In His final public appeal, Jesus said “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48).  The Jewish nation among whom He lived was generally comprised of unbelieving and hard-hearted people (John 13:37-41).  Some in their innermost thoughts recognized the truth of who Jesus was, but were too afraid of the religious rulers to commit to Jesus (John 12:42-43).  But a few did believe in Jesus, recognizing that Him as the mirror image of the Father in heaven, God’s mouthpiece that declared His glory to the world (John 12:44-45, 49; cf. 1:14).  Notice two important truths Jesus highlights in regard to the consequences of rejecting Him and His word:

1. There is a judge — Many in our world today will say that no one should judge another. There are some who do not believe in God and thus imply that there is no ultimate standard or meaning behind any act. Many others say they believe in God, but reject or suppress any notion of God judging.  However, all of us act as if there is an ultimate standard of judgment.  We argue that we should be good people, treat others fairly, show love, reduce suffering, et cetera.  Why?  If there is no one sitting at the bench of the great tribunal of the universe, or if the one occupying the bench is so unconcerned with justice that he even rewards the disobedient, then why are we so concerned about people living the right kind of life?  If all moral values and ethical practices are subjective, then why would anyone have the right to tell anyone else that they ought to do anything?  But deep down we act like there is a standard because in reality there is a judge.  We cannot live as if our affections, beliefs and actions have no meaning.  The reality is they do matter and we will be judged concerning them.
2. There is a last day — In John 12:48, Jesus declares final judgment is coming. There will be a “last day” in which the physical world will cease to exist and all souls will enter into spiritual, timeless destinies (1 Corinthians 15:52-53). Time is linear.  Jesus shows that it is in his statement here, and the apostle Paul argued against the Greek notion that time is circular by preaching that the world is drawing to a close and the time to repent is now (Acts 17:31).  The universe had a beginning when a mind, greater and beyond the universe, a personal agent, created the universe in time.  This personal agent is God who is timeless (Psalm 90:2).  The Father and the Son were already there in the beginning when God spoke the universe into existence and time started (John 1:1-3; Genesis 1).  God is the beginning and the end (Revelation 1:8; 22:13).  The last day is coming (Romans 13:11-14).  All things will not continue as they have since creation; the physical world will be dissolved (2 Peter 3:4, 10-12).

With these two truths clearly affirmed by Jesus Christ, the ultimate question is whether or not one is receiving His word.  The only way to stand in the judgment is to receive Jesus and His word; no amount of talent or achievements will suffice in the last day (Rom. 14:4).  Receiving in John 12:48 is more than intellectual acknowledging of the truth.  It is a reception of the truth that becomes the dynamic of our lives.  Jesus is the Son of God and the rightful Lord of our lives.  His word is received when it is believed and obeyed.  When we engraft Jesus’ word into our lives, it is able to save our souls (James 1:21).  Will you stand in the judgment of the last day?

-Mark Day

Jesus said to his disciples, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.  If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:18, 19).

Since the foundation of the world, wicked men have hated and sought to kill the righteous.  Cain murdered his brother Able because his own works were evil and his brother’s righteous; thus, we should not marvel that the world hates us today (1 John 3:12, 13).  Joseph’s brothers hated him because of the partiality their father showed him and because of his dreams (Genesis 37:3-8).  When Jehoshaphat refused to believe the counsel of the roughly 400 court prophets who said that Ahab would be successful in battle at Ramothgilead, he asked for a prophet of the Lord (1 Kings 22:6, 7).  Ahab knew of one, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but Ahab hated him because he prophesied evil concerning him (1 Kings 22:8).  Ahab hated Micaiah because he told the truth when others would not.  It was not a defect in Micaiah but rather in Ahab’s character that Ahab was continually setting himself against the Lord’s will.  Similarly, both Ahab and Jezebel hated the prophet Elijah and sought to kill him because he stood for truth (1 Kings 19:2).  When he warned against joining the ranks of sinners, Solomon mentioned those who would lay in wait to kill the innocent (Proverbs 1:10).

The devil seeks to discourage us from living faithful lives.  It is true that all who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12).  We are not alone in suffering.  We must continue to resist being overcome by the evil in the world, knowing our brethren throughout the world suffer tremendous afflictions for the cause of Christ (1 Peter 5:9; cf. Romans 12:21).  So let us not give up the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12).  We must through much tribulation enter the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22).  Remember when the world hates you that, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4).

Suffering in itself is not virtuous, but suffering for the cause of Christ is.  There are many who suffer for the crimes they have chosen to commit.  If Christians suffer for following their Lord, then they are blessed.  “But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.  Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf” (1 Peter 4:15, 16).  Jesus said, “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.  Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you” (Matthew 5:11, 12).  How difficult it is to follow the example of the apostles and rejoice when we are counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 5:41).  Let us not shrink back from our allegiance to Christ.  Jesus prayed that his disciples would be delivered from the evil of the world (John 17:15).  He taught us to do the same (Luke 11:4).  But whatever happens, let us live in such a way that we can truly say as Paul did, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

–Mark Day

The end was near. That was what they were saying, that the end was near. News agencies carried headlines to the effect that “Doomsday writer says, based off the Bible and Egyptian pyramids, Planet X will collide with earth on September 23.” Fox News website along with others carried the following:

Doomsday writer says, based off the Bible and Egyptian pyramids, Planet X will collide with earth on September 23. Is the end near? According to Christian writer David Meade, the answer is yes. Meade theorizes a so-called Planet X, AKA Nibiru, will hit the earth on September 23, 2017. Meade believes recent events like the solar eclipse and hurricane Harvey are signs of the coming apocalypse. Through codes in the Bible and a “date marker” in the pyramids of Egypt, Meade was able to pinpoint the date of September 23. NASA has repeatedly said Planet X is a hoax.”

Well guess what…the end didn’t happen on September 23. You are surprised by this fact I am quite sure. What is amazingly amazing is the fact that there are those that will set dates, those that claim there are signs happening now of the end coming, etc. Mr. Meade is not the only person to predict the end of time. The list is long, undistinguished, and unfulfilled, but consider a few of the more popular ones:

William Miller, whose followers were called Millerites, first predicted the Second Coming of Jesus Christ would occur before March 21, 1844. When this date passed a new date was predicted, April 18, 1844. After this failure, the date became known as the Millerites’ Great Disappointment

Jehovah’s Witnesses leader Charles Taze Russell prophesied that Jesus would return and set up His kingdom in 1914. When nothing happened, he decided that the kingdom was set up in Heaven and that Jesus came invisibly. Other failed dates which they predicted as the end: 1918, 1920, 1925, 1941, and 1975.

Harold Camping, a former evangelist, predicted that the world would end on May 21, 2011 with a series of earthquakes After the world was still very much in tact on May 22^nd, Camping changed the date to October 21, 2011. And when the world still wasn’t destroyed then, Camping apologized for his “sinful” statements.

Even David Meade is now saying that September 21^st is just the beginning of the end and October 15^th, “that’s when the action starts”. He then makes references to some doctrines of premillennialism which are found in certain “scholars” imagination but are not founded in the Bible.

So where does that leave us? Oh, make no mistake, the world will end with great noise and fire, 2 Peter 3:10. The Lord Jesus Christ will return (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; 2 Thessalonians 2:7b-10), the material universe will be done away (Hebrews 1:11-12), and eternity will begin (John 5:28-29). This event will be unexpected, Matthew 24:37-39.

It is not a matter of setting dates for the end of time because “of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” Mark 13:32. What does matter is if the world ended today, is one ready to meet their Maker? Those obedient to Christ will hear “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” and the disobedient will hear “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels”. What a person hears on that day is ultimately most important.

-Jerry D. Sturgill

In Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas came into Lystra and healed a lame man.  The superstitious people of Lystra started to worship them as Greek gods.  Paul and Barnabas tore their clothes and declared themselves to be merely men.  They encouraged the people to turn from idolatry to the true and living God. In Acts 13, Paul appealed to Christ’s fulfillment of the Old Testament as proof for Jews who had yet to become Christians, but these in Lystra were idolatrous Gentiles. How did Paul address them?  Did he simply quote an Old Testament scripture?  No, he didn’t. He knew it would not have much effect.  Paul appealed to creation as a witness to the existence of God.  Does the fact that we cannot see, touch, or feel God mean that we have no witness from God? No.  God’s goodness is shown in the creation through rain and fruitful seasons (Acts 14:17).  Paul declared to those at Lystra that God has not left us in the dark; He has given us a testimony of Himself in nature.

In Acts 17, Paul entered Athens, the intellectual center of the empire where the greatest philosophers had debated for centuries.  Present were two schools of philosophy – Epicureans and Stoics.  The Epicureans were followers of one Epicurus (342 BC) a materialist who believed all that exists is material or physical, and thus, there was no life after death.  The Stoics believed in an impersonal god. In defending the faith against these false philosophies, where did Paul go? Paul said, “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands” (Acts 17:24).  He argues that God is the origin of the universe and not originated by man.  Some stoics in earlier generations had taught there was one creator, but the many shrines in Athens to various gods showed the present generation had not embraced this concept. Paul, versed in their writings, then said your own poets have acknowledged this.  There are a couple of Greek poets Paul could have referenced.  Cleanthes, a stoic who lived from 331 to 233 BC, wrote, “O God most glorious, called by many a name, we are thy children, we alone of all.” About 270 BC, Aratus said essentially the same thing.

The Bible does not go into a great deal of detail to prove that God exists; nature shows it to be the case (Psalm 19:1-4).  There is no excuse for a man to say that he does not believe in God (Romans 1:20; Psalm 14).  Romans 1:18-32 is a passage that highlights the pleasures of sin as a major motivation for people denying God’s existence.  In describing the sinfulness of the Gentiles, Paul wrote that the judgment of God is revealed from heaven (Romans 1:18).  Repeated efforts have been made to remove any mention of God from the public sector.  Man cannot be comfortable with sin if he acknowledges God; he must cast God out of his mind to pursue his lusts.  The moral foundations of our society are under attack today.  People question the most foundational truths and involve themselves in some of the grossest immorality because they do not fear the wrath of God whose existence they doubt.  Paul preached the Gospel to Gentiles, who did not even know the true God.  Thus, we must reaffirm very basic foundations with many of our evangelistic contacts.  Even people who claim to believe in God and in the Bible must be reminded to acknowledge God or else their convictions can wane. Sometimes Christians are afraid to even talk to those who do not believe in God and the Bible. There is sufficient proof for God’s existence.  Arm yourself with it and do not hide your light under a bushel (Matthew 5:15).

-Mark Day