- Mankind Has Not Heeded God’s Word
In the Revelation we have noted again and again that God has been faithful in warning men and women that the end of this age will come and that the judgments of God will fall. In the vision given to John, it appears that the people of the last days had taken their own safety for granted. They were not disturbed about their future. Seemingly they ignored every indication that the God who created them was a person of His Word. As a result, they were totally unprepared for death, judgment and eternity.
Conditions in our churches cause me to believe that many professing Christians are living under a similarly false sense of security. The Old Testament prophets consistently warned Israel about false security. Israel supposed that because the nation was especially chosen by God, everything else would fall into place. Messiah would come. They would hail Him. He would set up His rule on earth. All that they took for granted. But Messiah came, and they did not recognize Him. Their own religious leaders conspired to have Him crucified. How many in Israel had recognized Him? One in a thousand? One in ten thousand?
There are two kinds of tranquillity among us—not counting the tranquilizers a person can buy in bottles. There is the tranquillity that people find in just taking themselves and everything around them for granted. They tend to believe all kinds of good things about themselves—which are not really true. That is dangerous.
Then there is the true tranquillity that God has promised when the soul has been shaken to its foundation. There is little preaching about this kind of tranquillity in our day. Too often men and women get referred to psychiatrists rather than to God. If they would do what the Bible directs, they would take their disturbances and their alarms to God and to an open Bible. If the Holy Spirit is allowed to illuminate the Word of God, the Word will first do its surgery, but then it will mend what it has cut. The result is true tranquillity of soul, spirit and mind.