THE REFUSAL TO REPENT

Rev. 9:20-21 ... "The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent not of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither can see nor hear nor walk; and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts."

      When man is confronted with the holiness of God, his appropriate response is repentance. Although the apostle Peter evidently had some idea of Jesus' divinity, nevertheless, when Jesus produced a mira-culous catch of fish, he was greatly astonished. He felt himself suddenly in the very presence of One whose holiness reached to heaven, and he was overwhelmed with a feeling of his own inferiority and sinfulness. We are told that, "When Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, 'Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man! (Lk. 5:8). Isaiah the prophet had the same experience centuries earlier when he entered the temple one day to worship. The building was suddenly filled with smoke, and he saw seraphim, which seem to be special angels who accompany the very Presence of God. From within the smoke Isaiah heard the voice of God speaking to him. His response was the cry of repent-ance, "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips," (Isa. 6:5).

       The Bible teaches us that, in cases like these of Peter and Isaiah, we should respond to the revela-tion of God's holiness not only with repentance, but also with obedience to His explicit commandments.

Jesus proclaims that, "Unless you repent, you will all ... perish!" (Lk. 13:3). And the Spirit through Peter requires us to "repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins," (Acts 2:38). Everyone who is conscientious and receives this particular message from God's word with an open heart will indeed repent. The impression God's holiness makes upon us through the Scriptures should reveal and emphasize our sinfulness and induce us to repent. Our urgent desire should then be to obtain forgiveness, rectify our life, and be clothed with the righteousness which God confers upon His saints, (Gal. 3:27).

      The tragic and sad fact of human experience, however, is that only a small fraction of people take God seriously and submit penitently to His will. It is this awful, worldwide failure of man that is the subject of our featured text. In Revelation 8 and 9, in the apocalyptic imagery of the "trumpets of judg-ment," God is seen inflicting His wrath upon one-third of sinful humanity, not only to punish them, but also to warn the other two-thirds of what awaits them if they don't repent and submit to His will. In the short space of this article we cannot expound upon this interpretation, but God's judgments mentioned here seem to be a continuous process in this world throughout the Gospel Age until Jesus returns. Dur-ing this time the Lord appeals to one generation after the other by these judgments to repent and con-form their lives to the canon of His holiness. For His ultimate desire is to save and exalt everyone and not to destroy him, (II Pet. 3:9; I Tim. 2:3-4).

      Our text, however, indicates that only a relative few in a generation listen to God and bother to subject their lives, as clay into the hands of the Master Potter, to mold them into vessels of honor, (II Tim. 2:20-22). Jesus stated the situation clearly when He declared, "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it," (Mt. 7:13). And yet, the decision to repent and conform one's life to God's design is the greatest thing a person can ever do, because it leads the soul to a state of eternal welfare and joy. This option is granted to every person and is open as long as he lives and has a mind capable of discernment.

OPENING THE SEVENTH SEAL

Rev. 8:1-2 ... "When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them."

     In the impressive scene in heaven described in chapter 5, John saw in the hand of God a book that "was sealed up with seven seals." This book, which evidently contained God's will for the future history of the earth, was handed to Christ, who alone was found worthy to take the book and to break its seals. As He opens each seal, a segment of future earth experience is revealed with respect to God's inter-action with human affairs. In chapter 6 we read of the opening of these seals and of what happened on earth as a consequence. Before the seventh seal is opened in 8:1, however, there is the intermission of chapter 7, in which God seals His faithful people on earth. This action signifies two important things: first, that God is claiming His people on earth; and second, that God is testifying to the authenticity of these people as really belonging to Him.

      Beyond these two things, however, and perhaps even more significantly, the sealing of chapter 7 represents God's special action to preserve His true people from certain austere judgments that He is about to inflict upon mankind. For when Jesus opens the seventh seal in 8:1-2, we see trumpets being given to seven select angels; and in the portion of Revelation following, we see that the sounding of each trumpet results in a severe judgment of God inflicted upon mankind while they still dwell on earth. As the account proceeds from the seven seals of chapters 4-7 to the seven trumpets of chapters 8-11, one is reminded of the extending of a telescope. The seven trumpets extend from within the seven seals, just as one section of a telescope extends from the last; and as it does, another whole vista of future earth experience is brought into focus.

      We are not to suppose that these trumpets signify the Final Judgment at the end of the age like the trumpet of I Ths. 4:16. The note given in Rev. 9:20-21 reveals that the purpose of the judgments of these trumpets is to bring the greater part of mankind to repentance, whereas the trumpet of I Ths. 4:16 signals the Last Judgment after which man's fate is sealed without further extensions of God's grace for repentance. After all, the usual purpose of a trumpet was to warn, and what occurs when each of these are blown indicates that to warn is also their intent. For the judgment that comes with each does not affect all the wicked. Usually, it is only a third of the evil people, or of their things, that are destroyed, (vs. 7, 8, 9, 10; 9:15, 18). Unto these people it is, in a sense, a "final judgment" since it terminates their existence on earth. They pay for their ungodliness with their lives! But unto the greater part of mankind it is a warning to repent, (9:20-21).

      The nature of what is presented in the scenes of these trumpet-soundings seems to suggest that, dur-ing the course of history, God uses such events as great storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tidal waves, droughts, wars, and pestilence to punish one segment of mankind for its evil, and by the same action to warn the rest to repent in view of the approaching great and Final Judgment. Such events as divine judgments are explicit in the Old Testament, (see especially Amos 4:4-13), and God is now the same God He was then. In Mat. 16:1-4 Jesus speaks of how much more important it is to "discern the signs of the times" than it is to discern the signs of the weather. The person who interprets tragic events in human experience with respect to the "trumpets of judgment" in Rev. 8-11 may indeed be "discern-(ing) the signs of the times" as Jesus directs. And if he is thereby warned and led to repentance, great good for him is achieved, even if what he observed is more of a random act of nature than a specific judgment of God.

OUT OF THE GREAT TRIBULATION

Rev. 7:14b ... "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

     A thousand years before Christ came David asked, "O Lord, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? (Psa. 15:1). David was concerned with who would be allowed to dwell in the precincts of the proposed temple to be built on the mountain in Jerusalem. It had been his ambition to build this temple, but because he was a man of war David was denied the project by Jehovah. However, he was told that he could make preparations and assemble materials so that his son Solomon would be able to build it. David then spent the rest of his life engaged in these preparations and in meditations about their implementation.

      There are some parallels between David's subject in Psalm 15 and the status of Christians. The question for us is, "Who shall dwell in God's presence in that eternal, perfect, celestial Temple of heaven? Remember that Jesus said, "In My Father's house are many dwelling places ... I go to prepare a place for you ... I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also, (Jno. 14:2-3). It is to be noted that heaven is a prepared place, but only for those who prepare them-selves for it. But what is the nature of this preparation?

      In Rev. 7, John had a vision of a multitude of people who were sealed by God, (to signify His recog-nition and approval of them). Upon seeing them invested in robes of pure white, John inquired of one of the elders about their identity. The elder's answer is our featured text: "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the  Lamb." The "great tribulation" means the earthly experience of the struggle against temptation, which is directed at Christians throughout their lives by the evil forces at large in the world, (Eph. 6:10-17). The white robes they wore represent the righteousness of these saints, (Rev. 19:8). However, this righteous-ness was not of themselves. The elder made it clear to John that the whiteness of the robes was due to the cleansing power of the "blood of the Lamb," i.e., the purifying blood Jesus shed on Calvary, (Heb. 9:14). In fact, even the robes themselves are a gift from Christ. (See Gal. 3:27, where "put on" is the usual word for putting on clothing, as the NASB so translates it). The reference, of course, is to bap-tism, for that is the active response of the believer in which Jesus' blood cleanses the soul of sin, (Acts 20:28 and 22:16; Rom. 6:3-7). After baptism, a Christian must be diligent to keep his soul pure, (Jas. 1:27), uncontaminated by the myriad defilements of the polluted world in which he lives, (I Jno. 2:16).

      Therefore, the answer to the question, "Who shall be permitted to live forever in heaven before God?" is: Everyone who has his soul washed clean of sin in the blood of Christ in baptism, and who thereafter resists the worldly pollutions and keeps his soul pure unto death. Those whom John saw in the vision in Revelation 7 had accomplished this and were receiving great blessings in their new and eternal glorious home. First, they were permitted to come before God on His throne and serve Him there forever, (v.15). Second, all the distressing problems of their former earthly lives were forever banished from them, (v.16). And third, Christ their Savior will give them the food and water of life to sustain them eternally, (v.17).

      The wonder of this message is that anyone can be one of these people clothed with white robes in the company of Jesus in heaven, if he will gladly submit to the preparations of "wash(ing his) robe and mak(ing it) white in the blood of the Lamb" while the time and opportunity are still at hand.

WHO SHALL BE ABLE TO STAND?

Rev. 6:17 ... "For the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"

      Paul wrote in Rom. 10:18, "Have they not heard? Yea verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." To the discerning Christian it is a perplexing thing that the majority of people conduct their lives separate and apart from any consideration for God's will. For them, religion is not a motivating force, and their decisions are made with respect to material, social, and sensual circumstances of the moment. One would like to think that people live irreligious lives out of ignorance of what religion teaches; hence Paul's question, "Have they not heard?" We must, however, largely dismiss this charitable explanation when we consider that, at least in America, the case for religion is continually made publicly. On any day of the week and at any place in the country, a person has access via television, radio, the internet, or the printed page to a presentation of the gospel (the good news) of Jesus. Indeed, it is more true than ever that, "Their sound (the preaching of the gospel) went into all the earth, and their words (the content of the gospel) unto the ends of the world."

      It is important for the irreligious to know that a day is coming when they will be held accountable for their disregard of God's will for man. Our featured text refers to their baleful cry when the Lord requires them to acknowledge His universal sovereignty and confess that their persistent indifference was a dreadful mistake. In Rom. 11:22 Paul wrote: "Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God." As long as this earth continues, God's goodness is manifest in His patience with sinful men and His effort through the gospel to save them, (II Pet. 3:9). But when God chooses to terminate this earth "with a great noise, and ... fervent heat," (II Pet. 3:10), the severity of God will be seen as "the elements ... melt with fervent heat and the earth ... and the works that are therein shall be burned up."

      These final events of world destruction constitute "the great day of His wrath" of which the lead text above speaks. Indeed, when that "great day ... is come ... who shall be able to stand?" Those who ignore His will throughout their lives will no longer be able to stand against God with their pride, arrogance, ridicule, boasting, and passive indifference. They must suffer defeat with all of the irreligious when "the Lord comes with 10,000 of His saints to execute judgment upon all," (Jude 14-15). It is unfashionable in our present age of "enlightenment" to believe in a Day of Judgment. and it is considered ridiculous to voice such a conviction in public conversation. But for an entire population to dismiss a reality as a myth is powerless to make what is real be nonexistent. Reality is that the Lord "has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness," (Acts 17:31). And universal human denial thereof cannot break that Divine appointment.

      One of the wonderful traits of God, however, is that He takes no pleasure or satisfaction in destroy-ing that which He Himself created in His own image. We are assured that God is "longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, (II Pet. 3:9). The Scrip-tures are very clear that He will certainly destroy those who reject His love, defy His will, and live in alienation to Him. But He strongly desires that people will respond to His love, submit graciously to His will, and seek daily communion with Him in compliance with His wish expressed in II Cor. 6:16, "I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." Thus it is that God is "longsuffering toward us." He grants us long periods of time to discover our folly and for-sake it. For all who renounce their infidelity and obey God in love and faith, the day that ends time and launches eternity will not be a "great day of wrath," but a "great day" of victory. When the defiant and rebellious cannot find any place "to stand" before "His wrath," the humble and obedient will stand securely in His love in total victory.