Appendix C

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The coming wrath of God

 

“I the Lord have spoken. The time has come for me to act. I will not hold back; I will not have pity, nor will I relent. You will be judged according to your conduct and your actions, declares the sovereign Lord.” (Ezekiel 24:14)

 

“The Lord will march out like a mighty man, like a warrior he will stir up his zeal; with a shout he will raise the battle cry and will triumph over his enemies.” {14} For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant. {15} I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn rivers and islands and dry up the pools.”

(Isaiah 42: 13-15)

 

When God breaks His silence with sin, it will happen suddenly. But, there is one thing that separates the wrath of God from violet, random acts of nature. God reveals what he is going to do before He does it. Historically, God’s wrath servers yesterday from today. I believe we are going to experience the wrath of God within the next two and a half years. Life as we have known it will immediately and irrevocably change. The world has never witnessed anything like the coming judgments of God, nor could it sustain another visitation. God will act suddenly and powerfully and all peoples in every nation will be awed by His swiftness and severity. What is Jesus about to do? He is about to open the 4^th seal:

 

“When the Lamb opened the fourth seal… I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.” (Revelation 6:7,8)

 

Beginning of the Great Tribulation

 

The opening of the fourth seal marks the beginning of the great tribulation. So extensive will be the cataclysm that God has promised that this tribulation shall not exceed 1,335 days (Daniel 12:11,12). But, during this period, 25% of Earth’s 7 billion will perish. Such an assault on human beings will begin with nothing less than a direct order from God. So, why will He do this to us?

 

Isaiah explains, “See, the Lord is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it; he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants… The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The Lord has spoken this word… Its people defile the earth; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left.” (Isaiah 24:1-6)

 

 

Symbolic or literal – past or future?

 

Some people argue that the four judgments of the fourth seal are symbolic and therefore, not to be taken literally. Others say that the fourth seal happened long ago. Many argue that God does not kill people anyway. Let the Bible speak. Notice this: “Son of man, if a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its food supply and send famine upon it and kill its men and their animals… Or if I send wild beasts through the country and leave it childless and it becomes desolate so that no one can pass through it because of the beasts… Or if I bring a sword against that country and say, ‘Let the sword pass throughout the land,’ and I kill its men and animals… Or if I send a plague into the land and pour out my wrath upon it through bloodshed, killing its men and animals… For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem my four dreadful judgments – sword and famine and wild beast and plague - to kill its men and their animals…  ‘They will come to you (Ezekiel), and when you see their conduct and their actions, you will be consoled regarding the disaster I have brought upon Jerusalem – every disaster I have brought upon it. You will be consoled when you see their conduct and their actions, for you will know that I have done nothing in it without cause,’ declares the Sovereign Lord.” (Ezekiel 14:13-23)

(Emphasis mine.)

 

No one can reasonably say after reading these verses that God’s four judgments of plague, famine, sword and wild beasts are symbolic. Furthermore, God personally claims responsibility for sending “His four dreadful judgments” upon man. God also justified Himself to Ezekiel for doing such things by saying, “I have done nothing in it without cause.” Understand that God has used these four judgments in the past and He is going to use these four judgments in the near future.

 

The full cup principle

 

What brings a loving God to the point where He will send horrific judgments upon human beings? Sin. Today, many people interpret God’s silence or passiveness with sin to mean that He is either indifferent to what we do, or He depends on the inescapable consequences of sin to deal with our evil ways. Others assume that His silence is proof that He does not hold us accountable for our day-to-day activities. For this reason, people are committing horrible deeds of evil all the while thinking that God does not care or see. But, the truth is that each one of us will have to render to our Maker a full accounting for every action!

 

Solomon warned: “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”

(Ecclesiastes 12:13,14) Paul affirms the judgment saying, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or evil.” (2 Corinthians 5:10)

 

 

Christian’s talk and sing about God’s mercy – His saving grace, but few openly talk about God’s anger or wrath. Why? Are we afraid to know what makes God angry? Have we made a religious caricature of God separating His justice from His mercy?

 

To put God’s wrath into perspective, we have to review a little Bible history to observe that God follows a consistent principle in dealing with humanity. This principle is called the “full cup principle.” The concept is so simple that even a child can understand it. In essence, when a person, city, nation or body of people reach a certain level of decadence or wickedness, God’s patience expires and He breaks his silence with divine judgments. If the situation is redeemable, His judgments are redemptive. If the situation is beyond redemption, His judgments are utterly destructive.

 

Examples

 

In the days of Noah… “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.  The Lord was grieved that He had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth-men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air-for I am grieved that I have made them.’” (Genesis 6:5-7)

 

God destroyed the world with a flood in Noah’s day because the antediluvians cup of iniquity had reached full measure. God broke His silence by the first warning the world through Noah of what He was going to do, and then, He proceeded to destroy the inhabitants of the world as promised. When divine love and mercy no longer produced repentance and reformation in the antediluvians, God demanded destructive action. Please notice in Genesis 8:21 that God took full responsibility for destroying the earth.

 

Amorite’s fill up their cup:

 

“Then the Lord said to him (Abraham), ‘Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterwards they will come out with great possessions. You however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for their sin of the Amorites has not reached its full measure.’” (Genesis 15:13-16) 

 

Notice the last sentence of this text. God would only give the land of Canaan to Abraham’s offspring after the sins of the Amorites had reached full measure! Make no mistake about this. God does not steal land from one nation to give to another. All the earth belongs to our Creator and He would only give it to Abraham’s descendants after the Amorites had exhausted their opportunity of possessing that beautiful land. Also keep in mind that ancient Israel’s possession of Canaan was based on the same conditions applicable to the Amorites. Moses knew that possession of Canaan was conditional. So, he warned Israel:

 

“But be assured today that the Lord your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them; he will subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly… After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “the Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.’ No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but account of the wickedness of these nations…” (Deuteronomy 9:3-5)

 

Don’t miss this

 

Here is an extremely important point: The Canaanites were driven out of Canaan and destroyed when their cup of wickedness became full! When God’s patience with the Canaanites reached it limit, God broke His silence with them by sending His wrath upon them!

 

 

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