John the Baptist preached, in Matthew 3, a scorching sermon to the Pharisees. He called them vipers and asked them, “Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” That is the same question we must ask the world today. Who are we warning? The wrath of God is coming.
In the past few days, the updates for Venezuela’s recent earthquakes have been trickling in. The death toll from the two earthquakes isn’t known yet. The people are still digging. and the number is sure to rise. Earthquakes and their increasing frequency are one of the signs of the Second Coming of Christ. (That isn’t the Rapture; it is the Revelation – the revealing, of the Lord Jesus when He sits down on David’s throne during the Millenium.) In history, earthquakes have killed into the hundreds of thousands. China, in 1556, had a province that hit, and 830K died. In 2010, Haiti had 316K killed in an earthquake.
Other events have killed people into the millions. During the 20th century, communism killed over 100 million through starvation and execution. Democide is a term that means the intentional killing of an unarmed or disarmed person by its own government agents acting on orders. Many of the most brutal events happened in the 1900s and continue to happen in places such as the former Soviet Union, China, Cuba, Vietnam, Cambodia, and North Korea, to name a few of the Chi-Com countries. Deaths that occurred during a combat aren’t included in democide.
As horrible as these historical events were and are, there is coming a time for this world that will be even more deadly. When will this time be? It is during the 7-year Tribulation period we read about in Revelation chapters 6-19. This will be the worst time creation or mankind has ever experienced. Let me quickly share two passages from the book of Revelation. Look first at 6:8.
“And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword and with hunger and with death, and with the beast of the earth.” The math, using current world population numbers, is 2 billion people. Now, flip forward in Revelation to 9:15-18. The sixth angel, with his trumpet, releases four angels who have been bound in the “great river Euphrates.” These demons have been incarcerated, being prepared for just this time, for one purpose: to kill the inhabitants of the earth. How many? To slay one-third of the world’s population. Remember, the earth has already lost two billion in chapter six. Of the six billion that are left, another two billion are killed by these demons from the Euphrates. These days are the worst ever, and if the days weren’t shortened, there would be even more carnage (Matthew 24:22).
One would think that if you were living through this, you would flee into the arms of Jesus. The 144K Jewish evangelists from the twelve tribes have been preaching to them. They know the gospel and the opportunity but look at Revelation 9:21. “Neither repented they of their…” John then lists sins they embraced, remaining under judgement of God. My space is gone, but it behooves us to tell people about Christ now. Today is the day of salvation. No one is promised tomorrow, and tomorrow it will be harder to come to Christ than today. Every rejection adds to the callousness of the heart.