The term "end game" has come into common use today particularly in connection with the game of football. This game should only last about an hour and a quarter. However, due to time outs, official delays, penalties, and huddles the typical game lasts about three hours. The object of the game is for the offense to move the ball down the field in ten yard increments and across the opponent's goal line. It is the job of the defense to prevent this from happening. If a team is unable to move the ball ten yards in four trials, or downs, the ball is forfeited to the other team.
And so the game continues through 58 minutes of actual playing time with each team striving to make goals, or touchdowns, against its opponent. Then, two minutes before the end of the game, a whistle blows and all play ceases. This is called the "two-minute" warning. Each team now begins what they call the two-minute drill or end game. This end game is a routine that they have practiced many times. It usually consists of a rapid fire offense, sometimes with no huddle, to confuse and overpower the defense. Bold, innovative plays are executed in an exciting display as a final push for victory.
We are involved in the great game of life being waged between the forces of good and evil, and we are players for one side or the other. This game has been in progress now for some 6000 years; sometimes one team seems to prevail and then the tide turns and the other team prevails. But eventually good seems to triumph.
"Though the cause of evil prosper, Yet 'tis truth alone is strong; Though her portion be the scaffold, And upon the throne be wrong; Yet that scaffold sways the future, And behind the dim unknown, Standeth God in the shadow, Keeping watch above His own." James Russell Lowell, 1845.
All signs indicate that the game is almost over. The whistle has blown for the two-minute warning; the signs in the sun, moon and stars have been given; the gospel is being proclaimed throughout the earth as never before; the sixth seal has been broken; the fifth vial has been poured out; the third angel has spoken; and the mighty angel of Revelation, chapter 18, is ready to lighten the earth with his glory. The coaches have planned a strategy for the final movements to be rapid ones. This is not the time to huddle, to decide what to do; this is the time for bold, innovative action to push the game against the enemy for final victory. This is the time for the end game.
