Category: Prophets – Warnings for 21st century ‘christians’
Jeremiah by Michelangelo
Old Testament Prophets WARNED Israel, Judah, and neighboring nations about what GOD has planned IF they did NOT REPENT (and they usually didn’t).
How does this speak to 21 c. ‘christians’ in these last days? Are you bold enough to WARN your SOCIAL ‘Friends’ of what Jesus Christ warns? Does the message of a Prophet apply even more to them and US, now? SHARE your scriptural warnings from the Prophets and WITNESS for our LORD, WHO IS and returning… soon.
the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!
How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
– words of Christ Jesus – Mathew 23:37
The Temple of Herod would be destroyed when Jerusalem again fell in the year of our Lord 70, not even four decades after the Crucifixion and Sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross; followed by His glorious resurrection of the body, appearances to many believers and physical ascension into the clouds.
Yet prior to the controversial proclamations of John the baptizer and miracles of Jesus in the Temple and throughout Judah and many places, God had remained silent for centuries while Jerusalem suffered the consequence of a disobedient people who always rejected God and ridiculed or killed the Prophets of the LORD.
Captive Jerusalem before Christ lay vulnerable to the swords of the nations, even prior to the conquests of Rome. The LORD allowed its fall into ruin, for His people had not listened to their Prophets; therefore the LORD kept silence beyond their generations into the centuries.
These are the words of Jeremiah the Prophet, after the LORD had warned the people… after the people refused to listen… after the LORD allowed the calamity of which His Prophet had warned:
1 How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave.
2 She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has none to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies.
3 Judah has gone into exile because of affliction and hard servitude; she dwells now among the nations, but finds no resting place; her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress.
4 The roads to Zion mourn, for none come to the festival; all her gates are desolate; her priests groan; her virgins have been afflicted, and she herself suffers bitterly.
…
18 “The Lord is in the right,
for I have rebelled against his word; but hear, all you peoples, and see my suffering; my young women and my young men have gone into captivity.
19 “I called to my lovers, but they deceived me; my priests and elders perished in the city, while they sought food to revive their strength.
20 “Look, O Lord, for I am in distress; my stomach churns; my heart is wrung within me, because I have been very rebellious. In the street the sword bereaves; in the house it is like death.
By the time Ezra and Nehemiah returned to the site of the destroyed Temple, God’s chosen people had completely forgotten the Law.
For a time they repented. Then once more God was forgotten in the land and Jerusalem remained only a dark shadow of promise once made to a people who failed to keep the Law in the words of their mouth and meditate on it every day and every night.
Have contemporary believers in Jesus Christ also done what is evil in the eyes of the LORD in these last days?
Hear the hastening approach of our Lord, King of the New Jerusalem…
O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth, and roll in ashes; make mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.
Mark 1
14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 3:3
Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.
But false prophets also arose among the people… And many will follow their sensuality… And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell… if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly… then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment…
Repentance Of Sinners: v.12
But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed… They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you…
Peter is warning the church here of those CLAIM to be christians, but actually are wed to Satan the master of their sin.
Is this not a timely loud caution for our contemporary church?
14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray…
20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.
Remember in ashes and dust, the turning of Judas from Jesus Christ, our only Lord and Savior.
The ashes of Ash Wednesday traditionally come from the burnt palms of the prior Palm Sunday, a day with the crowds shout, HOSANNA! The KING, our LORD Jesus approaches the gate.
Yet how quickly we turn on HIM, when we see the CROSS we must also bear to follow Jesus.
In this season of preparation for Easter, less than 40 days until the dark celebration of our own sin for which our Lord suffered and died on Good Friday, let us repent in dust and ashes before the Lord our God. Let us bow down to Christ Jesus, who suffered all for our sins that we might be redeemed by His grace to the Light of Eternal Life.
“Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion…
12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
Are you prepared to meet the LORD your GOD Face to face?
Are you prepared to face Jesus should today bring your last breath of life before eternal Life or prior to Christ’s triumphant return and Judgment?
Like Job, do you repent in dust and ashes before God?
Like Peter, do you come before Jesus Christ confessing, I am a sinful man?
Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Lord in these troubling times?
Mark 8: 34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul?
38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Yes, false Prophets will come, but the time is not yet.
No man knows the day or the hour. Some claim tolerance with darkness and Jesus.
He is NOT Christ to them. They twist truth into lies with self-serving sinful false prophesy!
Some proclaim loudly choruses of peace, while they proclaim God’s lands for the destruction of evil.
Our United leaders of this world excel as the Chamberlains of peace, rather than admit evil’s destruction of the truth and the truth of evil’s destruction.
Some sing loudly a Hallelujah Chorus to Jesus, while they lead astray softly in the sin of their hidden ways.
Are you a secretive christian, tolerant of those who hate Christ and the Cross?
REPENT in dust and ashes! For in these last days the signs are many and the Day and hour you do not know.
Prepare and wash your soul in the Blood of Christ Jesus, in preparation for the Good Friday of the Cross and our only hope and joy, the Resurrection and Victory of the love of God celebrated in 40 days (God willing) on Easter.
9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?”14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.”
And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. 17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying,
“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
HALLELUJAH! CHRIST OUR LORD IS! JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN. HE WILL RETURN ON THE CLOUDS IN VICTORY OVER ALL SIN. HE WILL PUNISH ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.
Repent, therefore, and worship Christ Jesus our Lord. Bow down only to Christ in the dust of your flesh and the ashes of your sinfulness. Christ Jesus IS and will judge you and me and all.
8 Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;
when I fall, I shall rise;
when I sit in darkness,
the Lord will be a light to me.
9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord
because I have sinned against him,
until he pleads my cause
and executes judgment for me.
He will bring me out to the light;
I shall look upon his vindication.
He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in steadfast love.
19 He will again have compassion on us;
he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
Matthew 10
32 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
Not Peace, but a Sword
34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. 37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Matthew 11:17 “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’
Woe to this generation as well! For our sin and neglect of the Lord’s household, the family of Christ Jesus, stand in witness against the Blood of the Cross. We betray the Betrothed to whom we have given our vows and solemn promise.
John 7: 40 When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” 41 Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee?
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Why are our faithless families, our faithless children, our faithless spouses not drawn to repentance? Why does the prodigal not desire to return to the Father’s house?
It is because the Father’s love and Christ’s redemption do NOT overflow from the hesitant hearts of the church.
Do not shun the faithful, but the faithless.
Acts:4:31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
Acts 4:32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.
33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
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ALL, not ‘some,’ were filled with the Holy Spirit.
Those who believed were of ‘one heart and soul.’ The Church was not divided in witness: some for Christ, yet others against by their witness.
Believers were of one heart, filled with the spirit, filled to overflowing with the love of Christ Jesus. This is the witness of Christ to the world: that Christ Jesus is love, that Christians have the love of Christ for each other, even for those not of the church.
WE, the church, are (or should be) the new and redeemed family of God.
John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
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Are you, beloved of Christ, a disciple desiring to follow the commandment of the One you claim as ‘Lord?’
Woe! to the church. Woe! to those who witness by divorce against the Bridegroom of faithfulness. Woe! to this generation of hardened hearts, who have forgotten the love of our Lord for his family.
Woe! to those who claim the worship of cheap grace and the discordant noise of emotion from hearts easily deceived and broken but for a moment.
[ Lament over Jerusalem ]
[ Lament over Jerusalem ]
The Temple of Herod would be destroyed when Jerusalem again fell in the year of our Lord 70, not even four decades after the Crucifixion and Sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross; followed by His glorious resurrection of the body, appearances to many believers and physical ascension into the clouds.
Captive Jerusalem before Christ lay vulnerable to the swords of the nations, even prior to the conquests of Rome. The LORD allowed its fall into ruin, for His people had not listened to their Prophets; therefore the LORD kept silence beyond their generations into the centuries.
By the time Ezra and Nehemiah returned to the site of the destroyed Temple, God’s chosen people had completely forgotten the Law.
