The Wrath of God

A hospital patient to his room-mate: "We ought to be very thankful for doctors. Isn't it wonderful how they are able to fix so many things that ail us? I really love my doctor. He has seen our family through many a trial."

Enter the doctor on his rounds with an assistant. "Good morning, Mr. Patient."

"Good morning, Doctor...good to see you. What do you have to tell me today?"

Silence. "We have investigated everything thoroughly. I'm afraid there is nothing more we can do. Your leg will have to be amputated. I'm so sorry."

Shock. Disbelief. Denial. Despair. Terror. Helplessness. A faithful, caring doctor having to be the bearer of bad news to someone he had cared about for so long, someone he was able to help at former times, someone he had tried counselling concerning his lifestyle to change and improve it, but his words had fallen on disregarding ears.

So it was in the days of Noah. The law of God and His warnings went unheeded. "God is love" they said, "He would never destroy the people He created. Look what happened with Adam and Eve. They sinned. Did He kill them? No. In fact, in His love for them, He covered them with skins. Sure, they couldn't stay in the garden anymore. No big deal. And then He gave Eve a son, Cain! His blessing and mercy was always there. He is a good God, a merciful and compassionate God. Neither does He change. We can always depend on the fact that He will always be that way. And what about Cain?! He kills his innocent brother. Did God kill him for it? No. Sure, He talked to him about it and said there would be some consequence but note that He put a mark on him to protect him from the same thing happening to him that he did to his brother. God is love!

This Noah fellow doesn't recognize the grace and mercy of God. There he is, the damned fool, building a huge ship in the middle of nowhere, he and his sons, expecting a loving God to wipe out not just one or two people, but everybody and everything! How deluded can a guy get! This guy thinks everything revolves around him. He thinks he hears from God. God = Noah and Noah = God, right? What a laugh! The serpent hasn't quit, has he? Working overtime on Noah. Those poor kids of his. He has them deluded along with him and his wife. His wife seems nice enough. Doesn't she see?"

"But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be..."

Today is no different at all from Noah's day. We have these notions that it was much more vile and violent then but the word "violence" in the Hebrew means "unjust gain." Sure they had physical violence then, and don't we? But speak of unjust gain! The earth is flooded with it. Look at the stock market for a primary example. Look at corporate takeovers, monopolies, deceitful advertising, inflation, medical tyranny, the injustices of the "justice system", the unlearned educational system, the pollution for profit that kills everything in sight. Most of all, look at the religious works of men today and how they make merchandise of people even as Peter foretold, saying, "...through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you..."

I tell you, just as a rotting apple is worse days from now than it is today, so today is WORSE THAN NOAH'S DAY. In Leviticus were prescribed two cleansing agents, water the lesser, and fire the greater. Water cleansed in Noah's day but water cannot cleanse today. The fire must come because the day is so vile. Did not Peter say that this Day of God would be such "wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?" Because of this approaching, he urged that people of God needed to be in all holy conversation (life) and godliness. But it amazes me how sin blinds and deceives the self-righteous into thinking they are holy, and there is no talking to them.

"For if God spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing the flood upon the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned then with an overthrow, making them an example to those that after should live ungodly..."

"Truly I say to you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city whose inhabitants will not hear your words..."

In the days prior to the days of Jesus walking in the flesh when He spoke some of the above words, Israel had been taken captive by Babylon. Only a remnant of the people were spared. Unlike the introductory scenario of this writing wherein a limb was to be taken and the body spared, God has often taken the body and spared only a limb. He keeps the remnant, not the bolt. And how small that remnant can be, more like a snip of a remnant as in the day of Noah when He saved a mere 8 souls out of the entire population. That day was compared to how it would be at the last day, the day of His coming.

"God is love! God is love!" everyone cries. I see multitudes of lovers of pleasures holding hands, skip-dancing in circles, singing:

"God is stupid; God is a fool!

Look at Him smile; look at Him drool!

We will have pleasure; we will have fun;

He did it all for us by giving His Son!

Naa naa naa naa!"

They finger their noses at God, truth, justice, righteousness, sobriety, holiness, and truly at love, God's love as it really is. They make a mockery of all that is right and pure, honest and good. That which is good they call evil and that which is evil, good. They take unto themselves preachers who will justify and console them in their lusts. They worship other gods upon whom they attach the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ saying "He is like thus" when He is nothing at all (like) the way they love to imagine.

"Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today and forever" (Heb. 13:8). Sinners wanting their sin, unrepentant of their sin, must justify themselves. They read the Bible with blinders and render eloquent interpretations and commentaries to suit their evil consciences. The Bible is permeated with the WRATH OF GOD against sin and sinners. "God loves the sinner but hates the sin" is a favorite of the wicked. Surely He would only destroy sin, and the Bible would only talk of His destroying sin and not sinners, if the saying were true that God only destroys sin and not sinners. But the Bible clearly speaks of His destroying sinners, never sin. He puts away sin by the atonement and did so from the foundation of the world but He has destroyed sinners ever since, no matter how much grace they thought they had.

Believe it or not, those in the days of Noah also thought they could depend on the grace of God. So it was with the children of Israel whose false prophets prophesied to them peace and prosperity. So it was in Jesus' day when He was accused of speaking against the temple of God. Grace is not as men suppose. The atonement is not as they suppose. Law was never removed from the scheme of things...never. On grace and law we can speak at another time (See "Law and Grace") but now if Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today and forever, let us see how He was yesterday. By that, we can assuredly know how He is today. The Bible is a faithful witness to the Author of the Bible:

"And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth..."

"And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife."

"The Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha brimstone and fire from the Lord of heaven; and He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground."

"But his wife (Lot's) looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt."

The wrath of God came down on Sodom and Gomorrha so dramatically and demonstrably that to this day we speak of how vile those cities must have been, and of course, the record testifies that they were vile. But has the Lord changed in His nature and ways of dealings from that time? Did He not say, in the days of His flesh, nearly two millenia later, that it would be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha than for those cities which had seen His works and to which He sent messengers to speak and who would refuse to heed those messengers? And if that day of judgment was many centuries down the road as many suppose, and even 2000 years later, is still to come as many suppose, then how is it that God has changed in His wrath or in any other way? The fact is, He hasn't changed, unless to apparently greater severity. But men have created God in an image palatable to them and conducive to their lifestyles so as to justify and pacify themselves in their sins. Notice that what they were doing in Sodom was not worse than rejecting the preaching of the Lord's servants and in fact, not as serious. Scoffers who do not practise sodomy, beware. Again, I say beware.

Let's go on to other examples of God's wrath, displaying Him as He is, yesterday, today and forever:

"But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, you are but a dead man, for the woman which you have taken; for she is a man's wife."

"And Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord slew him."

"And the thing which Onan did displeased the Lord: wherefore He slew him also."

"And it came to pass...that the Lord sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at Moses' feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband are you to me. So He let him go: then she said, A bloody husband you are because of the circumcision."

"And it came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle."

"And I will get Me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots and upon his horsemen...and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea."

"I will send My fear before you, and will destroy all the people to whom you shall come..."

"Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go...and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour...and there fell of the people (of God, that is) that day about 3000 men."

"By no means clearing the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation." (innocent children?)

"And Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu...offered strange fire before the Lord...and there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord."

"When you come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I (The Lord, that is) PUT THE PLAGUE OF LEPROSY in a house of the land of your possession (the land of milk and honey!)..."

"And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord: and the Lord heard it; and His anger was kindled; and the fire of the Lord burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp."

God gave them meat for which they had asked. "And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague."

"And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married...and the anger of the Lord was kindled against them...and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow..." And when Moses prayed for her, the Lord said:

"If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days: let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again." This is that same Lord of Whom it was said, at that time yet, that He is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression..."

Speaking to His people: "As truly as I live, says the Lord...your carcases shall fall in this wilderness...and your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness...I the Lord have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against Me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die...and the men that brought up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord."

And the Lord caused the earth to open her mouth, "and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained to Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that appertained to them, went down ALIVE into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation. And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them: for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up also. And there came out a fire from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense."

"...and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and the Lord said to Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel...and those that died in the plague were twenty-four thousand.

"For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God...(For the Lord your God is a merciful God;) He will not forsake you, neither destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them (Deut. 4:24, 31). These things were written of God in the Old Testament, in the same book, in the same chapter. Contradiction? Not in the least.

"And the Lord your God will put out those nations before you...deliver them unto you, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed..."

"But you shall surely kill him...and you shall stone him with stones, that he die; because he has sought to thrust you away from the Lord your God..."

Deuteronomy 27 has twelve "curseds" one rarely hears of.

If one does well, God blesses; if not, God curses. Curses today are not viewed or acknowledged as curses but as trials or testings of faith or strengthening measures presuming the subject is righteous simply because that person is naming the Lord and praising Him with his lips. (See Deut. 28). Most religious people suffer the curses of this chapter and think they suffer for the cause of Christ or according to His will when it is simply not so. To acknowledge otherwise would call for repentance and conversion whereby they would be healed but they insist they ARE converted, that Christ lives in them, that they "accepted Christ when they were ten years old" and that their Christ is that loving, doting, forgiving God they have been taught to believe in. They refuse to acknowledge the side of God I now point out in Scripture or that this side would apply to them as it always has, even to His own people, and even more particularly to those who have been given more light and of whom therefore more is required. Loving? Yes. Forgiving? Yes. BUT NOT TO THE UNREPENTANT NOR TO THE HYPOCRITE.

Speaking of His people: "For a fire is kindled in My anger, and shall burn to the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap mischiefs upon them...spend My arrows upon them...send the teeth of beasts upon them with the poison of serpents of the dust...the sword without, and terrors within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs."

At the command of the Lord, they "utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword." (What?! "Innocent" children too?!)

"And Joshua said, Why have you troubled us? the Lord shall trouble you this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones."

(Speaking of Achan, his sons and daughters, livestock, tent and all possessions, because Achan stole and kept some gold and garments which were to be destroyed instead).

Charles Templeton, once an associate evangelist with Billy Graham, in an interview on CBC with Peter Downey, said he could not find that loving God he preached and which others preached to be consistent with the complete Bible testimony of God. He spoke of the Bible as utterly contradicting itself on the nature of God. His problem was that he looked in the Bible for the kind of god he and others preached, couldn't find him and therefore not only wrote off the false Jesus Christ preached (which he should have done) but the Bible and the God of the Bible as well. He could not see nor could he acknowledge God as He is...a God of wrath and destruction as well as God Who is love. He went in with preconceived notions and not wanting truth, went away a confounded man, deeming himself to be enlightened quite above many intelligent, sincere people who lived "good lives." Though he is certainly accountable for his own conclusions, I say he has also been victim of the preaching by carnal men like Billy Graham and thousands of others who do not know the Lord as they claim, are not saved as they claim but serve a fictitious god in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In taking quotations out of the Bible to point to that side of God many would choose to be ignorant of, I have covered only the first six books of sixty-six. Time and time again are mentioned the anger, wrath, indignation and fury of the Lord: fury, nearly 60 times, indignation, about 30 times, wrath, about one hundred times, anger, about TWO HUNDRED TIMES.

Let's go on for those who are so unfamiliar with the Bible and the God of the Bible:

Because Achan simply kept something for himself that was only to be destroyed anyway, not only he and his family were destroyed but also thirty-six men of Israel who had not taken anything. My point is that God is not tolerant of evil at all and secondly, companying with sinners brings upon you the wrath of God automatically even if you are not directly involved in their sins.

Time and time again, in the Book of Judges, God delivered His people into the hands of their enemies and, when they cried out and repented, He delivered them. Yes, He IS merciful and longsuffering but do not write off His wrath. Are you in the hands of creditors, hard employers, cruel husbands, bitter wives, even your own rebellious children? Why?

Hear, you adulterers and adulteresses! When David took Uriah's wife, Bathsheba, and killed Uriah, the Lord was not a little displeased. When David tried to conceal his sin, a prophet was sent to him and David confessed and repented but consider the consequences that came nevertheless:

1) The child of the adultery was not permitted to live.

2) His son Amnon raped one of David's daughters, Tamar.

3) Another of his sons, Absalom, killed Amnon.

4) David and Absalom, father and son, lived apart in bitterness while David longed for him.

5) Absalom, reputed for beauty very rare, tried to kill his father and usurp his throne. David had to flee in his old age.

6) David was betrayed by a close friend, Ahithophel, who advised Absalom against David.

7) David was publicly railed upon and cursed by a man, Shimei.

8) His ten concubines were violated by his son before all Israel (David's sin was in secret but the fruit was public).

9) Twenty thousand men died in battle over the affair.

10) Absalom, still beloved to David, was killed.

11) The concubines spent the rest of their lives in celibacy and widowhood, shut up.

12) Amasa, a general of David, was slain by Joab.

13) Israel and Judah were temporarily divided from each other when Sheba, a Benjamite revolted against David. Sheba was killed.

14) Joab became a bloody man who troubled David. More consequences were to follow in the day of Solomon, David's son and successor.

David had committed adultery and murder. He had repented, but the seeds he had sown reaped a terrible harvest of murder and adultery, even if it took years. Sinner, do you not discern the fruits of your own ways in your midst? Are you deceived into thinking that the evils in your life are "happenstance?" The Bible says that the curse causeless does not come. Everything has a reason, a cause. God is not out of control and neither is any circumstance. Is it the wrath of God or the wages of sin? Does it matter? Does one hurt any less than the other? It is both. They are one and the same.

James addressed adulterers and adulteresses. He wasn't necessarily addressing those who had committed the physical sin of adultery although such can and would be included, but he was addressing those who were committing spiritual adultery which is no less a sin. By spiritual adultery, I do not speak of "looking at a woman with lust." As far as I'm concerned, that too is physical and equal to the actual act as Jesus said. One uses literal, physical eyes to do it and focuses with physical emotion on a literal, physical woman. This is not what James was speaking of. He was speaking of people who took the Lord's Name upon themselves (calling themselves Christians), professing to believe in Him and to obey Him but walked in hypocrisy. He was speaking of those who talk but don't walk, having "toots" and no fruits, saying one thing but doing quite another, professing to worship Him but worshipping other gods...committing adultery on God by giving heed to their preferences and interests rather than to Him. These are liars as well as adulterous "liers" who promise and vow and swear to do but who refuse to do justice because it is not convenient for them. When the "chips are down," their own interests always come first. The cross is abhorrent to them. They prefer their religious and social pleasures to God. They choose fellowship with man (and think it righteous to do so) over the fellowship with God, and they adulterate the whole thing by deceiving themselves into thinking they seek and have fellowship with God by having it with other adulterers and adulteresses. These are whores, laughing, smiling; light persons who will not face reality.

Do you who prefer the praise and companionship of people think you will escape? Did David escape? I tell you, that even if you repent at this point as David did, still there will be consequences. Why then will you delay your repentance and add sin to sin and consequence to consequence? Do you not know that God's wrath grows greater, hour by hour and could even come to the point where there will no longer be an open door for you? Nathan warned David as I warn you in this writing. If David had ignored the warning, what do you think would have happened? I'll tell you. David would have lost everything... everything, including his life. Repent, people, I tell you, I warn you, repent. Those who do not heed are destroyed.

"Be not deceived; God is no mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap."

"And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah." Seventy thousand perished by plague as a result.

In a siege of Israel conducted by the king of Syria, the "people of God" were boiling their own children and eating them for hunger. You think God (the Lord Jesus Christ) didn't bring that upon them? As it says, "But it shall come to pass, if you will not hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command you this day; that all these curses shall come upon you, and overtake you...The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward...her young one that comes out from between her feet...for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith your enemy shall distress you in your gates. If you will not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book (the Bible), that you may fear this glorious and fearful Name, THE LORD YOUR GOD..." (DEUT. 28:15-68).

"THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, THE SAME YESTERDAY, AND TODAY AND FOREVER."

Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom God referred to as His servant, was sent in by God to destroy the land with its people. Man, woman and child were slain, a remnant was spared. Because the king of Judah did not submit to Babylon, his sons were all slain before his eyes and then his eyes were put out and he was carried away to Babylon in fetters.

Is the Jesus you believe in capable of such things today? If not, you are a worshipper of a false god, another Jesus, and are therefore an idolater as were all these whom He destroyed for idolatry!

Jonathan was a close friend of David's but because Jonathan did not identify with David in his sufferings and instead remained with "the world", his family, he was destroyed with them by the sword which the Lord sent. It was not what Jonathan did but what he failed to do even when there was no express command given to him from God for direction, that we know of.

God's wrath was poured out on the posterity of Solomon because Solomon had turned away from obeying God. The Babylonian captivity as mentioned above was the result.

God laughs at the wicked in His anger. Does your Jesus do so? In Psalm 2, it says, "He that sits in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them (those who speak against Him and against His anointed) in derision. Then shall He speak to them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure...Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little..." In Proverbs 1, it says, "But you have set at nought all My counsel, and would none of My reproof: I also will LAUGH at your calamity; I will mock when your fear comes...Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer..."

Besides the words of hope and comfort Isaiah spoke to Judah, he also had many harsh things to say to them. And what of Jeremiah to whom the Lord said, "...I ordained you a prophet to the nations..." from which Jeremiah recoiled? Why did he recoil? Did he know that the Lord wasn't sending him to whisper sweet things? Why did the Lord say to him, "Don't be afraid of their faces: for I am with you to deliver you?" Was it because Jeremiah wasn't going to be "Best Loved Man of the Year" for what he was going to say? Why was he going to need the Lord's deliverance? I can tell you why, by experience, by a knowledge of the Scriptures, by a knowledge of the Lord and His ways. It is because he wasn't going to have anything popular to say. He was going to speak the truth, the very best thing his audience could have. The problem was that his audience knew better. Ironically, that is why God was sending a prophet to them. They thought they knew better. They thought they were the Lord's... and they were, but not as they should be. "See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant" said the Lord to him. That would be popular, wouldn't it?

To the Lord's people, Jeremiah had to say of them, "They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall...be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven..." In speaking these kinds of things to the people, the people would respond, "Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?" (They thought they were living righteous lives). The answer: "Because your fathers have forsaken Me, says the Lord, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken Me, and have not kept My law; and you have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, you walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken to Me..."

Everybody I speak to thinks he is clean, that he does nothing wrong but everyone walks after the imagination of his own heart as to what is right and wrong, good and evil, and will not listen to a man of God to correct their thinking. "Who does he think he is?!" they say, "there are not prophets today, except for false ones!"

Time and time again, Jeremiah warned the Jews of their wickedness and impending judgments which came and even after his words were confirmed with judgments, with captivity to Babylon, they still did not believe. Then the Lord spoke by Jeremiah, saying "You have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah...because of their wickedness they have committed to provoke Me to anger...Howbeit I sent to you all My servants the prophets...saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate. But they hearkened not...wherefore My fury and My anger was poured forth...Why then do evil now?...Have you forgotten?...They are not humbled even to this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in My law...Therefore...I will set My face against you for evil...and they shall all be consumed...by the sword, and by the famine: they shall die, from the least even to the greatest...and they shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach..."

What did the people reply?! "As for the word that you have spoken to us in the Name of the Lord, WE WILL NOT HEARKEN TO YOU. BUT WE WILL CERTAINLY DO WHATSOEVER THING GOES FORTH OUT OF OUR OWN MOUTH...since we ceased to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine." Therefore the Lord said that they would perish, all but a small number who would be spared, and so it was.

Ezekiel spoke unpleasant words to his people. The message from the prophets was always the same..."REPENT"; the reactions were always the same..."GO TO HELL, YOU BASTARD, WE LOVE YOU AND HATE YOU, love you by show because we're supposed to, but hate you in reality because you speak the truth and want us to give up our pleasures."

When the Lord told Habakkuk He was going to judge His people by the bitter, terrible and dreaded Chaldeans, Habakkuk thought it should be the Chaldeans who should be judged: "O Lord, You have ordained THEM for judgment; and, O mighty God, You have established THEM for correction...how can You look on those who deal treacherously, and hold Your tongue when the wicked devours the man that is more righteous than he?" meaning "We are better so how can you let them do this to us?" Those of you who name the Name of the Lord, do not think that those who do not name His Name will not prevail over you, because they will, and they will because you will not repent of your self-righteousnesses, of your own imaginations as to how God ought to be worshipped and served or as to how you think He ought to deal with you.

Malachi wrote that the Lord's day was a great and dreadful one. Dreadful for who? Do those who name His Name think to escape, living as they do in their hypocrisies? The Lord said that if things did not change, He would smite the earth with a curse.

What about the Lord Jesus Christ during His day on earth? What was He like then? Not at all as they teach in the churches today. His requirements were not lowered but raised. Whereas the law had been given as a temporary tutor until His day, now He would say, "You have heard that it was said by them of old time, You shall not commit adultery: but I say to you, that whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart."

Was wrath indeed removed or did God change His ways after the cross? What happened to Israel and to Jerusalem and to the temple of God about forty years after the cross? All was given to the fires and scattered to the wind. Many tens of thousands died at the hands of the Romans who were the Hand of God. They were slaughtered, man, woman and child by sword, famine, pestilence and crucifixion. The temple of God was rubble. Jesus pronounced these things upon them, His people, because they would not listen. They knew better. They "had God for their father." And for the next 1900 years, there would be no Israel. And how was Israel treated in the dispersion? History well records the sufferings of unbelieving people at the hands of unbelieving people.

You think that the Jews were worse than you? You think that the law was harsher than "grace?" What does the writer in Hebrews say years after the crucifixion, which crucifixion you think requires nothing of you but "to believe?" Read:

"He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, do you suppose, shall he be thought worthy, who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and has done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know Him that has said, Vengeance belongs to Me, I will recompense, says the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge His people. It IS (not was) a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." and

"See that you refuse not Him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaks from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now He has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven...wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, LET US HAVE GRACE, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly FEAR: FOR OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE."

There are many who think grace to be that soppish, googy-eyed smile, a "church attitude", a demonstration of "Christ in you" aura. Vipers...a pretty print on the skin but a concealed, forked tongue and deadly fangs filled with poison not at all difficult to expose. There are those who think that grace (unmerited favor) is to all, regardless of genuine repentance and radical change in lifestyle, outlook, attitude and beliefs. They think the laws of God are made null and void because of grace. They ignore the words of Jesus Who said that heaven and earth would be done away before one jot or tittle of the law would pass. Have heaven and earth passed away or are you banking on these passing away any day now so that you would no longer be accountable by law? Why do you pick and choose Jesus' sayings according to what suits you? Do you not know that in so doing, "God shall take away your part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things written in this book?" While you take from the book, you also add to it because you change and twist things to suit your fancy. Therefore, "God shall add to you the plagues that are written in this book" (not just Revelation though that would encompass all anyway, but the entire Bible).

What is grace? It is the power of Christ in us to obey Him, to keep His law, to live lives unto Him and not unto men, that is, in holiness, separation from the world in attitude, conduct and thought as well as word and deed. It is not a matter of appearance or outward show but of the heart, in reality, not as eye-pleasing but as God-pleasing, a walk not of works but of faith, a life not of sacrifice but one of obedience. It is a life not of the carnal church but of the one made without hands. It is not a talk of God but a walk with God. The religious all talk of God and think they fulfill their duty and do not realize that they are actually bringing upon themselves wrath because of hypocrisy. Their notion of grace is disgrace. Better to have said nothing.

To the wicked who will not listen, God is a God of wrath though they do not listen because they think He is a God of Love and refuse to consider otherwise because it would require somewhat more of them than they care to think. Jesus warned of more judgments to come after His death, which disproves the theory and usual belief today that His work on the cross" did it all."

Said Jesus, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered Pilate's mingling their blood with their sacrifices? I tell you, No: but, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, do you think that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, No: but, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish."

Did He not warn by parable that those who refused to render the fruit of the vineyard to God would be destroyed? Why would He use such a parable if He were not the kind of person who would do it? Were they destroyed for murder? Yes. For robbery in that they did not pay their dues? Yes. Are you who name the Name of the Lord Jesus not guilty of the same when He sends prophets, messengers to you and you refuse to listen and obey but instead kill them by evil speech, ostracism, mockery, derision, cold shoulder, embarrassment at their presence and words? I tell you, you think you are not capable of killing a prophet of God or anyone else? If some were so bold as to do so, wouldn't you stand aside and look the other way at the very least or join them in words if not in the very act?

I know that the religious, those who call themselves believers, born again, evangelical and all, quoting Scripture, would certainly do so. I know by their present fruits. "False prophet! False prophet!" you whisper to each other. How do I know? I ask "How do I not know?" Even your fence-sitting tells all, how much more your derision and scoffing! Do you think you can ignore what I say and escape as though you have a choice? Not if I am sent of God. How do you know I am sent of God? If you did the will of God, you would know but you do not know because you do your own thing and prefer it that way. Therefore you don't know whether I come from God or not. You, as Jerusalem, do not know your hour of visitation.

The wrath of God was manifest before all quite dramatically after the resurrection to believers. Ananias and Sapphira were not given time or opportunity to reconsider or repent. Were they believers? Yes. Were they "church-goers?" Yes. Did they give to the church? Yes. Were they willing to sacrifice for the poor? Yes. Were they acknowledging and submitting to the Lord's ministers? Yes, or so it appeared. Did they have a right to keep back what they did? Yes. Did they have to sell their land? No. Yet for deceit to the Lord's servants and therefore to Him, they were slain. One lie was all it took, not murder, not adultery, not blasphemy, not theft, not vile acts, nothing but a lie. Tell me, believer, have you measured up to Ananias and Sapphira? Is Jesus at this point that effeminate, wimpish, "loving", gentle softy who overlooks deceit, hypocrisy or any other sin?

Jesus is not a God of wrath? Over sin, He certainly is and will not cover yours. Paul in Romans speaking of rulers God has set up over saints and sinners: "For he is the minister of God to you for good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid; for he bears not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute WRATH upon him that does evil."

Jesus is not a God of wrath? What does Paul say to the Corinthians? "He that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." Is there illness and premature death in your midst? Why? Is it not because of wrath?

I speak to people constantly who profess to believe yet think they can take considerable liberties. What does Peter have to say? "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous SCARCELY BE SAVED, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" Tell me, you that think you are saved, do you really think you are one of those whose life measures up well within the safety limits of those scarcely saved? Why do you lie? Why do you pretend? Who do you think you are fooling? Why do you deceive yourself? Why do you mingle with the world? Did Noah mingle with the world? How many made it in his day? I tell you, unless you believe what I have to say, you will not make it in this, the Day of the Lord, the Day of Vengeance, the Day of Wrath, the Day of Making an End to Evil once and for all. So you think you will not only make it but reign with the Lord! I tell you, it doesn't matter how saved you think you are. The Pharisees too thought they were very saved.

Hypocrites grievously contradict themselves. On the one hand, they live like devils, dedicated to gain, religiously, self-righteously, having no use for truth, despising the acceptance of their own cross, having a form of godliness, but claim for themselves the love and grace of God, saying that God is a loving God and ever merciful. On the other hand, they teach that this same loving, doting, merciful, compassionate, longsuffering, forgiving God will send the vast majority of mankind into a most horrible and fiery torment that will never end and that this God will enjoy fellowship simultaneously forever and ever with those who confessed Him. Many of these damned won't even have had a chance to know who it is they ought to have confessed or why. "Heads I win, tails you lose!" says the self-righteous. "I am the Lord's and I can get away with a lot because I believe, but most of you can't get away with anything!" Again, hypocrites grievously contradict themselves. You think that the days of the Jewish era were the harsh ones, days without mercy, only law. You think that Jesus came as a lamb for the sacrifice that God might demonstrate His mercy on all. What? First He was a lion and then a lamb? But do you not believe that He first came as a lamb and now will appear as a lion? He first came to die but now to conquer. As in His day the religious were His enemies, so it is today. The religious think they are the ones to be honored by God but this is not so. It is the religious who will be and are already condemned. Your self-righteousnesses of religion are as filthy rags. And what of the Lamb of God? Docile? Tender? Meek? Not to self-righteous, religious hypocrites who don't believe His wrath will ever come upon them! Read what John has to say about the Lamb and of the wicked who said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sits on the throne, and from the WRATH OF THE...LION? No, THE LAMB!..For the Great Day of His WRATH is come; and who shall be able to stand?"

Deceivers could never see nor believe that a lamb could be wrathful; a lion, yes, but a lamb? "Go your way, false prophet...a wrathful lamb! Who do you think you are kidding?! Get out of here; go deceive the simple-minded, the loners, the losers, the societal misfits. We are not one of them. You know nothing about sheep at all and you presume to tell us of God? Ha! We laugh in your face!"

Enoch prophesied of the Day of the Lord, saying that He would come...with ice cream and balloons for the religious? With harps and robes for the hypocrites? With crowns for loose livers and tall talkers? No, He comes to..."execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaks great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage."

Jude said of these that they would be "mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts." He went on to say, "These be they who separate themselves (denominations), sensual (going by the carnal senses and lusts, judging after the outward appearance), having not the Spirit."

The last book of the Bible, Revelation, is full of references to the Day of the Lord and to His WRATH. Shocked indeed will be those who look forward to His coming as though they were among the chosen. Such will say to Him, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your Name? and in Your Name have cast out devils? and in Your Name done many wonderful works?" (Just think: most never got even that far and have never prophesied nor cast out devils nor done any great works, not ever having had the Spirit though they think they did have!) And then will I (the Lord) profess to them, I never knew you: depart from Me, you that work iniquity (lawlessness, doing your own thing, having fun, church socializing, "building relationships," loving, doing that which is right in your own eyes)."

He (the King of Wrath) will say to those same ones who expect the sheepish lamb to fluff them up with His wool and overlook the "d" in "baad," "Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungered, and you gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and you gave Me no drink: I was a stranger, and you took Me not in: naked, and you clothed Me not: sick, and in prison, and you didn't visit Me." They will stand, mouths gaping, incredulous, perhaps indignant, no, certainly indignant in cases, saying, "You are mad; you have a devil; you are the antiChrist; you were born out of fornication; we know where you're from; you're a glutton, a winebibber, a deceiver, a dreamer, an outsider, a blasphemer, claiming equality with God by claiming to be His Son," and Jesus will say to them, "Remember so-and so? I sent him to speak and you threw him out; you refused to treat him in your office, doctor; you overcharged him on what he bought from you; you called him a false prophet because he didn't belong to your church or any other; while he pled with you, you pushed him away; you preferred your sins and your social pleasures; you claimed to love Me but you hated him when I sent him and you didn't believe, you didn't believe, you didn't believe."

The Wrath of God is in my whole being. I feel the wrath of God against the show, the hypocrisy, the lawlessness, the wickedness of all but mostly of the religious, the ones claiming to be the Lord's own. I came away from all their assemblies, their congregations, being warned of God to flee from the wrath to come upon those spots in the feasts of charity of the saints. With Jeremiah, I can say, "I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of Your hand: for You have filled me with indignation."

With the psalmist, I can say, "Concerning the works of men, by the Word of Your lips, I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer."

There are those who say I am angry, that I am unforgiving, bitter, critical, negative, so negative. Yes, I must confess that I see what you say you see and feel. I must tell you that it is what the Lord Jesus Christ feels. He is angry, so angry. He will not forgive the unrepentant. He is very bitter toward and critical of the hypocritical; he is very negative of their shining light "positivity." Do I hurt? Believe it because I do, I surely do. The Lord hurts. I still remember when He spoke to me in March of 1976, over two decades ago, feeling the pain of His words, saying, "I am hurting, I am hurting!" He was speaking of His people who were suffering, not for His sake but for their sins and idolatries because they were in ignorance, not knowing right from wrong, not able to discern between their right hand and their left. Little did I know at the time that I was one of those but He commanded me to come out from all the ways and doings of the religious. He was going to heal, cleanse and deliver me. He was going to reveal many things to me and prepare me to speak to others to deliver them as well.

Again, with Jeremiah, I can say, "To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the Word of the Lord is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it. Therefore I AM FULL OF THE FURY OF THE LORD; I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days. And their houses shall be turned unto others, with their fields and wives together: for I will stretch out My hand upon the inhabitants of the land, says the Lord. For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one deals falsely. They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace..."

For those who have ears to hear, REPENT, quickly. The time is at hand. For many it is too late; that invisible, fine line has been crossed when they were unaware. When God called, they would not answer and now He will not answer when they call in their calamity. Others shall be saved with fear, pulled out of the fire, soiled, so soiled, yet shown mercy at the last moment. We are all of us in great need of His mercy and can depend ONLY on His mercy BUT dare not presume He will show it without total repentance and obedience to Him. The God Who is Love is the God Who also is Wrath. I say to you, "Behold, BOTH the goodness AND the severity of God."

Victor Hafichuk