“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation”
– 2 Corinthians 6:2
What if life as we know it were to end today? Are
you ready for that to happen? Almost all religions speak of an end of the
world. There are some very
interesting things happening in our day. When we look at Jesus’ Olivet
Discourse and His teaching on what to expect in the End Times we see a great
deal of the unprecedented activity He warned about (cf. Matthew 24-25). What if
the days He spoke of were about to occur? What would you do? Would you have any
regrets if you had to stand before your Maker today, tonight, would you wish to
have done anything differently?
In Genesis 1:14 God through Moses said that the
lights in the heavens such as the sun, moon and stars serve as “signs” or a flag, a signal, a warning of things to
come. The LORD through Joel said that, “Before the coming of the great and
awesome day of the LORD” there would be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and
evidence in the sky of that day of the LORD. The signs Joel mentions are,
“Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness,
and the moon into blood” (cf. Joel 2:28-32). Interesting. There have been blood
moons in our forecast of late. Five new earth-like planets were just
discovered. For those so inclined there are always "signs" in the
heavens to see.
Personally, I look at the world, the mass of
humanity and its downward spiral into deeper and darker sin and it brings to
mind Jesus’ statement that the End Times would be debauched like the Days of
Noah (Mat. 24:37). Jesus spoke of unprecedented
“great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world
until this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Mat. 24:21). There are more ways to
exterminate the world today than ever before. The militaries of the world are
proliferating. (Each day seems to bring another ballistic missile test by North
Korea.) Humanities alterations of nature are unleashing a host of mutations
that we can’t even fathom the full effects of. I’m not a tree hugger but
humanity has abused nature and we see the consequences in the extremity of
weather patterns. We see earthquakes in every part of the world often
accompanied by the compounding problem of tsunamis. Global greed and oppression
is rampant. We are a world militantly divided religiously, economically, and
culturally. Perversion in its various pornographic forms is one of the most
profitable multi-billion dollar businesses in our day. Violence against the
image of God in humanity is viciously seen in abortion and a growing
inclination to rationalize the euthanizing of the weak and infirm. We see
decapitations, genocide, and a myriad of other consequences of departing from
and rebelling against the God of creation.
Globalism seems inevitable the recent response of nationalism
notwithstanding. Even an atheist has to question and be concerned about the
state of the world today. Can things get much worse? Are all of these death
producing variables aligning to a critical mass of cataclysmic proportions?
Regardless of how you view prophecy and in
particular the “blood moons” and other “signs” that will eventually come, you
still must consider my initial question, “What if it were today?” And you know
what? “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation”
(2 Cor. 6:2). NOW, no matter what
time it is on the prophetic calendar or your personal life calendar, it’s time
to consider salvation. God tells us to consider the brevity of our days (Psalm
39:4-5). God says in His word that our days go up like smoke; they’re like a
shadow in the night (Psalm 102:3). God holds our days in His hand (Psalm
102:23-24). And He says “today,” right now is the time to consider the
salvation He so graciously offers to us. He guarantees us no more than “now” to
get right with Him.
Why the hurry? The Bible speaks of a day of God’s
judgment on sinful humanity. “For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the
earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His
truth” (Psalm 96:13). You can’t plead ignorance anymore. “Truly, these times of
ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in
righteousness by the Man [i.e. Jesus] whom He has ordained. He has given
assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31). Those
words were inspired and penned over two thousand years ago. We’re closer today
than ever before (cf. Rom. 13:11-14). Today
is the day of salvation for you! Don’t let it pass.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ was God’s
imprimatur on the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. The resurrection
proves Jesus conquered death and the death penalty for sin. The resurrected
Jesus leads the way to forgiveness and eternal life. God did all of that to
save you from your sin (cf. Romans 8:31-32). “How shall we escape if we neglect
so great a salvation”? (Hebrews 2:3). You won’t escape if you neglect to decide
to accept Jesus as Savior. There are no second chances after death; no
purgatorial options. Indecision is decision. You must decide. If we miss our
“day,” we will spend eternity in torment and regret for our sinful stupidity.
The choice is yours (cf. Matthew 25:46). Today
is the day of salvation for you! Don’t let it pass.
What if the world as we know it was to end today
or tonight and we were brought to stand before God to give an accounting? Are
you ready for that? Maybe you don’t believe in any of this? Okay, but whether
or not we believe in something does not affect the truth of something. You can
jump off a bridge in defiance of gravity. But you will plummet and crash into
the truth of that law of God’s nature. The same is true of God’s Law. If you
break one Law, you break them all. That is God’s holy standard of righteousness.
It’s the only standard that matters (cf. Galatians 3:10-13; James 2:10). God
states each person will die one day and stand before Him to give an account
(Heb. 9:27). There are a myriad of personal end times before the final global
End Time. What if you are near your personal end time? Today is the day of salvation for you! Don’t let it pass.
How can God justifiably sentence a person to hell
for eternity based on one sin? Let me illustrate. If you have a snowball fight
with your friends and hit them, that's to be expected and very forgivable. But
if you throw a snow ball and hit a senior citizen, that is far more serious an
offense. And if you throw a snowball and hit a dignitary, say a
president, you would be swamped with secret service agents piling on you
to protect the president. Then it’s an entirely different ball game. Then you
would be locked up for a long time. It's not only that we sin, but that all our
sins are primarily against God, “the blessed and only Potentate, the King of
kings and Lord of lords” and His holy law (1 Timothy 6:15). David was inspired
to write, "Against You, and You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in
Your sight - that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You
judge" (Psalm 51:4). Seeing sin that way makes a big difference doesn't
it. Our sins involve others and causes great pain. That is bad. But more
importantly, our sins are against God, that makes them makes them a determining
factor in our eternal destiny. What if today was the day you had to stand
before God to give an accounting of your sins?
Aren’t you a bit concerned? A little interested? A
bit worried at your delinquency toward God? Aren't you a little concerned about
your eternal destiny? There’s an end of the world spirit in the world today.
People are curious about what is happening around them. They are wondering
whether or not what is happening today has a more vertical transcendent
meaning. There are problems in the world today that seem unsolvable. That’s
exactly what Jesus said there would be in the Latter Days. “And there will be
signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of
nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring” (Luke 21:25).
“Perplexity” means a state of confusion
over an unsolvable problem. It expresses the idea of anxiety over the
unknown, a fearful apprehension over a dark cloud of doom approaching. I read
an article today which estimates that every person in the world has an average
national debt of $21,714 (and that I believe is a very modest estimate; it is
probably far greater especially in Western countries.) The world debt is
estimated to be 152 trillion dollars![1]
A trillion is a million-million. If we stacked a trillion one dollar
bills it would be a pile 67,866 miles high; that's about a quarter of the
way from the earth to the moon! 152 trillion dollars of one dollar bills
stacked would measure approximately 20 round trips to the moon! A trillion
dollars in one dollar bills weighs 22,000,000 pounds or about 125 blue whales
in money. 152 trillion dollars would weigh 19,000 blue whales in weight! [2]
It shouldn’t surprise us then that economists are predicting a global economic
collapse of biblical proportions, and no one knows how to solve this problem.
Socialism and more government isn't the answer; it’s a big part of the problem.
The world is trying to fill the void in their heart with spending. But nothing
in this world can fill such a void. The only answer is Jesus; only He can fill
an empty heart. People aren't turning to Jesus like they should. And as a
result, people in the world today can’t figure life out. The unknown is
frightening. But more frightening is knowing doom is approaching with no way of
escape. Today is the day of salvation for you! Don’t let it pass.
How can we get ready for the approaching storm?
Jesus said, “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to
escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of
Man” (Luke 21:36). The escape Jesus spoke about is the Rapture. Jesus will
remove true believers from this world before
the worst befalls it (1 Thess. 4:13-18; 5:1-9). In light of the above
illustration a question is raised: Will the Christian who lives in massive debt
be eligible to go with Jesus at the Rapture? That’s a good question. Hopefully
such a person has good life insurance to pay off the debt, or has relatives or
some plan to pay off their debt. Hopefully what they leave behind can pay off
their debt. Otherwise those who are left behind will have to pay for the monetary
sins of those leaving. Maybe that is a just recompense for those who refuse to
accept Jesus as Savior. But it certainly is a poor testimony for those who
leave such debt behind. Best thing to do is get out of debt now so that when
the time comes, there will be no doubt and those left behind will have a good
testimony to contemplate. We need to do more seeking God and His kingdom first
than playing in the world (see these verses: Matthew 6:33-34; 1 Timothy 6:3-10,
17-19; 1 John 2:15-17).
Jesus exhorted His disciples to pay attention; to
watch the signs; to be ready. Christian, if you are playing around with sin,
STOP! Repent and get right with God. “And do this, knowing the time, that now
it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than
when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore
let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in
lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts” (Romans 13:11-14). “Beloved,
looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace,
without spot and blameless; and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is
salvation . . .” (2 Peter 3:14-15).
If you have no personal saving relationship with
God through faith in Jesus Christ, get one. I’m not talking about being
religious. Jesus spoke of a righteousness that exceeds mere religiosity (cf.
Matthew 5:20). Jesus said there would be people who speak of Him and even do
things in His name but who were not known by Him; they had no relationship with
Him (Mat. 7:21-23). You must be “born again.” Jesus said you must be born
again, spiritually regenerated if you want to enter His kingdom. Today is the day of salvation for you! Don’t
let it pass.
How can a person be born again? Admit you are a
sinner; a rebel against God; and that your sin has separated you from life with
God (cf. Psalm 66:18; Isaiah 59:1-2; Habakkuk 1:13; Romans 3). Then turn from your sin and ask God to
forgive you of your sin. Don’t ask Him to forgive you because of any work or
effort of your own. Your sole means of salvation, the only basis for or way God
can and will forgive your sin, is by accepting Jesus as Your Savior by faith.
Receive Jesus by faith (John 1:12). Jesus paid your death penalty for sin
justly on the cross (2 Cor. 5:21). Believe in Him, trust in His cross-work and
His cross-work alone and God will have the just and righteous basis to forgive
you. When you trust in Jesus as your Savior God will forgive you and He will
give you spiritual life, a second birth, a spiritual birth, you will be born
again to eternal life in Christ by the Holy Spirit who will indwell you. When
the Holy Spirit comes within you, you will be transformed from darkness to
light, from death to life, from a life of sin to a holy life; an abundant
eternal life (e.g. Acts 26:18). You’ll never be the same. You’ll never look
back; you won’t want to (2 Corinthians 5:17). That’s what Jesus requires of
those who would live in His kingdom (cf. John 3). Today is the day of salvation for you! Don’t let it pass.
There’s a lot more that could be said on the topic
of the End Times and Bible prophecy. Is this the end? It might be. It might not
be. But what if it were? What if your personal end comes before the end of the
world? Are you ready? Is your house in order? These really are unprecedented
times. All of these signs, what might they be a sign of? Time will tell. Some
will say it’s just a coincidence. Others will say it’s a warning sign from God.
No matter what you think it’s worth your time to consider what you would do if
it was the end. What if your personal end is near, today, in a moment? What if
the end of the world is near? “What if it were today?” Today is the day of salvation for you! Don’t let it pass.
[1] www.prophecynewswatch.com Global Debt Bomb Ready to Explode - $21,714
For Every Man, Woman and Child
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