The Judgments of God

There is a lot of false prophesy out there that mimics Old Testament prophesy; it is harsh and judgmental in nature, claiming that judgment and destruction is about to fall. We know that much of this is not really from God, but is the product of a bitter person proclaims what s/he wishes that God would say. Yet not all "judgment" prophesy is false. This is a time and a season where God really is judging the people on this earth.

At times, it is hard to tell the "real thing" from the imitation.

This is further complicated by the fact that a lot of people think we are living at the very end of the end times. They believe that the harsh judgments of the book of Revelation are about to be poured out on humanity. Some of them even think that the current world economic crisis as one of those book of Revelation judgments falling on mankind. Others think that thinks like AIDS and assorted flu pandemics are some really of the plagues of revelation being unleashed upon the people of the earth.

In fact, if we look at the book of revelation, we have an interesting question. Many of the things in that vision are very cryptic and symbolic, so how do we interpret them? Some people try to force them into "today" by taking forcing the symbolism to point to things in modern day technology. For example, Rev 9:7-12 describes locusts who are like horses with faces like men and long hair, with breastplates of iron and making a loud sound like many horse-drawn chariots running into battle, and with "tails like scorpions, and there were stingers in their tails." Some argue that John was looking at army war tanks with the hatch opened, and a long-haired soldier peering out of the top part of the tank. And the sting of the tails is the tank firing rounds. Since he had no context to describe the tanks, John used things he knew, like locusts and scorpions. If you work at it hard enough, you can interpret just about everything in the book of Revelation into some type of modern-day technology. That is probably a stretch, yet, it really is plausible that some of what John described in his vision could be "future" technology described by comparing it to things that he knew.

Or perhaps we should take a science fiction approach to interpreting this book. Perhaps the creatures that John describes in his vision are really some type of genetically engineered mutations of cloning experiments gone array. We may not quite have the technology for it now, but science is "advancing." Maybe one day soon, our biogenetic scientists will accidentally release dangerous creatures on the earth, and those creatures will get out of control kill many, just like the plot of some of our modern-day science fiction horror movies.

Or maybe, as the wickedness on earth increases, God will permit demons to be more active and overt than they are now. So, maybe what is described in Revelation will turn out to be some type of demonic manifestation?

We don't know exactly how to interpret the symbols in the book of Revelation, because God hasn't told us. We can use our human reasoning to speculate, and our speculation may even drive us to declare that "The end of the world is at hand!" But unless God actually gives us that message to declare, then we are not speaking for Him.

Many people think that the Lord will most likely come within their natural lifetime, and they believe that we are already living the Book Of Revelation right now. I know people who believe that the Lord's return is so imminent that they don't think their children will have time to grow up before He returns. Personally, I don't agree with that. I think that the "end" is still a bit further away. I believe that people's infant children will be here long enough to have grandchildren of their own, and possibly even great-grandchildren.

Or course, none of us knows for sure when the Lord will return. Jesus said that information has not yet been revealed to us. His disciples asked Him when the end would come, and this is how He answered in Matthew 24:36: "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only."

Theologians interpret His answer in two very different ways. The most common interpretation (which most of us have been taught) is that God the Father has already decided when He will send Jesus back, but He is keeping it a big secret from everyone. The date is already chosen and cast in stone, so to speak, but God doesn't want to tell us when it is. He wants us to do our best to live out our day to day lives to His glory until the very end. But He has already chosen the day and hour of Jesus' return, and nothing that anyone does can change or alter that by even one second.

The other interpretation is that "the end" is not based on a preset time, but it is based on a particular state of mankind's heart towards God. This theory holds that God is constantly watching and evaluating mankind to see if the majority of the people still have hearts that are responsive to Him. At some point, so many people will go reprobate that God will sort of "give up" on humanity and the end will come. But until then, He is constantly watching and evaluating us, like a cook watches and samples the sauce to see when it is just right. In short, the end is not some fixed and predetermined time, but it is something that will be decided based on the state of mankind's heart towards God.

That second theory sounds a bit far-fetched to most people the first time that they hear it, because it is so different from what we have been taught in church and in Sunday school. But it is not as "out there" as it initially sounds; there is a bible basis for it.

Remember back to Noah and the flood, the first "end times" for humanity. Look at Genesis 6:5-8:

5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 So the Lord said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them." 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

The first global destruction of mankind was not driven by some divine and predetermined time table, it was driven by the "wickedness of man." In short, it was the attitude of man's towards God that upset Him to the point where He wanted to wipe everyone out and start over. We know this because of what God said to Noah in Genesis 6:13: "The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth."

Not every single person on the planet was bad at that time--there were at least a few who still had a heart after God. We know for sure that Noah pleased God, and most likely, many of Noah's family also had hearts that pleased God. We know that God waited to send the judgment until after Methuselah died of old age, because Methuselah had found favor with God. We also know that God spared Noah's wife and all of his children and even their wives. So there were at least nine people alive who still had hearts after God when He decided to send the flood.

But the rest of mankind appears to have crossed a threshold, and people's hearts were so wicked that God just couldn't take it any more. That is why God decided to wipe them out and start over--however He did come up with a plan to spare/save the ones who still had hearts after Himself, then He used those people to repopulate the earth.

You know the story well, so I am not going to tell the whole story here. But the point I wanted to emphasize was that God's decision to destroy mankind was based on the condition of their heart, not based on some sort of divine time table.

It follows that since the first destruction of the world was based on the attitude of man's heart towards God, that the next one might be based on that same thing.

I will talk more about this in our next lesson.