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Judgment
God’s Judgment
In the choir of life
it’s
easy to fake the words-but someday each of us will have to sing solo before
God. ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical
Preaching》
God’s Judgment
In the days of the
pioneers
when men saw that a prairie fire was coming
what would they do?
Since not even the fastest of horses could outrun it
the pioneers took a match
and burned the grass in a designated area around them. Then they would take
their stand in the burned area and be safe from the threatening prairie fire.
As the roar of the lames approached
they would not be afraid. Even as the
ocean of fire surged around them there was no fear
because fire had already
passed over the place where they stood.
When the judgment of God
comes to sweep men and women into hell for eternity
there is one spot that is
safe. Nearly two thousand years ago the wrath of God was poured on
God’s Judgment
Sometimes the cup of
iniquity is full and the people are ripe for judgment. In such a case it may
happen as it did in the flourishing and extraordinarily beautiful city of
The journal Il Telefono
printed in Messina
actually published in its Christmas issue an abominable
parody
daring the Almighty to make himself known by sending an earthquake! And
in three days the earthquake came!— Cited by John Lawrence
The idea of hell and
judgment are nowhere to be found [in Betty Eadie's bestseller
Embraced By The
Light
on the N.Y. Times bestseller list for more than 40 weeks
including 5
weeks as #1]. In November 1973 Eadie allegedly died after undergoing a
hysterectomy
and returned five hours later with the secrets of heaven revealed
by Jesus]. Eadie says that Jesus "never wanted to do or say anything that
would offend me" while she visited heaven. Indeed
Jesus seems to be
relegated to the role of a happy tour guide in heaven
not the Savior of the
world who died on the cross.
Richard Abanes
in Christianity
Today
March 7
1994
p. 53.
President Clinton named
Kristine Gebbie
a lesbian
as the new AIDS czar. Four months later she spelled
out her perceptions on traditional morality. She said
[The United States]
needs to view human sexuality as an essentially important and pleasurable
thing. [Until it does so]
we will continue to be a repressed
Victorian
society that misrepresents information
denies homosexual sexuality
particularly in teens
and leaves people abandoned with no place to go. I can
help just a little bit in my job
standing on the White House lawn talking
about sex with no lightning bolts falling on my head."
Associated Press
October
29
1993.
One of the first gospel
illustrations that ever made a real impression upon my young heart was a simple
story which I heard a preacher tell when I was less than nine years old.
It was of pioneers who
were making their way across one of the central states to a distant place that
had been opened up for homesteading. They traveled in covered wagons drawn by
oxen
and progress was necessarily slow. One day they were horrified to note a
long line of smoke in the west
stretching for miles across the prairie
and
soon it was evident that the dried grass was burning fiercely and coming toward
them rapidly. They had crossed a river the day before but it would be
impossible to go back to that before the flames would be upon them. One man
only seemed to have understanding as to what could be done. He gave the command
to set fire to the grass behind them. Then when a space was burned over
the
whole company moved back upon it.
As the flames roared on
toward them from the west
a little girl cried out in terror
"Are you
sure we shall not all be burned up?" The leader replied
"My child
the flames cannot reach us here
for we are standing where the fire has
been!"
What a picture of the
believer
who is safe in Christ!
"On Him Almighty
vengeance fell
Which would have sunk a world to hell.
He bore it for a chosen race
And thus becomes our Hiding Place."
The fires of God's
judgment burned themselves out on Him
and all who are in Christ are safe
forever
for they are now standing where the fire has been.
H.A. Ironside
Illustrations
of Bible Truth
Moody Press
1945
pp. 34-35.
Just before the death of
actor W.C. Fields
a friend visited Fields' hospital room and was surprised to
find him thumbing through a Bible. Asked what he was doing with a Bible
Fields
replied
"I'm looking for loopholes."
Source Unknown.
I read this past week of a
couple (let's call them Carl and Clara) whose twenty-five year marriage was a
good one. Not the most idyllic
but good. They now had three grown children who
loved them dearly. They were also blessed with sufficient financial security to
allow them room to dream about a lakeside retirement home. They began looking.
A widower we'll call Ben was selling his place. They liked it a lot and
returned home to talk and plan. Months passed. Last fall
right out of the
blue
Clara told Carl she wanted a divorce. He went numb. After all these
years
why? And how could she deceive him...how could she have been nursing
such a scheme while they were looking at a retirement home? She said she hadn't
been. Actually
this was a recent decision now that she had found another man.
Who? Clara admitted it was Ben
the owner of the lake house
whom she
inadvertently ran into several weeks after they had discussed the sale. They'd
begun seeing each other. Since they were now "in love
" there was no
turning back. Not even the kids
who hated the idea
could dissuade their
mother. On the day she was to leave
Carl walked through the kitchen toward the
garage. Realizing she would be gone when he returned
he hesitated
"Well
hon
I guess this is the last time--" His voice dissolved as he broke into
sobs. She felt uneasy
hurriedly got her things together
and drove north to
join Ben. Less than two weeks after she moved in with Ben
her new lover
he
was seized with a heart attack. He lingered a few hours...and then died.
Charles Swindoll
The
Quest For Character
Multnomah
p. 42.
The following incident is
vouched for by a Church of England clergyman who knew all the circumstances.
A young woman
who had
been brought up in a Christian home and who had often had very serious
convictions in regard to the importance of coming to Christ
chose instead to
take the way of the world. Much against the wishes of her godly mother
she
insisted on keeping company with a wild
hilarious crowd
who lived only for
the passing moment and tried to forget the things of eternity. Again and again
she was pleaded with to turn to Christ
but she persistently refused to heed
the admonitions addressed to her.
Finally
she was taken
with a very serious illness. All that medical science could do for her was done
in order to bring about her recovery
but it soon became evident that the case
was hopeless and death was staring her in the face. Still she was hard and
obdurate when urged to turn to God in repentance and take the lost sinner's
place and trust the lost sinner's Saviour.
One night she awoke suddenly
out of a sound sleep
a frightened look in her eyes
and asked excitedly
"Mother
what is Ezekiel 7:8
9?"
Her mother said
"What do you mean
my dear?"
She replied that she had
had a most vivid dream. She thought there was a Presence in the room
who very
solemnly said to her
"Read Ezekiel 7:8
9." Not recalling the verses
in question
the mother reached for a Bible. As she opened it
her heart sank
as she saw the words
but she read them aloud to the dying girl:
"Now I will shortly
pour out my fury upon thee
and accomplish mine anger upon thee: and I will
judge thee according to thy ways
and will recompense thee for all thine
abominations. And mine eye shall not spare
neither will I have pity: I will
recompense thee according to thy ways and thine abominations that are in the
midst of thee; and ye shall know that I am the Lord that smiteth."
The poor sufferer
with a
look of horror on her face
sank back on the pillow
utterly exhausted
and in
a few moments she was in eternity. Once more it had been demonstrated that
grace rejected brings judgment at last.
H.A. Ironside
Illustrations
of Bible Truth
Moody Press
1945
pp. 31-32.
In the 18th century
Archibald Boyle was the leading member of an association of wild and wicked men
known as "The Hell Club" in Glasgow
Scotland. After one night of
carousing at the Club's notorious annual meeting
Boyle dreamed he was riding
home on his black horse. In the darkness
someone seized the reins
shouting
"You must go with me!" As Boyle desperately tried to force the reins
from the hands of the unknown guide
the horse reared. Boyle fell down
down
down with increasing speed. "Where are you taking me?" The cold voice
replied
"To hell!" The echoes of the groans and yells of frantic revelry
assaulted their ears. At the entrance to hell
Boyle saw the inmates chasing
the same pleasures they had pursued in life. There was a lady he'd known
playing her favorite vulgar game. Boyle relaxed
thinking hell must be a
pleasurable place after all. When he asked her to rest a moment and show him
through the pleasures of hell
she shrieked. "There is no rest in
hell!" She unclasped the vest of her robe and displayed a coil of living
snakes writhing about her midsection. Others revealed different forms of pain in
their hearts. "Take me from this place!" Boyle demanded. "By the
living God whose name I have so often outraged
I beg you
let me go!" His
guide replied
"Go then--but in a year and a day we meet to part no
more." At this
Boyle awoke
feeling that these last words were as letters
of fire burned into his heart.
Despite a resolution never
to attend the Hell Club again
he soon was drawn back. He found no comfort
there. He grew haggard and gray under the weight of his conscience and fear of
the future. He dreaded attending the Club's annual meeting
but his companions
forced him to attend. Every nerve of his body writhed in agony at the first
sentence of the president's opening address: "Gentlemen
this is leap
year; therefore it is a year and a day since our last annual meeting."
After the meeting
he mounted his house to ride home. Next morning
his horse
was found grazing quietly by the roadside. A few yards away lay the corpse of
Archibald Boyle. The strange guide had claimed him at the appointed time.
Paul Lee Tan.
It was F.B. Meyer
I
believe
who once said that when we see a brother or sister in sin
there are
two things we do not know: First
we do not know how hard he or she tried not
to sin. And second
we do not know the power of the forces that assailed him or
her. We also do not know what we would have done in the same circumstances.
Stephen Brown
Christianity Today
April
5
1993
p. 17.
More than four out of
every five Americans agree that "we all will be called before God at
judgment day to answer for our sins
" says a poll conducted for the Times
Mirror company.
National and International
Religion Report
quoted in Signs of the Times
August
1993
p. 6.
My greatest thought is my
accountability to God.
Daniel Webster.
The Judgment seat "is
meant for us professing Christians
real and imperfect Christians; and it tells
us that there are degrees in that future blessedness proportioned to present
faithfulness."
Alexander Maclaren
1826-1910.
It is Christians only who
are in view here. All that we have hidden shall be revealed. The things we have
done in the body will come back to us
whether good or bad. Every pious
thought
and every thought of sin; every secret prayer
and every secret curse;
every unknown deed of charity
and every hidden deed of selfishness; we will
see them all again
and though we have not remembered them for years
and
perhaps have forgotten them altogether
we shall have to acknowledge that they
are our own. Is not that a solemn thing to stand at the end of life?
James Denney
1856-1917.
Bema (judgment seat) in
secular usage had four meanings:
1. One's stride
or manner
of walking (which reveals character).
2. A platform for a public official (cf. Acts 25:6
10
17).
3. A "rewards platform" in sporting contests. Because of this
meaning
some claim
the "bema" is only a place for rewards--not
judgment. But in secular legal contexts it also denotes
4. the place where litigants stood for trial. Paul repeatedly stressed this
meaning; Acts 25:10
Romans 14:12.
Walk Thru The Bible.
It was F.B. Meyer
I
believe
who once said that when we see a brother or sister in sin
there are
two things we do not know: First
we do not know how hard he or she tried not
to sin. And second
we do not know the power of the forces that assailed him or
her. We also do not know what we would have done in the same circumstances.
Stephen Brown
Christianity
Today
April 5
1993
p. 17.
In his little book Illustrations
of Bible Truth
H.A. Ironside pointed out the folly of judging others. He
related an incident in the life of a man called Bishop Potter. "He was
sailing for Europe on one of the great transatlantic ocean liners. When he went
on board
he found that another passenger was to share the cabin with him.
After going to see the accommodations
he came up to the purser's desk and
inquired if he could leave his gold watch and other valuables in the ship's
safe. He explained that ordinarily he never availed himself of that privilege
but he had been to his cabin and had met the man who was to occupy the other
berth. Judging from his appearance
he was afraid that he might not be a very
trustworthy person. The purser accepted the responsibility for the valuables
and remarked
'It's all right
bishop
I'll be very glad to take care of them
for you. The other man has been up here and left his for the same
reason!'"
Our Daily Bread.
We sometimes criticize
others unfairly. We don't know all their circumstances
nor their motives. Only
God
who is aware of all the facts
is able to judge people righteously. John
Wesley told of a man he had little respect for because he considered him to be
miserly and covetous. One day when this person contributed only a small gift to
a worthy charity
Wesley openly criticized him.
After the incident
the
man went to Wesley privately and told him he had been living on parsnips and
water for several weeks. He explained that before his conversion
he had run up
many bills. Now
by skimping on everything and buying nothing for himself he
was paying off his creditors one by one. "Christ has made me an honest
man
" he said
"and so with all these debts to pay
I can give only a
few offerings above my tithe. I must settle up with my worldly neighbors and
show them what the grace of God can do in the heart of a man who was once
dishonest." Wesley then apologized to the man and asked his forgiveness.
Daily Bread
July 20
1992.
In 1884 a young man died
and after the funeral his grieving parents decided to establish a memorial to
him. With that in mind they met with Charles Eliot
president of Harvard
University. Eliot received the unpretentious couple into his office and asked
what he could do. After they expressed their desire to fund a memorial
Eliot
impatiently said
"Perhaps you have in mind a scholarship."
"We were thinking of
something more substantial than that...perhaps a building
" the woman
replied. In a patronizing tone
Eliot brushed aside the idea as being too
expensive and the couple departed. The next year
Eliot learned that this plain
pair had gone elsewhere and established a $26 million memorial named Leland
Stanford Junior University
better known today as Stanford!
Today in the Word
June 11
1992.
Dodie Gadient
a
schoolteacher for thirteen years
decided to travel across America and see the
sights she had taught about. Traveling alone in a truck with camper in tow
she
launched out. One afternoon rounding a curve on I-5 near Sacramento in rush-hour
traffic
a water pump blew on her truck. She was tired
exasperated
scared
and alone. In spite of the traffic jam she caused
no one seemed interested in
helping.
"Leaning up against
the trailer
she prayed
'Please God
send me an angel . . . preferably one
with mechanical experience.' Within four minutes
a huge Harley drove up
ridden by an enormous man sporting long
black hair
a beard and tattooed arms.
With an incredible air of confidence
he jumped off and
without even glancing
at Dodie
went to work on the truck. Within another few minutes
he flagged
down a larger truck
attached a tow chain to the frame of the disabled Chevy
and whisked the whole 56-foot rig off the freeway onto a side street
where he
calmly continued to work on the water pump.
The intimidated
schoolteacher was too dumbfounded to talk. Especially when she read the
paralyzing words on the back of his leather jacket: 'Hell's Angels --
California'. As he finished the task
she finally got up the courage to say
"Thanks so much
" and carry on a brief conversation. Noticing her
surprise at the whole ordeal
he looked her straight in the eye and mumbled
"Don't judge a book by its cover. You may not know who you're talking
to." With that
he smiled
closed the hood of the truck
and straddled his
Harley. With a wave
he was gone as fast as he had appeared.
From the newsletter OUR AMERICA.
Given half a chance
people often crawl out of the boxes into which we've relegated them.
Larry D. Wright.
At a pastor's conference
in Spokane
Chuck Swindoll told of being at a California Christian camp. The
first day there a man approached him and said how greatly he had looked forward
to hearing Dr. Swindoll speak and his delight at now finally being able to
realize that desire. That evening Swindoll noticed the man sitting near the
front. But only a few minutes into the message the man was sound asleep.
Swindoll thought to himself that perhaps he was tired after a long day's drive
and couldn't help himself. But the same thing happened the next few nights
and
Dr. Swindoll found his exasperation with the man growing. On the last night the
man's wife came up and apologized for her husband's inattention to the
messages. She then explained that he had recently been diagnosed as having terminal
cancer and the medication he was taking to ease the pain made him extremely
sleepy. But it had been one of his life-long ambitions to hear Dr. Swindoll
speak before he died
and now he had fulfilled that goal.
Source Unknown.
At a recent gathering of
seminary professors
one teacher reported that at his school the most damaging
charge one student can lodge against another is that the person is being
"judgmental." He found this pattern very upsetting. "You can't
get a good argument going in class anymore
" he said. "As soon as
somebody takes a stand on any important issue
someone else says that the
person is being judgmental. And that's it. End of discussion. Everyone is
intimidated!" Many of the other professors nodded knowingly. There seemed
to be a consensus that the fear of being judgmental has taken on epidemic
proportions.
Is the call for civility
just another way of spreading this epidemic? If so
then I'm against civility.
But I really don't think that this is what being civil is all about. Christian
civility does not commit us to a relativistic perspective. Being civil doesn't
mean that we cannot criticize what goes on around us. Civility doesn't require
us to approve of what other people believe and do. It is one thing to insist
that other people have the right to express their basic convictions; it is
another thing to say that they are right in doing so. Civility requires us to
live by the first of these principles. But it does not commit us to the second
formula. To say that all beliefs and values deserve to be treated as if they
were on a par is to endorse relativism -- a perspective that is incompatible
with Christian faith and practice. Christian civility does not mean refusing to
make judgments about what is good and true. For one thing
it really isn't
possible to be completely nonjudgmental. Even telling someone else that she is
being judgmental is a rather judgmental thing to do!
Richard J. Mouw
Uncommon
Decency
pp. 20-21.