It seems of late that about every week or so the news
media reports about an earthquake, a flood, a violent storm (cyclone,
tornado,
hurricane, etc.), droughts, pestilence of some kind and a variety of
other
types of natural calamities. Add to this the different political and
military
skirmishes and wars, and one has the makings for those of the
premillennial
persuasion to get all gushy and excited and start proclaiming loud and
long, “The
Second Coming of the Lord is just around the corner.” They
love this stuff.
They delight in going to the Old Testament prophets and finding
everything from
fast sport cars to space shuttles, and a whole lot of other such stuff.
Their
special delight, though, is to find passages that refer to the first
coming of
the Messiah,
the Christ, and then
applying them to the Second Coming. They even invent a third coming.
However, didn’t Jesus warn in Matthew
24: 6-7, “And you will hear of wars
and rumors of wars. See
that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but
the end
is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom.
And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various
places.” The
premillennial “pastor” or
“reverend” will, in mighty and forceful tones, with
all of the sincerity that he or she can muster, proclaim that these
verses
apply to today and these passages teach that the Lord’s
Second Coming is
imminent. Completely ignoring the apostle Paul’s instructions
to “rightly
divide” the Word of God (2 Timothy 2:15), they ignore verse
34 of Matthew 24
where Jesus plainly stated, “Assuredly,
I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these
things
take place.” Do they really suppose and believe that
“this generation” is
talking about a time two thousand plus years in the future from the
time He
made this statement?
Sometimes, however, we may be so intent in showing that
such calamities do not indicate the Second Coming of the Lord that we
may not see
some message in them intended for us. It is a well-known biblical fact
that God
used such occurrences in the Old Testament to give Israel,
and later during the divided kingdom, both Israel
and Judah,
a wake-up call. Time and time again, He warned these two nations to
forsake
their “spiritual adultery” with the gods of the
nations around them and to turn
back to Him. He brought upon them earthquakes, drought, pestilence and
the
sword (a warring nation). He also withheld the rain, the dew as well as
the fruitfulness
of their herds and flocks. It is also a biblical fact that these
nations paid
no attention to His warning, and as a result, they were taken into
captivity as
punishment for their idolatry and unfaithfulness.
What about us—America?
Further, what about those
who are Christians, members of the church of Christ? It
takes but
causal observation to note that the United States of America
has become
morally rotten to the core. Open sin abounds, and those who practice
every
abominable thing seem to be proud of the fact that they do such things.
Like
those in the days of Jeremiah the prophet, many Americans seem to have
lost the
ability to blush. In the religious world, charlatans are spewing their
venom on
the radio and television, and in their cathedrals, and the people love
to hear what
tickles their ears. Even in the church of Christ,
there are
those who are so enamored with the “goings-on” of
the denominational world that
they have ceased from trying to convert such people from the error of
their way
to true Christianity, and have joined ranks with them in rebellion to
the God
who gave His Son for them.
A question that we all would do well to consider is:
Are the present day calamities that are taking place around our globe a
wake-up
call from God? Mind you, I am not declaring that they are, but I am
declaring
that God has used such in times past, and that He still can do so even
without
involving any miraculous activity. Whether He is using these things for
this
purpose, we should recognize that He is the Almighty, He is in total
control, and
He expects and demands of those who want to please Him to obey Him. He
plainly
tells us, “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with
His mighty angels,
in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on
those who
do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be
punished with
everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the
glory of His
power” (2
Thessalonians 1:7-9)
Are we heeding the warning that God has given in His
Word? If He is warning us through some of the ways of nature, are we
listening?
