To God be the Glory!

      We have been earnestly searching the Bible so that we might know, as accurately as possible, God’s judgment process. But there is a very important question we have not tried to answer. Yet it is such an important question that we must search the Bible to see if indeed it does provide an answer. The question is: WHAT IS GOD’S PURPOSE IN CREATING THIS WORLD, AND THEN AFTER 13,023 YEARS, DESTROYING IT?

      To begin to find an answer to this very important question, we must learn what God has to say about the principalities and powers that He has created in the heavens, and so, we will look at the following verses.

Colossians 1:16: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.

Ephesians 3:10: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.

Colossians 2:10: And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.

      The Bible also speaks of future principalities and powers in Ephesians 1:21:

Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.

      Additionally, there are a few verses that speak of principalities as they may relate to man’s government on earth and Satan’s rule on earth.

Romans 8:38: For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come…

Ephesians 6:12: For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Colossians 2:15: And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

Titus 3:1: Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work…

      Ephesians 6:12 uses the term “high places” because it refers to church members trying to serve God, throughout the church age, while under the influence of Satan. In reviewing all of these verses it is very obvious that in eternity past, God has been very active in establishing heavenly principalities and powers, which are all adjuncts or parts of God’s total heavenly kingdom. This has been true not only of the past, but it will continue in the future (Ephesians 1:21).

      When we search the Bible to learn what to expect in these individual principalities, which all together make up the entire kingdom of God, we would expect the following.

1. God alone is the supreme Ruler of each and every principality that is part of God’s kingdom (Ephesians 1:19-23).

2. The purpose of every citizen of the kingdom of God is to glorify God.

3. Sin is not a part of the kingdom of God, and therefore, has no place in these kingdoms.

4. Citizens of God’s kingdom do not marry nor are they given in marriage (Matthew 22:30).

5. God’s kingdom is an eternal kingdom that will never be destroyed (Daniel 6:26).

      Having learned some fundamental principles upon which the kingdom of God is built, we look with amazement upon the kingdom of God as presently found on planet earth. It appears to violate every characteristic of what a principality ought to be that is ruled by God.

      When we carefully examine this kingdom that identifies with planet earth, we see that in its earliest infancy, many strange things appear that do not seem to agree with our normal expectation of the kingdom of God. First, when God created this beautiful world, He put within it the Garden of Eden. Why would God do this? A garden (the Garden of Eden) in a world that is perfectly lovely appears to be pointing to a time when the kingdom of God (represented by the Garden of Eden), would be in some kind of sinful world.

      Secondly, why did God create this world requiring marrying and giving in marriage? This would bring about a multiplication of the human race, so that there would be literally billions of people who would be infected with sin because they were all present in the body of Adam.

      Thirdly, since God knows the intents of the heart before the desire to sin has developed (Hebrews 4:12), He therefore would have known of the angel Lucifer’s desire to be a king (Isaiah 14:13-14). Why would He allow Lucifer access into the Garden of Eden?

      Finally, why would God, in this perfect new world, give a tree the intriguing and exotic name, “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” and make Adam and Eve aware of it by commanding them not to eat of it, and also, make Lucifer aware of it and of this command? The solution is found in God’s declaration of Ephesians 3:10:

To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.

      In this verse, God discloses to us that throughout eternity past, God had been creating heavenly organizations of various kinds. All those in these organizations are to be treated to a 13,023-year spectacle that will demonstrate the wisdom and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

      To accomplish this, about 13,000 years ago, God created one more heavenly organization, which is our world. It was an unusual organization because it was to have people in it marrying and bearing children. We are told by the Bible that in heaven, people do not marry. Yet it was God’s purpose that this organization that began with two people, Adam and Eve, would grow to be billions of people. It was different in that it had come under the curse of God because sin reigned everywhere. It was different in that it was on display to all of the other heavenly organizations that God had created throughout eternity past. It was different in that God named a precise day, month, and year when it would cease to exist. It was different in that at the end of its existence, 200 million of its inhabitants would be taken into heaven as the bride of Christ, to reign with Christ forevermore.

      It was also different in that during most of its existence, it was ruled over by a wicked fallen angel named Lucifer or Satan. By right of conquest, Lucifer had conquered mankind by getting first Eve and then Adam to disobey God. In our judgment, God should have instantly destroyed Lucifer for that outrageous act. But God allowed him to become the head ruler of the earth and its inhabitants for the first 11,000 years of its existence. It is in this kind of world that God began to build the kingdom of God on earth.

      All of these questions and observations are valid because Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the earth. This assures us that God absolutely designed the principality of this world knowing that it would become a principality of sin. It would become, and was designed to become, a kingdom very much unlike those God had created throughout eternity past.

      But why? Why was it created so unlike all of the other principalities and powers in the heavenlies?

      Significantly, a great many angels were accomplices of Lucifer in his scheme to become king, so that they, under the curse of God, became demons or devils or evil spirits (Jude 6). However, there is no Biblical record of another rebellion against the authority of God, just this one, thus indicating that God allowed this one to further God’s desires for the purpose of this earth.

      The fact that God placed Lucifer in the Garden of Eden, even before Lucifer himself knew that to be king was the intent of his heart (see Isaiah 14:13-14 and Hebrews 4:12), is typical of the way God sometimes uses those who are evil to

accomplish His own purposes. Two examples are Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and the ten brothers who sold Joseph into slavery (Genesis 50:15, 20).

      God knew full well that billions of people were in the loins of Adam (Hebrews 7:9-10, I Corinthians 15:22). When Adam rebelled, each and every one of these billions of people would be sentenced to die, but God had already made provision to save 200 million of these people. To accomplish this, God first prepared two books. The first book named every person who would become a descendant of Adam. The second book, which is called the Lamb’s book of life, had 200 million names in it. These individuals were to be saved by God Himself being their Savior. God Himself, then, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, was laden with each and every sin of these 200 million individuals. And being found guilty of all these sins, He was put to shameful death on behalf of each of these people. He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Actually, this terrible punishment came upon Christ before this world was created. We read in I Peter 1:20:

Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,

      And in Matthew 25:34, we read:

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:

      And in 2 Timothy 1:9-10, we read:

Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:

      See also Hebrews 4:3.

      Hell means to be dead. To be dead means all life is gone forever. Jesus said, for example, in Psalm 16:10:

For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

      Because He was victorious over hell, His soul did arise from the dead. This is proven by Romans 1:4, where we read:

And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

      This verse also teaches us that only because Christ arose from the grave (Hell) can He be called the Son of God. Christ has no beginning. He is eternal God

from everlasting past. A son has a beginning. This is emphasized by the declaration of God in John 3:16 ”... He gave his only begotten Son”. To be begotten implies a beginning. How can God speak of Christ having a beginning? He had a beginning in that He became dead and then became alive again. Thus, once He arose from the dead, He could be called the Son of God. Even though Christ is Eternal God, before He could create this world, He had to rise from the dead. This is proven by Hebrews 1:2:

Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath ap-pointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

      This, in turn, proves that the full payment for the sins of the elect was made before the creation of the universe.

      Therefore, the question may be asked: “Was it necessary that Christ die twice in order to fully pay for our sins?” Remember the historical parable of Exodus 17:6:

Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

      The rock represented Christ. Moses represented the law of God. The water represents the Gospel of Salvation which became available because Christ was pun-ished to satisfy the demands of the law. In this citation, we learn that Christ, the rock, was struck but once by Moses, the law; and the water (salvation) flowed from the rock.

      However, in Numbers 20:10-11, Moses struck the rock twice and water came forth. But in so doing, Moses went beyond what God had commanded him to do, and so Moses was denied the privelege of leading Israel across the Jordan river into the Promised Land.

      In other words, the rock was struck twice when all that was required was that it be struck once. Jesus was punished twice even though full payment for our sin demanded that He be punished only once.

      Therefore, we are certain that the second time He was punished, at which time He physically hung on the cross, was not a payment for sin. As we are learning, it was a demonstration of how He had made payment for our sins before this world was created.

The Elect: 200 Million People

      Curiously, God in His wisdom gives us the number of people whom He has elected to become saved.

      We can be quite certain that the total accurate number of people that God plans to save is 200 million people. This includes every person who will be raptured on May 21, 2011. On that awesome day, the body of every true believer who has lived and subsequently died will be raised from the dead and caught up to be with Christ. At the same moment, every living true believer will be given his eternal resurrected body and caught up as a whole personality into heaven.

      In Revelation 9:14 they (the true believers) are spoken of as four angels bound in the River Euphrates. While the River Euphrates flowed through Babylon, in the Bible, God normally associates it with the promised land, the land of Israel (Genesis 15:18; Deuteronomy 1:7, 11:24; Joshua 1:4, etc.). It was the river that typified the farthest extent of the kingdom of God, which was typified by the land of Israel.

      All the elect, that is, all those who will be raptured, are presently identified by the kingdom of God but are bound at the edge (the Euphrates River) of the kingdom of God. This is because they become fully identified with the kingdom of God when their salvation is completed at the time they receive their resurrected bodies. They are called four angels, or four messengers, because the number four signifies the fullest extent. The number four emphasizes that they are to be found throughout the entire world and are to include the last one who becomes saved.

      We must learn and understand that this magnificent demonstration of the glory and wisdom of God stands forever, so that it will never happen again. We read in Revelation 1:18:

I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

      The words “I am alive for evermore” guarantee that this kind of demonstration will never happen again.

      The number 200 million is effectively given twice. In Revelation 9:16 the number that is given is “200 thousand thousand” (200 million). The Bible then says, “…and I heard the number of them.” This language assures us that this is established by God and will shortly come to pass (Genesis 41:32).*

      They are mounted on horses, thus identifying them with the armies of heaven described in Revelation 19:11-16, where we read:

And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

*The Bible gives the precise number of those who escaped the destruction of the world at the time of the flood: eight. the Bible gives the precise number of those who escaped the destruction of Nineveh in Jonah's day: 120,000 (Jonah 4:11). Therefore, we should not be surprised that God gives us the precise number of those who are saved: 200 million.

      God indicates their special target is the third part of men, as we read in Revelation 9:15:

And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.

      In the Bible, the third part originally identified with the true believers, who were to be found especially in the churches throughout the world. We read of them in Zechariah 13:9:

And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, the LORD is my God.

      However, because the churches quickly became so apostate, God speaks of them, particularly in the Book of Revelation, as the third part that is to be destroyed by God.

      God principally makes people subject to the wrath of God at the time they break His law. Breaking the law of God condemns people to death. But also, there will be condemnation of those who claimed obedience to the Bible. It will be proven that they were not obedient by the fact that they were not raptured. They are the third part. Thus, those who are not raptured are pictured in Revelation 9:17-18, where we read:

And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

      Those who claimed to be believers but were left behind at the time of the rapture will be further condemned by the fact that they are enduring God’s wrath as it is being poured out at judgment day. This is what God is teaching in the following passages.

Matthew 12:41-42:The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

Luke 22:30:That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

      All of the foregoing is in view when theologians speak of the battle of Armageddon. The armies of the righteous will have been raptured. The peoples of the churches will be weeping and gnashing their teeth (Matthew 8:11-12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; Luke 13:28), because they have been left behind.

Millions of Unsaved People Have Died Unaware of the Wrath of God

      To our great surprise, we learn that most unsaved people who have died, or will die prior to May 21, 2011, never feel or are conscious of God’s wrath upon them because of their sins. How can this be? We have learned that the wrath of God is multilayered. It consists of the following.

1. Great shame.

2. Execution (death, hell).

3. Loss of privileges of this life.

4. Loss of the inheritance of eternal life, together with the loss of the inheritance of the new heavens and the new earth.

5. Eternal destruction, never to exist again.

      While all of these punishments come upon the unsaved person, ordinarily, the person dies with no awareness that his death was a result of sin in his life. If he is a church member, he probably believes in the traditional view that sinners go to hell where they are eternally tormented. But this is no problem to him because he is certain that he is a born-again, confessing member of that church.

      In fact, in the lives of most church people, and frequently in the lives of people outside the church, the belief is that death is a marvelous moment of going to a better land. Thus, death is looked upon as a time of victory, even though it is tinged with sorrow because of the separation from loved ones and from the good things the person enjoyed in this life.

      However, the unsaved person who has died is now eternally dead. Never will he have consciously experienced the wrath of God. True, at the time of the rapture, the remains of his body that have been placed in a grave will be shamefully thrown out of the grave, to be shamed by God and by the heavenly spectators. But the unsaved dead person will have no conscious knowledge of this. True, he has lost his birthright of eternal life and the inheritance of the new heavens and the new earth, but he is not at all aware of it.

      Moreover, during the lifetime of these individuals, often there has been great enjoyment and happiness. They have experienced things such as the love of family and the enjoyments of living in a beautiful world. Thus, life and death are all good, even though they never became saved. Where, then, is the wrath of God upon these individuals who never became saved? Somehow, it seems we have lost our way in our understanding of the judgment process of God.

      But we have not lost our way. Instead, we are learning that the supreme focus of this world is not upon God’s salvation program or upon God’s judgment plan. It is upon the wisdom and glory of God. Remember we learned that the purpose of God in creating mankind and placing him in this world was to provide an enormous tableau by which all of the principalities and powers in the heavenlies could see the enormous wisdom and glory of God, as God worked out His salvation plan through more than 13,000 years of sin.

      Therefore, we find, for example, that while God hates the sinner (Psalm 5:5), in that His divine wrath is upon him, He nevertheless has enormous compassion and tenderness toward His entire creation, including sinners. In Matthew 5:45 we read:

That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

      Think about the great blessings that flow from the beautiful sunshine and the benevolent rains that water the earth. Those who were not elected to salvation can enjoy these blessings every bit as much as those who are saved.

      Christ’s compassionate concern for the whole human race is demonstrated in the two places in the Bible where we read that Jesus wept. In John 11:33-35, we read these emotional words:

When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept.

      Eternal God, the Lord Jesus, shows His empathetic distress that death has entered this world. In Luke 19:41-44, we read:

And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

      The Jerusalem that the Bible has in view here consists of all of Israel and all of the churches, which have externally represented the kingdom of God, and have become apostate. Thus, their members are headed for hell. They have mocked God. They have set up their own salvation plans. They have twisted the Bible, etc. Yet Christ is weeping because He must bring His full wrath upon them. Can we see how glorious Christ is, as He, by weeping over Jerusalem, demonstrates His compassion

to us and to the principalities and powers in the heavens? No wonder God says, as we read in Ezekiel 33:11, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.”

      This is all being witnessed by the principalities and powers throughout the reaches of heaven. They see a world that for 11,000 years is ruled over by a wicked angel named Satan. They see how few became saved, eight people, when God warned the world of the impending destruction in the days of Noah. They view the faithfulness of Abraham, and the unfaithfulness of the nation of Israel, which perished in the wilderness because of unbelief. They witness the nation of Israel being destroyed for its wickedness by the Assyrians, and the nation of Judah by the Babylonians.

      How will Christ manage a world of billions of spiritually dead people who are ruled over by Satan?

      How will Christ manage a world wherein every citizen starts out spiritually dead, being a slave of sin and Satan?

      How can God manage a cursed universe in which live a cursed people, out of which a few are to be extracted to become God’s people?

      The final focus is on the eternal church, the 200 million people whose names are in the Lamb’s book of life. How can they live among and then be brought out from amongst billions of wicked people ruled over by Satan, who is at enmity with Christ?

      How can God manage a world in which there are mostly spiritually dead people ruled over by Satan, but in that same world there are a small number of people who have been named to be saved and yet are not saved, and some who indeed have become saved?

      Our planet was created to show the wisdom and glory of God in the most difficult and impossible situation. The fullest manifestation of His glory is seen in the fact that God Himself became the Savior.

      Throughout all this, the principalities and powers witness the tenderness, the kindness, the forgiveness, the mercy, and the patience of God. And then they witness the incarnation. God took on a human nature and came personally to this world to literally demonstrate how He had suffered before the foundation of the world on behalf of the 200 million people He had come to save.

      They saw Him as the humble teacher who never ceased to be almighty God. They saw Him despised and rejected of men. They saw Him endure the most shameful, cursed execution as He hung on the cross.

      They saw, too, His wonderful mercy as a thief on an adjacent cross first reviles Jesus in his teeth, and then pleads, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom” (Luke 23:42). And right there in the eleventh hour of this man’s vile life, they witnessed him being given a full pardon.

      They witnessed the glorious tableau of the resurrection of Christ, followed by the salvation of about 3,000 at the time the Holy Spirit was poured out. How glorious God is, and they see His glory as they see Him in all of these actions.

      And mankind, too, who are residents of planet earth have had the privilege of witnessing Christ’s wisdom and glory by carefully reading the Bible.

      But then the world will come to the date of the beginning of the day of judgment, May 21, 2011. More than 6.5 billion people will be living at that time, and they will enter the 153-day period of judgment, and they will know without any

question that they are under the wrath of God because of their sins. Most of them will consciously experience the wrath of God.

      Why is there this sudden change? They are the same kinds of people who for 13,000 years have been peacefully living out their lives here on earth. But if they are alive on May 21, 2011, suddenly, there will be a huge earthquake that will kill many of them (Revelation 16:18). Death will be everywhere. Great pain and suffering will be everywhere.

      The difference for these people is described in what we read in Luke 12:45-48:

But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

      We are living in a day when God has given us, with great precision, the timing of the end. This information is given to the world, and it is increasingly being known by the peoples of the world, so that the unsaved can cry for mercy. Hopefully, a great many people, like the Ninevites of Jonah’s day, will experience the mercy of God.

      True, there have been times in the past when the teaching has gone forth that on such and such a day, it will be the end. And of course, those dates have all been incorrect. But today, the warning of the time of Christ’s return and judgment day is far different from ever before. The above verses show the tremendous importance of giving heed to the end-time warnings of the Bible. For example, the following principles are integrated into the warning.

1. The entire Bible is the law of God, and every word in the original languages is directly from the mouth of God. Thus, the church and the world should know that the Bible is the ultimate authority, far greater than ever recognized before. It must be listened to and obeyed.

2. The time information from the Bible that shows the dates May 21, 2011, and October 21, 2011, has many proofs, in the Bible, that guarantee the accuracy of these dates. This is enormous information that the world has never before known, and of course, it effects the whole world.

3. This time information is available throughout the world on the Internet and shortwave radio. It is available free and postpaid in many languages to anyone who writes or calls for it. Everyone should become aware of it.

4. Typically, people ridicule and scoff at this time information, and many people remain in complete denial.

5. Those who are not raptured on May 21, 2011, will die on that date or at some moment on or before October 21, 2011, at which time the entire universe will be consumed by fire. When death occurs, there is no further awareness of the wrath of God.

      However, until death occurs, there will be a great awareness of the wrath of God, as those who are living continue to be under the pain of the plagues that overwhelm the world during the Day of Judgment, the 153 days from May 21, 2011 to October 21, 2011. They very acutely will experience the following.

1. The shame and curse of being under the wrath of God.

2. The knowledge that the joys and comforts, etc., of this world are all over.

3. The knowledge that they have no future inheritance. Only death awaits them, and that will come no later than October 21, 2011.

4. The pain and physical suffering that will be the situation for all of those living at that time.

5. The knowledge that there cannot be any mercy of God.

      The destruction of this universe will be the final historical event witnessed by the principalities and powers in the heavens. It all shows the glory and wisdom of God.

      This presentation of the wrath of God is indeed dreadfully sorrowful. It is especially sorrowful and dreadful when we remember that it is all going to happen in just a few months. And there is no possibility of a delay. It will happen.

      But think how merciful God is. He could bring the rapture and judgment day by coming as a thief in the night, and then most people of the earth would have no warning whatsoever. But God in His wonderful mercy is giving us time to get the warning of impending doom out into all the world. Sadly, for those who are in denial because they do not want this world to end, He will come as a thief in the night.

      Moreover, God gives the example of the ancient wicked city of Nineveh in the Book of Jonah. They knew virtually nothing of the Bible, and they had 40 days or less to react to the warning. We might take a lesson from them.

1. They implicitly believed God. They did not argue with God.

2. They looked at themselves honestly, recognizing that they were sinners and deserved the wrath of God.

3. They publicly showed their great humility by sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

This was true of the most lowly servant and of the highest and most glamorous official, the king.

4. They turned from their sins and immediately tried to live a life that was pleasing to God.

5. They made no demands upon God, but they pleaded with God that maybe God would change His mind and not destroy them.

      We should pay serious attention to the reaction of the people in Noah’s day as they were warned that destruction was about to occur. It is frightening to read that the typical reaction to the end of the world, the destruction of our day, is identical to that of the people of Noah’s day. We read in Matthew 24:37-39:

But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

      One thing is certain. The only safe and proper reaction to the news of this impending destruction should be a great change in my goals, my aspirations, my plans, my purpose, my hopes in this world. Suddenly, I should realize that the only important matter that I should be focused on is the fact that in a few months, this world will be at its end. In these remaining few months, what is important for my life and the life of my family? It surely has nothing to do with making my life more comfortable in this world.

      In fact, if I am a true believer, I must know that I, as a watchman, should have a great concern that not only my family but the whole world must receive the terrible news of the impending destruction of the world.

      In other words, if the facts of the nearness of the end do not seriously cause a great change in my immediate conduct and in my goals, I had better honestly answer the question: Do I really believe the Biblical truth that May 21, 2011, is the date of the rapture and the beginning of the day of judgment? Remember the warning of Luke 12:47.

      God is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

      The Ninevites show us the path, and we should be following that path now that we know without any question that Judgment Day is so near. God has indicated with great certainty that today, a great multitude, which no man could number, is being saved (Revelation 7:9-14). God insists that He is not a respecter of persons (Romans 2:11). Thus, there is a great hope for you. You have just as great a possibility as anyone else in the world of being one of God’s elect.

      Start reading the Bible and praying that God might help you to become more and more obedient to it. Beg God to humble you. Just because you are a pastor or have been a faithful church member for many years, that does not put you in a favored position to become saved. There are no favored positions. And your church or your

pastor or your creeds may have been your god because a god is whatever we have placed our trust in. Our trust should be in the Bible alone. Even though there is much in the Bible we do not understand, we still must understand that it is all from the mouth of God.

      Never cease crying to God for His mercy. But do so remembering that not one of us is worthy of God’s mercy. Therefore, we go to Him pleading, begging, beseeching, “Oh, Lord, is it possible that I, too, might become saved?”