"But of the times and seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.... But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath...." (1 Thessalonians 5:1-9)
"[I]t is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light." (Romans 13:11,12)We are supposed to walk in the midst of this dark and sleeping world, not as if we ourselves are yet in darkness and are sleeping. But we are "children of light, and children of the day". The contrast is stark and explicit. Jesus said, "Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand" (Luke 8:10). The world does not know ~ nor do they profess to know. Therefore, they deny that anyone else can know. But they are blind. And those, professing Christians, who also deny that we can know: Must it not at least be said that they are themselves yet asleep and in darkness ~ if, in fact, they truly are even saved? For, they evidently do not know nor do they understand the Scriptures.
Do we claim to know "the day and the hour" of our Lord's coming? Of course, not. But that is very far from saying that we do not then know anything about the time of his coming. For, Christ himself told us that we can know not only the particular "generation" but, more particularly, we can know even the "times and the seasons". Which is to say, that Christ's true disciples are enabled, through Christ, to possess certain knowledge, pertaining to the time of Christ's appearing, which knowledge is not given to anyone else on earth.
We do know; and, we ought to act as though we do know. For, if our witness is weak and timid, then, how can we by any means bring conviction to bear upon the minds of those who are in darkness? We ought not then to apologize for boldly announcing that the judgment of the world is now at hand; and, that the wrath of God is now ready to be poured out without mercy upon this present evil world!
What is keeping us, then, from doing so? Is it because that we have no such knowledge ~ as I have insisted we do, in fact, have? Or is it, rather, because we have for so long been kowtowed by apostate church leaders and their followers, who dare not that anyone should disturb the "peaceful" sleep they enjoy? God forbid, however, that we should be willing to withhold from boldly proclaiming the soon-coming judgment of the world, because we fear to suffer persecution! For, then, were we unfaithful witnesses of the Truth.
There have been those who, by foolishly attempting to set a certain date for the Lord's appearing, they have fallen into disrepute and, so, have brought reproach upon themselves. And we know that unbelievers ~ who desperately want to believe they are not in any danger, are always ready to cast reproach upon anyone who will dare to speak with the conviction of certainty, concerning the nearness of the Rapture, or of the Tribulation. In other words, we are well aware that we must ever be confronted with great opposition not only to our message, but also to our own selves as Christ's ambassadors.
But it seems to me (as the conclusion of my deeply-contemplated reasonings), that it is just because the Body of Christ for so long has been silent concerning God's wrath against the unbelieving and rebellious, that we have not, therefore, seen any real power of conviction of sin either in the Church, or, much less in the world.
Allow me then to speak briefly about God's wrath at this very moment in time. I did recently write an essay titled, "Noah," in which I elaborated upon the fact that God's anger, in the days of Noah, was kindled long before God even spoke to Noah to build the Ark. For, at the time when God first told Noah to build the Ark, may we not reasonably deduce that God had already, by that time, determined to destroy the (old) world? May we not furthermore understand that God ~ whom the Scripture says God is "slow to anger", must have grown sufficiently angry at the world, over a relatively long period of time, before He then revealed to Noah the coming Flood? God's anger at the condition of the world had increased to a white-hot level by the time He told Noah to build the Ark. Even then, however, God had to wait yet another 100 years or so, before He sent whatever powers they were which pulled and tore the Earth's crust apart, caused the mountains to sink, the fountains of the great deep to be broken up, and a deluge of water to overflow the whole world.
If we truly believe (and we do), that the judgment of the world is right now ready to be unleashed in the full fury of God's wrath: may we not then boldly testify that God's anger is such that it cannot longer be restrained? Do you not, in fact, have that awareness within your own spirit ~ Christian? Why will you not then warn everyone that time for them is quickly running out?! In the absence of a stern warning of God's wrath, there is no other message which is capable to bring conviction upon those who by nature are actively and aggressively at war (the Bible calls it "enmity") against God.
If they will be saved,
they must first be warned.But we, that is the Church, have supposed that, rather than warning sinners of the wrath to come (which is a most offensive way to speak to people), we may instead bring them to Christ by means of an "invitation". The churches have resorted to a kind of "dinner and a movie" mentality; supposing, that even the idea of "church" is so offensive that the very environment, the "atmosphere" as it were, needs to be made more "seeker-friendly". God forbid that any such "seekers" should come to church and learn that God is angry with them and they are thus in danger of going to hell: thus, they need the Savior.
I can easily imagine that old brother Noah once had at least a few friends; that is, before Noah received a word from God about the soon-coming judgment. Surely, he didn't live 500 years without having made any friends. The Bible says that Noah was a "preacher of righteousness". It must have been the case that Noah preached about the then-coming Flood. But that message seemed as utter foolishness to those who had never once seen water fall from the skies. Besides, at his age (Noah was then 500 years old), he was perhaps not a little senile (as those to whom Noah spoke such outlandish warnings must have supposed him to be). Noah wasn't fun to be around, anymore. He was just a cranky old coot, too serious-minded for anyone to want to spend any time being with him. He seemed to have only one thing on his mind, after his encounter with God. Noah labored with supernatural determination to build the Ark, which occupied his mind for the next century, until the Flood at last came. Tellingly, not one of Noah's former friends got on his boat with him.
Judgment, in fact, is already here in the world. Yet, it is soon going to become far more severe. Importantly, the judgment of God ~ I believe, is ready to be revealed against the churches in a specially severe way. I always taught my children that the worst punishment God can mete out to a person in this present world, is to turn one over to his or her own ways. How then can a reprobate henceforth be saved? I believe that God is already closing the door of mercy upon multitudes who have trifled with God and have done "despite unto the Spirit of grace" (Hebrews 10:29).
God's anger must burn hottest against an hypocritical "Church" (not the true Body of Christ), which has long misrepresented Christ to the world. Is that not what the Scripture means, in Romans chapter 1, which states:
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." (Romans 1:18-21)It is not only, then, drug addicts and prostitutes and atheists, who need to be warned about the wrath of God.
But to answer the question posed at the head of this essay, viz.: How close is judgment? I have asserted that the members of the true Body of Christ may know, can know, and should know, something about that. And I have met a few such who do know something about the nearness of Christ's coming. Significantly, all such persons appear to be filled with joyful expectation ~ not of coming destruction which is associated with the Church's removal from the world, but they are joyfully expectant that God is yet going to move in great power not merely to "judge" the world but actually to overthrow all wickedness in this world.
How close is judgment? It is even now at the door; in fact, it has already begun. And God's righteous judgment shall proceed rapidly in the coming days, culminating (for the Church) in the Rapture of the Church ~ that Event itself being among the severest of God's punishments upon this world. But the judgment of God shall not end there. But the outpouring of God's wrath, which shall follow after the Church has been removed, shall serve to cleanse the Earth both of sinners and of sin.
How close is judgment? The following video is my recent contribution to help those who truly care to know how close is judgment, by revealing some of what the Bible has to say about certain catastrophic events which shall occur in "the last days" (which, not incidentally, we happen already to be living in those days):
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