Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Suppose you had a serious life-or-death court case coming up today. And suppose that you were up against an extremely clever prosecuting attorney who possessed facts that he was certain to use to secure your conviction and condemnation. Suppose that the only possible way to save your life was to keep your mind clear so that you could take advantage of every means of defense. Would you cloud your mind with alcohol or drugs at this critical time?
This is what Christ meant when He said, "take heed ... lest at any time" "your minds be dulled by dissipation and drunkenness" (Luke 21:34, KJV, NEB). He was referring to the time of judgment that comes just before He returns a second time. In the preceding chapter of Luke He spoke of the judgment which must precede the resurrection: "They which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world [eternal life], and the resurrection from the dead …" (Luke 20:35, emphasis supplied). Anybody can see that such a judgment must take placebefore the resurrection, in order to determine who shall be rewarded by what Jesus described as "the resurrection of life," and who should be left to "the resurrection of damnation" (John 5:29). When Christ comes the second time, this work of judgment will be finished already, for He says, "Behold I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be" (Rev. 22:12).
The Bible shows that this judgment will take place while we are still living on the earth. In Luke 20:35 Jesus spoke of the dead being judged as worthy or unworthy to have a part in "the resurrection of life" (John 5:29), while in Luke 21:36 He goes a step further and speaks of those who are living being judged worthy "to stand before the Son of man" when He comes. This pre-Advent judgment takes place at a pre-arranged time: "He hath appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained" (Acts 17:31).
That "appointed" day was yet future in Paul's day, but it is present in our day. The first angel of Revelation 14 declares that "the hour of his judgment is come" (verse 7). It is during the last days of earth's history, that "the nations" are "angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto they servants ... and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth" (Rev. 11:15-18).
Consider a string of if's:
(a) If God is a personal Being who can be described as a loving heavenly Father;
(b) If Jesus of Nazareth is the divine Son of God, the world's Savior;
(c) If His sacrifice on His cross is the world's moment of truth;
(d) If the Bible is the inspired word of God, given for the instruction and the uplift of mankind;
(e) If God has a plan of salvation that is effective;
(f) If there is hope for the world, a light at the end of our cosmic tunnel; then sin must somehow be eradicated from the vast universe of God. The idea of an eternal conscious hell as the domicile of lost people (yes, lost angels, too), must mean the plague of sin with its agony, hatred, and suffering must continue forever in God's vast universe.
If the above has any significant content of truth, then the biblical doctrine of the Sanctuary (Leviticus, Old Testament; Hebrews, New Testament) must be the answer to the universal problem of sin. The idea that "God is love" (agape) is totally inconsistent with the idea that sin must be ineradicable from human hearts. The Hebrew Day of Atonement was the one day in the year that prefigured in type the final cleansing of God's great economy and "the bringing in of everlasting righteousness." Jesus Christ ministering as the world's great High Priest is capable of developing a people as a corporate body who have "overcome [sin] even as [He] overcame" (Rev, 3:20). Christianity has something to offer a distraught world.
Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
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