THE BAD NEWS is that we are living in troubled times. People are becoming more and more violent. Human life is no longer valued the way it once was. Evil leaders of stronger countries are trying to subjugate neighboring countries against their will. The threat of nuclear war remains real and imminent. The boundaries of moral sexual behavior are being torn down. Credit cards and loan companies charge interest that amounts to usury. Even the thieves are getting more resourceful. Hackers diminish the benefits of the Internet and advanced communication technology by cyber theft, extortion, scamming, selling personal information, and fraud. The times will become more and more evil as people rebel against God. (2Thessalonians 2:1-11; 2Timothy 3:1-5).
The end-time events in the Bible include the Rapture when Jesus returns to take the saved out of the world to be with Him in the Heavenlies (1 Corinthians 15:50-53; 1Thessalonians 4:13-17; John 14:3). Following the rapture there will be a seven-year period (Daniel Chapter 9) called the Tribulation when God will pour out His wrath upon the unbelieving who are left on earth (Revelation Chapters 6-18). At the end of the Tribulation, Jesus will return to establish His kingdom on earth, which will last for 1,000 years (Revelation Chapters 19 and 20). The final judgement will follow the 1,000 years, evil will be done away with forever, all creation will be burned with fire, and a new heaven and earth will be created (Revelation 20: 7-15; 2Peter 3:8-13). All creation will be restored to perfect harmony with God for eternity.
Scholars may debate about exactly when and how these things will occur. The Bible is clear, however, that the appearing of the Anti-Christ will mark the beginning of the time of God’s wrath (Tribulation), and that there will be a “rebellion” before he appears. People will turn their backs on God, and follow a false religion that teaches a way of salvation other than by faith in Jesus Christ.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, let us clarify some things about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and how we will be gathered to meet him. Don’t be so easily shaken or alarmed by those who say that the day of the Lord has already begun. Don’t believe them, even if they claim to have had a spiritual vision, a revelation, or a letter supposedly from us. Don’t be fooled by what they say. For that day will not come until there is a great rebellion against God and the man of lawlessness is revealed—the one who brings destruction. He will exalt himself and defy everything that people call god and every object of worship. He will even sit in the temple of God, claiming that he himself is God. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 NLT)
THE GOOD NEWS is that saved, born again Christians will not have to go through this time of wrath called the Tribulation. (Revelation 3:10; 1Thessalonians 1:10, 5:9) Everyone has sinned, but Christ has saved those who believe in Him from the wrath of God that we deserve. (Romans 5:6-11)
Christians are often resented because our testimony about God points out what is wrong in the lives of all of us (Romans 3:23; 1John 1:8-10). We are called hypocrites, bigots, haters, racists, Holy Joes, holier-than-thou, and a lot of other things that are unprintable in this blog.
Christ commanded us not to judge others (Matthew 7:1-5). His commandment does not mean, however, that we are to suspend all spiritual discernment. It is not the Christian’s job to condemn people or to diminish their humanity - their personhood. Jesus gave us an example of this when He was asked to decide whether a woman caught in adultery should be stoned. He did not condemn her, but He admonished her to stop sinning. (John 8:1-11).
We are under Biblical instruction to warn others, believers and unbelievers alike, if what they are doing is forbidden by God in the Holy Bible, and about the consequences of disobeying God. Chaos and wreckage in one’s life are the natural and logical result of living in disobedience to God. If a person’s style of living is contrary to what God has told us to do in His Word they will be eternally condemned in the judgement that is to come, and it is our duty to warn them. “It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31 NLT)
It is loving, compassionate, caring, and responsible to warn someone if they are doing something dangerous, or if they are about to be injured or killed. The cliches for such circumstances abound. For instance, we would warn someone who is smoking a cigarette while filling their car with gasoline. They might resent it and tell us to mind our own business. They might even get away with it this time, and the next time, but their luck will run out sometime. The Bible says we are irresponsible if we do not warn people that they are disobeying God.
Several passages in the Holy Bible admonish the believer to warn people if they are doing something that will incur God’s wrath. We are told that God will hold us responsible for their death if we fail to warn them.
After seven days the LORD gave me a message. He said, “Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for Israel. Whenever you receive a message from me, warn people immediately. If I warn the wicked, saying, ‘You are under the penalty of death,’ but you fail to deliver the warning, they will die in their sins. And I will hold you responsible for their deaths. If you warn them and they refuse to repent and keep on sinning, they will die in their sins. But you will have saved yourself because you obeyed me.
“If righteous people turn away from their righteous behavior and ignore the obstacles I put in their way, they will die. And if you do not warn them, they will die in their sins. None of their righteous acts will be remembered, and I will hold you responsible for their deaths. But if you warn righteous people not to sin and they listen to you and do not sin, they will live, and you will have saved yourself, too.” (Ezekiel 3:16-21 NLT)
In Jerusalem, Jehoshaphat appointed some of the Levites and priests and clan leaders in Israel to serve as judges for cases involving the LORD’s regulations and for civil disputes. These were his instructions to them: “You must always act in the fear of the LORD, with faithfulness and an undivided heart. Whenever a case comes to you from fellow citizens in an outlying town, whether a murder case or some other violation of God’s laws, commands, decrees, or regulations, you must warn them not to sin against the LORD, so that he will not be angry with you and them. Do this and you will not be guilty. (2Chronicles 19:8-10 NLT)
Once again a message came to me from the LORD: “Son of man, give your people this message: ‘When I bring an army against a country, the people of that land choose one of their own to be a watchman. When the watchman sees the enemy coming, he sounds the alarm to warn the people. Then if those who hear the alarm refuse to take action, it is their own fault if they die. They heard the alarm but ignored it, so the responsibility is theirs. If they had listened to the warning, they could have saved their lives. But if the watchman sees the enemy coming and doesn’t sound the alarm to warn the people, he is responsible for their captivity. They will die in their sins, but I will hold the watchman responsible for their deaths.’
“Now, son of man, I am making you a watchman for the people of Israel. Therefore, listen to what I say and warn them for me. If I announce that some wicked people are sure to die and you fail to tell them to change their ways, then they will die in their sins, and I will hold you responsible for their deaths. But if you warn them to repent and they don’t repent, they will die in their sins, but you will have saved yourself. (Ezekiel 33:1-9 NLT)
The Bible says that people may not heed our warning. In fact, they may resent it, or even hate us
for it.
It is the Holy Spirit living in us that causes us to testify about God and His perfect goodness. (John 15:26-27) Sometimes, it causes people to have a guilty conscience. They may resent being made to feel like that, and resent us because the Spirit is using us to testify about God. Jesus said:
But in fact, it is best for you that I go away,
because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will
send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and
of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. (John
16:7-8 NLT)
The day will come, (and is already here), when Christians will be persecuted for advocating for Godly behavior. Atheists and others have even started organizations like The Freedom from Religion Foundation to advocate for their desire to have all vestiges of religion (i.e. crosses or the Ten Commandments) removed from the public square. Christian businesses and organizations have been singled out for persecution. For example, Chic-fil-A was barred from Chicago. The Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged, (a Catholic charity) had to fight the Obama Administration all the way to the US Supreme Court for their right not to participate in any aspect of the Affordable Health Care Act, due to their sincerely held religious objection to contraception. Christian bakers and photographers have been driven into financial difficulty defending themselves against charges of discrimination for not providing their services at same-sex weddings. However, Christians must not shirk our Biblical duty to warn.
Believers must not neglect our own behavior, and we must warn each other to repent and ask God’s forgiveness when we go astray.
Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ. (Hebrews 3:12-14 NLT)
Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven! When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.” This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain.
Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. For our God is a devouring fire. (Hebrews 12:25-29 NLT)
While the fear (reverence, awe) of God is prudent, we are not trying to scare anyone into getting saved. God does not want anyone to perish, but rather He wants all to be saved (2Peter 3:9). The basis for coming to Jesus is love – not fear. He loved us enough to leave the glory He shared with God the Father, to come to live among us in a human body, and to die a horrible death in our place to pay the price for our sins. All we have to do is to respond by believing in Him and then to love and follow Him. (Colossians 1:11-22; John 3:16; Romans 5:6-11)
God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
And God has given us his Spirit as proof that
we live in him and he in us. Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes
and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the
world. All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in
them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have
put our trust in his love.
God is love, and all
who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in
God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of
judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here
in this world.
Such love has no
fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of
punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect
love. We love each other because he loved us first. (1John 4:9-19
NLT)
Acknowledgement:
All the passages of scripture shown here were copied from: https://biblehub.com
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