OUR SALVATION: NEARER THAN BEFORE
By Pastor Max Solbrekken, D.D.
“And that, knowing the time, that NOW it is high time to awake out of sleep: for NOW IS OUR SALVATION NEARER than when we believed.” (Rom.13: 11)
Recently two men made shocking and stupid statements as neither one knew what they were talking about! STEPHEN HAWKING has been hyped by the media as the “greatest living scientist”.
Mind you, he is a theoretical physicist who has little experience in real and practical science! He declared that the belief in heaven or an afterlife is a “fairy story” for people afraid of life after death.
"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail,” Hawking told the Guardian last week. “There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark." Evangelical Christian KIRK CAMERON was infuriated and took the world-famous scientist to task. He shot back - PROVE IT.
"Professor Hawking is heralded as 'the genius of Britain,' yet he believes in the scientific impossibility that nothing created everything and that life sprang from non-life."
The former teen heartthrob steamed to TMZ. "Why should anyone believe Mr. Hawking's writings if he cannot provide evidence for his unscientific belief that out of nothing, everything came?”
Cameron also blasted John Lennon’s agnostic ‘Imagine.’ “Hawking says he knows there is no Heaven. John Lennon wasn't sure. He said to pretend there's no Heaven. That's easy if you try. Then he said he hoped that someday we would join him. Such wishful thinking reveals John and Stephen's religious beliefs, not good science."
HAROLD CAMPING, a civil engineer, made a shocking and stupid statement about the return of Christ. It is totally irrational to grab random numbers from various Biblical texts to pin-point the exact time of parousia (Christ’s Return). That’s exactly what the evolutionists do!
The Lord stated: “But of that day and that hour knows no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.” (Luke 13:32, 32)
Stephen Hawking used bad science to talk about HEAVEN and Harold Camping uses bad engineering to talk about ESCHATOLOGY! Neither one knows anything about Heaven or the Second Coming of Christ. They were used by Satan to give fodder to enemies of the cross, sow confusion everywhere and retard the work of God in the earth!
God used KIRK CAMERON to straighten out the theoretical physicist and He is using a lot of preachers to straighten out the civil engineer who is deceived by the devil and has become a false prophet and cult leader! He must repent before God and desist from preaching!
And more recently, Harold Camping had a mild stroke and was hospitalized. It seems that the radio preacher who spent millions of dollars to promote his failed prophecy still hasn’t learned that some things belong only to God!
The Associated Press reported on June 13, 2011: “When the apocalypse failed to occur on May 21, Camping was widely mocked and he called it "a very difficult time." He has since insisted that his prediction was overall correct. On May 24 he clarified that a "spiritual" Judgment Day had begun three days earlier, placing the entire world under Christ's judgment, and said the Earth actually would be obliterated on Oct. 21.
HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF!
We are seeing history repeating itself. What Camping is doing is essentially the same as the false Jehovah’s Witnesses have done repeatedly beginning in 1914 when their founder Charles T. Russell stated that he had received that date by a spirit (lying demon). Later he had two more false dates for Armageddon. His successor Joseph Rutherford came up with three false dates!
God’s Word states: “Ye shall not add to the Word which I command you neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto.” (Deut.4: 2; 12: 32)
“Every Word of God is pure: He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him. Add thou not unto His Words, lest He reprove thee and thou be found a liar.” (Prov.30: 5, 6)
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book: If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things that are written in this book.” (Rev.22: 18, 19)
Camping is following in the footsteps of the false prophets William Miller (1782-1849), Joseph Bates (1792-1872) and Ellen G. White (1827-1915) who invented and reinvented William Miller’s false prophecies which led to the present weird and false eschatology theology of the Seventh Day Adventists!
To read the July 13, 1847 suppressed writings of the false prophetess Ellen White called ‘The Secret Letter’ by Skip Baker, go to Report published in Adventist Currents, July 1984.
No one should pay attention to anything Mr. Camping says unless he asks forgiveness from God and the Body of Christ and from sinners who have been turned away from our Lord because his stupid, false prophecy. May God have mercy on his soul!
TIME IS RUNNING OUT FOR US ALL!
Time is running out for us all; for the Sinner, for the Christian, for the Church and for the Devil! Time is at a premium and every hour and every day brings us closer to that moment when for us, ‘Time shall be no more’!
We must prioritize our time more wisely in seeking to reach precious souls for our Lord Jesus Christ before it is everlastingly too late. All of us have only a limited time on this earth to live for Him by the power of His Holy Spirit, exemplifying Him in all we do or say.
We must remember, we were all placed here to be His witnesses to a lost and dying world and to testify of His great mercy, love and compassion for all who will receive Him as their Lord, Saviour and God! The Bible says: “Many are called but few are chosen.” (Matt.22: 14) You might ask: “Why would God call someone to Him and not choose that one?”
In the parable of the Marriage Supper Jesus spoke about a king who sent his servants repeatedly to those who had been invited to his son’s wedding, but they were ignored and entreated spitefully. The king was angry and sent his servants out into the highways to invite total strangers, both good and bad, to the wedding.
When the king arrived to welcome the guests, however, he saw a man who was not dressed properly. He asked: “How did you come in here without a wedding garment?” The king said: “Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.. For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matt.22: 12, 13)
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
The invitation to receive Eternal Salvation through Jesus Christ’s atoning work has been issued in many ways by our Heavenly Father. Jewish religious leaders unto whom Messiah Jesus was sent rejected Him. Gentiles have also been invited to come to His Son’s Marriage Supper. Many, however, seek to enter Heaven on their own terms. They trust in a religion of works and reject the shed blood of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. THEY WILL BE CAST OUT!
God’s love has reached out to everyone but not everyone has responded positively. His call is to all, but many reject His call! The ones who do respond are the chosen ones. Even though He kows who would receive His Gospel, He nevertheless, continues calling everyone to Himself!
ONE DAY an angel will step out on space and come down to this earth. With one foot on the sea and the other on dry land, he will raise his hand to heaven and swear by Him that liveth forever and ever “that time shall be no more.”(Rev.10: 5, 6)
The sun will then go out like a candle in the wind, the moon will turn to dripping blood, the stars will fall from heaven and the sky will roll away like a scroll and God will stop the clocks of time and start the wheel of eternity!
He wrote: “The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.” (Rom.13: 12-14)
TIME IS RUNNING OUT FOR SATAN!
Time is also running out for Satan! God is not limited. He is eternal and for Him time does not exist. Satan, however, is a created being who fell through pride, rebellion and a desire to be worshipped. He is damned forever to eternity in Hell and the Lake of Fire
His time is limited and he is fearful, vengeful and desperate to escape his fate. He tried to tempt Christ and failed miserably. He managed to stir up so much hatred against the Lord Jesus that His own people – the Jews – condemned Him to the death of the Cross.
In so doing, Satan perpetuated his own demise for it was precisely the will of God to offer His incarnated Son on the Cruel Tree for the sins of the world and the undoing of Satan’s power and authority over the human race!
The Bible says: “And the great dragon, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him…Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea. For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he hath but A SHORT TIME.” (Rev.12:9-121
WHAT THEN? By J. WHITFIELD GREEN
When the great plants of our cities
Have turned out their last finished work
When our merchants have sold their last yard of silk
And dismissed the last tired clerk;
When our banks have raked in their last dollar
And paid the last dividend;
When the judge of the earth says,
“Close for the night,”
And He asks for a balance –
WHAT THEN?
When the choir has sung its last anthem,
And the preacher has made his last prayer;
When the people have heard their last sermon
And the sound has died out on the air;
When the Bible lies closed on the altar
And the pews are all empty of men
And each one stands facing his record –
And the great Book is opened –
WHAT THEN?
When the actors have played their last drama
And the mimic has made his last picture,
And the billboard displayed its last run;
When the crowds seeking pleasure have vanished
And gone out in the darkness again –
When the trumpet of ages has sounded,
And we stand up before Him –
WHAT THEN?
When the bugle’s call sinks into silence
And the long marching columns stand still,
When the captain repeats his last orders,
And they’ve captured the last fort and hill,
And the flag has been hauled from the mast head,
And the wounded afield checked in,
And a world that rejected its Saviour,
Is asked for a reason –
WHAT THEN?
