|
|
The Almighty's New World Order
R.B. CRAIG
A Bible Study in Prophecy.
Chapter Nineteen
THE BLINDNESS OF UNBELIEF Revelation ~ Index
Home ~ Index
Revelation Reference Bible Indexed
|
What will be the human reaction to this event? You know the saying, " There are no atheists in foxholes." Yesterday – one American soldier in the Persian Gulf area, not displaying any overly religious attitude said, "You have heard it said that there are no atheists in foxholes."
[NOTE: There is no way for me to describe my emotions as I sit here putting down WORDS and at the same time ACTIONS as displayed on my television monitor right next to my computer seem to be playing out the Scripture my immediate comments address.]
What WILL be the human reaction....? The whole world will know that this is the doing of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. But will they FALL ON THEIR KNEES and turn to him for mercy? Let's see!
Revelation 6:15-17 Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" (NIV)
Notice to whom they prayed – not to God, even though they had just acknowledged His existence, but to the inanimate rocks and mountains! There are a lot of people like this in the world today.
Yesterday, as I preached on this very subject, I could see in some faces a look of disgusted- un- belief! They simply do not want to hear it. I'm afraid that they identify themselves by Jesus name, but deny the power......
Mark 12:24 And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?;
Instead of trusting in the God of heaven, they put their faith in superstition or the horoscope. "They had rather believe the lie, rather than the truth..." Some of these people even profess to believe that there is a God who rules the universe, but when the chips are down, this unknown God has no personal relevance to their daily lives. He died one day long ago, for them, but he didn't have the power before or after his death to have any influence on their personal level of living.
They even have a very weak understanding of the Creation Story of Genesis, yet claim that powerless whatever that caused this universe to come into being has the power [GRACE] to save them [from what – they seem to have no idea]. Since they don't believe in hell, how can there be a heaven – of course, unless this is, here and now, the heaven they expect. As one said, "If this is heaven, I certainly don't want to go there!" These people have what is called a "head knowledge" of God, but it is eighteen inches away from reality; that, of course, is the distance from their heads to their hearts!
The awful judgments described in the last chapter give rise to the desperate question of man, "Who is able to stand?" (Revelation 7:17); SRB Pages 1337 - 1338
Revelation 7 answers that question. It also shows once more that "even in judgment, God remembers mercy." Now notice the word, MERCY, not GRACE. Grace, by this time has gone to heaven with those taken up at the Rapture. God will, however, provide an opportunity for the whole world to hear the gospel of Christ during this awful time of tribulation.
Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (NIV)
So far, six seals of judgment upon the earth have been opened. But before the seventh seal is opened, Revelation 7 gives us a parenthetical panorama of the EVANGELISTIC ACTIVITY of the Tribulation period. The chapter begins by flashing back to the very beginning of the seven-year period, where God sends 144,000 evangelist out with the gospel message BEFORE any judgments at all are permitted to fall upon the earth.
Satan has tried to pre-empt this endeavor by placing those we know of as the Jehovah Witnesses [a CULT] in our midst. They believe that they, or at least some of their selected ranks, are these 144,000. Don't believe the lie! They are not witnesses, no matter how you might admire their devotion to their cause, but are emissaries of Satan in an effort to deceive.
This is also an effort of the Mormon's who in great sacrilege have taken the unlikely name of "The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints." How sad it is to watch these dedicated souls, deceived by Satan, hurling toward hell, thinking they are the only ones on the right course. It should "take back" any true believer to observe these sheep being led to the slaughter, down the trough of disaster – to eternal suffering and punishment.
Of course, there are the other prophets of glee that should well be compared with these self-same miss-directionialist – The gleaming Crystal Cathedral, and its forth-teller of positive thinking, a brainchild of Norman Vincent Peel's philosophy. To listen to them, you will be drawn into the web of the religion of Humanism, the Church of the Humanist, that would have you believe that everything is as a consequence of your own thoughts and abilities.
These such religionists are no less dangerous to the truth than the 7th Day Adventism, Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons or Stalinism. God, and God alone is the one we must worship. He alone holds the solution to man's dilemma. The Scripture clearly indicate those that would come into the sheep-fold by some other door-way. I don't know about you, my beloved, but I want to KNOW the One in whom I believe!
On several occasions I have spoken to Jewish acquaintances about accepting Jesus as their Savior. When they don't wish to, I tell them about the Rapture, urging them to reconsider their decision when this event happens. I have also followed the same procedure when speaking to those Saturday "door-knockers".
It may well be that after the Rapture has happened, they will recall our conversation, recognize their error, and turn to Christ and become His witness during the terrible tribulation. I don't know. Only God does. The BIBLE clearly indicates that " all liars will find themselves in a lake of hell...."
These Jewish Evangelists, who may have been witnessed to by some Christians prior to the Rapture, when they discover that all the "true believers" are gone, they turn in faith to Christ to become their Messiah. It may be reiterated here, that those "so-called-Christians" who weakly talked a good talk, but walked a deceptive walk, prior to the Rapture of the Saints, will during the tribulation likely see the error of their previous ways, and millions of them may turn completely to Christ. They will remember the prayers of their mothers, their experiences in church, things they have been taught in Sunday School, and even though too late to be included in the Rapture, turn their lives over to Jesus and become witnesses. This will eventuate in their death and martyrs.
Most of us know that when a Jewish person determines to do something, it usually gets done. The latter part of Chapter 7 shows the great success of the Jewish Evangelistic efforts. There is such a great multitude of them from all nations, tongues, and tribes that they cannot be numbered.
WHY JEWS ONLY?
The greater question of this chapter is, "Why are the 144,000 chosen evangelist only of the Jewish race?" In order to answer this question, we must understand why God called the nation of Israel into being in the first place, and why they are called "the chosen race."
God's purposes for the Jewish people are woven throughout the entire BIBLE, starting with Genesis 11 and continuing uninterrupted through the Gospel of Luke. Other New Testament books, such as Hebrews and James, also have a strong Jewish emphasis. Romans Chapter 11 most clearly defines the role of the ORIGINAL branch from the root. The sheer fact that over three-fourths of the BIBLE is about the Hebrew race indicates the importance which they hold in the eternal purposes of God.
Four thousand years ago God called Abraham out of Assyria and presented him with several fantastic promises and sobering responsibilities. He promised Abraham a son from whose loins would be born a unique race of people – a nation chosen and blessed in a special way by God Himself.
|
Revelation Reference Bible Indexed
Our Guest Book
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||
| CrossDaily.com | |
|
Awesome Christian Sites |
Vote For This Site |
|
||||
|
Craig Pages |
|
[Site Index]
[Sermons]
[Blessings]
[Sermon Starters]
[Short & Long]
[News]
[Family]
[Contacts]
[Our Links]
|
|
