Closing Time
"And I heard a voice from the altar, saying, 'Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, your judgments are true and just' "
- Revelation 16:7
In 1869, French chemist Pierre Berthelot wrote, "Within a hundred years of physical and chemical science, men will know what the atom is. It is my belief that when science reaches this stage, God will come down to earth with His big ring of keys and say to humanity, 'Gentlemen, it is closing time.' "
That is what God is effectively saying in chapters 15 and 16 of Revelation, which describe a specific time during the last three-and-a-half years of the Tribulation period. The Antichrist will have already emerged on the scene. He will have set into place his new global economy and will have his military and his one-world religion.
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By this time, people will have made the decision either to follow Jesus Christ and be sealed by the Holy Spirit or to take the mark of the beast and be eternally separated from God. Once a person has taken this mark, there is no turning back. Then God's judgment will come in full force on the Antichrist and all who have followed him. There will be nothing left to say.
Sadly, there are many who will pretty much die as they have lived: hardened against God. That is why this judgment will come.
God's judgments are never haphazard, willy-nilly, or random. God is always very specific in the way He judges and when He judges. He takes no pleasure in this. In fact, He says, "I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live" (Ezekiel 33:11).
It is true that God is loving, but it is also true that God is just. It is true that God is forgiving, but it is also true that God is righteous. Consequently, there must be a judgment.
