“I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.  And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.  And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”  (Rev. 5:1-10; Rev. 6:12-17).

We should not confuse the Lamb with the Lion.  The things in this prophecy will happen in the era of Jesus the Lamb, but the era of Jesus the Lion will follow soon thereafter.

Almost two thousand years ago, as John was baptizing, some Priests and Levites came to asking him to validate his ministry.  He told them some details, and explained to them that he had come to prepare for the arrival of one who is greater than he.  The following day, John saw Jesus coming unto him, and he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world” (John 1:19-34).

I cannot tell you how many times in the Bible, and especially in the New Testament, we are told about the love of God, and of His Christ, toward men, and especially toward those who believe in Him and who believe His words.

This is the message which the Apostle John so eloquently delivered, “God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

The blessings promised to the believers are many, but God has not made a one-sided deal with His people.  When God “married” Israel at Sinai, He gave them a list of ten requirements for their commitment to the marriage (Exodus 34:28).  It was “The Law of the Husband,” valid only until His death (Rom. 7:1-4).  “Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations; and repayeth them that hate Him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face” (Deut. 7:9-10).

God made no covenant with Adam, but simply exiled that wicked Cain to keep the descendants of Seth from inter-marrying with those of Cain.  But soon, the world population grew, and the descendants of Seth (the sons of Adam the son of God [Luke 3:38]) intermarried with the descendants of Cain anyway.  That was the main reason God sent the flood.  If He had not done so, the whole population of the earth would have become defiled, and the promised deliverer could not have come.  God was compelled to choose a few of them and destroyed the rest (Gen. 6:1-2), together with the descendants of Cain.

God waited until the beginning of the third thousand years from Adam and chose Abraham, setting in motion the second two-thousand-year phase of God’s plan to raise up a people for His name, and find a replacement for the angels which fell with Satan in that great rebellion in Heaven several thousand years before Adam.  From the descendants of Abraham, God would ultimately acquire a faithful remnant (Rom. 11:1-7).  Yet God knew that the rest of Israel would follow the way of rebellion and idolatry.  Therefore Paul explained, “What then?  Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded” (Rom. 11:7)

God warned the children of Israel many times, and punished them and sold them into slavery, as they rebelled and followed the way of the world.  He forgave them, and delivered them, and brought them back under His wings.  However the day of the promised Messiah came, and caught Israel in one of their times of extreme rebellion.  God had sent many prophets, and the leaders of the people had killed them.  This time God sent His Son, yet they were so rebellious that they had the audacity to kill “the Son” also, and they brought upon themselves the wrath of God.

The remnant which believed and obeyed the truth found life in Christ Jesus, and the rest faced the sword of the army of Rome.  Two thousand years had gone by since God had called Abraham, and Israel’s time was up.  The day of their visitation had come, and Israel knew it not.  The wrath of God came, but it was not upon the rest of the world.  It was upon the people of God.

When Jesus was here, He gave His disciples a new covenant (Matt. 5:21-7:20), and from the time of Jesus’ death, the Children of God have been under the “Law of Faith” (Rom. 3:27; Heb. 7:11-12), and the 14 commandments in Matt. 5:21-7:20.   We made an agreement with God when we asked Him for the forgiveness of our sins, and we would do well to remember that God is always faithful to His word, and that He requires the same of us.

By about 120 a.d., all of the disciples of Jesus were dead, together with all of the other Jewish converts, and the converts of the Apostles Paul and Barnabas, and others who carried the message to the Gentiles with them.  The Jewish Church survived the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 a.d. because of the admonition of Jesus in Luke 21:20-22.  However, they were later martyred in fulfillment of Ezekiel 5:1-4.

After the death of the Apostle Paul, oppressive, uncaring men began to come into the Church and took advantage of the people (Acts 20:28).  The establishing of doctrine had been one of the major works of the Twelve Apostles, and they, too, were gone: martyred.  By the end of the fourth century a.d., the “church” had fallen into a state of confusion, as the leadership adopted more and more pagan rituals and doctrines.  By the middle of the sixth century a.d., the mix was pretty well established in most of mainstream Christianity, and for about a thousand more years, the gospel message stagnated in the eastern hemisphere, and Europe in particular.

God was very unhappy with the Christians of that era, and just as He had sent Sennacherib, king of Assyria to punish Israel, God raised up great opposition, such as Islam, against the “Pagan” Christianity which had become the norm in Europe.  

In the 1500s, God revealed to Martin Luther that “The Just shall live by faith,” and not by ritual (Romans 1:16-17), and he was forced out of the Roman Catholic Church.  His exodus from the Church of Rome sparked a general trend, and various groups in Europe and other places joined the exodus, creating various state churches.

I am sure that, generally speaking, that reformation had its good and bad aspects.  One very important thing in particular occurred in almost every case: almost every group came only a small distance from Catholicism, and brought much of the idolatry with them, which still limited their favor with God.  Yet they gained the momentum necessary to make the transition across the Atlantic Ocean possible, but they carried many of their idols with them, just as did Jacob’s wife when they left the house of Laban (Gen. 31-19).

The thrust of evangelism and missionary work went west with a faith which was in a state of evolution, as more and more people were reading their newly acquired Bibles.  Spirituality was on the increase, and many began to see that there was more to religion than believing God for forgiveness of sins, “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith” (Rom. 1: 16-17). 

By the early 1900’s, some of the Sanctified congregations, and Pentecostal congregations, such as the Assembly of God, had begun to rid themselves of at least some of their idolatrous customs.  Even in much earlier times, in Massachusetts, one could be arrested or fined for saying “Happy New Year,” or “Merry Christmas.”  After WWII, that trend did a reversal.  Today, many of the same people who “stood firm” before will question your salvation if you object to the “Singing Christmas Tree” in the church, or refuse to join in with the fertility rites of the goddess Ishtar (Easter).

In the last 25 years, or so, several cases of Christian leaders indulging in various sexual sins have been in the news, and have done great damage to the gospel message.  It has brought a terrible reproach upon Christianity, and upon God himself, but God hates idolatry even more that he hates adultery and fornication, and He hates that a lot. 

Many idolatrous customs have been adopted by Protestant groups, and one particular kind of idolatry has become incredibly popular in recent years.  It is practiced and preached almost everywhere.  Many call it the Prosperity Doctrine, but God calls it “covetousness,” and the Apostle Paul called covetousness “idolatry,” and “For which things’ sake cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience” (Col. 3:5-6).

We have come to a point in time that is very near the coming of the Bridegroom.  Perilous times are upon us, and we must make haste if we are to go into the “wedding chamber” before the door is shut (Matt. 25:1-13).  When that “door” is shut, the Wrath of the Lamb will soon be poured out upon those Christians who are so rebellious that they will not forsake their folly, and believe the message which God has sent for their saving.  Matthew 25:1-13 shows plainly that those who have foolishly chosen to not believe and obey the truth will, without further warning, be caught up in the Wrath of the Lamb, and the wrath of the devil (Rev. 6:16; Rev. 12:12-13).

Did not Jesus say that just before His return, it will be as it was in the days of Noah (Matt. 24:38-39)?  Even so, once the door to the marriage chamber is shut, however good a Christian you are will not matter.  Remember, all of those ten who were sleeping in Matthew 25:1-13 were virgins.  We must know that Jesus is speaking of Christians, both wise and foolish.

In the closing of Israel’s two-thousand-year era, God kept the faithful believers alive.  All they had to do was to believe the testimony of the Apostles who were alive and remained.  Jesus had told them, “When you shall see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that the destruction thereof is near.  Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and the them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter into there. For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled” (Luke 21:20-22).  They heeded the warning, and the remnant – the election – were saved from the wrath of the Lamb, even though they too later became martyrs.

I do not know exactly what you have been told, but as the Apostle Paul did, knowing the terror of the Lord, I must tell you the truth, that you may escape the Wrath of the Lamb which is soon to be poured out upon Christianity.

Paul told us that everything, good and bad, which happened to Israel would also happen to Gentile Christianity when the day of our visitation comes.

Paul gave us a list in his admonition, saying, “Thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.  But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.  And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?  Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

“But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;  Who will render to every man according to his deeds:  to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, [God will give] eternal life: but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, [God will pour out] indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; but [He will give] glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: for there is no respect of persons with God” (Rom. 2:1-11).  The Jews got their dues during the first century a.d.

The Lamb is coming to His wedding very soon, but He will also judge all them who are not able to realize, and believe, that what they are being told by God’s messenger, and those who are assisting him, is indeed true.  We will either qualify to go the Marriage of the Lamb, or we will have to endure the Wrath of the Lamb, and prove another way that we are worthy of eternal life.  The day of our visitation is at hand.  Are you ready for the challenge?