Jesus is coming
When I speak to people of the Lord’s promise to destroy this Earth, they think I am trying to stir up trouble. I’m just a dooms-dayer. I have a dysfunction. I am depressed or have some kind of psychological issue.
Why can’t I talk only about love or peace? Why not only deal with present issues, like poverty and disease and generally making people’s life better? Why try to depress them with my crazy notions? Why be so negative?
But is it really being negative to say that this old worn-out world needs to go away, and a better one needs to replace it? Is it a chip on my shoulder that makes me looks forward to something better than this world, still as beautiful as it is, a world which has been corrupted and polluted by man’s sinfulness? Isn’t it love that desires something better for everyone living on this planet?
Yes, everyone can live on the new Earth! There’s going to be plenty of room for everyone! And I want everybody to be there! But, sadly, not everyone will want to live on an Earth made new. They will not be able to smoke, drink, and experience all the pollutants that intoxicate their minds and bodies and help them forget their miseries, but cause them so much disease and greater suffering. They won’t be able to sit around idly being entertained all the time. There won’t be any more slavery, no more luxurious lifestyles built upon the servitude and ownership of other humans who are made in the image of God. There will be no more, “I have my rights!” “I am entitled to this or that!” “I deserve the good life!” “I deserve the best!” We won’t have access to temptations that form such a comfort and confidence to Earth’s teeming multitudes. So, many billions won’t want the new Earth; it would be perfect torture to them. They would long to be free of its pure atmosphere. The very depths of their soul would crave to get away from the presence of a God of law and love and perfect order.
Self-sacrificing love would be a continual torment. Satanic hosts would be no more, and sinners would have no one to whisper into their consciences the sentiments with which they had so long been in agreement. Their tastes and thoughts ran in the groove that the devil had helped them cultivate. They had never struggled to overcome self and sin and the tempter. Rebellion and pride were never up-rooted by divinely inspired human effort. They had never known co-operation with heaven’s agencies. To them Jesus will say, “I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.”
So just as is indicated in King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, a rough, craggy stone, as if broken off the side of a mountain, and which came tumbling from space and hit the apparently strong statue of metals, but which was really very fragile; as the heavenly meteor shattered the totem pole of world empires into, as it were, billions of tiny shards of glass, so Jesus will return with His Father’s rugged but simple kingdom, and condescend to set up His throne on this tiny dot of a planet.
And when the tremendous energy of the God’s throne, where suns and galaxies are made, approaches and draws within light-hours of Earth, the magnetic and cosmic wind influences of the divine presence will begin to upset our planet’s balanced nature. And as the great power of the King of kings and Lord of lords breaks our atmosphere, unfathomable destruction will wreck this place. I’m not speaking as a terrorist, I’m speaking of the well-foretold Judgment Day. The elements melt with fervent heat; tectonic plates on the verge of slipping let loose their potential energy, creating worldwide earthquakes. Volcanoes blow their tops; hurricanes and intense tornadoes whip up; gigantic tsunamis decimate the population centers far inland of all the coasts; mighty rivers and waterways flow backward. Satan and his hosts tremble for their existence. The destitute human rebels flee in complete witless and stark terror. Satellites and jets and ballistic missiles fall from the sky like dead gnats, joining with the billions of asteroids that preceded the approach of God’s kingdom, and adding to the overall destruction on the ground. All the reinforced concrete structures and bunkers man has made crumble like powder and blow away. The kingdom of the world that man thought to be so permanent is instantly dashed to the ground.
Mercy and grace will have been poured upon a race wretched in all respects, a race boastfully wicked. But they have spurned the love of God. They cared not for His government or His law of righteousness and love. They have disqualified themselves from its glories. They have vindicated the judgment of God against them.
He collects all those, both the dead and the living, who faithfully served and suffered for His sake, and then leaves Satan’s kingdom in utter confusion. “I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger.” (Jer. 4: 23-26).
If you are a Christian and believe the Bible, then you can believe this: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 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. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?” (2 Pet. 3:9-12).
Why can’t I talk only about love or peace? Why not only deal with present issues, like poverty and disease and generally making people’s life better? Why try to depress them with my crazy notions? Why be so negative?
But is it really being negative to say that this old worn-out world needs to go away, and a better one needs to replace it? Is it a chip on my shoulder that makes me looks forward to something better than this world, still as beautiful as it is, a world which has been corrupted and polluted by man’s sinfulness? Isn’t it love that desires something better for everyone living on this planet?
Yes, everyone can live on the new Earth! There’s going to be plenty of room for everyone! And I want everybody to be there! But, sadly, not everyone will want to live on an Earth made new. They will not be able to smoke, drink, and experience all the pollutants that intoxicate their minds and bodies and help them forget their miseries, but cause them so much disease and greater suffering. They won’t be able to sit around idly being entertained all the time. There won’t be any more slavery, no more luxurious lifestyles built upon the servitude and ownership of other humans who are made in the image of God. There will be no more, “I have my rights!” “I am entitled to this or that!” “I deserve the good life!” “I deserve the best!” We won’t have access to temptations that form such a comfort and confidence to Earth’s teeming multitudes. So, many billions won’t want the new Earth; it would be perfect torture to them. They would long to be free of its pure atmosphere. The very depths of their soul would crave to get away from the presence of a God of law and love and perfect order.
Self-sacrificing love would be a continual torment. Satanic hosts would be no more, and sinners would have no one to whisper into their consciences the sentiments with which they had so long been in agreement. Their tastes and thoughts ran in the groove that the devil had helped them cultivate. They had never struggled to overcome self and sin and the tempter. Rebellion and pride were never up-rooted by divinely inspired human effort. They had never known co-operation with heaven’s agencies. To them Jesus will say, “I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.”
So just as is indicated in King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, a rough, craggy stone, as if broken off the side of a mountain, and which came tumbling from space and hit the apparently strong statue of metals, but which was really very fragile; as the heavenly meteor shattered the totem pole of world empires into, as it were, billions of tiny shards of glass, so Jesus will return with His Father’s rugged but simple kingdom, and condescend to set up His throne on this tiny dot of a planet.
And when the tremendous energy of the God’s throne, where suns and galaxies are made, approaches and draws within light-hours of Earth, the magnetic and cosmic wind influences of the divine presence will begin to upset our planet’s balanced nature. And as the great power of the King of kings and Lord of lords breaks our atmosphere, unfathomable destruction will wreck this place. I’m not speaking as a terrorist, I’m speaking of the well-foretold Judgment Day. The elements melt with fervent heat; tectonic plates on the verge of slipping let loose their potential energy, creating worldwide earthquakes. Volcanoes blow their tops; hurricanes and intense tornadoes whip up; gigantic tsunamis decimate the population centers far inland of all the coasts; mighty rivers and waterways flow backward. Satan and his hosts tremble for their existence. The destitute human rebels flee in complete witless and stark terror. Satellites and jets and ballistic missiles fall from the sky like dead gnats, joining with the billions of asteroids that preceded the approach of God’s kingdom, and adding to the overall destruction on the ground. All the reinforced concrete structures and bunkers man has made crumble like powder and blow away. The kingdom of the world that man thought to be so permanent is instantly dashed to the ground.
Mercy and grace will have been poured upon a race wretched in all respects, a race boastfully wicked. But they have spurned the love of God. They cared not for His government or His law of righteousness and love. They have disqualified themselves from its glories. They have vindicated the judgment of God against them.
He collects all those, both the dead and the living, who faithfully served and suffered for His sake, and then leaves Satan’s kingdom in utter confusion. “I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger.” (Jer. 4: 23-26).
If you are a Christian and believe the Bible, then you can believe this: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 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. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?” (2 Pet. 3:9-12).
posted by David | 5:12 AM
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