Judgement Day

We all know it’s coming, those of us who are Christians look forward to it, those who have no faith don’t even consider it.

Here’s a short fictional tale about a fictional Church of England pastor called Brian, and his experience as he faces the Lord Jesus Christ on Judgement Day. This story has a basis in a recent encounter I had with someone, surely an encounter arranged by Jehovah to enable me to write this very post.

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Brian had thought about this day for many decades whilst alive. He had been a Church of England minister, eventually promoted to Bishop. He enjoyed the job very much, serving the Lord and making a decent living too. He enjoyed preaching on Sundays and was justifiably proud of his deep knowledge of the text of the Bible. He had imagined that Judgement Day would be a celebratory moment for him, as the Lord Jesus would surely warmly welcome him into heaven, where much treasure and an exalted position amongst the Saints awaited.

Brian was called before Jesus, and was surprised that he suddenly felt a bit nervous. He bowed to the Lord, who then asked Brian a few questions. The first was simply why Brian felt he deserved entrance into heaven. Brian gave the stock answer that the vast majority of Christians surely know is the only reason why they are assured entry:

‘ I am a wretched man Lord, and a sinner, but I have faith in the mercy of God and I have long believed in the salvation from death that You Lord gave me by dying for my sins on the cross’.

Brian felt his nerves ease as he spoke these words, as he had 100% confidence that his belief in Jesus as the Son of God who died for all who believe and have faith in Him.

Sadly for Brian, there was then a follow-up question from the Lord Jesus, and it concerned the Ten Commandments, the bedrock of Christian Law, and a set of commands that all Christians know very well and strive to obey. Brian was asked by the Lord Jesus why he had never remembered and observed the weekly Sabbath on a Saturday?

****Edit 17/72020   This post was written before our Father revealed to me that His months are lunar, that new moon days are the first dawn after the lunar conjunction (His international date line) and that Sabbaths are then seven days after the new moon day. I will write about this in detail on the new website in due course, but for now, here is a link to the best scriptural study on this matter. Please always be open to more Truth, never stick to any traditions, and let the Spirit teach you, always. ****

Brian felt his heart-rate suddenly increase, but he responded with scripture and his own reasoning, which he’d found worked well for him during his life, especially as a Church of England pastor and Bishop:

‘Lord, I have always worshiped you and your Father on Sundays, and have taught my flock to do the same. We know that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, and that you declared yourself  Lord of the Sabbath, and also we read about you defending your disciples who were admonished in error by the Pharisees for plucking the heads of grain on the Sabbath. So, I have adopted Sunday as the Sabbath, the Lord’s Day, in accord with early church fathers’.

The Lord Jesus recited some scripture to Brian by way of His response:

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

 17Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. 19Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

15Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

21Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Brian suddenly felt a great wave of panic and nausea wash over him. He had been a bishop of the Church of England, so he’d known that he was taking a risk by allowing female pastors, by allowing women to speak and preach in church, by celebrating same-sex relationships and many other issues that cropped up as the world spiralled into sin and iniquity in the end times. But he’d not given much thought to the Sabbath, as he’d always just assumed that it had been a Jewish thing, that was replaced by the Sunday worship in early Christian Roman times.

He was led away, literally in tears and unable to walk without assistance, as he felt faint and still very nauseous. His mind was scrambled, he was totally devastated, and knew that he now faced death, rather than an eternity in heaven with the Saints. He knew it was too late to save himself, and he cursed himself for his stupidity and arrogance in ignoring one of the Ten Commandments for his entire life, when there was no Biblical justification for this omission.  He wished he could turn the clock back and start again, so that he could have the chance to repent of his pride and stupidity, and he wished that somehow, at some point in his life, he had taken a moment to consider this matter seriously, to consider God’s word, rather than to just go with early Roman tradition.

BANG.

It was at that moment that he remembered a man he had happened to sit beside on a train one afternoon in the Spring of 2019, for only 30 minutes, and that man had made some small talk which resulted in a conversation about obedience to Jehovah. That man was a born-again Christian, and had challenged Brian in the few minutes they were waiting to depart the train about the terrible state of the Church of England, and how far away it was from the Bible’s teachings. He remembered his glib reply to that man ‘the Bible isn’t the authority, God is the authority’.

He remembered vividly how the man had waited on a platform, even as his train pulled in, and had challenged Brian about ignoring the authority of Jehovah by not remembering and observing the Sabbath, and he remembered his even more glib reply ‘the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath’.

He felt a huge physical pain all over his body, as he remembered that the man had asked his name just as he boarded his train, and finally he remembered that this man had written a post on his blog about the vital importance of obeying God and remembering His Sabbath on the seventh day, and had sent him a link to the blog post, to give him a chance to repent, and to call others to repentance.

His last memory was that he had read the blog post and, at the time, had dismissed it as the writings of a modern-day Pharisee, and he thought no more about the matter until this very moment. He now realised that he had lived his life as a modern-day Pharisee, a hypocrite, a serpent, duped by Satan and his followers, leading people away from obedience to Jehovah, dealing instead in iniquity, leading them to their eternal deaths. He sank to his knees, totally distraught, as all of his strength suddenly ebbed away, and he felt the life-force quickly leaving his body. He couldn’t breathe, his heart stopped beating, and he collapsed.

And then he was dead, for eternity.

THE END
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Edit 5th January 2020

Whilst the links below accurately explain that none of these pieces of scripture refer to the Sabbath, they all make a mistake in their explanations of ‘certain days’.

5 One man esteemeth one [feast] day above another: another esteemeth every [feast] day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. 6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he does not regard it. 

  “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink [offerings], or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:”

 The correct explanation of the above scripture is that newly converted gentiles in Colossia were being judged by their neighbours, still pagans, for observing Jehovah’s Feast Days (NB, they are God’s feast days, NOT Israel’s or the Jews’ feast days. So, Paul is telling these new Christians to ignore criticism and to follow God’s will. These Feast days are not ceremonial, they are part of our covenant with God, and remind us of His great works throughout history, for Israel, and then for all those in the world who come to have faith in His only-begotten son, the messiah, Jesus Christ.

I only became aware of our obligations in regards to these Feast Days in September, and so I did observe the autumn feast days, and they were a great blessing. My baptism was during one of these periods too, and my 50th birthday.

So, don’t let anyone tell you these feast days no longer apply, just quote the following verse to them:

’16Then all the survivors from the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of Hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.d 17And should any of the families of the earth not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of Hosts, the rain will not fall on them. 18And if the people of Egypt will not go up and enter in, then rain will not fall on them; this will be the plague with which the LORD strikes the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. 19This will be the punishment of Egypt and of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.’

The Woman Persecuted

13And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle to fly from the presence of the serpent to her place in the wilderness, where she was nourished for a time, and times, and half a time.

15Then from the mouth of the serpent spewed water like a river to overtake the woman and sweep her away in the torrent. 16But the earth helped the woman and opened its mouth to swallow up the river that had poured from the dragon’s mouth. 17And the dragon was enraged at the woman, and went to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea.b

https://sabbathintersections.com/romans145.shtml

 http://www.colossians-2-16.com/romans-14-5.html

 http://www.colossians-2-16.com/index.html

You may find it useful to consider and compare the depth and detail of the explanations in the links above with those from a very popular website for answering Christian’s questions. It’s weak but poisonous sauce by comparison, typical of Satan’s efforts, but it dupes many, indeed it dupes the vast majority. Satan must chuckle at how stupid humans are.

I pray that those who read this post will themselves seek the wisdom of God. Remember, fear of the Lord is the beginning of such wisdom, and we should all be terrified of standing before the Lord Jesus, terrified of ignoring Jehovah’s laws, commands and statutes. Feel that fear, and use it to guide you onward on the narrow path behind our Lord. None of us know when He will return, but given the state of the world, I would not expect we have too long to wait. Don’t let this matter slide, it is of vital importance to the fate of your soul in eternity: life in heaven, or death forever. Make the right choice. Amen.