By Lou Coleman-Yeboah
(EMPIRE NEWS NETWORK (ENN— God’s Warning to a Doomed Generation – “The Greatest Prophecy in the Bible”–soon to be fulfilled. You see, Jesus made a promise. He said, “I will come again.” [Matthew 24:36], “But of that day and hour knoweth no man; not the angels of heaven, but My Father only.” But He says we can know when the end is near. Jesus gave signs concerning His coming and we are seeing those things and hearing those things today. Whole chapters of God’s Holy Word deal almost exclusively with signs regarding the end of time. Matthew 24 is one of those; Revelation 6 is another; Luke 21 is another. “Ah”, but you say, “People have been talking about the coming of Jesus for generation after generation after generation. If it’s really going to happen, why hasn’t He already come?” I’ll tell you why. The Bible says in [2 Peter 3:9], “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” You see, God is so merciful and so good, and He loves us so desperately that He refuses to punish the guilty without giving them sufficient warning and offering them an alternative, a way out of damnation.
I want you to know that God has always sent a warning message to each doomed generation. When you look back in your Bible you will see that there was a time when the whole earth was going to be destroyed by water. God sent a preacher who preached his heart out for one hundred and twenty years. His name was Noah. In spite of all his preaching, only eight people were saved. Then there were the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. God said to Abraham, “I`m going to destroy those cities. And Abraham pleaded with God and said, “Lord, if I find fifty people, would You spare it?” And the Lord said, “Yes.” And when he couldn’t find them he said, “Lord, if I could find…” and he came all the way down to ten! But he couldn’t even find ten people in two whole cities. That ought to startle us. For the Bible records that only four people left those two wicked cities before God’s judgment fell, and one of those left her affections there, turned back, and became a pillar of salt. Only three people lived out of two whole cities! The rest thought they could live on in their wickedness, and their immorality and their decadence, and ignore the warning message of God. But the time of judgment came. Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Noah, and as it was in the days of Lot, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be” [Matthew 24:37, Luke 17:26-28].
I tell you, we had better listen to the warning message of God before it is eternally too late, because the handwriting of God’s judgment is on the wall: mene, tekel, upharsin… Mene meaning the time has run out. Finished! Over! No more opportunities! No more second chances! Your number is up! You’re finished! And that’s the way it happens. Suddenly! The finger of God writes on our wall the word mene when we least expect it, when we seem to be at rest and flourishing and partying through life. And then, it’s over. Finished! The Bible says, “it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” The Bible challenges us” to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Next is the word Tekel meaning weighed. If you never receive Christ as your personal Savior you’ll be weighed on the scales of God by your own life and your own merits. Then the final word written on the wall – Upharsin. A noun from a verb meaning “to break in two,” to separate, to divide… Divide the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the tares. Make no mistake about it the handwriting is on the wall! The Bible says, “Therefore, be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh” [Matthew 24:44]. He came to Sodom and Gomorrah when the people did not expect Him. He came in the days of Noah when they didn’t think He would come. And it happened in Babylon, when they were having a good time. They didn’t think it would happen. But I tell you today, the handwriting is on the wall—something is about to take place very soon. Prophecy is being fulfilled on every hand. Jesus is getting ready to come back for His people, for His church and the signs are all about us.
Bible prophecy tells us that there will only be two groups at that time. One group will cry for the rocks to fall on them and destroy them; they are not ready. The other group will look up with joy and say, “Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him and He will save us” [Isaiah 25:9]. I want to be part of that group that’s ready when Jesus comes. How about you?
Let’s not wait for “The Hand Writing On The Wall” to tell us it is too late, that judgment has been passed and the sentence is final.
Let’s instead heed “The Hand That Wrote On The Ground” [i.e., Jesus, John 8:6, 8]; while there is still time for mercy and forgiveness…