Some Don't Want to Go...
- White Stone
- Feb 3
- 9 min read
It’s up to the individual. To some, heaven sounds boring, it’s not like going
to church. Feeling out of place because they don't like worship, or don't
understand the anticipation. They reject the cost of the sacrifice Jesus made.
Accepting God, calls for abandoning some earthly practices and behavior
which God’s word condemns. Life offers temptations that may seem okay to
indulge in, but carries you so far from what is right that changing your mind
no longer seems logical. Then you die. Few people consider the life they
choose. If you know that the bible is truth and if what you hear cannot be
matched up with the bible, why are you listening to error? Allow the word to
share prophetic history with you...
Consider the great importance in the winding-up scenes of the earth’s
telestial existence. God is prepared to usher in the final thousand years of
time. We need to consider the battle and the events associated with it. God
will pour out war upon the entire world. The nations of the earth will gather
against Israel. The prophets speak of it; and when that time comes, the Lord
is going to come out of His hiding place. There is this tiny area of the world’s
geography called Armageddon. Known as “the place of the troops”. It has
felt the tramp of Egyptian foot soldiers, heard the shouts of Assyrian
battalions, witnessed the passing of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian troops,
watched as Jewish guerrillas fought Roman legionnaires, heard the cries of
Crusaders and Moslems locked in battle, and has felt the crunch of Israeli
troops maneuvering against Arab forces. The bible couldn’t have a more
appropriate name for the next to the last great battle of the world before the
Savior comes. Today’s nations will be no more. But the final great deception
of Satan will be the finale of all wickedness. From every quarter of the
desolate, formless, and void earth will come the demons of Satan and the
dead from the seas, from hell, and those destroyed by the brightness of the
coming of Jesus. The deceived nations are symbolized as led by Gog of the
land of Magog set to destroy the remnant of God’s chosen seed! For
wisdom’s sake the modern names of these nations are withheld. Study the
last four chapters of Zechariah, Ezekiel chapter thirty-eight, Daniel, chapter
eleven, and Joel chapter two, verses one through seventeen.
God’s people recognize the domination of Satan over the world generally.
God called him the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh
in the children of disobedience. He has entered into politics and already
subjugated over one billion people of the world, and by a dire, sanguinary,
and deadly philosophy has brought death to millions. There will be an unholy
alliance, a great darkness upon the world, forged from the deception noted in Revelation chapter thirteen.
Those who refuse God’s way according to His word will be bound in
darkness. They will not understand, and they will be given up to the hardness
of their hearts. God will give them up to the Devil and he will have power
over his dominion and the Lord will have power over His election. But know
that it is God who will carry the rejecters of His truth about as chaff before a
whirlwind. They refused to understand the role of two important participants
in these great events...God’s two witnesses.
The armies of Gog will turn upon each other. The Lord has given us these
things that we might know and we might prepare ourselves through humility,
through repentance, through faith, that we might escape from these dreadful
conditions that are portrayed by the word. Why wouldn’t you want to be with
the Lord seeing the consequences of rejecting His word? The end is
approaching. None can hide from God. Wicked people feel that God’s rules
and laws are too narrow and confining. As the end approaches, we will see
more and more nations and peoples rejecting God’s values and morals, such
as the Ten Commandments and the principled teachings of Jesus Christ. The
number of wicked-totalitarian-murderous nations will increase dramatically.
There are consequences with going against the grain regarding how God
designed us to live and obey him. Those who turn their back on God can
become completely confused and this can negatively affect their mental
health. Many do not understand much about spiritual warfare, or the role of
the devil in this world. Many souls are tainted by all the suffering, injustices
and wrong in the world. This is especially true when people leave out God or
blame God. There is a very severe lesson to learn what it is like to live a life
without taking God into account. God’s word is powerful. It shows what is
acceptable to God. It speaks to every area of life. When Jesus was tempted
by the devil, the weapon of choice was the Word of God. When Satan attacks
you, get into the Word. Obey it. Stand on the promises it has within. Let God’s
Word be your two-edged sword. God's Word is one of the most important
tools we have, guiding us through our lives, informing our decisions, and
directing how we should conduct ourselves as believers.
What if you are aware that you actually do not believe the bible? Can you
not knowing the truth be because your interpretations contradict what the
bible says? If it’s important to you to know the truth, keep studying. As you
come to know the mere edges of God’s ways you’ll be drawn to Him. When
we view the beauty and majesty of creation or see His power in lightning,
hurricanes, volcanoes, waterfalls, flowing rivers or study the intricacies of the
human body or watch the birth of a baby, we are only seeing the mere edges
of His ways. We see the mere edges of His power...His wisdom, His glory,
His holiness, and His sovereignty.
Here's the beauty of the word of God, the bible...God used men to pen the words,
but the Holy Spirit provided divine influence to stimulate and arouse the mind with
special creativity of thought, evoking a strong sense of purpose
and direction. This spiritual empowerment ensured that they would write
exactly what God wanted them to write. And by this cause the bible in its
original endorsements and testimonials was completely free from error. It
must be that those who do not want to go to the place prepared by Jesus,
deny the love, the power, the truth of God. It is true that the bible has been
copied and translated many times, but if you study it precept by precept,
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, you’ll find there is so much proof that
the bible is the word of God. It is God breathed, literally the life of Jesus
recognized in his creation from the beginning. Everything in it is his story
revealed in history. There is an infinite complexity of God’s mind and heart.
God is the God who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the
knowledge of the truth. But He does not save all...why not? We all have to
face this truth. Not all desire to be saved! Some don’t want to go. God is
more committed to our free will, our ultimate self-determination. This is why
God has preserved the bible for our study, our learning. The bible in
meekness instructs those that are opposing themselves; if God peradventure
will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; that they may
recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by
Satan at his will. Note that there were two wills in Christ. Remember the
words “not my will, but thine, be done.” Two wills in God. So, it’s not
altogether to say that God will not do what he wants to do, since in choosing
to do what he does not want to do, he’s doing, in another sense, what
he does want to do. In perfect harmony, God’s wants and God’s will each
express an aspect of his nature in proper unity with other aspects. The
reason some people believe and some do not believe is not because they
have ultimate self-determination, but because God may or may not grant
them to repent and believe. It’s a gift of sovereign grace. So, God wanted
that all be saved, but in another sense, he does not will that all be saved.
One of these inclinations is a real expression of compassion, and the other
is a real expression of sovereign wisdom and the freedom of grace. God
commands “thou shalt not kill”. God does not want that people should kill.
In God’s providential will was planned the death of his Son at the hands of
murderous, wicked men. Our salvation hangs on this reality. This is at the
center of the gospel. God’s sovereignty over sinful men is at the center of
the gospel, not some secondary theological dispute. God’s will that his Son
be crucified took precedence over his will that people not kill. There is a
“moral will” and a “sovereign will”. We are not to bear false witness. People
refused to receive the love of the truth offered by God and so be saved.
Therefore, God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what
is a lie, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth.
They believe the lies. They speak the lies. God sent this delusion in their
choosing. God’s will that people believe the truth and speak the truth is
subordinated, in their case, to God’s other will, which is manifest in his
sending them further into deception. God has no pleasure in the death of
the wicked. He wants them to turn and live. Yet, God kills and God makes
alive. God is sovereign over all things.
If you decide not to have a personal relationship with Jesus, and genuinely
accept him as your Lord, you are destined to fall into the depth of misery.
Many reject the truth, the messages of God, because they do not want to
change. They love this life too much and fear their sins will be exposed.
They do not understand the ultimate life decision they are making. They do
not think or believe they need a savior. They consider themselves to be
“basically good” and do not realize that they, like all people, are sinners who
cannot come to God on their own terms. Those who reject Christ will not be
able to stand before God and successfully plead their own case on their own
merits. These would not confess Christ because they were more concerned
with their status among their peers than doing God’s will. Again, believing in
Jesus is a decision. You may have to face rejection by family members and
friends if you decide to follow Jesus. Following Jesus takes faith. Every
person has the opportunity to understand God when presented with the truth
about His Son, Jesus Christ. Choosing Jesus, or rejecting Jesus - the
consequences are eternal.
God in His wondrous mercy reveals the outcome for every individual. We
just need to reason with our every choice to come to the consequences of
time appointed. Everyone is either saved or condemned. Remember, we
have to choose the narrow gate through life. Most will choose the broad
gateway that leads to destruction, why? Because they love their life, their
love for sin and they love themselves, more, than they love Christ. They do
not count the cost. The word of God gives us strong warnings for a reason.
The question is “why would you wait to be saved”? God is sovereign. The
word points us in the direction of God's sovereign mercy and says, God's
grace is God's choice. That’s a very powerful teaching. God's choice is not
arbitrary, God's judgment is always just; it's never unfair. God's electing
mercy isn't about fairness; it's about mercy. It's a sovereign act of grace and
mercy; it's not about fair. Salvation is in a different category than fairness,
it's the category of mercy. And God’s wisdom is so just because mercy
contains our responsibility to the word...faith! It is our pursuit to attain
righteousness which is by faith. So, the question asked because some don’t
want to go is “why would a person reject salvation?” That's a hard question.
It's a hard question, not only because it is perplexing to the mind, why would
somebody do that, but because it is a reality. Many have and many more
will reject the gospel that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation. God's
sovereignty is compatible with man's responsibility; it is not contradictory of
it. The tremendous distinction between those who are lost and those who
are saved is how salvation is sought. It is either by works of man or by faith
in Christ. Works is the act of underestimating sin. These do not see
themselves as sinners in the way that the bible sees them as sinners, they
discount their sin, they underplay their sin, they ignore their sin, they see
themselves as basically good people. We, by faith, understand that there is
none righteous, no, not one.
There are those who think they do not need to be saved by Christ. They
underestimate the cost of salvation. They underestimate the cost of grace.
They refer to sin as a mistake, downplays it and sanitizes it and makes it
respectable in downplaying the cost of salvation. They know not that's
impossible because Christ Himself is the price that the Father has paid for
salvation. So, salvation is the costliest thing in the world, even though it is
offered freely to all, and the one who desires to save himself by works denies
his worth. There can be no relationship with God apart from Jesus Christ,
and apart from the cross. There is no such thing, and it's vitally important for
us to think about that right now, my friends. Every word of truth is a word of
grace. All who embrace Jesus Christ find that the word of warning and
judgment in the gospel is but a word of blessing because it drives them from
themselves and from their sin to Jesus Christ and to His salvation. Christ
alone, faith alone, in Christ alone. That's salvation, and that's the choice
that's before every one of us.
⛰ Go Deeper
This reflection is part of a larger Bible-based study on faith and transformation.
👉 Read more at OnlineBibleCourse.com
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