Wickedness
In a survey conducted by one of the major magazines, something like 85% of all surveyed thought that they were going to heaven. Yet, those same people knew of at least one person who they thought was not going to heaven. The numbers don’t add up.
But that is the point. The devil has people deceived. If he can get you complacent into thinking that you are going to heaven, you’re lost. If the devil can get the churches to teach "peace and safety" when there is no peace, the people will be following blind guides, and all will fall into the ditch.
God is love. But that love is full of justice. Just as we have studied, everyone will receive the reward for what he has worked for. That is justice. God’s love cannot override His justice. He has made a way of escape, but if you do not follow the arrows to the fire escape, you will be burned up.
This section is to remind you of the seriousness of rebelling against God and His law. When we think of wickedness, what comes to mind are images of Hitler and Stalin, Nero and the Oklahoma City Bomb. You can also add the 9/11 "Attack on America", the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York. But that is only a very small part of wickedness.
If you work for a company, and willingly take a pen, or pencil from work and "steal" it, you are wicked. Any part of breaking the Ten Commandments, voluntarily, with intent, is wickedness. This is why so few will be saved. Revelation talks about a multitude saved, yes, but that is from Adam to our time. Compared to just the population of our planet today, it is a small multitude.
After almost 1500 years and a population of several billion people, "the Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that He had made man on the earth, and His heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth.’" Genesis 6:5-7
Yes, a loving God.
But also a God of justice. The population of the earth was so wicked that it was in love and justice that God wiped the earth clean. Out of a population of several billion people, only eight (8) were saved. Eight! They all thought they were saved. They all thought that God was too kind and loving to destroy His creation. But they all thought wrong.
The worldly churches of today are thinking wrong. They are not listening to the Word of Jesus. He is coming back. He is going to destroy this planet and the rebellion that it is leading against His Ten Commandments.
"By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men… But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare… That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of the righteous." 2 Peter 3:7,10,12,13
Only commandment-keeping people will have a home in the new earth. As we have studied earlier, only the commandment-keeping people are righteous. The wicked will be burned up like Sodom and Gomorrah. Did you know that they found those cities? Sodom lies southwest of the Dead Sea. The city is still there. The homes and streets are still there. The wall that surrounds the city is still there. But it has been burned to white ash. Within the ash are sulfur fireballs. No other place on the entire planet has such sulfur fireballs.
God "condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly." 2 Peter 2:6. Here again, out of a valley of several hundred thousand people, only three (3) survived.
I don’t want to scare you. Salvation cannot be gained by scare tactics. Nobody will be scared into heaven. The only people who can go to heaven are those who love Jesus so much, they are willing to die rather than to break one of His Ten Commandments. Those are the only people He can safely take to heaven.
Look at it like this.
Would you want your state, to let a mass murderer lose to live next door to you? Would you want a rapist to live next door to your kids? Then how are you expecting to get into heaven? For God to be fair, He can only take people to heaven who want to. willing, live by the rules. If you are breaking the rules and still think that you are good enough for heaven, then God must take all the people who are breaking the rules. But He can’t. You don’t want Him taking some of those wicked people. In so judging, you judge yourself. The only people He can take to heaven are those who keep His Ten Commandment laws. All ten of them. Including the fourth commandment of the 7th day Sabbath.
If you think that God is too loving and too forgiving to destroy the wicked, think again. He did it by water the first time. He did it by fire to Sodom. He did it by plagues to Egypt. He did it by Babylon to Judah. He did it by the Romans to Jerusalem again in AD 70. He will do it again. Read the Old Testament and learn.