THE PASTOR'S PEN
THE
EVIL DAY (Part 2) by Stephen Benton
The story of a flood in Noah's day is a true story and
has been documented by many geologists.
Before the flood came, God told his prophet, Noah, about the coming
judgement and gave him a 120 year warning.
Noah was 480 years old when he received the message and he preached that
message until the 600th year of his life.
At that time, true to his spoken word, the flood came and an entire
world was drowned. I often tell you to
put flesh and blood on these old testament stories in order that you might more
effectively lift them from the flat pages of scripture into a three
dimensional, true to life experience.
Imagine the ridicule Noah faced as he warned the world about a judgment to come, a judgment of rain. You know the story. It had never rained upon the earth in those days. We are told in Genesis that a mist came upon the earth every night and watered the earth. Now, here comes this old man telling everyone that God was about to send a deluge of water upon the earth and that he was instructed to build a large boat for the purpose of saving life. I have emphasized many times that Noah's message was a "sign-less" message. Not one drop of water fell from heaven during the 120 years. Those who would be saved from the judgment to come would be saved by believing Noah's message and entering the Ark. Only eight souls took advantage of God's salvation.
Imagine the ridicule Noah faced as he warned the world about a judgment to come, a judgment of rain. You know the story. It had never rained upon the earth in those days. We are told in Genesis that a mist came upon the earth every night and watered the earth. Now, here comes this old man telling everyone that God was about to send a deluge of water upon the earth and that he was instructed to build a large boat for the purpose of saving life. I have emphasized many times that Noah's message was a "sign-less" message. Not one drop of water fell from heaven during the 120 years. Those who would be saved from the judgment to come would be saved by believing Noah's message and entering the Ark. Only eight souls took advantage of God's salvation.
I am sure that there were those in that time who believed
that God was too kind and loving to destroy an entire creation of human and
animal life. They should have known
better. Adam handed down a message to
them of the destruction of a previous civilization prior to his creation. Genesis opens in chapter one telling us that
the earth "was without form and void." It was not created that
way. Something happened to the original
earth that caused God to judge it. There
are remnants of such a judgment still existing on the earth. Places such as the Grand Canyon. That mile-deep fissure in the earth is essentially
a wasteland. The point I am making is
that God has destroyed life en masse
on several different occasions.
Paleontologists tell us that the dinosaurs were wiped out all at once
about 165 million years ago. I can tell
you that their demise was not accidental but a deliberate act of God. Today we have far greater evidence of both a
worldwide cataclysm prior to Noah's day as well as concrete evidence that the
flood of Noah did, indeed, take place. Yet
there are those who ignorantly believe that God will not destroy an entire
creation if it deserves destruction.
Now, let's get back to the "flesh and blood" aspect of Noah's
story.
It did not take Noah 120 years to build a boat. He and his sons were ship builders by
trade. The job was finished in about
five years. What is significant is that
when Noah began building the boat he did not build it with unlimited human
living capacity. We are told in Hebrews 11:7
that he "PREPARED AN ARK FOR THE SAVING OF HIS HOUSE; BY THE WHICH HE
CONDEMNED THE WORLD." At least five
years before the flood Noah's message had reached its capacity as far as those
who would believe it was concerned. I
don't know where these last days' prophets get the idea that the final days of the
Church will be days of unprecedented growth.
Noah's "church" did not grow
to eight members, it shrunk to
eight. Abraham prayed for 50 righteous
people in the cities of the plain but couldn't find ten!
The
passage in Matthew tells us that this world will not heed the warning from God
but will go on in an attitude of "knowing not" until the events begin
to unfold. In Noah's day, even though
God did not give any signs of the validity of Noah's message, just prior to the
flood there were some events that occurred that should have alerted the world
to the fact that Noah's message was true.
Noah was instructed to save two animals of every kind in order that they
might reproduce after the flood. Noah
did not go out and conduct a round-up.
We are told that the animals "went unto Noah." That should have alerted the unbelieving
world that something out of the ordinary was happening. To watch a parade of animals go into the ark
and never come out again for a week should have caused the more intelligent
animal, man, to do the same.
Before the events of God begin to unfold, there will be
some earth shattering events. The soon
coming disasters will cause many to believe that the wrath of God has been set
in motion but it will be a deception.
That is why Paul admonished us in 2 Thessalonians not to be soon shaken
in mind or troubled as if the day of Christ is at hand because Christ will not
be the author of the terrible events that are soon to come. However, Satan is going to cause the world to
believe that God is the agent and in so doing, he will present himself as an
angel of light offering salvation. Many
will fall for the trick and be eternally lost.
You can be sure that we will be visited by "aliens" before the
Church is caught away from this earth.
They will come declaring a great lie claiming that they are our gods and that they engineered our DNA. Their lie will be so factual and so convincing that it will cause some believers to leave their faith. They will arrive just prior to or just after this earth is in the process of dreadful changes that will destroy millions of people. Their lie will be compelling because the people did not love God's truth.
They will come declaring a great lie claiming that they are our gods and that they engineered our DNA. Their lie will be so factual and so convincing that it will cause some believers to leave their faith. They will arrive just prior to or just after this earth is in the process of dreadful changes that will destroy millions of people. Their lie will be compelling because the people did not love God's truth.
It's time to wake up!!
Written in
the THE WEEKLY WORD
OF THE
HOUSE OF GOOD NEWS
by
Stephen Benton September 20, 1998
To
read more current revelations from Pastor Steve, check out his book published
September of 2017 on Amazon.com
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