Sorry! Those of you who have been following the blog you will know that it is over a fortnight since I last contributed anything. It’s not that I haven’t thought about it. It’s not even that I didn’t sit down a couple of times to write something. It’s just that I couldn’t think what to write about!
This week I have been attending Bible teaching meetings at the Gospel Hall in Kinross and it has certainly given me a lot to think about. Over the course of the week the evangelist, Mr Jim Allen has been taking us through the account in the Book of Revelation of the end times for this world. From Chapter 19 to the end of the book we are given a prophecy concerning mankind’s final rebellion against God and His final judgement upon the world. It makes for sobering reading!
I was particularly struck with the description towards the end of chapter 20 of ‘a great white throne’ set up in space. John writes,
“And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.”
This isn’t the final judgement of popular myth where good deeds are weighed against bad ones and a decision made on whether entrance to heaven is merited or not. That judgement isn’t found in the Bible. This is the final verdict to show that God is just. There is no appeal from this court because there is no higher authority. There is also only one sentence, “And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire”.
The simple question that each one will have to answer is, ‘is your name recorded in heaven as one who has trusted the Lord Jesus as his/her Saviour?’. No wonder the Lord Jesus said to His disciples on one occasion, ” rejoice, because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10vs20).
This world has rejected God and rejected God’s Son. We can choose, however, to stand apart from the choice of the world and to side with God. By accepting that the death of the Lord Jesus Christ was necessary for your sins and trusting Him as your Saviour you change sides. As the Apostle Paul says you are, “delivered … from the power of darkness and conveyed … into the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Col. 1vs13).
The judgement of this world is coming and is certain. No wonder the Apostle Peter preached, “save yourselves from this untoward generation” (Acts 2vs40).