This morning, I thought that we could take a look at some questions that have become very important and pertinent as we approach to the end of the world. As we are getting ever closer to the end of all things, there are questions that can come up. What I mean is that we normally, each one of us, entertain questions in our lives, especially younger people who might think, “What am I going to do with my future?” They might be thinking of college, they might be thinking of marriage, or they might be thinking of a career and a job. These are questions that people normally have in their minds as they live today but keep their eye on the future.
These questions are fine and they have been fine up until our day. They have been fine up until our time, but now we are learning from the Bible the information that God is going to bring an end to the world in a very short while. Therefore, a question concerning a college that one would need to attend for a period of four years, since we do not have this length of time left, is not any longer an important question, as well as questions on marriage or jobs, all of these things that really occupy our thoughts and our lives in this world.
This information from the Bible really forces each one of us to ask ourselves a different set of questions, different questions from now until the end. The first one is, “Do you trust the Bible?” This is the first big question that comes up, I think, as we are hearing that May 21, 2011 will be the rapture, followed by five months of torment up to October 21, 2011, and then that will be the end of the world.
Now, where are we hearing this from? Some people say, “Well, we are hearing this from you,” because I mention this occasionally. Or some say that we are hearing this from Family Radio; and really, that is where it started and so they say, “We are hearing this from Mr. Camping.”
But, no! I mean, yes, this is true, but we are actually hearing this from the Bible. We are hearing this from the Bible, because this information comes out of the Bible. This is not based on a dream. Nobody had a dream and saw a calendar with “May 21, 2011” circled in red. Yet this kind of idea is very possible out there in the church world, because they are opened up to basically anything today. But no one had a vision. No one received a tongue. It was not a supernatural revelation in any way where God broke the barrier of the supernatural, because He has said that He will not do this since the time that the Bible was completed.
This information on the Biblical calendar of history, which contains very key important dates that interrelate with each other, comes from the Bible. Genesis 7:4, which is an extremely important timeline, comes from the Bible. 2 Peter 3, which connects “one day is…as a thousand years” and ties it in with the flood, comes from the Bible. And, really, we could go on for a long time.
There is also a book entitled “Time Has an End,” which is a pretty big book full of information derived from the Bible. And there is a booklet entitled “We Are Almost There!” that is 70 pages of information derived from the Bible. And I recommend for anyone to read these.
So the source is correct. Is it not? This is where God speaks. It is the Word of God. If it was coming from another source, we would not have to worry. We would not have to even bother thinking about this, but this is coming from the Bible.
God tells us in Proverbs 3:5-6 these words:
Trust in JEHOVAH with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
The Lord contrasts trusting in Him with trusting in ourselves, “lean not.” When we lean on something, we are trusting that it will hold our weight. If we are leaning on a cane or if we are leaning on a chair of if we are leaning on a wall, we are relaxing and resting our weight.
But God says, “Do not trust in man,” and this is throughout the Bible. “Do not trust in Egypt,” the Bible tells us. “Put not your trust in princes.” Do not trust in any man; but rather, trust in God.
How can we trust in God? He has given us a Book. This is His communication that lays out information that is true and faithful, completely, and we trust in this.
Some people say, “Yes, of course; of course I trust in the Bible! But I do not trust in May 21, 2011. I do not trust in 2011 being the end of the world. I do not trust that this is going to be the rapture,” and they go on. But then, they are not trusting the Bible. They are not trusting the Bible.
Another person might say, “I trust the Bible, but I just want evidence from the Bible.” So we mention the books: “Time Has an End” and “We Are Almost There!” This is what we tell those who say that they want evidence, but then they do not even read them. They do not even look at them seriously. They do not get out their Bibles and listen to what these books are saying and check them out to see if it is so.
You know, the truth is that we could lay…may I say an encyclopedia? I have been saying that. Maybe I should say Wikipedia, because it is full of Internet information. You could lay tons of information at a person’s feet and say, “Okay, here is all of the evidence.” Yet even if they bother to read it and study it, it will not convince them.
If crossing the Red Sea with the water of the sea spread apart did not convince the Jews that there was a God in Heaven and that He was to be obeyed and that He was their Lord and Master, what would have?
If seeing all the plagues that came upon Egypt did nothing to the hearts of those Israelites, what will do something to the heart of a human being to convince them of truth? And, you see, this has been the problem all along. This has been the problem all along.
Jesus made a statement to Pilate in John 18:37:
Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
This says, “of the truth.” Who is “the truth”? Jesus. He is “the way, the truth.” If you are of Him, if you are one of His elect, if you are one of His sheep, you will hear the truth and know the truth. As a matter of fact, the Gospel of John tells us, “and the truth shall make you free.”
But if you are not “of the truth,” then you are going to remain in spiritual bondage. You are going to remain in spiritual ignorance. You are going to remain just like the majority of the world: unsaved and nothing will convince you. You might even be able to understand some things intellectually. But, really, if you are not acting on this, which is one of the questions for later, then you do not understand. You do not really get this. You do not believe, as God says.
Notice Pilate’s reaction in verse 38. John 18:38:
Pilate saith unto him, What is truth?…
He had no idea. He had no idea and Truth was standing right in front of him: the Lord Jesus Christ. “Thy word is truth,” and He was the Word in the flesh. Yet He was a mystery to Pilate and to many others who did not recognize that He was “full of grace and truth.”
So this question, “Do you trust the Bible,” let us look at it this way. We realize that we could lay out a lot of information or give people a lot of Biblical information and it will not convince them. Yet on the other end of the spectrum, on the other hand, how much information does it take to convince a child of God, one of the chosen people of God, predestinated from before the foundation of the world? How much?
Not much, because we have the example of the Ninevites. Jonah went into Nineveh and God told him, “Preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.” What was “the preaching”? “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown [overturned].” Period. Period. That was it. That was all that he said: eight English words, one sentence. And he was a stranger; he was a foreigner who had just come out of the belly of a whale, so he was not well-kempt. (He probably had an odor about him.) He went into the city and proclaimed the craziest of things, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown [overturned].”
Now, think of Philadelphia. Think of New York. Think of Los Angeles. Think of San Francisco. Think of Houston. Think of any city that you want to think of today and think of their reaction, because people were the same back then as we are today. Basically, people are the same in their hearts, in their spiritual condition, “Sure buddy. Sure buddy. Forty days, right! Forty days? Where did this nut come from?”
How many things could you say about what Jonah just proclaimed in order to write it off? It was so ridiculous! But what was the reaction of the Ninevites? “The people of Nineveh believed God,” not Jonah, not that smelly prophet. They believed God, and why? Why did they believe God?
Let us look at John 8:47. I think that this verse really sums it up:
He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.
It is as simple as that. The Ninevites heard the message and because they were God’s people, those whom God had decided to save, He drew them. He caused the king of Nineveh to repent in sackcloth and ashes and to make that proclamation. He caused the whole city to fast and to mightily cry out to God. One hundred and twenty thousand people took it seriously. They believed earnestly, because Jesus said, “They repented at the preaching of Jonas [Jonah]; and, behold, a greater than Jonas [Jonah] is here.” They truly believed and they are going to rise in the judgment on May 21 in 2011.
So does God want me to believe that May 21, 2011 is the rapture and that there is then going to be five months of torment that will be followed by the end of all things? Absolutely! Believe! Believe it! We have way more evidence than the Ninevites, do we not? Do we not have way more evidence? And so, this is the first question, “Do you and I and everyone trust the Bible?”
The second question is concerning what so many people immediately think after hearing the first question. The second question is, “Well, what if this does not happen? What if it does not happen?” This is a question that seems reasonable. It seems to be an honest question.
“I hear what you are saying. I maybe even agree that the world is extremely sinful like it has never been before, that the church is just apostate through-and-through. I see this. And, yes, the Bible talks about an end of the world. Okay, I see some of the tie-ins that you are making in the Scriptures. I see the evidence. I agree with the evidence; but, you know, there are a lot of other things that you have to consider. You have to consider that people have predicted the end of the world in the past and it never happened.”
You know, they can go on and on and on and you can really sit down and start to concern yourself and reason out things and come to the question, “What if it does not happen, then what? What if May 22nd comes in 2011 and we are all still here and there was no rapture and there was no resurrection; there was no end of the world? What about that?”
So what is the answer for something like this? Number one, you are not reacting in the way in which God would have you react in asking this question and in spending time dwelling on thoughts of, “What if this does not happen?”; because, again, we are learning these things from the Bible and the Bible is a trustworthy Book. We can lean our life on the Bible. We can lean our everlasting life on the Bible.
Let me give an example for what is wrong with this question. Let us think about Noah in the days before the flood. God came to Noah and told him to build the ark in one hundred and twenty years and that He was going to destroy the world. He gave him a precise time: 4990 B.C. Then right before this was to happen, God came a week ahead of the flood and told Noah, “For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth.” Therefore, at that point, God had told him the year, the month, and the day, exactly as we have it today.
Now, we do have to speculate a little bit, because the Bible does not tell us this. However, I do not really think that this is that much of a speculation, because the Bible does tell us that Noah was “a preacher of righteousness.” We know that he was obedient to God’s commands and that he was constructing the ark for a long time.
Since he was a child of God, he therefore would have had the characteristics of a child of God, being neighborly and loving his neighbor and being concerned about the people in his area. He would have, therefore, shared with them all of the information that God had given him. But his concerned neighbors and friends and maybe his sons’ friends, people who could have been connected to the family, maybe even other members of his family (we can be sure of this, I think), would have come to him at certain points and said, “Noah, you are a great guy. You really are. You are a man of faith. You are a godly man. You trust God. And yet, Noah, you are saying that a flood is going to come and wipe out the world in (what we would say was) 4990 B.C. (in the six hundredth year of Noah). You are telling us this; but, Noah, what if this does not happen? If this does not happen, how are you going to look with egg all over your face? You are going to look like a fool. Everyone is just going to think that you are crazy. You will have this ark in your yard for the rest of your life as a testimony to your foolishness when 4989 B.C. comes.”
This is because man is so sure and so confident that there is always going to be a tomorrow, that there is always going to be a next year or a next decade or a next century or a next millennium. But why are we so confident? Why are we so sure, because the Bible does not give us this kind of confidence or try to give us this type of assurance?
So individuals would have come up to him over the course of time, especially as it got closer to the actual year, and I am sure that they would have brought this up to him. But would Noah have countenanced this idea? Would it have been wise for him to think, “You know, maybe they have a point. Maybe I am being too dogmatic.”
You know, how does Satan work? He tries to implant doubt, “Hath God said?” “Hath God said?” “What if this does not happen? What if this does not happen?” Then that is all that is necessary, that little seed of doubt, and then man can take it much further.
No, it would not have been a wise thing or a smart thing for Noah to have listened to those nice people, those kind neighbors who were concerned about him. That would not have been a good thing, because he knew, “I received this information directly from God. Directly from the Lord is where I got this message. God spoke to me. God gave me revelation.”
So you might say, “Yes, but that was Noah. It was in that day. If the Lord spoke to me, I also would believe that May 21 will be the date of the rapture.”
Well, the Lord has and in just as much of a way. It is equal. The Bible is the Word of God. It is His testimony. It is His communication.
So for anyone to say, “Well, I do not believe the Bible when I am hearing from the Bible, but I would believe if God spoke to me personally,” is false. It is false. No, you would not have believed. You would have been like those who would have gone up to Noah and had tried to warn him that he needed to think about this, “What if this does not happen?” Likewise, you would have perished in the flood, just as the world of Noah’s day did. The flood came “upon the world of the ungodly.”
Now, we are looking at questions that are pertinent as we are approaching unto the end of the world. A third question is, “How do you feel about May 21st, 2011?” I realize how this is worded, “How do you feel about this?”
So what kind of reaction does this provoke in you? In other words, are you happy? Are you joyful about this? Are you greatly looking forward to this day, not for what it is going to bring on the world and on all the unsaved, but because this is the desire that God has given His people, that He complete His salvation, that we be brought into Heaven to be with the Lord forevermore?
Is this your response, inwardly, to what we are hearing from the Bible? Is this what is going on within you? Are you looking towards May 21, like a child looks towards Christmas? “I cannot wait. I cannot wait.” Again, not because of the terrible sorrow of that five-month period, “Yes, I have family and friends and I am not happy about that aspect, but I am in that God is finally going to fulfill His promise and complete His Word. The new heavens and the new earth will soon be created after that and our eternal future will be brought in. This will be so incredibly wonderful and beautiful and joyful that I cannot even begin to comprehend it.”
Is this how you are looking ahead when you hear about this? Or are you afraid? It is not necessarily a bad reaction to be fearful and to wonder as you think about it, “What about me? What about me? What if I am left behind?” Have you thought about this? “What if I am left behind?”
We do know some of the details of this day. The ground will open, the graves will open. God will bring up the dead bodies and they will be everywhere. He will resurrect the bodies of His people who were in the ground and join them, if they are to be given a new resurrected body, with their souls, and they will be “caught up” to be with the Lord.
This will be an incredible event worldwide that everyone is going to be forced to witness. The Bible tells us that the Lord will come and “two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left,” which is where we get the question, “Will you be left behind?”
So this is something for us to think about and to consider, “Am I going to be one of those left behind?” And, you see, this is what is involved when we ask ourselves this question, “How do I feel about Christ’s coming.”
Now, let us go to 1 Thessalonians 4 and just look at a couple of verses. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 says:
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
It is not a club. It is not a stick. It should be a comfort. It should be a comfort to the child of God. As we are hearing May 21, 2011, the rapture, our response should be, “Thank God. Thank God. It has been a trial in this life. There is affliction. There is a constant battle. Yes, there are a lot of wonderful blessings that God has bestowed upon His people as they live out their lives, but thank the Lord, thank the Lord that this is all going to come to a close. This will conclude and I, as a child of God, will be given a new resurrected body that will be perfect. There will be no pain, no tears, no sorrow, no death, and I will be brought into Heaven. I will be brought into Heaven.” This should be a comfort.
If anyone is experiencing physical affliction—they have a disease or they have an ailment of some kind—it will all be gone in less than two years. If anyone has any emotional problems, mental problems, it will all be gone in less than two years.
Do you see how this helps us to live for the next couple of years? We will not have to concern ourselves with our little aches and pains or our little trials and tribulations. They are little. It is a “light affliction.” This has always been true, but how much more true when we know that time is so short? So, you see, this is a comfort. It should be a comfort.
Earlier, John read 2 Timothy 4:8, where the Lord is moving the Apostle Paul to write:
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
Is this not the child of God’s desire? We cannot help it. This is the new nature that the Lord has given us. We pant after His Word. How much more do we pant after Him and being with Him in the new heavens and the new earth? It is a love that God has implanted in His people.
On the other hand, when the wise men were following the star to Jerusalem, it says in Matthew 2:2-3:
Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
This is contrary or an opposite reaction to loving Christ’s appearing, to being comforted by this information.
We understand why Herod was troubled. He was a wicked man, an evil man, but “all Jerusalem” are the people of God. They were God’s holy people throughout the Old Testament and they were longing for the coming of the Messiah, professedly. When they got this report from the wise men, “The King is born!,” they knew exactly what they were talking about. When Herod asked the wise men, they turned to Micah and told Herod about the prophecy of the Messiah being born in Bethlehem. They knew exactly what was in view and their response was not one of love or great excitement. At the appearing of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, they were of a troubled mind. “All Jerusalem” had trouble of mind.
This is very similar to our day. Are the people in the churches excited? Are they comforted or are they encouraged when they hear that there is a rapture date? No, no. There is trouble of mind, we could say. In “all Jerusalem,” in all the churches and congregations, there is great trouble of mind and they are not happy at all.
Now, they think that they can superficially throw a couple of verses out, like “no man knows the day or hour,” and that will just make it go away. They think that a few verses dismiss the whole thing and, therefore, they are not obligated to check this out any further or to believe this. But this is not true. This is not being a noble Berean. (And we will not get into a discussion on “not knowing the day our hour.”)
But the Bible does teach us that at the end, the Lord will open up the Scriptures. He will reveal things concerning “time and judgment.” He will give His people, His servants, information about the end of the world, and this is exactly what He is doing.
Let us move on to another question. This question, I think, is more applicable to us, to each one of us who are following these things. Do you understand the time that we are living in? Do you understand what is going on, the day that we are in?
You might say, “Yes, of course, I do. I am hearing it all of the time.”
Okay, but the Bible has a different definition of understanding than we might have. The Bible’s definition of understanding is not intellectually hearing it and agreeing with it in our minds. This is not understanding, according to what the Bible says.
For instance, let us go to Job 28:28, which says:
And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.
The truth is that if we are hearing these things and we agree with them, no matter how interested we are in them, if we are continuing to sin, we do not understand. If we are continuing on with whatever our sin weaknesses are in our life, if we are continuing to lie or to steal or to cheat or to lust, if we are going on in a direction that the Bible condemns and we know that it is against the Law and the Word of God, then we do not understand, because “to depart from evil is understanding,” to turn away from the violence that is in our hands, which is how it is put in Jonah 3. “Let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands” and “cry mightily unto God,” because He might, He possibly could save us.
This is what we see with the Ninevites. They understood the message that God had brought to them through the prophet Jonah, which was that they were going to be destroyed on a certain day, “Yet forty days.” They understood in the way in which God defines the word “understanding,” because they turned from their sins. They sat in sackcloth and ashes and they besought the Lord that He might save them.
This is the same with any one of us. If we are still going on, just like we did last year and just like we did five years ago or just like we did ten years ago, if we are continuing on in things that we know are wrong, then we really do not understand. We are really not getting this.
Let me just go to one last question. This comes right out of the Bible. This is in Ezekiel 33. I will read the first few verses and then I will go to the question after that. Ezekiel 33:2-5:
Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
This is what God is doing right now as the Gospel is going out with Gospel tracts that proclaim “May 21” or the “Does God Love You?” tract, which also has information about the rapture and the end of the world. God is sending this message to all the world. It is covering the earth “as the waters cover the sea,” or it will by the time we are through. Once we have reached this date, this message will have gotten into all the world and all the world will have heard it.
Some, the Lord will notify of what is about to happen and they will take warning, because God will save them. Others, maybe all the warning that they are going to get is a tract from someone standing on a corner, and they will just blow it off and walk past, or maybe it will come by seeing a billboard or maybe it will be heard by turning to a radio station or by visiting a website.
God will warn every person, but this does not necessarily mean that an individual is going to be receiving a constant warning. God did not do this with Nineveh. He sent one prophet who went into the city a day’s journey and then he left to sit on a hill to see what would become of the city. It was not a constant warning to Nineveh.
So the Lord is bringing the message to the world and everyone will have heard, in some form or another. Then, of course, it is up to God. For those who are His sheep, they will hear His voice; they will believe and they will respond. For those who are not His sheep, they will not believe; they will not respond and then the sword will fall upon them and they will be destroyed.
So this next question comes, because this context fits our day so well, from Ezekiel 33:11:
Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord JEHOVAH, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked…
We know that God saves people out of His own “good pleasure,” which is what Ephesians tells us. This is why God saved an elect people for Himself. “He delighteth in mercy.” He has pleasure in saving people whom Christ died for. It was a great multitude whom God saved, but far more will be destroyed; far more are going to end up with the sword coming upon them. But here the Lord tells us that He takes no delight in this. This is not pleasing to Him in the sense that saving people is pleasing to Him.
…I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live…
This is like the Ninevites, but their act did not save them. It did not save them to sit in sackcloth and ashes and fast, and they recognized this because they cried out that the Lord might turn, “if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?” They knew this. Salvation is completely in God’s hands.
…but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways…
And here is the question:
…for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
This is God’s question from the Bible to a great many people. “Why will ye die?”
Everyone is going to hear this. From our perspective, everyone has an equal opportunity to respond in the same way that the Ninevites responded, because we do not know who God’s elect are and it is not our business.
So God is speaking to each one of us. Because we are made in His image, we are responsible to Him in the way in which we are living, and we are going astray. We are transgressing His Law. If we continue down this road, we will be destroyed and it will be an “everlasting [eternal] destruction from the presence of the Lord.” We will be completely annihilated and we will lose all of the great blessings of salvation, eternal life.
And why? What is the reason? Really, think about this. What is the reason for you? “Why will ye die?” When it comes down to it, is it something of the world? A love of the world? Is it the pleasure of the world? Yes, the world is offering a lot today. Is it TV? You just cannot give it up. Is it movies? Is it games? Is it music? Is it…what is it? What is it and what is it worth to you? What are those things worth for your soul? Is that the exchange that you are going to make for your very soul, for everlasting life?
Well, if so, do not ever laugh at the Indians for selling Manhattan for such a cheap price. If so, when you read about Esau giving up his birthright for a bowl of porridge, do not think that you would not have done the same, because you might have even given it up for less.
You see, this is the question that God is asking. He says in another place in the Scriptures, “Let us reason together.” He beseeches us, “Be ye reconciled to God.” Think about it! “Why will ye die?”
You know, it is a short distance away. This day is coming, and, yes, the Lord could have mercy on you. He might have mercy on you. There is no way that you could know that you are not one of His elect, so why not just be humbled before His Word and become broken before His Word? Cry unto Him, “O Lord, have mercy upon me,” and also turn from whatever is going on, because it does not matter. Whatever you are involved in is not as important as you think. It is not that you cannot live without it. Those sins are not bringing you any good anyway. Turn from them all, cry to the Lord, and it could be—there is a possibility—that He might save you.
Okay, let us stop here.