Repent now and undo all the damage done

“Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.

And when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,

And prayed unto Him: and He was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD He was God.

Now after this he built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entering in at the fish gate, and compassed about Ophel, and raised it up a very great height, and put captains of war in all the fenced cities of Judah.

And he took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the LORD, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city.

And he repaired the altar of the LORD, and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel.” (2Chron. 33:11-16).

In the second resurrection, the lost will awaken like the woman of whom I once heard. She had attempted suicide by overdosing on pills. Her loved ones found her unconscious and she was sped to the emergency room. There the doctors saved her life. But after coming out of her drug induced coma, she looked around and found that her suicide had been interfered with, her hopes and plans for eternal silence intercepted, and she went into a blind rage. She had wanted death and she was forced to live on. Her desire to die and forever to forget her miserable life left her enraged for having to face another day of misery.

In the second resurrection, all the past rejection of God’s offer of pardon and power to overcome vices and to confess mistakes, must be dealt with. We might have hoped that we would never face the consequences of our sinfulness, yet all who would not repent before God and seek the Saviour’s face will awaken one last time and will face their consequences in full awareness of them, all at once, and in full regrets. The tempter will no longer be ever-present to aggressively distract the conscience from its all-important duty to make wrongs right. All that they will experience is the sober wrath of God toward all treason against His eternal, holy, upright kingdom. Every ill done to the children of men they should have found it their happy burden to undo until the end of life. But, such opportunities are all long gone, never again to pass them by.

If we find that we awaken in that second resurrection, we will want the mountains to fall on us. We will want to commit suicide, but not be able. All that we didn’t overcome overcame us. We didn’t care about the second resurrection issues during the temporal life, but we will care about it all on the Day of Judgment. Damages done to friends, family, strangers, and thus damages done to God who made them, could have received forgiveness from people and from their Maker. “He that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope” (1Cor. 9:10); likewise, restoration and reimbursement could have been joyfully offered in the hope and the possible fulfillment of their future peace on earth and later entrance into the eternal kingdom of God. But, those sins were marginalized during temporal life, and must now receive the rightful justice that it could have come through years of sorrow and shame and fear and guilt, and paid for in humiliation and toil. On that second resurrection day, the years of side-lined internal reproaches will be paid up in unutterable heartache that will have no hope for making them right or its accompanying joy.

The heavenly record could have been blotted out and a wonderful welcome heard to enter into the gates of the city of God. But, now in the second resurrection all those repressed acts, with their shame and guilt, must be given answer for in judgment. They must be confessed and wept over, and suffered shame and guilt for, all at once. It will feel like the weight that destroyed Christ in Gethsemane to Golgotha, but without the Father rewarding with the praise He gave His Son. With the Lamb of God and all His redeemed, they will not have this said of them, “It pleased the LORD to bruise [them]; He hath put [them] to grief.… He [saw] of the travail of [their] soul, and [was] satisfied: by [their] knowledge [did] My righteous servant[s] justify many…. Therefore will I divide [them] a portion with the great, and [they] shall divide the spoil with the strong; because [they] poured out [their] soul unto death: and [they were] numbered with the transgressor[s].” (Isa. 53:10-12).

Rather, on that day all the confessions of faults against others, of all the robberies of church, society, and nation, will be confessed before the hosts of heaven and earth, family and acquaintances. But the worst of the awful, unending shame and contempt will come from the convicting God, whose inescapable, unavoidable gaze sees the wicked motives of each of these individuals who had spent their short temporal life disgracing and dishonoring Him. This time, they will be captives to unutterable shame and guilt.

They could have averted Judgment Day during their 70, 80, 90 years of existence. The investigative judgment was the solution, with the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy counsels pointing out all of their sins, and giving sufficient evidence for conviction and abundant hope in God’s mercy. Those convicting gifts from God were perfectly suited to allow sinners to avoid this awful day of Judgment before the Most High. The investigative judgment happened while there was still a Mediator between sinner and Most High God. During an open probationary time for humanity Christ’s provision for mercy was still available to buffer the criminals of every crime from the later overpowering convictions of the highest court of heaven.

But, now in Judgment Day the great Judge of all the earth must satisfy the justice of His eternal kingdom, the standard of which is higher than the highest human thought can reach. The Judge has to do this; He must. Even toward His beloved Begotten He is no respecter of persons. Had His only Begotten fallen to a single temptation He would not have spared Him eternal destruction. The Prince of heaven would have remained in Earth’s tomb to molder and His Spirit, as a reminder of the lost battle between the issues of the adversary and the issues of God, would have forever remained in the tomb also. And the Son knew that that was only right. But, with His victory over Satan His Father is vindicated before the whole court of the holy angelic hosts. The Day of Judgment can sit.

“I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool: His throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire.

A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him: thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.

I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.” (Dan. 7:9-11).

“I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought Him near before Him.

And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” (Dan. 7:13,14).

“And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.

And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,

Saying, We give Thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power, and hast reigned.” (Rev. 11:15-17).

“And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

And the remnant were slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of His mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.” (Rev. 19:20,21).

“And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.…

But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power.” (Rev. 20:1 ,2,5,6).

The dangers against the eternal kingdom from the poisonous lusts that Satan has deeply implanted into their hearts, but which they, by personal choices, had not given opportunity for Jesus to permanently remove, preclude their destruction rather than allow them to enter and infect the eternal kingdom. Humanity was given a lifetime to have sins expunged from the soul. In order to keep the eternal kingdom safe from the dangers that Satan had inculcated for the kingdom’s eventual, ultimate destruction, every human, old and young, were given abundant opportunities to repent and to undo the misery they caused.

God had granted each member of the human race a long life of exposure to the evil results of his evasions of truth that spared his soul from these sudden and full regrets. Over and over again they saw the misery and desolation that resulted from selfishness and self-centeredness. Children damaged beyond repair, parents neglected in their sunset years, spouses’ emotionally wasted, employers robbed, employees abused, families brought to ruin by the sellers of narcotics, alcohol, nicotine, hemp, whether from the pharmacy or from off the street, all will be weighed in the balances of a God who respects no person of rich or poor, free or bond, old or young. They are all but creatures in His sight, regardless of their imagined greatness. None are above His position as Creator and Judge of all.

No sinner is ever extolled by God. No one will He looked up to for his cleverness. On that day, all will see themselves as fools before the great omniscient One, whose righteousness is perfect wisdom, and whose love teaches the deepest knowledge. Because the deceiver will no longer be present to whisper his lies they will finally see His love for what it has always been. These souls will be excluded from the unutterable gift of an eternity in complete freedom from sin. The beautiful existence that God had originally given in the Garden of Eden will go to others who allowed their Creator the right to wash away in His blood all their putrid self-sufficiency, and the stench of their propensity to in-grown sins. They will see it, but it will be withheld from their entrance. The decades of their temporal life will appear lavished with providential opportunities to prepare for this day, opportunities that they squandered in exchange for some of their own self-made, miserable peace of mind. Now, in view of the perfect joy of the redeemed who took advantage of the investigative judgment, what a mistake was their wasted life of irresponsibility before God’s accurate, loving, necessary reproofs and convictions!

“When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory:

And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth His sheep from the goats.…

Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.…

Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.…

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.” (Matt. 25:31,32,34,41,46).