In my mind's eye, I can see Noah standing there scratching his head. He's just had a conversation with Mr. Jones, trying to explain to him what's coming. But Mr. Jones just looks at him with that smirk in his eye conveying his opinion that Noah is a nut case.
"This generation has become so wicked that it's going to be wiped out. Confess your sins to God and turn your life over to him. Come with us, there's enough room in the ark."
But Mr. Jones goes away laughing. A flood? HERE? "Noah, you need counseling. I know a good counselor, a religious man in fact......."
It took an entire generation for Noah to build that ark. The Scriptures tell us that he was "a preacher of righteousness." I imagine him going out every day to work on it, all the while preaching righteousness, telling people that tremendous judgment was coming, and that they need to get right with God. But they laughed at him. There had never been rain in the region, so they laughed. "You're building a WHAT?" "Here???" A religious nut he was, they said. Building a huge ark in the Middle East. What a laughing-stock.
They refused his message. And they all died, every one of them, the elderly, the children, all of them.
Before the Holocaust, there was a Jewish man by the name of Ze'ev Jabotinsky. He went across Europe telling the Jewish people a terrible catastrophe was about to come upon them, warning them to leave Europe. But how could they leave, they had homes, art work, furniture that had been passed down from their grandparents, bank accounts - you know -- they couldn't just up and leave their established lives because this fanatic is telling them a terrible time is going to come upon them.
And six million of them perished. The elderly, the children -- six million of them.
We're now in the time immediately preceding the coming of the Lord. He told us what to watch for, the desolate land of Israel would be filled once again with the children of Jacob. And now, after two thousand years of being dispersed throughout the world while the land of Israel lay desolate, an event has taken place which is the greatest thing that has happened since the days Jesus walked the shores of Galilee. The children of Israel are back! The Jewish people fill the land of Israel once again, after TWO THOUSAND YEARS! And they've made the wasteland blossom like a rose.
To those who are watching closely, God has given abundant understanding of the time we're in and what's coming. He's raised up men throughout the world who are bringing the message to the masses. There has never been a generation the likes of the one we live in today; only in this generation can a message go around the world and into people's livingrooms on every side of the globe all in one day. Television has made it possible for all to hear, throughout the earth.
But we watch, we pray, we speak, we write, and they don't want to hear it. They're busy with the things that make up their lives, jobs, buying and selling, marrying and giving in marriage, partying, sports, travel, riches. "Mankind running to and fro," as the prophet Daniel said would characterize these days.
Recently another Potter book, a book on witchcraft, wizardry, and all manner of occultism was released. God has made it abundantly clear through the Scriptures that any form of occultism is absolute abomination in his eyes, so serious that the judgment upon it will afflict the family of the one being involved all the way down to the fourth generation.
We told them, we wrote, we explained. We pleaded. They scorned us.
These are the days of the "New Age" movement, the era of occult practices disguising themselves as self-help agents. We're in the days of "rights," the days of tolerance, in which political correctness means we must tolerate anything and anyone because of their "rights." We sacrifice our children on the altar of "women's rights." We tolerate sodomists telling our children that it's just another lifestyle and they should try it. We let them parade in our streets and gain entry into our classrooms. And all the while the people of this era have denied God, demoted him from his position of Creator, kicked him out of our lands, out of our schools, out of our governments, out of our public places, and they do not consider that there will be a response from heaven. The world has once again become "as it was in the days of Noah." Men and women of God have risen up to warn the people, to explain, to entreat. But the people label them "fanatics." Religious nuts. Deja vu.
Every sign mentioned by Jesus that would signal the days immediately preceding his coming -- is there. He castigated the leaders of his generation who refused to recognize him saying, "When it is evening you say, `It will be fair weather, for the sky is red, and in the morning, `It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.' Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times." There was the Messiah standing before them, the one concerning whom the prophets spoke so much, but they refused him because to receive him would mean a change in their lifestyles. They missed it. And before that generation passed, their great city and their magnificent Temple were destroyed and left desolate for the next two thousand years.
It's happening again. God has raised up "preachers of righteousness" to warn a wicked world that a time of judgment is soon going to be upon us, which Jesus said would be tribulation greater than has ever been experienced in all of history or ever will be again. Today the message can be heard throughout the world on tv sets that bring right into our livingrooms anything happening in any corner of the earth. Man has no excuse.
