On This Day: When God Destroys the Destroyers

"The nations raged,
    but your wrath came,
    and the time for the dead to be judged,
and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints,
    and those who fear your name,
    both small and great,
and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
(Revelation 11:18)

   My recent journey down the garden path of a book filled with false teachings shocked me with how blatantly someone would deny such a strong theme of Scripture as God’s justice against sinners and for his servants. The two are inseparable.

   This is not suggesting that some people are good and some people are bad so God rewards the good and judges the evil. There are simply two groups of people.

   The “nations” means those people throughout the world who have never come to Christ for salvation. When Jesus spoke of his return he said, “and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30). The “tribes of the earth” is synonymous with “the nations”. They will mourn and rage because Jesus’ appearing proves him to be the Son of God and that his judgment against the nations is inescapable.

   The other group is described as “your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great”. These are the people of all ages who have trusted in Yahweh, the God revealed in the Bible, and in Jesus Christ his Son. It summarizes the people of faith. Not one of these people is in this group because of good works. It is how God sees those he has redeemed by the blood of the new covenant.

   This group is pictured earlier in Revelation like this,

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, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10).

   Notice that this distinguishes the tribes and nations that will mourn with rage at Jesus’ second coming from those who are FROM the nations and tribes of the earth. Of these Paul wrote, “He has delivered us FROM the domain of darkness and transferred us TO the kingdom of his beloved Son, IN whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). Their unanimous declaration is that they are there to celebrate the salvation that belongs to the Triune God. They could not stand before God’s throne apart from this salvation.

   Right after Jesus told Nicodemus, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”, he added, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17). Jesus was telling people that his first coming was not to bring condemnation, but to secure salvation.

   However, he then immediately clarified, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (vs 18). He was not there to condemn the world in his first coming, but he made clear that the world was already condemned. And it is that world that will mourn with anger when he comes again to condemn the world and gather his elect to himself.

   The “good news of great joy that will be for all the people” is that we now have “a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). Have you repented and trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? If you have, are you sharing the good news that there is still time for people to turn to Jesus Christ and be saved from the day of God’s wrath?

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)