View source for Why God Sends Punishment

'''[[Sex-Drenched World]]'''
----
'''Back to [[1The Bible’s Greatest Prophecies Unlocked!]]'''
----
God&nbsp;<em>loves</em>&nbsp;His  children. He is not suddenly going to change and&nbsp;<em>hate</em>&nbsp;mankind.  But He does hate&nbsp;<em>sin</em>—because of the misery, pain and unnecessary  suffering it brings to His children. Like any wise human parent, we saw God  uses physical punishment to discipline His children.&nbsp;Proverbs  3:11-12&nbsp;states, &ldquo;…despise not the&nbsp;<em>chastening</em>&nbsp;of  the&nbsp;Lord; neither be weary of  His&nbsp;<em>correction</em>: for whom the&nbsp;Lord&nbsp;<em>loves</em>He  corrects; even as a father the son in whom he delights.&rdquo; Quoting this proverb,  the apostle Paul in the New Testament  adds that God &ldquo;chastens, and scourges [to afflict with severe punishment and  pain]&nbsp;<em>every</em>&nbsp;son whom He receives&rdquo; (Heb.  12:6).<br>
  
A fair and just God must&nbsp;<em>punish</em>&nbsp;all  nations for longstanding&nbsp;disobedience—first  modern Israel,  and then the rest of the world. Mankind has bitter lessons to learn, and it  is&nbsp;<em>our</em>&nbsp;generation—the&nbsp;<em>last</em> generation—who must  bear the brunt of God&rsquo;s anger.<br>
  
When Christ  came announcing God&rsquo;s kingdom, He was tortured and crucified. Every one of the  apostles, except John, was put to  death by awful means, often after imprisonment, sometimes including torture. And  the prophets of old who warned nations, kings and peoples to repent and  acknowledge God as sovereign over their lives were placed in dungeons, forced  to flee for their lives, stoned, sawn in two, or otherwise killed in most cruel  fashion. Invariably, they were rejected and ignored. Noah  preached for perhaps 100 years and only a few of his own family heeded.<br>
  
The stiff-necked, rebellious,  pleasure-seeking, self-willed, God-hating nations of the world have&nbsp;<em>never</em> heeded the&nbsp;<em>true</em>&nbsp;servants of God. Except for a few, my words  here—in fact,&nbsp;<em>God&rsquo;s</em>&nbsp;words—will not change many. I&nbsp;<em>fully</em>&nbsp;recognize  they will make some people&nbsp;<em>very</em>&nbsp;angry!<br>
  
Punishment is coming for a reason. Six  thousand years of ignoring God&rsquo;s commands have come to the&nbsp;<em>full</em>—and  God is filled with&nbsp;<em>fury</em>!<br>
  
Human beings, having human nature, will  not enjoy the correction, possibly initially thinking it is unfair—that the  masses do not really&nbsp;<em>deserve</em>&nbsp;it. This is because people want  to be thought of as good, but do not want to&nbsp;<em>do</em>&nbsp;good—<em>do</em>&nbsp;what  is right! Most will deceive themselves about what have been their ways.  But&nbsp;<em>powerful</em>&nbsp;correction will soon soften stubbornness.<br>
  
This correction will get people&rsquo;s  attention in the only way left for God to do this. The world will come to  recognize what sin brought—that they did these things to themselves. Their  spirit of rebellion and disobedience will be shattered. They will learn  that&nbsp;<em>spiritual</em>&nbsp;happiness greatly exceeds the value of  physical, material prosperity.<br>
  
God sees everything: &ldquo;For the eyes of  the&nbsp;Lord&nbsp;run to and fro  throughout the whole earth&rdquo; (II Chron. 16:9). God has seen every act of violence and  cold-blooded murder, every vile rape, every calculated theft, every act of  self-serving adultery, every covetous thought, every lie and deception—EVERY  SIN!<br>
  
Imagine witnessing&nbsp;<em>every</em>&nbsp;lawless  act of mankind all over the world for just&nbsp;<em>one day</em>. What human  being could cope with this? Yet God has witnessed 6,000 YEARS OF SIN!<br>
  
No wonder&nbsp;Psalm  7:1-17&nbsp;records, &ldquo;...God is angry with  the wicked every day&rdquo; (Psa 7:11).<br>
  
But Proverbs states, &ldquo;He that&nbsp;<em>is  soon angry</em>&nbsp;deals foolishly&rdquo; (Prov 14:17).  God has not been&nbsp;<em>soon</em>&nbsp;angry. He allotted six millennia for men  and nations to heed Him and cease from sin. Man has refused, and his time of  self-rule has almost expired.<br>

<strong>Wrong Foundation from the Beginning</strong><br>
The world has always been devoid  of&nbsp;<em>right</em>&nbsp;values—true&nbsp;values—which  would have brought it to enjoy every wonderful and good thing that a loving God  could give to His Creation. Like human parents with their children, God has  wanted His children to enjoy all the good things that He could provide for  them.<br>
  
The problem is that God&rsquo;s children have  ingested false values, having wandered out of the &ldquo;house&rdquo; and into the &ldquo;neighbourhood,&rdquo;  where they absorbed the thinking of different &ldquo;parents.&rdquo; For generations,  humanity has sought the wrong goals, it has had the wrong purposes in mind.  Even though it has reaped a host of wrong results, and pain of every imaginable  sort, it has not sought to examine the&nbsp;<em>faulty foundation</em>&nbsp;upon  which it stands—wrong values!<br>

This comes at a price.<br>

<strong>Children of Disobedience</strong><br>
Here is&nbsp;<em>exactly</em>&nbsp;what  brings God&rsquo;s wrath. Let&rsquo;s read His words. This first passage was quoted in a  previous chapter, but bears repeating here in context: &ldquo;…fornication,  uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which  is idolatry: for which things&rsquo; sake the&nbsp;wrath  of God&nbsp;comes on the&nbsp;<em>children of disobedience</em>&rdquo; (Col.  3:5-6).<br>
  
DISOBEDIENCE draws God&rsquo;s anger.<br>
  
Now another passage, from Ephesians:  &ldquo;But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness…filthiness…For this you  know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an  idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom…Let no man deceive you with vain  words [false ministers today]: for because of&nbsp;<em>these things</em>&nbsp;comes  the&nbsp;wrath of God&nbsp;upon  the&nbsp;<em>children of disobedience</em>&rdquo; (Eph 5:3-6). The next verse in Ephesians shows what  Christians are instructed&nbsp;<em>not</em>&nbsp;to do with those who practice  what Paul describes: &ldquo;Be not you  therefore partakers with them&rdquo; (Eph 5:7).<br>
  
Those who &ldquo;partake&rdquo; of this conduct, or  who fraternize &ldquo;with them&rdquo; (the world and its ways), will <em>partake</em>&nbsp;of  God&rsquo;s plagues on a whole world of rebellious nations.<br>
  
The prophet Zephaniah we saw speaks  most bluntly of this terrible day when God&rsquo;s wrath is poured out. Notice again:  &ldquo;The great day of the&nbsp;Lord&nbsp;is  near, it is near, and hastens greatly [once it begins], even the voice of the  day of the&nbsp;Lord: the mighty  man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and  distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess,  a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the  fenced cities, and against the high towers. And I will bring distress upon men,  that they shall walk like blind men,&nbsp;<em>because they have sinned against  the&nbsp;Lord&nbsp;</em>: and their  blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung&rdquo; (Zeph 1:14-17). The&nbsp;<em>cause</em>&nbsp;of God&rsquo;s wrath—<em>why</em>&nbsp;world  punishment—is here made plain—&ldquo;they have sinned against the&nbsp;Lord.&rdquo;<br>
  
It becomes &ldquo;Behold...the...severity of  God&rdquo; (Rom. 11:22). Humanity will behold, during the Day  of the Lord, God&rsquo;s&nbsp;greatest severity!<br>
<strong>Human Nature &ldquo;Desperately Wicked&rdquo;</strong><br>
  
Writers, philosophers and scientists  cannot agree on what is human nature. To understand the truth of human nature  (also called carnal nature), we must again permit God&rsquo;s Word to answer.<br>
  
God declares, &ldquo;The heart [the seat of  man&rsquo;s thoughts, motives and feelings] is&nbsp;<em>deceitful above all things</em>,  and&nbsp;<em>desperately wicked</em>: who can know it?&rdquo; (Jer.  17:9). The latter phrase is equivalent to  &ldquo;who could believe this?&rdquo; And of course most cannot. Nor can they believe this  inspired statement. Recall: &ldquo;…the carnal mind is&nbsp;<em>enmity</em>&nbsp;against  God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be&rdquo; (Rom.  8:7).<br>
  
The carnal mind naturally hates God,  the Supreme Lawgiver, and therefore abhors His laws, as well as the laws of  men. No wonder riots and rampant lawlessness abound when law and order  collapse!<br>
  
Romans 3:23&nbsp;states, &ldquo;For&nbsp;<em>all</em>&nbsp;have  sinned, and come short of the glory of God.&rdquo; Every human being has sinned on  his own account! All are responsible for and guilty of their&nbsp;<em>own</em>&nbsp;sins!<br>
  
Let&rsquo;s examine more of what is occurring  today for which God is angry, and why He will punish all mankind. The picture  is not pretty.<br>
  
The&nbsp;<em>worldwide panorama of sin</em>&nbsp;is&nbsp;why world punishment!<br>
----
'''[[Sex-Drenched World]]'''
----
'''Back to [[1The Bible’s Greatest Prophecies Unlocked!]]'''