Evil people and evil nations will be punished if they don't repent

God's consistency in punishing evil proves His existence

CHAPTER TWO

Introduction

WHEN WILL THE WORLD END ?

As the subject of the previous chapter may have seemed out of place in a consideration of the existence of God, this chapter may also seem out of place. However, if you will be patient with me, I can quite vividly show how the subject, “The end of the world”, directly relates to, “We can know there is a God in heaven”. In this lesson I will show that disobedience to God and His Bible always has, and always will, lead to destruction.

A WARNING TO AMERICA

SODOM, AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE END OF THE WORLD. When studying about the end of the world, there are no better passages to consider than Genesis chapters 18 and 19. The story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is probably the greatest illustration of the end of the world that the Lord has given to us. Jude writes, “In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.” Jude 7 Peter says, “If he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the
ungodly; 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard) - 9 if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.” 2 Peter 2:5-10 "It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29 But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed,” Luke 17:28-30.

All these facts are exact parallels between Sodom and the end of the world, and would lead us to believe that the clock that God used for Sodom’s destruction is exactly the same time clock that He will use for the destruction of the world.

 GOD’S TIME-CLOCK  FOR DESTRUCTION: God’s clock seems to have two faces. The wickedness of the wicked is measured on one side, while the ratio of the godly to the ungodly is measured on the other. God’s consistency shows that when the wickedness of the wicked reaches the saturation point, and the ungodly make up nearly 100% of the people, the time for destruction has come.

 THE BOOK OF JUDGES is an example of God’s time-clock in action. There is a cycle in the book of Judges that goes like this: God’s people turn to Him in repentance, God forgives them, God gives His people blessings, when the people are blessed they feel they no longer need God. The people fall deeper and deeper into sin until they reach a saturation point, and at that point destruction comes. After the destruction, the people turn back to God, and the cycle is repeated. Over and over in the book of Judges we see the picture of God’s clock. In fact, the entire Bible is the story of God’s time-clock in action.

SIN’S CYCLE IN JUDGES

 Please note: The symbol ¯ indicates that the Israelites are moving away from God. The symbol È indicates they are in a crisis situation. The symbol ­ indicates they are moving closer to God and Ç indicates peace and prosperity of the Israelites.

¯ Judges 2:11 - “Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD.”

È Judges 2:14 - “In his anger against Israel the LORD handed them over to raiders.”

Ç Judges 2:16 - “Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.”

¯ Judges 2:19 - “But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers.”

È Judges 2:20 - “Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel.”

­ Judges 3:9 “But when they cried out to the LORD, he raised up for them a deliverer.”

Ç Judges 3:11-12 - “So the land had peace for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died. ¯ 12 Once again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of  the LORD, and È because they did this evil the LORD gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel.”

­ Judges 3:15 - “Again the Israelites cried out to the LORD, and he gave them a deliverer-Ehud.”

Ç Judges 3:30 - “That day Moab was made subject to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years.”

¯ Judges 4:1-2 - “After Ehud died, the Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the LORD.”

È Judges 4:2, 3 - “So the LORD sold them into the hands of Jabin, a king of Canaan, 3 - who oppressed the Israelites for twenty years...”

­ Judges 4:3b - “...they cried to the LORD for help.”

Ç Judges 4:24 - “...and the hand of the Israelites grew stronger and stronger against Jabin, the Canaanite king, until they destroyed him.”

¯ Judges 6:1 - “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, È and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.”

È Judges 6:6 - “Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the LORD for help.”

­ Judges 6:7-8 - “When the Israelites cried to the LORD because of Midian, 8 he sent them a prophet.”

¯ Judges 10:6, 7 - “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD.”

È Judges 10:7 - “...he became angry with them. He sold them into the hands of the Philistines.”

­ Judges 10:15, 16 - “But the Israelites said to the LORD, ‘We have sinned.’ 16 Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the LORD.”

Ç Judges 10:16b - “And he could bear Israel's misery no longer.”

¯ Judges 13:1 - “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, È so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.”

THE GENESIS FLOOD is an example of God’s time-clock.

Genesis 6:5, 11 “The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence.”
 

The wickedness of the wicked had reached the saturation point and there were only eight righteous people on earth. The hands on the clock pointed to the time of destruction and the fossils of the earth tell the rest of the story. They tell of the greatest destruction this earth has ever seen.

GOD’S PROMISE TO ABRAHAM is an example of God’s time-clock in action. God promised the land of Canaan to Abraham and his descendants but He told Abraham that they could not possess it for 400 years.

Genesis 15:13-21 - “Then the LORD said to him, ‘Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”’

By this statement God said that the Amorites’ wickedness had not yet reached the saturation point, therefore, He would not allow them to be destroyed at that time. But notice what happened 400 years later.

Deuteronomy 9:5 - “It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the LORD your God will drive them out before you.”

THE DESTRUCTION OF SODOM  is an example of God’s time-clock in action. The book of Genesis records...

Genesis 13:13 - “Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD.” Wickedness had reached the point of saturation. Genesis 18:32 - “He answered, ‘For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.’” There were not ten righteous people in that city. The ungodly made up nearly 100% of the people. The time for destruction had come.

GOD’S TIME-CLOCK CAN BE SEEN IN THE STORIES OF THE KINGDOMS of Israel, Judah, Babylon, Rome, Germany, England, Russia, America (slaves and the Civil War) and many other great nations. The story is always the same: great wickedness, few godly, the hands on God’s clock point to destruction and destruction comes.

In the past few years America has refused to give the glory to God that He deserves. We have become unthankful for the blessings He has richly poured upon us. We have given up many of our religious freedoms without a fight. In place of
Christianity we have elevated Humanism and Mohammedanism. We have allowed laws to be made which separates God from our government, and have made it illegal to have the Bible taught, or even to have public prayers offered in our public schools. Our country has laughed at the sanctity of marriage, encouraged violence, and condoned the murder of millions of our own innocent children.

When we compare the wickedness of the people in the days of past destruction to the wickedness of the people of today in America, we see a striking resemblance. This resemblance should lead us to the conclusion that we are fast approaching the point of wicked saturation. A crisis for the country that we love is on the immediate horizon.

 WE CAN KNOW THERE IS A GOD IN HEAVEN AND THE BIBLE IS HIS WORD!

We Can Know . . .

  1. We can Know God made America Great!

2. We can know that evil people and evil nations will be punished if they don't repent.

 3. Faith and Knowledge

  4. The Bible claims there is a God, He created the Heaven and the earth, the Bible is His word, and that the earth is less than 10,000 years old. We can know the Earth is less than 10,000 years old!

  5. We can Know the gap theory and the million years per day theory are unfounded.

  6. We can know scientific evidence proves God's existence.

  7. We can know prophetic evidence proves God's existence.

  8. We can know why a young earth looks so old.

  9. We can know the answers to flood questions such as: Where could all the water necessary to flood the whole earth come from; where could it go; how could a boat be built large enough to hold all the animals; how could the animals get from one continent to another?

 10. We can know what it was like before the Genesis flood.

  11. We can Know why many methods to date the earth are unreliable.

 12. We can know our Bible is accurate.

  13. Final summery and conclusion.

 14. Common questions such as:

• Which came first the chicken or the egg?

• Was sex the forbidden fruit? Was prostitution the first profession?

• Were did Cain get his wife?

• Could God have created other people beside Adam and Eve?

•  Does "replenish the earth" mean there were people on the earth before Adam?

• Where do cave men fit into the Bible picture?

• Is there life on other planets?

• Where does the Ice Age fit into the Bible picture?

• Why do good people suffer?