I am hoping to do two Bible studies today. The focus on what I would like to talk about is “Judgment Day”.
“Judgment Day”, which we spent a great deal of time talking about for several years leading up to May 21, 2011. We were continually just about all the time referring to the approaching day of Judgment.
Now, of course, that day has come and gone and here we are, over a year later and I would like to talk about living in the day of Judgment because yesterday, somebody pointed this out to me: they said that you and others said that “the Bible guarantees it!”, “the Bible guarantees that May 21, 2011 will be Judgment day!”.
We have to admit that we were wrong about two things. First, we were wrong about the character or the nature of Judgment—that is we thought that it would be physical, that God would destroy the unsaved people of the world, over the course of five months and it would be a very physical horrible judgment and we were wrong about the physical nature of the Judgment of God (the wrath of God) upon the world. Since then, we have learned to correct that and we will talk a little bit about that.
A lot of people said that we have to make correction and so, we have made correction. We have corrected that and we have learned that it is actually a spiritual judgment. I do not think that is the type of correction some of these people were looking for, but it is the correction that the Bible gives us. Now, that is actually no longer a problem. It is no longer an area that we are struggling with.
The second area that we were mistaken in and that we were in error was the duration of judgment day (the length of time that it would last). This is the critique and complaint that so many people have.
We said that the great earthquake would take place on May 21, 2011, so there was the nature and we have dealt with that and we will discuss that a little later. But, we also said there would be 5 months of Judgment and then the end of the world would take place and then we learnt through the book of Esther and we thought that the 5 months of Judgment would be doubled. We though that it would be 2 times 5 months and land on Purim and that was wrong and so, we have struggled and other believers who have likewise been struggling looked, if would it be the time when Noah came out of the ark? But, that came and went. Others came up with other dates.
So, the error has been understanding the duration of the Judgment. But we are not going to get into that today. We are not going to figure that out and at least I am not, today. I do not think that we are going to figure that out, maybe for some time. But, I would not say that we will not, by God’s grace, understand it in the future. But, we do not understand it now.
We do not know how long Judgment day will be. We do not know, if it is going to be for maybe a few years. What I found very helpful, is to take that one area, one doctrine, one part of Judgment, of God’s Judgment day and set it aside momentarily. That is where all the bee’s are swarming around. That is a whole subject.
But because of that lack of understanding of the duration of Judgment day, there are individuals that we would have thought, were very sound and understood these things, who are unravelling the whole Biblical Timeline of History, piece by piece.
There are individuals that now, do not know if the church age ended or not. They may question, how can they trust the calendar to tell them about the end of the church age when the calendar was inaccurate concerning May 21, 2011 and there are many things and that (at least, to say on their defence) they are being more consistent than people who say that May 21, 2011 was nothing, but the church age ended and they know that based on the Biblical calendar.
That is very inconsistent because the same calendar, that pointed to May 21, 2011 as Judgment day, had far more evidence for that, than it ever did to show us the end of the church age. And so, at least we could say that, in one sense, if someone who is unravelling it further back, is being far more consistent.
Some others are very critical now of May 21, 2011, but they really kind of like “the end of the church age”. They are very independent minded people. They do not want to be under church authority. They like the set up how it is, outside the church and so, they do not press that. They are not looking all that closely at the idea of the Biblical calendar and all of the support and all of the strength it gives us in saying that the church age is over because without knowing that it was as a result of the calendar, how can we ever know that the verses in Matthew chapter 24 and Matthew 24:16, which says:
Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
or the verses in Luke chapter 21 and Luke 21:21, which says:
Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.
are activated? How can we ever understand that now is the time? We cannot. So, today I would like to talk about Judgment day and I would like to just discuss how everything is not mass confusion as it might give the appearance of being.
If we just set the duration of Judgment day aside, everything else which pointed to the day of Judgment, remains intact. They are very solid and very secure. That has been the problem in looking over these things, going over the Biblical calendar, studying it and searching where did we go wrong and where is the mistake?
But when we review and go over the calendar, it is still accurate. 13,000 years to 1988 and 13,023 years to 2011 and that follows a pattern that we see with other historical Biblical events. 7,000 years from the flood to 2011 is accurate. Not only that, but the great tribulation was 23 years from May 21, 1988 and I have never been able to get over that. It has always been that which locked it into my mind because I was there.
I remember that when these dates came up, years ago and the 23 years great tribulation came into view, no one was thinking about the flood at all, no one was thinking about the door shutting on the 17th day of the 2nd month. That was worked out completely independently. By beginning from May 21, 1988 and by going 23 years later from May 21, 1988, reached to May 21, 2011 and it just so happened that in that year is the 7000th year and May 21, 2011 is the underlying Hebrew date of the 17th day of the 2nd month in which God shut Noah and his family into the ark.
The problem is that people do not understand. They want the believer to admit that he or she was wrong. They may say that he or she is “proud” and “arrogant”. I do admit that we were wrong about the earthquake and I do admit that we have been wrong about the duration of Judgment. But how can I admit all these other things and there is far more.
There is the book Time Has An End, which is pretty big, that gives all sorts of Biblical evidence that points to May 21, 2011 as being the day of Judgment. I will admit it, if I can find some error in it and I cannot. What has really helped me a lot is: realising that there is no error in it and that our problem was two, but we have made correction to one.
We no longer think that it is a physical Judgment, but it will be, of course, on the very end of Judgment day, when God will destroy the world and He will destroy unsaved man and that will be actually physically literal.
But, the “Judgment day” is a day that began on May 21, 2011 and goes for however long until the completion of Judgment day and that final destruction of the world and unsaved man. Remember, that was how Mr. Camping taught it leading up to May 21, 2011. That is how we could have that five months period. He was saying that the whole length of time was all Judgment day. God considers the whole period of time, to be like a day, even though it is much longer. It is five months. So, it does not matter if we go five months or five years or 40 years. For instance, let us turn to Hebrews 3. In Hebrews 3, it says in Hebrews 3:7-9:
Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
God called those 40 years, “… the day of temptation in the wilderness: …”. So, that 40 years sojourn, in the wilderness is a day, according to the Bible. It is God’s good privilege, if He wants to do this.
Remember, how He likens the whole New Testament era to the last half of Daniel 70th week? Or 3 and a half days or 1260? He uses these figures of time and He assigns spiritual meaning to them or actual length of years to these numbers and so, Judgment day began on May 21, 2011 and we entered into Judgment day and the Bible guaranteed it. It occurred to me that, that is not in error.
The Bible guaranteed that Judgment day would begin. That part is not mistaken and that is why, when we look back and we see the tremendous programme that God involved His people in, that He stirred them up and moved them to broadcast these things to all the world and only He, could have done it. To bring this message of Judgment day on that particular date to practically everywhere on earth was, as the Bible says in Ezekiel 33:2-3:
Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;
And also 1 Corinthians 14:8. In 1 Corinthians 14:8, we read:
For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?
And so, God had it declared very certainly. But again, we do admit that we had some wrong ideas associated with it. But the one main thing was Judgment day and that particular date. That was not incorrect.
And so, right now, eBible Fellowship holds to Judgment day, as being on May 21, 2011. We held to that belief for years leading up to it. We have held to that belief, in the months since and if anything, you would have to admit that we are consistent.
We hold to the truth, that the Bible teaches that May 21, 2011 was Judgment day. We will try to see the nature of that and discuss that, as we go on. But it is not a pleasant and happy thing because what did we tell people for quite a while leading into that day? You have from whatever point we were saying it, “from this point until May 21, 2011 to find salvation because the door shuts on that day of May 21, 2011”. That was broadcasted into the world.
By the way, what is the world which consists of maybe more than 7 billion people, hearing now? Do you think that they are hearing the message that God is saving? A few. But the ones who heard through tract trips, the last thing that they heard was “May 21, 2011 Judgment day”.
Do you remember those tract trips that went into the far reaches of the earth? Nobody has been there since, to tell them otherwise. How about the billboards all over the world? Maybe that was the only thing that these people saw, in many many countries. The billboard said “May 21, 2011” but nobody has set up a billboard since, to tell them otherwise. There were just a varied manner of ways.
The news reports probably really informed quite a number of people, all over the earth. The radio interviews ceased. Nobody is hearing through the news reports about anything additional (in particular) and at least they are not going out into these remote regions.
It is true that maybe some individuals now and some ministries, out of misunderstanding and confusion are starting to proclaim that God is saving again and the gospel must go forth.
However, I think that we have to be patient with everyone because remember this, that when God brought Judgment on the churches and congregations, the ministry of Family Radio encouraged people to go to church 12 or 13 years into that, even though the church age was over. The people, then were encouraged to go to church and that was contrary to what the Bible was saying and that is because, when God does these kinds of things, it is very hard to discern and it is very hard to understand what He is doing and we can have wrong ideas about it. But, as we went on, then God opened up more information and we became more aware.
So, if you know of someone who maybe does not understand these things now, but, they could in time. Let us take a look at 1st Peter 2. In 1st Peter 2:11-12, we read:
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
What the Bible is teaching is, that “day” is now. Now is the time that God’s people will glorify Him, as He works through them to be obedient to His commandments and therefore, do good works. Let us turn to Genesis 2. In Genesis 2:16-17, we read:
And JEHOVAH God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
I want to go back there in order to review. We talked about this a while ago. But God said in Genesis 2:17, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Did it happen? Yes, God does not lie. But, how did it happen? Spiritually, because we know that Adam lived to be 930. He lived hundreds of years longer. But God did not fill it out. He was not specific. He did not say, “in the day that you eat thereof, death will come to you and on that very day, you will die spiritually, but you will eventually die physically, sometime in the future.” He did not give us all that information.
He just said in Genesis 2:17, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” The very first Judgment was a spiritual Judgment that came upon Adam and Eve and mankind in which they lost their lives in their souls. They became spiritually dead and that is the key when we are understanding what God is doing.
Actually, as we look at the Judgments in the Bible, we find spiritual Judgments and then, followed by a physical destruction, like Adam did finally die. This is one thing that we got right.
We understood that Judgment would start with the churches and congregations and we realised that the nature of the Judgment would be spiritual. But why did we realise that?
If you read the language of the Bible, how does God refer to it? What does He say and what type of language does He use regarding the Judgment on the churches? “desolation”, “famine”, “sword”, “pestilence”, “remove thy candlestick”, but I am sure that missed many. I guess what I am saying is that there is much language that is pretty graphic. Like for instance, He talks of parents (mothers and fathers), eating their own children. There is ugly language. In Matthew 24:19, we read:
And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
That is a very graphic physical type of language. We even have a historical book like Jeremiah in which God gives us the historical parable of the destruction of Judah and it was a literal historical destruction of His people by the Babylonians and king Nebuchadnezzar and yet, with all these statements in the Bible, we correctly understood that the famine would not literally be a famine, we are not going to literally starve, there would not literally be a drought, it is not literally going to be a sword, there is not literally going to be bloodshed.
But how many out there, in the church world believed in literal Judgment and are looking for a literal Judgment to come upon the church? They are looking for things like in Revelation 11. In Revelation 11:7, we read:
And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
You may have heard that people have all sorts of scenarios, “nothing has happened yet”, “look at the church? It is fine”. Let us go to Revelation 13. In Revelation 13:7, we read:
And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
Notice, “… make war with the saints, and to overcome them: …” in Revelation 13:7 and professed Christians are looking out there for some man of sin, to rise literally and for these types of things to begin to take place. Well, they are falling into the trap that we fell into, when we read about the language of Judgment day and the nature of it against the world. We fell into that trap.
We might sit back and think, “how could anybody in the church believe that these kinds of statements are actually going to be literal? Obviously, God is going to bring a spiritual Judgment on the churches and the congregations. It is so clear to us. We see it, with our spiritual eyes.” Right? We have not, by God’s grace, struggled in that area.
Very clearly and very definitely, we have seen the Judgment on the church, which is following in line with God’s Judgment on Adam and Eve, back in the Garden. Remember that in Genesis 2:17, we read, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” They died spiritually.
God warned so often about His people, “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” and “I will remove the light of the gospel and I will judge you.” Yet, we have understood that the nature of that Judgment has to be spiritual. Now, let us go to Jeremiah 25. In Jeremiah 25:8-11, we read:
Therefore thus saith JEHOVAH of hosts; Because ye have not heard my words, Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith JEHOVAH, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations. Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle. And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
That is that very familiar language that we have seen in many places of the Bible. God is commissioning Satan spiritually, (is what it is pointing to) to come with his emissaries against the churches and congregations and that will happen during the time of the great tribulation, which comes right up next to the end of the world and then the duration of that period of time is known. Here it is called “seventy years”, but we understand that that is just a reference to the entire great tribulation, typified by “seventy years”, which actually worked out to be 23 years.
So, for this period of time, God sends and raises up Nebuchadrezzar to bring destruction and Nebuchadrezzar, who typifies Satan was good at it and Satan is excellent at destroying and so, he accomplished God’s will very well, like a very zealous Jehu. He eagerly went about all the congregations of the world, trampling upon the Word of God and destroying as God allowed him to do so. In Jeremiah 25:12-13, we read:
And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith JEHOVAH, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.
This is the second part of God’s plan to bring Judgment. He starts with His people and then after 70 years, the king of Babylon and the Babylonians came under Judgment. God is indicating here, as He moves Jeremiah to prophesy in the book of Jeremiah that it is not only the church, but all the nations of the world itself, must experience the Judgment.
But there is a method that God has. He does things according to His wisdom and in His order. He determines to first judge His people (the church) and then following that, He will judge the world and it is shown by Babylon bringing judgment on Judah for 70 years. Following that, the nations or Babylon itself is judged and that shows us the transition that God intends to make. He will bring judgment on the church. He will then, transition the judgment that was originally on the church, onto the whole world. And so, we had thought correctly that that transition would take place at the end of the great tribulation (at the end of the 23 year period). Let us look a little further on in Jeremiah 25:15. In Jeremiah 25:15-18, we read:
For thus saith JEHOVAH God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. Then took I the cup at JEHOVAH’S hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom JEHOVAH had sent me: To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; as it is this day;
So, God is referring to “the cup” of His fury or the cup of wrath and then, everyone must drink of the cup. But, who does he give it to first? Jerusalem is the first one to receive the cup and “Jerusalem” and “the cities of Judah” would picture the churches and then the following nations, as they would typify the world. So, God is angry with unsaved man.
Some of the unsaved man have found refuge in the churches and congregations, hiding behind the name of Christ, but that will not cover them. You need Christ’s atoning work on your behalf and not just running to hide behind a name, and so, God determines, “I will bring judgment on them first because they have identification with me, they have association with me, they are supposed to be my people, they were my outward representation to the world itself, they represented the Kingdom of God on earth and so, I am especially angry with them and they will receive more stripes than anyone else. So I will start with them, in the churches and the congregations.” That is why we know that the church age is over. That is why God commanded His people to come out and to flee the churches because He began the Judgment, like it says in 1 Peter 4:17:
For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: …
That is where it is initialized. That is when the whole thing begins and then the process takes over and it starts to move along and it is a process, where it begins at this point, “… at the house of God: …” and then it continues for the length of time God wanted it to continue on the church.
Going back, to have the end of the church age on May 21, 1988 and the 23rd year fall on May 21, 2011, which happened to be the underlying 17th day of the Hebrew month Zif, the day that God shut Noah into the ark, 7000 years later, worked out too perfect.
It was the hand of God pointing to that particular day and assuring us, “you have it correct, you are correct. That is the 23rd year. That is the day that the Judgment climaxes on the churches and the congregations and shifts, transitions, moves and expands onto the entire world”, and so, we find, for instance, in Ezekiel, confirmation that 1st Peter 4 is talking about the house of God. Some want to divert that understanding. They do not like that. They want to get out, from under it and they try to say, “oh, that began before the foundation of the world and Christ has nothing to do with that.” It is talking about the Judgment of God upon the churches and congregations of the world and Ezekiel 9 confirms it. In Ezekiel 9:3-6, we read:
And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer’s inkhorn by his side; And JEHOVAH said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. …
“Judgment day” is grievous. It was grievous when God brought the Judgment on the church. That is why Jeremiah was a “man of sorrows” and constantly weeping because it is a grievous thing and if we get time, we will discuss that a little bit because the way some people try to make it sound, “it is so cruel, so cold and so hard to say that God is finished salvation and you are saying that if anyone is born after that date of May 21, 2011 and if we go on for a period of years, that there is no hope for them?” I am not saying it, the Bible is and it is extremely sorrowful, it is extremely sad, but that is why it is Judgment day. That is why, it is a time of punishment for the world.
What did God do to the churches and the congregations? It is rather ironic, in a sad way, how some people are saying, “you cannot say that God shut the door to the world.” Yet, it is exactly what He did to the churches and the congregations and that was about 2 billion people.
Were there children in those churches? Were there babies in those churches? We were fully aware, how many came out? How many did we expect would come out? So, were we not sharing information with everyone that was declaring that millions and millions and millions of children would have really, no possibility of salvation? Yes, because it was the Judgment of God on the churches and the congregations and we take no satisfaction, or pleasure of any kind.
That is why we would tell people, “look, you need to listen to God. You need to obey him. You need to come out.” and we would plead with them, in that sense, trying to tell them, especially if they had families, “do it for your children’s sake”. I remember telling a father that, one time, “you have children, you must get out of the church because, “And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!””.
It is a horrible thing that God brought that Judgment on the churches and the congregations. What was that Judgment? He shut the door on the church 24 years ago now, when He ended the church age and there has been no one saved in any church ever since.
Well, it is kind of ironic that God is using eBible Fellowship and others that have been involved with getting the message out to the world because I know that you also, but I had a great deal of joy and I was very thankful, that I was able to encourage people to “cry for mercy”, leading up to that day.
Some people mocked me. They called me, “cry for mercy McCann”, because I would always say it and I gave message after message, imploring people, “we are getting closer, cry for mercy. Cry, cry, cry.” I was really happy that God had flung the door wide open to the point that a great multitude were being saved and that is something else that we strongly emphasized and kept saying despite people who would say, “oh, you have got that door a little too far open. Oh, you are saying something that is not happening. I do not see this great multitude.” They wanted us to narrow that door and we would not because the Bible said, “…, These (a great multitude) are they which came out of great tribulation, …” that He was saving.
So, if God flings the door, what can the servants of God do? But you share, “the door is so wide open”, and when God shuts the door, what can the servants of God do? But declare, “the door is now shut. This is the Judgment day of God, that we have entered into”, and so, it is very sorrowful and really I took some time and I thought, “do I want to get involved with this” and I am sure that you have thought the same thing, “why bother? Why share these things?” Because we have really no choice.
We just share what the Bible says and that is always the best thing to do. We never want to please people. We never want to say something, just so that some people can feel nice about it. Is that not the problem with the church? That the church says, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” and it is not true at all and is it not a problem with the church that for the last couple of decades, they have been insinuating and flat out telling people, “you can be blessed right here. You can experience the salvation of God right here.”
So is it a nice thing to tell people, “you can experience the salvation of God”, when it is a lie? Is it? What is the kind thing? What is the right thing to do? Is it to lie to people, like the pastor? And to say, “you take these steps, down the aisle and you will be saved.” Well God is not there and His Spirit is not there, and so, we do not ever want to get into that kind of a situation and that kind of a position, where we are now telling people something that the Bible does not support.
We will stop here and LORD willing in the next study, we will take a look at “the cup”. The “cup” that God gave to Judah and then He gave to the nations of the world. It is the same “cup”. There is no change in “the cup”. The cup remains the same, that He told Jeremiah to give to Jerusalem first, take it and following that, give to “the inhabitants of the earth”. No altering of “the cup” of any kind.
Let us close with a Word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank You for your continued faithfulness and grace towards us. We thank You that You are holding us fast and watching out for us. Father we pray for everyone here. We ask that You would bless them, by Your Word, that You would be a strength to each one of us in our inner man. Father we pray for Gunther, as he will teach and we ask that You would bless his message to each one of us and we pray these things in Christ’s name. Amen.