God’s day comes…
In His time, God reckons with rebellion. Bible patterns afford stark warnings for our day.
Scripture frequently provides the reasons behind God’s judgments, giving us many examples to help us discern, in advance, the build-up to events themselves. The “Day of the Lord” will be a time of unprecedented judgment. The question presses: ‘Is our generation provoking the Lord’s anger?’
What follows are some major ‘judgment events’ in Scripture, examining what caused the Lord’s action, comparing this with our modern world, and offering a small selection of relevant Scriptures for reflection.
The Flood (Genesis 6)
Mankind’s every inclination was towards evil and the earth was filled with violence (in Hebrew “Hamas”). Another provocation for the flood was in-breeding between spiritual beings and human women. However difficult this concept may be for the modern mind, it was clearly a massive violation of God’s ordained boundaries and included a demonic element.
In the last 100 years there have been two world wars, the atomic bomb, and myriad acts of terrorism against civilians1 . “Road rage”, “knife crime” and “gang wars” etc have entered our vocabulary, an indication of a God-rejecting society spiralling out of control. 2 “Hamas” is the name of a leading anti-Israel terrorist group. See 2 Timothy 3:1-5.
The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11)
Humanity united in rebellion against God, speaking a common language and sharing common goals, having become powerful and proud, wanting to “make a name” for themselves: the Lord sees that “nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them”. Their technological progress is based on unholy motivation, desiring to “build a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens”. The tower was most probably a religious structure – a Ziggurat. The ambition of the tower reaching the heavens is notable not just because its height reflects man’s pride, but also for how it demonstrates man’s false religion, trying to reach heaven by his own efforts.
A striking hallmark of recent times is the ambition towards world government, with humanity united against God.3 The United Nations reflects this with its unexampled hostility to Israel, passing more resolutions against that single nation than all others combined! 4 Our world converges in every conceivable way; economically, socially and morally, in opposition to the God of the Bible, in support for Islam, with regard to climate change, open borders, and so on. “Globalist” media, in true Orwellian style, has even coined the term “populism” to denigrate expressions of democracy which offend the global elite, such as Brexit and the election of Donald Trump. Like Babel, the modern world increasingly speaks a ‘common language ‘and makes rapid technological advance. Barriers to communication are disappearing through the Internet, computer-assisted translation, English as a lingua franca, massive data retention and Artificial Intelligence.5
“Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, “Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.”” (Psalm 2:1-3)
Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18,19)
The Bible indirectly identifies the sins for which these cities were destroyed through the account of the attempted gang rape of angels (who appeared as men) sent to rescue Lot and his family.
Western society has changed on norms of sexual behaviour such that to affirm a Biblical perspective on marriage is now regarded as intolerant and bigoted. Society’s promotion of ‘transgender’, even among young children 6 , and gay marriage’ is only part of the picture. Countless young lives have been wrecked by the destructive effects of marital breakdown encouraged by the “permissive society”. Many regard transhumanism 7 (the merging of computer and people) as the next step in human ‘evolution’, whilst ‘sex bots’ are a reality. There has been a marked increase in sexual violence against men.8
“In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” (Jude v18)
Egypt and the Exodus (Exodus)
Egyptian enslavement of the Hebrews was caused by fear of their growing numbers, forgetting the blessings Joseph brought to their country. Their brutal treatment even extended to the mass murder of Jewish boys in an attempt to cull the population. Egypt was the world’s number one occult nation at that time, as evidenced in the account of Moses’ staff and Pharaoh’s magicians. Many plagues the Lord inflicted on the Egyptians were direct assaults on their false “gods”, demonstrating that the Lord is the one true God. For example, Egyptians worshipped the Nile, so turning it to blood would not just devastate their economy, but also struck at the heart of their idolatry.
The occult, worship of false religions and the demonic is nothing new. What is alarming, however, is the comprehensive abandonment of Judeo-Christian values in Western society and their replacement by “New Age” paganism, even within the church establishment.9
“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” (1 Tim 4:1)
The Canaanites (Genesis 15:16, Leviticus 18)
The destruction of the Canaanites by the Hebrew people is something that many find particularly offensive, equating it to the modern-day return of Jewish people to Israel and the current Israel-Palestine conflict. It is vital, then, that Christians have a Biblical perspective on this issue. We are told that God demonstrated great patience before bringing about this judgment against people whose sins are listed in Leviticus 18. Their greatest crime was the practice of sacrificing children to Molech.
The mass murder of innocent children through abortion in Western societies is the price paid for “sexual liberation”. In 1984 George Orwell envisaged a society in which the language of politics and the media would be designed to hide the truth. Today, when a woman has a child she wants to keep, she says she is “going to have a baby”. When the medical profession deliberately kills the child without his or her consent the baby is termed a “foetus”, and its killing a “termination”. Abuse against children is rampant in society and even institutionalised within Catholicism. 10
“It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.” (Luke 17:2)
“They cast lots for my people and traded boys for prostitutes; they sold girls for wine to drink.” (Joel 3:3)
Sennacherib’s Army (2 Kings 19)
The Assyrian Empire was legendary for its cruelty, using terrorism and extreme violence to subdue its enemies. After conquering adjacent nations (including the Northern Jewish tribes), King Sennacherib’s army surrounded Jerusalem and plotted its capture. The Lord responds to Sennacherib’s many arrogant “I have” boasts with their swift defeat. Violence towards God’s people, both Jews and followers of Jesus, is to be expected until Messiah returns. There have always been local expressions of this, but we see signs of it becoming universal. Within Western democracies the greatest threat is from the hard-left and its strange bedfellow, radical Islam – a situation so rationally illogical that it can only be understood from a spiritual perspective. In the Middle-East, Islamic nations have always conspired to destroy Israel, with Iran and Turkey currently presenting the greatest threats.11 Persecution of Christians in the West is relatively mild, although the right to freedom of speech for believers is coming under serious threat. Among Islamic nations Christianity is disappearing due to persecution, although remarkable revivals are also taking place.12
“Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” (Luke 21:24)
Fall of Babylon (Daniel 5)
The Lord used Babylon to bring redemptive judgment on His own people, causing them to capture Jerusalem, take the Hebrews into exile and destroy the temple. But He would not tolerate their blasphemy against Him. In the account of Belshazzar’s feast, a hand appears and writes a mysterious message, which the Lord interprets through Daniel. This is clearly a judgment on an occult nation, as the text refers to the “enchanters, astrologers and diviners” and the people’s worship of “gods of silver and gold”. The main accusation, however, is against the arrogance of the King, who set himself “up against the Lord of heaven”.
The God of the Bible, Christian beliefs and Israel in particular are vilified in Western society. Islam proudly boasts that “God has no Son”, even displaying this on its mosque situated on Temple Mount as a demonstration of Islamic superiority over Judaism and Christianity. No Muslim nation recognises the right of the State of Israel to exist, whilst Islamic scriptures (Koran and Hadith) refer to Christians and Jews as “apes and swine”. 13 Left-wing politics and media, which supposedly condemn racism, hypocritically and uniquely protect Islam from every criticism. Together with Islam, they rage against the idea of a Jewish capital city in Jerusalem.
“Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4)
Conclusion
Our generation is committing all the sins that so provoked the Lord’s wrath in the past and the signs are that things will continue to get worse. It seems probable that these great judgments recorded in Scripture foreshadow the “Day of the Lord”. Let us therefore share the Gospel while we can and prepare ourselves for the days ahead.
1 https://tinyurl.com/last100sw
2 https://tinyurl.com/angry-sw2
3 https://tinyurl.com/antigod-sw3
4 https://tinyurl.com/unbias-sw4
5 https://tinyurl.com/babelai-sw5
6 https://tinyurl.com/tgender-sw6
7 https://tinyurl.com/thuman-sw7
8 https://tinyurl.com/violmen-sw8
9 https://tinyurl.com/churchpagan-sw9
10 https://tinyurl.com/childab-sw10
11 https://tinyurl.com/MEthreat-sw11