaven, and therefore, of supernatural origin.

It will be the hour when the light will be darkened and God will remain silent, analogously to the moment when the Father remained silent before his Son on the cross, which led Jesus Christ to say,  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  (Mt 27:46). It will be the hour of the power of darkness.

In this way, every man and woman will be at the mercy only of the Light of their Faith and the memory of their heart, thanks to the action of the Holy Spirit.

6.3 Times of the Great Tribulation

These are the Times of Wrath and Anger of the Lord mentioned by the prophet Daniel and in Revelation VII, 14. In those Times, all instincts and passions that degenerate into corruption will be given free rein until the Abomination of Desolation will be introduced into the Holy Temple of God itself (Dan IX, 27).

Then the Mystery of Iniquity of which St. Paul speaks (II Thessalonians, 3) will reach its maximum evil plenitude.

In this Time of Great Tribulation,  “such as has not been since the beginning of the universe that God created until now, nor ever will be”  (Mt. XXIV, 21), the Antichrist will reign with his False Prophet for  “a Time, Times and half a Time”  (Dan VII, 25).

It will be in this dramatic battle where all the angelic powers will confront the evil forces – on an eschatological level – as well as a battle between men who follow God and those who reject him – on the historical level – and this battle will drag in the entire universe in its various phases, that is, both spiritual realities and natural elements.

7. Messianic Times

Finally, the final stage of the history of Salvation will come. These Messianic Times were also called by the ancient prophets: the New Jerusalem, the Civilization of Love, New Heavens and New Earth, the Reign of the Sacred Hearts, etc.

These times will be a Time of Grace never known since Creation.

From the Christian worldview, Christ will reign not only in hearts but in society as a whole.

That is to say, the  “world,”  as a profane reality opposed to God, will no longer exist. The  “spirit of the world,”  rebellious against divine laws, will be defeated, and preeminent place will be given to the Holy Spirit, who will once again sanctify all things.

It is the time of the recapitulation of all things in Christ. A time of restoration and reconstruction of the New Creation.

God created the world perfectly, with moral and material perfection.  “God saw that the world was good”  (Gen. 1:31). Evil did not exist at the beginning, but later, albeit very early in history and time.

Unlike Good, Evil is spectacular and destructive. This battle is waged by the Adversary of Christ on the terrain where all human existence unfolds, which is otherwise at stake. However, according to the Christian worldview, in the end Christ establishes His Kingdom of Peace and Holiness and manifests the Victory of His Cross.

8. End of the World Times

At the end of this long period of spiritual and material prosperity and prosperity, the end of all human time will come, that is, the End of the World, the Final Judgment, and the beginning of Eternal Life.

Final reflection

We often fail to understand God’s timing and plan in our lives and in the development of the historical stage in which we live.

It is important to be aware of both  Chronos  and  Kairos  in the mysterious events of the Divine Plan.

From a Christian worldview, we could summarize the Times and the Plan of God through the timeless and infinite action of the Holy Trinity.

The Times of the Father are those of the Creation of the Divine Thought that created everything. That is, the Times of Faith.

The Times of the Son are those of the Redemption of the Father’s Love expressed in the God-Man. That is, the Times of Hope.

The Times of the Holy Spirit are those of the Sanctification of Love poured out upon the world. That is, the Times of Charity.

Keeping this view of history and evolution in mind can help us regain meaning and purpose in our lives, integrated into a narrative of human history and the history of salvation itself. In this way, we will be able to understand that God’s timing is perfect.

Albert Cortina

*Article published on February 16, 2020 in “Frontiere, revista di geocultura”.