Judgment is Coming

The title of ”Judgment is Coming”, I fear, is too hopeful. It may be that we are already judged!

…the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” (15) And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. (Revelation 9:14-15 NIV)

Sometime in the future, perhaps nearer than we think, the forces of retribution and bloodshed will be unleashed.

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It may just be a humorous poster in a New York subway, but it may also be fiercely prophetic (without the humour).

The Euphrates River runs through the geographic heart of the Islamic world, and it is from there that those demonic forces, apparently bound and restricted throughout the centuries, will be released to “kill a third of mankind”.

Shocking? Yes.

Why? Because this generation has descended into wickedness. Just one example will suffice! We have killed the most vulnerable, our own children. An entire generation of humans, before or at birth, have silently screamed. We call it abortion. We’ve justified it, legalised it, and smugly sanitised our crime – which compounds our guilt!

And one day we’ll be held to account for those sins.

But, even then, with a third of humanity killed in less than a year, it seems, in the words of the prophet John, we’ll still be reluctant to confess our guilt.

Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts. (Revelation 9:21 NIV)

It will take a far greater Judgment to teach us what is right. God hasten that day.

Gospel of John (WBS #3 MP3 streaming)

Hello there and welcome again to the Weekend Bible Study.

I hope you’ve had a good week. This morning I noticed that the old almond tree in our back yard has just sprouted its spring time blossoms – and it is absolutely beautiful. I can understand why the almond blossom was included in the floral designs carved into the ornaments of ancient Israel’s tabernacle.

Last week we worked through a few verses from the Gospel of John, and by this stage, I hope that we’re beginning to get a feel for what John is telling us. John is telling us about God, God in the flesh. “We have seen him and we have touched him,” says John in one of his epistles. That’s personal. That’s close. And very, very revealing.

John wants to tell his readers something very important. It is something that he knows and it’s something he understands. It’s something he has told verbally, since the death and resurrection of Jesus, possibly hundreds of times over the years. Anyone who reads the book of John, carefully, deliberately, word for word, with a heart to understand, will by the end of the book stand beside Jesus with shoes as big as John’s.

So, as we’re about to begin, if you like, grab a cuppa and a cookie, and we’ll continue our journey together through the Gospel of John.

Click here to listen or download MP3.