It is never too soon to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
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Too late is when our time has run out.
"Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?" Job 7:1
And who among us knows when his appointed time is finished?
"Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?" Job 7:1
And who among us knows when his appointed time is finished?
Harvest 1874
Well-Known Member
Sorry but that's not what the scriptures teach, that's what men teach. Not everyone at the present time (i.e. during the Gospel age or in ages past) has been brought to the knowledge of the truth (that Christ died as a ransom sacrifice for all men) for the vast majority of mankind this knowledge or understanding will take place in the next age when the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea. At that time no man will have need to ask his neighbor, 'Know you the Lord', for they shall all know the Lord from the least of them to the greatest. Then will be the time in which if one does not accept and follow that Prophet it will be too late, and they will be cut off from amoungst the people. (Isa 11:9; Jer 31:34; Acts 3:19-23)
Those that reject Jesus as their Lord and Savior or lost. Romans !:18:22 says they have no excuse!
Romans 1:18-22
God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
Romans 1:18-22
God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
Harvest 1874
Well-Known Member
It all comes down to your opening words, "Those that reject Jesus". In order for one to intelligently (with a proper understanding i.e. with a knowledge of the truth) to reject the Lord they must first be made acquainted with him. Now it is self-evident that those who lived prior to our Lord's first advent could not have been acquainted with him, could not have been made aware of the only name given under the heavens whereby we might be saved. Nor is it very likely that the vast majority of those living ever since that time have ever heard of him, and as for the few that have heard very few of these have possessed the necessary faith to believed.
Why do you imagine that the vast majority of those who have heard something of the Lord have still refused to believe? It’s because the various creeds of men have so distorted the truth so as to make it for the most part unpalatable to any in possession of a honest heart to truly accept, teaching for the truth the doctrines men and of devils such things as eternal torment as the wages of sin, a blasphemy against God’s good name.
The God of this world has succeeded in turning what was at first proclaimed to be “good news” for all men into “good news” for a few and “bad news” for the majority.
The inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk (intoxicated and deceived) with the wine (the erroneous doctrines) of Babylon, so that only the drunkards of Ephraim (the church nominal) are able to ingest such errors. But even so some are awakening from their drunkenness and are coming to realize the truth that these errors are not taught through the word of God, but rather are taught through the doctrines and precepts of men and as such are vomiting them up.
“For all the tables (supplies of spiritual truth) are full of vomit (doctrinal monstrosities and misrepresentations of the truth) and filth; no place is clean (no place in Babylon, neither in the Mother system nor in the daughters).” Isa 28:8
As we had stated the next age will be for the enlightenment of the world, for now the Lord is only dealing with a select few, thus we should not expect many to believe at this time.
ALL people are without excuse!!
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that """they are without excuse,""" 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that """they are without excuse,""" 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
I'm also going to go out here on a limb and say I don't like it when folks use fear as a tactic to motivate people. Rather, let us come unto Christ because of joy and love.
Also, let us remember that Christ is to be our Lord and Savior whom we come unto every day, not just once.
Also, let us remember that Christ is to be our Lord and Savior whom we come unto every day, not just once.
Jesus has more to say about the all to real hell than anyone whose words are recorded in the Bible!
But do you really think threats of Hellfire is the best way to bring a person to Christ?
On every spiritual issue, it is not our personal likes and dislikes which should determine the truth. So the question you need to ask yourself is whether the fear of eternal damnation is indeed presented in Scripture as a motivator or not. If it is then there is nothing to *dislike*. One of the best examples is the preaching of John the Baptist.
MATTHEW 3
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Was John filled with the Holy Spirit while preaching this? Absolutely. Scripture says that He was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb.
Was John presenting the mind of God and Christ? Absolutely. He was specifically born and commissioned to be the forerunner of Messiah, and he was a prophet -- the greatest OT prophet -- speaking by divine revelation.
Did Jesus warn His listeners about Hell and why they should avoid it? Absolutely. Read and study Mark 9 and many other Scriptures.
Was Jonah sent to Nineveh specifically to put the fear of God into the Ninevites? Absolutely. It is only after they heard of their impending divine judgment that they all repented in sackcloth and ashes.
The well-know Spurgeon gave a sermon specifically on "Flee from the Wrath to Come". Here are his sub-headings, and you can read the entire sermon online.
I. First, dear friends, let us think of THE TREMENDOUS PERIL which overtakes all men who do not escape from it.
II. Now, in the second place, I want, for a few minutes, to tell you about THE MEANS OF ESCAPE. John said to the Pharisees and Sadducees, “Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”
https://www.spurgeongems.org/vols46-48/chs2704.pdf
Harvest 1874
Well-Known Member
It is not fear but love which draws the true believer to the Lord, those who believe out of fear are not true believers, they believe only because they are in fear of the just retribution which they know shall fall upon all sinners, in this case what they have been erroneously been taught through the doctrines and precepts of men to be eternal torment. Truly as it is written, “The fear of man brings a snare” (Prov 29:25)
But let us dear brethren not become susceptible to such despicable tactics falling prey to the delusive sophistries of the Adversary in which he preys upon them lacking in proper judgment, “For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power (of truth), and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Tim 1:7) that we should not be so easily swayed from our steadfastness and fall prey to these deceptions propagated by the Adversary and his servants.
Matt 3
"Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" We do not understand John's language here to refer to flames and torments after death, but to a wrath of God about to come upon that nation; because of its hypocritical formalism and failure to live up to the light and privileges which it enjoyed.—Compare 1 Thess. 2:16; Rom. 9:22, 27-29 and Luke 21:23, 24.
Proceeding, John boldly declares that the testing time, the critical time for them as a people, has come. For centuries they had been the recipients of divine favor and blessings and mercies: now the question with them was,--To be or not to be longer God's peculiar people. The axe of divine judgment is whetted, and the time of crisis has come, and it would thenceforth be an individual matter and not a national question as to who shall be the children of Abraham. Every one of them in whom would be found the good fruitage of righteousness would be spared of the Lord and transplanted into the more favorable condition of the Gospel dispensation, while every one of them found unworthy would be cut off from divine favor, even though they outwardly made loud professions. Thus cut down they would be cast into the fire,--the fire of trouble which came upon that nation, the "wrath" mentioned in Verse 7, which ended with the complete overthrow of their polity.”
Mark 9
Verse 43-48 “And if thy hand offends thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell [Gehenna], into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell [Gehenna], into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offends thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire [Gehenna]: Where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched.”
“In each instance in the foregoing passage the word hell is a translation of the Greek word Gehenna, and is clearly, therefore, an allusion to the symbolic significance of the destructive effects of the fires that burned continuously in the Valley of Hinnom. The whole picture is one of destruction rather than of torment. Even the mention of the worms that die not, intensifies this picture of destruction; as these worms are unquestionably those which infest all dead carcasses.
The translators of this passage, of course, believed in the theory of eternal torture and they did the best they could to give us a translation that would seemingly lend support to their superstitions. Hence the "unquenchable" fire and the "undying worms" give the text an appearance that convinces some that eternal torture in a hell of fire must indeed be the fate of the wicked.
If we will but use our common sense, however, we shall find that the passage presents no problem of this kind at all. Any fire that completely consumes that which is being burned is properly called an unquenchable fire. A fire that continues to burn until all combustible material at hand is consumed is a fire that is not quenched, yet it is not an eternal fire. So Jesus was here illustrating the fact that sinners would not be able to escape the full penalty of sin, which is death, or destruction -- that the fires of destruction will not be quenched. Also that in case the symbolic fire did not for any reason complete the work of destruction the ever-present "worms" would. Hence from every standpoint we can see that the Master was here using a symbol of destruction, which again bears out the united testimony of the Scriptures that the "wages of sin is death." -- Rom 6:23 (Hope Beyond the Grave, Page 14)
When the dead bodies of criminals were thrown in the Valley of Hinnom, most were destroyed by the fire, but if a body landed upon a ledge, worms destroyed the body. Thus the Valley of Hinnom well pictured Second Death. No live bodies were ever thrown into Gehenna, only the corpses of dead criminals thus, the erroneous idea of eternal torment is not taught by the Valley of Hinnom as all the remains of which were cast there were either consumed by the fire or by the worms.
Harvest 1874
Well-Known Member
No we don’t believe this was the true reason at all, we believe the reason was to teach a lesson, not only to the people, but to Jonah himself, the lesson being God’s great mercy even upon the wicked should they change their ways.
When Jonah finally did what the Lord instructed him to do and warned the people of Nineveh of their impending destruction, they repented and covered themselves in sack cloth and ash and turned from their evil ways. So the Lord relented from his intent to destroy the city and its people.
And what was Jonah’s response to God’s having exercised mercy upon these wicked people?
“But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry” (Jonah 4:1)
Why should Jonah be angry?
It should be recalled that Jonah at that time was then the exclusive messenger of God to the Ninevites and he had just informed them that because of their evil they were going to be destroyed in 40 days. Jonah was, it seems, more interested in himself and his own reputation, than he was in the Ninevites and their interests. If they were not destroyed in 40 days he would look rather foolish.
During the Gospel age God has used many messengers, both individually and collectively to pronounce his judgements upon the world, upon sinners and all evil doers, many of these messengers have become angry because it has become clear that it is not God’s intention to eternally torment evil doers as they had erroneously supposed, but rather to grant mercy upon the world, to give them the opportunity to turn from their evil ways, and as such these believing themselves to be more just than God, are displeased.
Jonah waited outside the city to see what would become of the city and while he waited the Lord caused a plant to come up over Jonah to shade him, and he was pleased with the plant, but later a worm came and damaged the plant so that it withered and the next day the sun beat down upon him and he grew faint and wished death for himself.
Jonah (like many in the professing church) angry that they are not getting what they deem to be the just punishment of sinners find themselves being scorched by the sun (the truth upon the subject).
“Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “It is right for me to be angry, even to death!” But the Lord said, “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?” Verse 9-11
The Lord taught Jonah a lesson respecting his sympathy for a mere plant which the Lord had caused to come up and shade Jonah, an inanimate thing, and his lack of sympathy for the Ninevites. So it is with many nominal believers and ministers. They have sympathy for the flowers, for children, and, to some extent, for all men. But such sometimes become angry at the bare suggestion that God does not intend to roast and torment sinners for all eternity.
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Helen
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