SCRIPTURAL TEXT.
LUKE 17:26-32
Choosing our text from Luke 17:26, we hear Christ declaring, as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat. They drank. They married wives. They were given in marriage until the day Noah entered into the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. Verse 28, Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built. But the same day Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.
Verse 30, even thus shall it be in the days when the Son of Man is revealed. In that day he which shall be upon the housetop and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away. And he that is in the field let him likewise not turn back.
Verse 32, REMEMBER LOT’S WIFE. Why do you suppose Christ said for us to remember Lot’s wife? the above Christ’s message, especially the warning for believers to remember Lot’s wife. Because she is one of the major signs of his soon return!
No. 1 – – – Spirits of Two Periods Emptied Into One
RETURN OF SPIRITS
Concerning all Jesus said there in our text Luke 17:26-32, may I re-emphasize his stirring warning – AS IT WAS BACK THEN SO SHALL IT BE AT THE END OF THE GRACE AGE! True, it would be totally impossible for anyone to close their eyes and by some miraculous means return to a period 5000 years ago or to even visualize what went on back in those dreadful hours before the flood or before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Nevertheless, if you believe God’s word wherein Christ declared, AS IT WAS BACK THEN SO SHALL IT BE beloved, all you have to do is examine or look at your own particular day and you will know just exactly what it was like back there in those two particular time periods shortly before their destruction. Yes, it is our day that informs us what it was like back in that day, because our day is only a reflection of that hour!
Genesis 6 informs us when God looked down upon the earth and saw what mankind was beginning to do, He said it repents me I have even made man seeing he has corrupted the earth. Again God said, man has corrupted his ways. The Lord declared in Genesis 6(the hour of the flood) that not only the world was corrupt, but it was also filled with violence. Since I can’t pull back the curtain of time or 5000 years of history, nor am I able to relive two of the worst periods in history and seeing it is impossible to read enough between the lines to see that corrupt social and moral picture of that hour — according to God’s word we don’t have to because Jesus said himself, AS IT WAS BACK THEN SO SHALL IT BE IN THE DAYS OF THE SON OF MAN. Since I can’t see what it would be like back in that hour God said (simply wait) it would repeat itself.
PERIODS REPEAT SELF
That is the though we want you to recieve because what is happening in our day is no accident, it is a mere repeat of what has been! God said those horrible days before the flood and those evil days of Sodom and Gomorrah would definitely repeat themselves! Therefore all I have to do is look at it in its proper perspective because as we examine this day we know exactly what it was like back in those two periods of time shortly before destruction!
WATERED DOWN LAWS
Now that we know, according to Christ’s own words in Luke 29-32, that these days will certainly reapt themselves, what we have in our day is similar to the setting when God looked upon the earth in Genesis 6 and saw that it was corrupt and filled with violence. This lets me know the judicial system of that day had become so watered down by the pervereted minds of the law officials until crime and all other things we associate with crime —violence, immorality, and perversion — was running rampant. Yes, you may be assured Satan was the instigator of all that was going on but these things could not have been unless the medium of law as well as the execution of law had absolutely been watered down!!
Law was made to control the excess of certain things, however when laws become watered down it then becomes totally impossible for those laws to control the things for which they were devised. This lets me know the spirit of that day(like the spirit of this hour) saw to it that these judicial laws were first weakened down in order these ungoldly attributes could make to full expression of themselves. Because of weaker laws, man in that hour was allowed to fully express his degenerate and perverted ways. In that hour life was considered a very cheap thing, the same as it is today because AS IT WAS SO SHALL IT BE!
PROTECTING THE GUILTY
From one standpoint we hear modern philosophers and scholars expressing the great value of human life as they use such things as an argument or approach to speak against(remove) capital punishment from the courts of the land. But I ask you, is it not strange concerning these law breakers or offenders who think up all these evil crimes that when they have done deeds worthy of death it is always these characters we hear, these modern philosophers crying out in defense saying, “O but they have a life, they have a right to live!” What about the poor, helpless victim who they unmerifully did away with, what about his rights!?
As a law abiding citizen did he not have any? Beloved, God’s word won’t back up that kind of philosophy that no matter what the criminal did he has a right to live! People don’t think preachers should speak out like this but that is the trouble. Today we have a wrodl filled with modern preachers and modern Christianity who are so blind they have absolutely lost their way! Now understand it is true, every man does have a soul and is absolutely entitled to a right to be saved however the Bible does not declare that every man has a righ to live once he crossed over the border of God’s moral and social law!!
CRIME, NO.1 PROBLEM
Therefore, this modern philosophy and stuff devised by man and not by God is designed to pull the sting or the punishable power out of our judicial systems and that, beloved, is what is responsible for making crime, especially in America, to be the number one problem in 1976!
PHILOSOPHERS BRAINWASH
Philosophers hatch up this stuff and in turn brainwash the modern religious minded people who have no idea what the word of God says concerning the subject, let alone have enough conviction to even care to stand up for what the truth of the matter is! Instead, piously they will say, “O don’t you know the 10th Commandment says, thou shalt not kill?” It most certainly does. And I ask you one question. Who wrote that commandment? GOD DID!
However, do you not recall the same God who first wrote that law on a table of stone with His finger for the children of Israel to obey, this same nation of Israelites when crossing over the Jordan River into the land of Caanan under Joshua were instructed to march around the walls of Jericho once each day for six days and on the seventh day thou shalt march around it seven times. And when thou hast completed the seventh trip around the walls thou shalt shout with a great shout. Remember, that was God who also said this and not Moses. Because Joshua in this hour is Israel’s leader. The seventh day they marched seven times around the wall, shouted and the walls fell down. Now here is the point I want you to see, God said go in and slay all the old and younf and not spare a thing. WHO SAID THAT? GOD DID! Did God change His mind sometime after writing the commandment — NOT AT ALL! The same God who said in the tenth commandment, THOU SHALT NOT KILL, is the same God who told Israel to go into Jericho and kill all of them! Yet we are aware according to the story that one harlot woman, though immoral as she may have been, had enough revelatory faith to know those Israelites, coming up through the desert, would one day cross over the Jordan River and conquer the city of Jericho, the first city that lay in the path after crossing the Jordan.
RAHAB’S TESTIMONY
According to her testimony she told the two spies whom Joshua had sent to spy out the land, she and all those in Jericho had heard what had happened at the Red Sea 40 years earlier. Rahab the harlot had heard how Almighty God had allowed Israel, some 2 and a half Million strong, to drink water throughout their long desert journey. She has enough spiritual insight, though immoral as she was, to recognize these two Israeli spies who had come into Jericho, hid them in her house and said we have heard how God brought you through the Red Sea and the day we heard that(what happened 40 years ago) I want you to know our hearts here in Jericho and the land of Caanan simply melted within us. Beloved, that means they were terrified, literally frightened beyond measure! We have heard how God leads you and we know one day you will cross that Jordan River and take our city. When you do, remember me and my household! Rahab and her entire household were the only things to escape the wrath of God when Jericho fell.
When those Jews entered that city, everyone perished by the sword! Then in this case what did the 10th commandment of the law mean? Does God change His mind? NO! God, who said thou shalt not kill to Israel, means you shall not kill for your own selfish purpose or motive. Concerning these Caananites of Jericho, God knew if the people of Jericho were spared(allowed to live), they would only add to the tribes of people already in Caanan who had polluted the land and would later be responsible to lead the children of Israel astray. Here was God’s way of eliminating the one thing that would be a means later of harassing His people, causing them to sin against Him.
LIFE CHEAP
Looking down upon Earth’s scene in Genesis 6, the Almighty not only saw the earth was corrupt and that man had corrupted his way but since violence had also filled the Earth, you may rest assured life was certainly very cheap in that hour. Today is it not similar picture where once again the scene has repeated itself wherein life has become very cheap, because AS IT WAS SO SHALL IT BE! We are seeing all of our laws in the 70’s rapidly becoming watered down and perverted. Criminals today are the only ones who actually seem to be protected! What an unbalance! A generation ago crime was far down the list in worries for any city inhabitant but not so today!
VIOLENCE, A SIGN
Because of watered down laws and rampant hoodlums and violence a recent poll indicated nearly half of America (45 per cent) is afraid to walk in their own neighborhoods at night. In larger cities, 55,000 and above, the figure is much higher reaching 56 per cent. Among women in larger cities 77 per cent are afraid to venture out after dark and many even fearful of venturing out in the daylight! More than that, many do not even feel safe and secure within their own homes. One person in five admits of being fearful of household intruders. Yes, it is no accident crime is the number one problem in America because AS IT WAS SO SHALL IT BE! And when we consider crime statistics based on police records if what you see today worries you or causes you great concern, simply remember this, we are told nearly four in every ten crime incidents are never reported to the police authorities! Thus making the picture far more grim! According to the recent Gallup Poll, we are told that one household out of every four was hit by crime at least once during the last 12 months period.
The crime consisted of either property stolen or a member of the household victimized by assault or mugging. Cities 500,000 and over narrows it down to one household in three that was struck by crime during that 12 months period.
CRIME AGAINST BUSINESS
There is a soaring rate of crime against businesses consisting of shoplifting, employee theft, highjacking, kidnapping, and extortion. The combination cost in 1974 to businesses was well over 20 billion dollars! Theft of tools, equipment, materials, and company production are considered a serious problem by 20 per cent of the nations manufacturers. Unbelievable but true, some 4,580 Bibles were stolen from hotel rooms in New York City in one year! And it is not unusual that motel rooms are stripped of their Television sets or anything not fastened down! Employers have an extra added headache if, unbeknownings to them, they have drug addicts as employees. The recent figures of heroin users alone in the U.S. was shown to be over 400,000 who need an average of $21,000 per year to support his habit, which means a heroin user steals at least $50 per day!
The biggest problem seems to be the problem of juvenile crime which raised by 1600 per cent in the last 20 years. More crimes committed by children under 15 than adults over 25! Many authorities are saying half of all the crimes comittied in America are committed by juveniles. Juvenile crime alone is costing this nation twelve billion dollars per year. The crime consists of murder, rape, burglary, arson, etc. The youngsters seems to have lost all fear of the law, having no regard for property or life. Authorities admit that juveniles crime is completely out of control! Youngsters are even heard to say that murder is fun. 1974 police arrested 2.5 million youngsters under 18. in Phoenix, Arizona officials estimated juveniles are responsible for 80 per cent of crime violations. Authorities say juveniles are becoming more and more violent because they know they can get away with it and authorities express hopelessness in dealing with the situation. No, I am not telling you Christians to arm yourselves, I am simply letting you see this evil thing of violence and how it is closing in on us. it is a sign of this day because AS IT WAS SO SHALL IT BE!
Everyone, I am sure, will agree with the statement that law and order has broken down in the country. F.B.I statistics reveal that violent crimes increased between 150-200 per cent during the decade of the 60’s. Street robberies were up 200 per cent; bank robbery up over 400 per cent; daytime burglaries up over 300 per cent; killing of police officers increased almost 300 per cent during the last ten years. Uniformed policemen have become walking targets for assassination, wanton cold-blooded killings as they walk their beats and direct traffic or simply mind their own business.
RATE OF CRIME SHOCKING
Today’s crime rate is shocking. A burglary every 20 seconds; a larceny every 30 seconds; a car theft every 48 seconds; an assault every 2 and a half minutes, a rape every 19 minutes, and a murder every 43 minutes! American murder rate has simply doubled in the past ten years. There was one murder for every 10,000 people during 1974. This rate is 25 times higher than in Great Britain. One-third of all vicitims are killed by releatives! One out of every four murderers IS NOW A WOMAN! Alcohol is to blame in majority of killings! Yes, in Genesis 6 God looked down and saw violence in the Earth.
It seems there is a force in this country continually working to weaken and destory the judicial system of America to work in favour of the criminal insomuch that there are laws being debated in the judicial courts which would state, if someone broke into your house or even beat up your family and you shot and killed that person when you could have fled from the scene of your own home, you could be prosecuted! There are 51 different gun control bills before the Congress, all designed in some way to restrict the ownership of personal firearms and many states in the union have bills in their state legislature that would restrict private gun ownership.
BIBLE & KORAN FAVOR CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
Not only does the Bible speak of capital punishment, the Koran does too! We are reminded how a short time ago King Faisel’s murderer, his own nephew was executed by public beheading in Saudi Arabia capital punishment is perscribed for murder unless the defendant is found to be insane. The Koran, the Moselems’ bible, prescribes chopping off the heads of the killers, the hands of thieves, the stoning of adulterers and the imprisonment of petty criminals. There are occasional public executions and maimings. It would be well for Americans to note that because such action, Saudi Arabia has one of the lowest crime rates in the entire World!
CRIMINAL CONTROL OR GUN CONTROL
Last year New York was the first major city to enact gun control law meaning the prohibiting of private ownership of handguns. It is also well to note New York during that same period led the nation in gun related homicides! There is much clamor today about getting guns off the streets but very little said about getting criminals off the streets, arresting them, imprisioning them and taking them out of circulation! Crime is practically non-existent in Switzerland, having no crime problem because the law there requires every householder to keep guns and ammunition. Taking away the guns from the private citizen not only is a Communisitic plot but that happens in every country sometimes before a Communist takeover! Those philosophers with such warped thinking who feel if we take guns away from everybody that peace will prevail should realize that when the first murder took place in the Bible, Cain did not have a gun! But such persons of violence would resort to hatchets, clubs, knives, or whatever else their evil imagination could devise to do away with someone who got in their way. Our courts today have placed the criminals’ rights ahead of their vicitims.
Violence in recent years concerning kidnappings of judges and local court officials caused some judges to go into the courtrooms with handguns under their robes. Truly violence is a sign of this day because AS IT WAS SO SHALL IT BE!!
I would rather turn a number of man-eating lions loose on the streets than I would to turn loose the people of this caliber who are allowed to run loose today. Yet if I did that and those lions were to tear people to pieces, people would say, O that is terrible. I had ratherbe ripped to pieces by a man-eating lion than to be cut to pieces by a two-legged one!! This is a day of when not only men but women as well learn violence and show their capability of matching wits and even surpassing the men in such things.
UNDISCIPLINED JUVENILES
It appears we are living today when youth is schooled for violence. Recently the U.S. Senate Subcommittee released an 18 months study involving 757 school districts. The lawlessness among the undisciplined juveniles has become a part of the nation’s crime wave and has proven to be a most costly business. The destruction of school property has reached the momentous figure of $500 million! This is as much as was spent on textbooks. Another cause of alarm was the average of 100 murders committed in schools each year and 70,000 assaults made on teachers. U.s. News and World Report recently released a shocking article declaring how in certain school districts, teachers especially women wore wrist radios or carried on their person two way raidos to call for help from security guards if molested in the room or halls!
After a Gary, Indiana high school student was gunned down by a classmate in school hallway, Supt. Gordon McAndrew said teachers and other employees could henceforth carry guns on the job if application for permits were approved. Said McAndrew of the rapid arming of students; the problem in this community and others is that it’s easy to get a gun as it is to go to the library and check out a book! It appears even the schools today are educating a generation of anarchists!!
Society thinks if a woman is raped today(rapes occur every 19 minutes in the U.S.) that the penalty of the molester should not be death. However, God’s law in Deut. 22:25-27 informs us if a man actually does this horrible thing of molesting a woman, he is to receive nothing short of the death penalty! Has God changed His mind? Absolutely Not!! The Bible, the book they are now refusing to allow to even be read in the schools of learning, teaches God made the moral law to teach mortal, sinful man what sin was and where sin lays. One of the things God certainly demanded was the death penalty when a man was actually guilty of treating a woman in such a manner. Among other things, the molesting of a woman sets up terrible emotional reaction and even though the states do have centers to treat the victim for emotional shock, may I say, the victim never forgets what that man did who was responsible for her condition. Do you tuink clinics and such will ever change her inner feelings? One reason many modern lawmakers have interpreted the situation which exisits as such is because on practically every newsstand and grocery store shelf are magazines of every description protrarying every kind of filthy story about women. While true there may be only one out of ten women who would not want her purity molested. While nine probably would not care. Seeing such a published story would give them an opportitunty to make for themselves several thousands of dollars once story is published!
(MURDER JUMPED 50 PER CENT, DECLARES F.B.I., SINCE DEATH PENALTY DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL FIVE YEARS AGO!)
Recall, Christ said in Luke 17, as it was in the days of Noah so shall it be. They ate, drank, married wives, bought, sold, planted and built, yet strange isn’t it when you turn to Genesis 6 concerning that dreadful day wicked period before the flood you never read one word pertaining to the social aspect of the day which Christ mentioned in Luke 17 as to what they were doing at the hour of the flood! No Genesis 6 simply declares the earth was full of violence and full of corruption seeing mankind had corrupted his way. Yet when God destroyed the world with a flood He sent that flood for purpose of destroying evil and violence that was being committed, indictating the cheapness in that hour of that was placed on mortal life. Watching this God declared, it repents me I ever made man!
SETTING OF SODOM
Concerning the hour of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah when the Lord God in theophany body form appeared to Abraham informing him Sarah would conceive and have her promised child at a certain season, after dinner two angels in theophany bodies also journeyed toward Sodom. The Lord God who remained behind with Abraham says, shall I withhold from Abraham that thing I am about to do. Thus He informed Abraham His intentions to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Why? Because again in Genesis chapters 16-18 sin was plentiful, life was cheap, immorality was rampant just as it is today and in this hour we see the cup of iniquity almost overflowing. No beloved, we don’t need any more laws, we only need to untie the law officials’ hands whereby they may do their job and enforce the law they already have on the statute books! Yet may I say because this is the day spoken of in the scripture as having all the evils of the hour before the flood as well as the evil and perversion of Sodom and Gomorrah all dumped into this hour to wind up the gentile program, it simply can’t be any other way! This is that perverted society, that philosophical age the Bible warned of wherein the spirit of those two dreadful periods are now in the world to react, recreate, relive in complete fullness, both Noah and Lot’s hour! One generation is destined to see it as that generation will be the last one to close out the program of God for gentiles. This is exactly what we are looking at!! It is one of those major signs of the soon coming of the Lord Jesus Christ! Thus, is there any wonder officials would estimate that there would be as many as eleven to fifteen million homosexuals in America today!
Therefore would it be any wonder that California would enact laws of 1976 whereby it is no longer illegal in that state for two consenting adults( male or female) to participate in sexual relations! The joy of natural living is almost removed for those who desire a peaceful and undisturbed life in this society.
This is a day that honesty has been replaced by dishonesty, seeing in America alone an average of 300 thousand bad checks each are passed, many by women! Statistics state that over the past ten years bad check passing by women has doubled, reaching now about even to that of men! Business have reached the point where you must present all kind of personal information before they will even consider taking your personal check. We are here, AS IT WAS IN THE DAY OF NOAH SO SHALL IT BE IN THIS HOUR!
Examining this hour shows what Noah and Lot’s hour was like before destruction. Why did God in Luke 17 speak of the days of Lot and the days of Noah in the manner He did? Why didn’t Jesus simply say, they robbed, stole, killed, and molested? After all we know what that is exactly the reason God destroyed Noah’s hour as well as Sodom and Gomorrah. Yet Christ never worded it in that fashion. As a matter of fact we might add concerning the condition of the hour, he really painted a beautiful picture compared to what Noah and Lot’s hour was actually like!
Was he trying to cover up or condone the manner of life of those people who lived in such vulgar manner? Absolutely Not!! God knew all this evil going then as well as what is going today! When He sent his wrath against these two wicked periods of time it was absolutely to destroy the wickedness, vulgarity, immorality, and violence of that hour! Therefore what was Jesus actually saying when he stated, they bought, they sold, they married, they built, etc. and climaxed it by saying AS IT WAS SO SHALL IT BE. It appears in Luke 17 as though he is only discussing plain, common, down to earth people of these two separate periods, does it not? Yet, did you know every last one of these plain, common, down to earth people were destroyed in the judgement of God!? Why has Christ pictured that hour in such a manner declaring it will repeat itself! He is simply showing the materalistic side of the picture of those two violent, perverted periods and presenting us a far greater message in these statements than people even realize. Some people never become disturbed over anything that is going on.
WHO LOT’S WIFE REPRESENTS
Why, I would ask you, would Christ close his remarks in Luke 17 by saying Remember Lot’s wife? What is he referring to there? May I remind you Lot’s wife was not a violent, vulgar, or immoral woman. Furthermore, Christ is not using her as an example to represent godly womanhood either. May I say Lot’s wife stands out in Christ’s statement of warning as being one of the highest characters of society in that hour and by no means represented immorality of that hour. No, but what she represents is the spirit of modern womanhood today and never forget God crushed that spirit by turning it to a statue of salt! Truly there is quite an image protrayed in Lot’s wife which is going very big today in this modern 20th century world of living!
The area of land in the vicinity of the Dead Sea, back in the days of Lot, certainly did not appear then as the way it appears today. It is believed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah sat over a volcanic area and when the judgement of God came this erupted causing fire and brimstone to rain down from heaven destorying these cities, the sunken area of land around the Dead Sea is known to be some 1300 feet below sea level, the lowest spot in all the world! It was not so in the day of Sodom and Gomorrah. Long ago there stood two modern cities near the Jordan River called Sodom and Gomorrah, now supposedly buried beneath the south corner of the Dead Sea.
SODOM–RESORT AREA
We are reminded in Genesis how all that area of land was before the judgement of God hit it and it was nothing as it appears today. When Lot separated from Abraham, after having returned from Egypt, and because a dispute had arisen between the herdsmen of Lot and Abraham, Abraham offered Lot his choice of direction in which to go —note this description of the land. Lot’s greedy eyes fell on the beautiful, well-watered plains of Jordan near Sodom and Gomorrah, a picture you would never see today in that area. Lot’s choice of this well- watered valley, which because of judgement is no more, was because of much grass in that area whereby his cattle could graze. The lazy winding Jordan River flowing through this area caused both cities to be a perfect ideal resort area, furnishing all kinds of places along beaches of the river whereby the residents and vactioners could lay out in the nude to receive their suntans.
NUDITY LEGALIZED
You might say why would you say such a thing? Because as it was so shall it be, that beloved is exactly what is being permitted in this hour on our modern beaches today! Should anyone desire to lay nude on the beaches it is now permissible in certain states! A Long Island, New York appeals court has ruled there is nothing wrong in sunbathing in the nude on New York State beaches! A public lewdness conviction against a 25 year old waitress for sun-bathing nude has been thrown out! One dissenting justice warned, the streakers of today will be strollers of tomorrow! If the world nudists organizations who recently met in France have their way, the Olympic games to be held in the nude as in the days of ancient Greece. Remember, AS IT WAS SO SHALL IT BE!
These two modern cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, were built along the river Jordan which flowed lazily through the valley floor where far-reaching green, waving pastures and beautiful palm trees grew making all of this area perfect resort area. Who wouldn’t want to live in Sodom!
No.2 – – – The Curse Of Materialism
SETTLED NEAR SODOM
Lot had journeyed from Mesopotamia with Abraham and having presently returned from Egypt where they had gone because of a drought in the rest of the land, God, deciding to separate the two men, permitted the herdsmen of both men to become argumentative. Lot, being offered first choice, never once taking his uncle into consideration as which area of land he might desire to have, permitted his eyes to fall upon the beautiful well watered green fields near Sodom where he chose to settle dwn with his family. Whatever convenience life had to offer during that hour was truly in Sodom and Gomorrah. These two cities furnished everything modern man needed and Lot quickly chose this area. When he settled his family somewhere near Sodom his children were small, yet as the years drifted by and as the children grew up around the enviroment of this city which had already begin to give itself over to idolatry naturally this enviroment began to take hold of them. Undoubtedly Lot had enough control over his own children that none were literally given wholly over to that spirit of complete perversion. Nevertheless you recall when the hour of judgement arrived to hit these two wicked cities, the two angels in theophany body form who had left God talking to Abraham journeyed on to Sodom, and arrived there in the eveningtime. O, I want you to know it is eveningtime today!
SODOM’S LAST NIGHT
The Bible clearly shows what happened that night in Gen. 19 as the young and old men alike now completely given over to acts of perversion stormed Lot’s home demanding to know these two strangers. No, these men of Sodom were not interested in whether these two strangers were important dignitaries or not but these characters in Sodom were out for one purpose only, and that was to express his own evil, perverted way of life. Remember, AS IT WAS SO SHALL IT BE!
“GAY” MOVEMENT DEMANDS ACCEPTANCE
Recently the First International Gay Rights Congress was held in Edinburg, Scotland. According to the UP dispatch, the homosexual leaders said,”We believe homosexuality is not definitely evil… the church must acknowledge this fact and furthermore encourage the homosexual to live life fully and faithfully.” It seems church councils across America have begun to listen to this ever-growing gay movement in America who now demand open recognition and boast of having enough power and strength within all professions and walks of life if they so desire to call a strike, they could cripple or paralyze what they call “the straight society!”
CHURCH ACCEPTING “GAY” MOVEMENT
We have noticed a rapid trend over the past several years now of continuous denominational church debating whether or not to accept the so-called “gay” people into the local congregations for open fellowship. first in the ministry then in the congregations. Here perhaps is one of the biggest breakthroughs of recognition for the homosexual movements to now join local church councils. Already a number of churches across America have sprung up with completely “gay” congregations. After little debate the church council of Greater Seattle recently voted into its membership a church for “homosexuals”!! The much controversial Metropolitan Community Church was brought into membership! There was only one dissenting vote against it! One minister of the Greater Seattle Council spoke of emphasizing “the openness of persons sitting under the word together” instead of highlighting differences. Another pastor pointed out that many homosexuals had joined the Metropolitan Church simply because they are not particularly welcomed in other churches. Said he, I hope homosexuals will not need to leave member churches of the Council in order to find a place of welcome! Does not all of this illustrate how deep the apostasy has drifted within the nominal church today! Instead of emphasizing the teaching of the word of God on the subject (Rom. 1) they condone homosexuality, calling it “an optional lifestyle” instead of labeling it wickedness and perversion which led to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah! Yet remember, Jesus said AS IT WAS, (positively) SO SHALL IT BE! And since it is to be we are now witnessing the early groundwork laid by churches to accept the homosexual movement of America and the world into the endtime open society exactly as it was in Sodom and Gomorrah when judgment hit!
SEEKING THE STRANGERS
Back to the last night of Sodom before the destruction early the next morning. Whatever was righteous was removed from Sodom briefly before the destruction. The last night on earth for the Sodomites pictured in the Story of Sodom and Gomorrah tells of the two angels in theophany bodies staying overnight in Lot’s home. The men of the city, both old and young, stormed Lot’s house demanding to know these two strangers. Every character in Sodom was out to express his own evil, perverted way of life in that open accepted society. The story winds up with Lot under pressure. Attempting to satisfy the lustful, perverted way of life of these men demanding the strangers be released unto them, Lot offers his two virgin daughters to be sacrificed to their lust.
2 Peter 2:6-9 declares before God turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes making them an example unto all those who should afterward choose to live ungodly, delivered just Lot (seeing was a believer), vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked, for that righteous man dwelling among them, seeing and hearing what he had to, it vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation and at the same time reserve the unjust unto the day of judgmmt to be punished especially those who choose to walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness. No doubt, this final night in Sodom would certainly qualify as the greatest vexation Lot ‘s righteous soul ever endured. God knoweth those who are his and since God looks upon the heart and not as man does who looks upon the outward appearance, watching our actions to determine whether or not we are Christian. God knew Lot was a righteous man!
THE GREATEST VEXATION
Listen to Lot’s conversation on the final night in the history of Sodom before its destruction the following morning. Speaking to those crazed, lustful men of Sodom (whose acts of perversion, no doubt are accepted by the religious circles of Sodom) who seek to know the two strangers in Lot’s home, we hear Lot saying, Brethren, don’t be so wicked, these are my guests, leave them alone. I have two daughters who have never known men, take them instead and do what seemeth good in thine own eyes. Now since God himself declared Lot was righteous, we have to leave it there because God knows who is and who isn’t. Lot should never have called such wicked characters his brethren even if what they were doing was accepted as their way of life in an open society or even if they did attend the same church he did! Apparently Lot was like our modern church going people today who attend Sunday School and live for the devil the rest of the week. Lot says brethern, don’t do this evil thing. See, Lot was not a part of this open, accepted society of Sodom, although he lived here and had risen high in the ranks of the city government but on this final night Lot had reached the height of vexation and, in order to spare or protect these two visitors, he would now even sacrifice the virtue of his only two remaining unmarried daughters whom somehow he had been able to keep or protect their image from being destroyed whenever they stepped out upon the street. As the wild, crazed frantic voices of the men of Sodom rejected his offer, they demanded Lot to step aside else they would do worse to him than they intended to do to his visitors, the voices of the angels told Lot to step aside as they smote the men with blindness. And the Bible said they blindly staggered in search for the door!
Seemingly the Sodomites who no doubt, knew Lot to be a loyal, lukewarm churchgoing fellow would no longer listen to him, seeing they were ready to break down his door, stomp him to pieces and carry out their own evil intentions for the night, their last night on earth. Jerking him aside, the two angels smote the Sodomites with blindness as they spoke the word of judgment when the men stormed the door of Lot’s house. Remember, AS IT WAS, SO SHALL IT BE!
MODERN DAY MESSENGERS
The two angels or messengers of God in relation to the last day ministry, when all this is to repeat itself, is represented by none other than modern day evangelism which is smiting the people of a sodomite age with spiritual blindness whereby they also cannot find the door to real truth and eternal life to enter in, exactly as the angels or messengers of God did (naturally) in Sodom the last night when they smote the men of the city with blindness insomuch the scripture declares, they staggered in darkness in search for the door…! We will never forget hearing how the prophet of God to the age, back in the early 60’s would often say, Church, keep your eyes on Oral Roberts and Billy Graham because they typify and play the role at the endtime of two angels or messengers who have been sent out to smite this perverted wicked age with blindness exactly as the two angels did the night before destruction hit Sodom. Remember, Jesus said, AS IT WAS SO SHALL IT BE and the prophet to the age declared these two men had been sent into this perverted and wicked age to smite blind, religious-minded people with a watered down gospel whereby they could not possibly believe the true message of God and find the true door to eternal life and enter in — thus ending up in God’s judgement!
But that is speaking against men of God, some may say, They could be greater men had they chosen to preach truth! It isn’t truth today people want, they want an experience which guarentees them eternal security without paying the price of self-denial and public criticism! They do not want God’s truth whereby they could see a revelation and stand on it while the world is declaring AWAY WITH IT! Abraham who had the word of truth with him typified the true bride of the hour!
Yes, it was the low-down morals of that hour of Noah and Lot’s day which grieved God and brought destruction. When the hour came for judgement to strike , it struck because of their morals. However, when we come over into the New Testament in Luke 17 to examine the materialistic side of the picture, the picture which Jesus portrayed, we hear him saying they built, they planted, they married. No, not all people in Sodom were perverted for remember Lot’s children married and the fact they did marry shows us all the youth of Sodom and Gomorrah were not perverted. Understand this, all the young people at the endtime will never be perverted either but I remind you, they were destroyed in the judgement of God because they would not obey the word of the Lord unto them!
WARNING AGAINST MATERIALISM
In Christ’s message of Luke 17, showing the materialistic side of life in those hours, Christ is laying down an image and a picture of warning before us of the endtime when that hour repeats itself! Therefore, I beg you to shake yourself and not be caught up in the worldly realm of materialism more than you are in your service unto God because in this hour of lukewarmness which has typified the Laodicean church age, if you don’t know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour with that indwelling Holy Ghost experience in your heart to lead, guide, and teach you the way of God, then that spirit of materialism, the very image which Jesus portrayed in Luke 17, is absolutely going to take hold of you and you, too, will wind up in the judgement of God for I want you to know, not only did the perverts perish, not only did the homosexuals perish, not only the rapists, the murderers, and all the robbers perish(because all that is definitely why God destoryed those two periods of Noah and Lot’s day…) but all the materialistic minded people as well who were guilty of none of these things, went down also! Furthermore, no doubt, the largest percentage of people destroyed were materialistic minded people of those periods. What do I mean by materialism? Those people who live strictly for the modern world only and what it has to offer! That is the sad part, they lived strictly for nothing but the material things of life!
Looking back into the hour of Noah and Lot where Jesus said they were eating, drinking, marrying, and given in marriage right up to the hour of judgement, showing that all had not chosen the evil, perverted way of life and knowing AS IT WAS SO SHALL IT BE, we recall the recent 1975 divorce record released on marriage and divorce in the U.S. reached the all time high of over one million divorces! The year 1974 showed for the first time since 1958 where marriage performances declined. This is believed due to the new accepted free society of people simply living together without being married. Although the number of marriages for the U.S. declined for the first time since 1958 according to the H.E.W. statistics those statistics also inform us that the number of dicvorces for 1974 increased for the 12th successive year. 2,223,000 marriages were performed which is 54,000 or 2.4 per cent fewer than 1973. H.E.W. said this occured in spite of an increase population at marriageable ages! There were 970,000 divorces in 1974, representing a rise of 57,000 or 6.2 per cent over 1973 making a total of 135 per cent or 557,000 more divorces in 1962. However the new figure just released for 1975 for that 12 months period is over one million American divorces! One million homes were broken up!
Divorce on a worldwide scale(1974) is summed up like this, Sweden(of all countries) where perhaps the moral situation is the loosest, tops the list of divorce with 60 out of every 100 marriages. The U.S. follows second with 44 out of every 100. Followed in 3rd place by the Dominican Republic with 43; Denmark with 39; East Germany, England, and Libya, 30; U.S.S.R. 28; Iran, Japan, and France are near the bottom of the list with just 10.
Looking back into the day of Noah and Lot we see everyone has not lost interest in marriage! Noah was a married man, who had only one wife. His three sons each had only one wife. Lot still had his one wife. No, that pathetic picture of the hour had not completely destroyed everyone’s marriage vows yet are you aware that only Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives got on the boat while all the other moral, upstanding peple who lived for only this life, along with all the perverts, died in the judgement of God! Noah had brothers and sisters who undoubtedly were not perverts yet never got on the boat either! God knew they wouldn’t therefore Noah wasn’t instructed 120 years before the flood to build the boat to hold them.
EVIL AGE WON’T IMPROVE
Christ brought in all this concerning Noah and Lot’s hour where practically every living soul perished in this manner, so likewise will it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. Just as it was in the days of Noah and Lot, right on up until the very day Noah entered the boat and Lot went out of the city those people continued to buy, to build, to eat, to marry, and give in marriage and were not even aware the judgement of God already hanging in the air to destroy them all! May I say, there is nothing wrong in buying or building, however if that is as far as your image can go, if that is as far as your devotion to God can reach, if that is as far as your zeal permits you to go then mark it down, as certain as your name is what it is you are going to perish with all the rest! That is Jesus’ message in Luke 17 to strictly the materialistic minded people —you are going down with it. You won’t be able to hold to anybody’s coat tail. Nobody is going to do your praying and weeping for you in that hour. Nobody cried for these. Jesus declared right on up to the very day Noah entered the ark and Lot went out of the city, the mulititude still continued to buy, sell, marry, give in marriage, eat, and drink, unaware of what was about to happen. Sure you need to eat and drink, but if that is as far as you can see spiritually you are going to go down with the rest of it! None of these things are eternal life although all these things do have their natural place in society. Yet if that is as far as we can see, we are sure to sink with all the immorality and perversion of the hour!
California leads the nation in controversial legislation. The legislation recently passed allows an unmarried girl or younger to obtain “The Pill” and other birth control devices with permission of parents. It has been signed into law by Gov. Edmond G. Brown Jr.
Similar legislation was veoted previously by former Gov. Ronald Reagan, which speaks well for a man aspiring for the presidency.The law is permissiveness gone to seed. It encourages young life in the sins of fornication and adultery. Moral pollution will increase. God’s Judgement day is coming!
While crime has risen 300 percent in New York City, 200 percent in West Berlin and 160 percent in London during the past decade, it declined 10 percent in Tokyo. The reason for much lower crime rate in Tokyo has to do with moral values as well as social customs and efficent police work. Schools throughout Japan set aside two hours a week for moral and ethical instruction, stressing respect for others. –
FEW SAVED
Even in Lot’s hour, Jesus said, there were those who bought, sold, planted, reaped, married, etc., right up until the very day Lot, with his wife and two daughters, left town. Men were there carrying on business transactions, one minute they were in the process Of fulfilling their day’s activity totally unaware of the judgment hanging over them. These moral materialistic of Sodom had no idea why these two men had come to town the night before. As yet they had not heard of the episode down at Lot ‘s house. Sad as it was, no one in Sodom knew what was getting ready to happen. Do you think the world today has any idea of what is getting ready to happen? Did Jesus say that in the days shortly before his coming the world would suddenly become disturbed, seeing conditions would grow evil and terrible that suddenly everyone would wake up to the Sodomite conditions of the hour saying, I must get ready because Jesus is coming! Is that the picture the world is to get into before the coming of Christ? Absolutely not!! Jesus knew, AS IT WAS IN THE DAYS OF NOAH AND LOT SO SHALL IT BE shortly before his coming. In general, everyone will say business is good. Everyday life the people will be concerned about, however, according to Noah and Lot’s hour there will be just a few who knows what is actually getting ready to happen. Only eight people out of the entire old world of the flood period knew what was getting ready to happen! Only three people actually escaped from Sodom safely. Don’t misunderstand me, I am not saying only eight people is all that will be saved. God forbid! However, there are some in this endtime teaching who would like to make it to actually be just a few. And am afraid if they are not careful they be in that part of those people who can not even make up that few! If that is all the vision some people have then I must say God never sent them to carry the truth. No, I am not trying to make it to be only a few in number, however I do see ‘in the scriptures that compared to the great world population which now reaches around four billion souls on this planet, compared to the world population there will only be a few who will actually receive the true inspired word and true vision of what God is preparing to do. Jesus said in Matt. 7:13-14, enter ye in at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it.
No, in Noah’s hour while the ark was being built and before any of the animals had been singled out by Almighty God or shall we say, before they even sensed anything, seeing no doubt many of those animals put on board had passed by that ark while it was in preparation never once realized what was going on, yet eight people knew why this odd looking con- traption of a box was being built. That is eight of the world population of that hour and there are a few people today who by divine revelation are spiritual enough to realize why Almighty God had to send a prophet messenger to the earth at a time like this. God did it to speak a truth and leave it in the spiritual ears of those who would hear it. You can sum that message up in these few words–TURN AROUND AND RUN FOR YOUR LIFE because when you have said that you have said a mouthful! In essence it means forsake everything yet it doesn’t mean sell all your goods and set a time for the coming of Christ because when you do that you are bound to miss it as some have done today. Jesus never said get ready in that manner.
AWAKE AND TAKEN
Isn’t it strange Jesus is telling there in Luke 17 about all these materialistic minded people perishing in the flood and in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah were so wrapped up in the material way of life, continued to buy, sell, eat, marry, etc., up to the end, showing people simply were totally unaware of what was about to happen and everyone of them perished in the destruction along with all the perversion, violence, and wickedness of the hour. God washed it all down the drain together! However, note when referring to the re-enactment of those days before the coming of the Lord when once again people would buy, sell, get married, eat, and wouldn’t be aware of what was about to happen and would also perish in the judgment, we hear Christ declaring concerning the endtime picture of the day or night of his coming, two shall be in the bed but note, here Christ said, one shall be taken and the other left! I wonder what he is trying to say? Is he saying two are in the bed, one sound asleep and the other one laying there awake? NO, because both these in bed were sound asleep however, one of them was also spiritually awake. Their spiritual eyes were wide awake looking toward glory. Unto the one to be taken burns a revelation in their heart concerning the coming of Christ and although they may be naturally asleep, in their soul they are spriitually awakened unto the hour at hand as their spiritual eyes are looking upward. Continuing on Christ said, two shall be grinding at the mill and the same thing will happen here, one will be taken while the other will be left behind! Do not allow these materialistic things of life to blind you—YOU WILL BE LEFT BEHIND! Do not allow success in the business realm to blind you either. YOU WOULD BE LEFT BEHIND! But pray that you may live daily more humble before him in thanksgiving for all his blessings he has bestowed upon you. Don’t become so busy and carried away with life in general that you can’t get away and fellowship with the Lord! No doubt many in Sodom had even attended some form of religious service a few days before but were totally unaware of what was about to happen on that dreadful morning when those two angels, taking Lot by his hand and also leading out his reluctant, materialistic wife, along with his two unmarried virgin daughters, told them to get out quickly and not look back. Actually only three escaped the judgment of the city!
No. 3 – – – Spirit of Modern Womanhood and Its Results
What had happened to Lot’s wife between the time she left Mesopotamia many years ago to follow her husband and her last hour on earth where she is seen leaving Sodom, once again following her husband before shortly being turned to a pillar of salt? Isn’t it strange many years earlier Lot’s wife left the big city of Mesopotamia with her husband and never desired to look back! But what is wrong on this crucial morning with Ms. Lot? Why does she desire to look back on this particular morning? Strange isn’t it?, Many years ago she loved and respected Lot enough to walk out of Mesopotamia with him. However on this crucial morning Sodom and Gomorrah is to be destroyed she doesn’t seem to love him enough to walk out of the condemned city of Sodom over to the other side of the mountain with him. Remember AS IT WAS SO SHALL IT BE! What do we see in this hour that portrays Lot’s wife because recall Jesus warned the people saying REMEMBER LOT’S WIFE!
MODERN WOMANHOOD SPIRIT
This is none other than the spirit of modern womanhood! Modern womanhood today is rebellious and simply does not follow men well, refusing to obey neither God nor husband saying because of our new open society, I am free I can do as I please! TO prove that, we are seeing in this hour women, more than ever, rebelling against husbands, against their homes and against their own children. When the heat is on and the pressures of God’s trials (because of the end of the age) come pressing in and decisions must be made whether we walk with God and his word or the world, the image of modern womanhood today is quick to say THE WAY OF THE WORLD WILL BE MY DECISION! But aren’t men doing the same thing? True, but for every perverted man there will always be a woman that will outdo him, even the Bible proves that! The point is, this is the generation which absolutely refuses to look into the Bible to see what God says about certain things. Instead they turn their back to what God says. And remember, AS IT WAS SO SHALL IT BE! No, you don’t have to rack your brain trying to figure out what it was like 4000 years ago, all you have to do is read the newspapers today and you are reading what it was like 4000 years ago’. I am glad, in Jesus Christ, every man who sees Christ in his true perspective sees him in the light of what that Bible says or sees him right in that Bible. It is the only way of escape. Every woman Who will see that way of escape which comes through Jesus Christ must see it in obedience through the revelation of this Bible!
WOMAN OF DIGNITY
I always think of Ms. Lot as being a woman of great dignity. When she left Mesopotamia she was just one of those down-to-earth ladies. Whatever Lot wanted to do she was right by his side. Wasn’t that more the picture of womanhood a few years ago before the ever popular women’s liberation movement sprang into existence causing modern womanhood to forsake her God given duty as wife and mother to leave it all and search for a new career in a new open society. Yes, when Ms. Lot left Mesopotamia she was just one of those down-to-earth ladies, whatever Lot decided to do she was right there to encourage him. However, when they took up living in Sodom, that spirit of modern womanhood took hold of her. Before moving to Sodom she no doubt had a great feeling of spiritual convictions. No doubt she had great hopes for her family and children, yet as the years passed and she continued to live in that environment day after day, the churches of that hour (like the churches of today) were no doubt more and more playing up much the role of woman while more and more man was being pushed into the background. For some men it is simply the easy way out. To the women they would gladly say, go ahead and takeover. Yes, today we are seeing women more and more, especially through the women’s liberation movement, crying for a more active role in government. Today women fill all roles of political life, some being only a step from the governorship. Nine of the major cities in the U.S. with populations of over 100,000 have women mayors. There is a total of 90 women mayors in the U.S. with 20 in California alone.
More and more we are seerng women undertaking leading roles in the ministry also. Only four states today are blocking the passage of the ERA bill, and the woman’s liberation movement has declared open war against the officials of these states who blocked the passage of this amendment. Women in the Catholic Church are also rising up becoming stronger and stronger, crying for new roles in leadership for themselves. In San Francisco 750 Roman Catholic nuns met a few months ago demanding equal partnership in the running of the church including ordination of women and perhaps even the election of a woman pope. They seek more control over their own lives in order to better respond to today’s social issues of life. I am church as much as any bishop, Sister Catherine shouted Pinkerton, 53, pointing a thumb toward herself. We demand partnership in the church! The whole thrust of this organization, said she, is that women should be at the decision making and policy making levels of the church. The 3500 member organization endorsed the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution and supported the ordination in 1974 of eleven women into the Episcopal Church.
More and more in this hour we are seeing leading officials’ Wives in all countries now coming forth in support of the ERA. The wife of the President of the U.S., Betty Ford, who has become quite a controversial figure, said she would not be surprised if her 18 year old daughter informed her she was having an affair (seeing they use the word affair instead of saying living in fornication and adultery as the Bible calls it).
MATERIALISM CAPTURES MS. LOT
I can see that spirit of Sodom, of modern woman liberation, taking hold of Ms. Lot to such an extent! No, by no means was she an immoral woman. It is doubtful if you could touch her image or morals at all. Nevertheless, the modern spirit of liberation and the luxuries of life of materialism had taken hold of her in that hour. This is an age and hour of luxurious living, and people will go to any means in order to make it easy on the flesh. When I make this statement I am not referring to going out and making every day miserable in order to find Christ. That is not the picture. Yet neither is the picture of such ease, such convenience which has blinded and deceived this world. Everyone today is being better educated for a better tomorrow but that better tomorrow is only temporal and materialistic. We have a better educated generation today who can only see just as far as tomorrow!
I am convinced Lot, with his position and standing in Sodom, saw to it that his wife had a beautiful home, one of the best no doubt. There is nothing wrong with a nice home but God help the poor soul because shortly she is to be turned into a pillar of salt and her home will be at the bottom of what is now the Dead Sea! Through the months and years in her stay in Sodom she had allowed herself to become so wrapped up in modern living, the ease of life and this materialistic society of new freedom of which we hear preached by woman liberation groups today in support of (the new freedom for women), it is for equality, it is to gain a new hold on the material strings of this present world system! Because through the centuries womanhood has felt she has not received the security she needed. But may I say whether it be man or woman, the only security I know of is in Jesus Christ. I had rather live in a log cabin and know if I died young I would have security in Jesus Christ. Materialism definitely took hold of Ms. Lot as well as it did her married children. Seeing I did not live in Noah nor Lot’s hour, I have to preach it exactly as it is appearing today because Jesus said AS IT WAS SO SHALL IT BE at his coming! Many beautiful homes that morning sank to the bottom of the Dead Sea as fire and brimstone belched forth. Bank mortgages ceased right there as the last payment was made on those beautiful homes the day before. The sad part was, everyone else who lived just for the materialistic purpose also went down with the destruction of the city.
GENERATION GAP
It was only by the grace of God that Ms. Lot was the wife of Lot. The night before Sodom was destroyed Lot went to all his married children’s homes, the scripture says, and frantically pleaded with them to leave the city, telling them two angels were at his home saying the cries of all the wickedness, perversion, and evil here around Sodom and Gomorrah had reached into heaven. Therefore, my children, I beg you to depart this city because by noon tomorrow this place will be destroyed! But poor Lot didn’t have enough testimony left before his undisciplined children for them to believe his sincerity! The Bible declares his own undisciplined children treated him as though he was mocking them. There is your generation gap—you can’t talk with them anymore because your language and your vision is entirely different from theirs! Whenever your vision is different from that of your children, that has to be what is called the generation gap. Remember, since there cannot be a literal generation gap between parent and children then the generation gap has to appear only in the spirit and mind of the two generations! I realize some parents are never really able to communicate with their own children simply because they themselves have never been able to actually communicate with God. Had they ever started talking to God they no doubt would be able to communicate. Nevertheless there is that gap present and today we are seeing it more and more because, AS IT WAS SO SHALL IT BE! You may rest assured there will be a right image on the one person while the other (generation) is completely blinded to it! That is why the Bible portrays that gap saying, in the last days children shall be disobedient to parents, without natural affections, trucebreakers, false accusers, etc. See, all goes right back to Lot and Noah’s hour!
EVERYONE LIBERATED
Everyone today is being liberated from something or other. First it was the race issue, then the drive of woman’s liberation, now the “gay” movement is in full force demanding their recognition and liberation in this free society. And next, believe it or not, is a liberation movement to free children from parents’ control! Richard Farson, Co-founder and board chairman of the Western Behavioral Science Institute of La Jolla, Calif., made the following announcement over a year ago that children will be liberated for the first time in history! Not only that but Dr. Parson declares the kiddies will have a right to vote the day they are born, they will not have to go to school if they do not feel like it; they will be able to own property, enter binding contracts and receive equal pay for equal work, even becoming business leaders driving to work in fancy cars. Farson further declares, the only thing standing in the way of the realization of these goals is society. He maintains that children ought to have more self-determination like adults. Things are certainly getting interesting on this old planet as we see these social planners, unbeknowings to themselves, arranging things as they were in the days of Lot and Noah! If you think that is a far fetched statement concerning children in this hour, listen for a moment to a child rearing bill which actually passed both houses of Congress of the U.S. back in 1971 although vetoed by President Nixon, causing the bill to die. Nixon’s remarks were as follows: this bill I vetoed would weaken the America family by committing the vast moral authority of the national government to the side of communism! Approaches to child rearing over and against the family oriented approach to America.
The bill which is still before the, Congress of the U.S. is known as “The Child Family Service Acts of 1975.” House of Representatives HB2966, Senate, S626–CHILD ADVOCACY CLAUSE! (In simple terms it means, had the bill been passed, the state or government could tell you exactly how you were to raise your children, exactly as communist countries do today!!! Can’t you see it is all placing us back into Lot’s hour with that wide generation gap being present! With great sorrow and anguish of heart because he can’t reach his own children with the message but because he still believes God’s word, Lot says, I have to get out of here though my married children refuse to come! Lot still had two unmarried daughters at home, who along with his wife he told to get out of Sodom quickly. I can hear Ms. Lot in her new liberated spirit…..begin to make all kind of excuses, showing the world had definitely taken hold of her. O, that easy way of life! Just a few days before she had laid wall-to-wall carpeting, new central air conditioning had just been installed—no, I am not picking on your carpet or central air but I will tell you one thing, if that is all you can see and that is all you live for, you and your wall-to-wall carpet and modern central air will all go down together because you are going to burn in the pit with it! Jesus said so. When the flood came and when Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed, right up until the last day the people were engaged in doing these very things!
No doubt her home was one of the finest, in fact, since she was in the standing of modern free society and being the free liberated woman she was, she was probably connected with all the bridge parties, church socials, society gatherings, etc. One day it would be a social event, one day a religious gathering—some people simply live for these activities while in the eyes of God they are a bunch of nonsense. Everything going on in Sodom Ms. Lot had her hand in it. That is exactly the image portrayed by modern womanhood today! With two angels now prodding them along, I can see Lot taking his wife by the hand, warning her not to look back and with an aching heart knowing his older children, grandchildren, etc. because of this generation gap are left in Sodom for destruction, escaping with only his two younger daughters, flees the city. RUN WIFE, RUN CHILDREN AND DON’T LOOK BACK! The word of God said so!
LOVE AND RESPECT LOST
But the pull of that free spirit of liberty and materialism in Sodom was beginning to get to Ms. Lot, however, had she truly loved Lot and respected him as a God fearing wife would her husband, like she did a few years before when they left Mesopotamia, she would have said, Honey, if that is what the Lord said for us to get out and not look back, then let’s go! But, O no, she doesn’t leave willingly, she has to be dragged along. In her heart she has lost her feeling for him; she has lost her feeling for his spirituality as well as his leadership in the home. etc.. that is, what little he had left. Her feelings were still wrapped up in that material security or that ease of life to which she had been accustomed over the years. The sad part is, the material image in Sodom had so blinded her whereby she was totally unable to see the pending judgment of God which rested on the city because of the horrible perversion and evil wickedness going on.
WICKEDNESS NO LONGER EVIL
That is exactly the way modern church goers and modern people are today. O yes, they are aware of all these evil perversions and so forth taking place around us, but what is wrong with all these Old fanatics and cranks today! After all, we live in a free, modern society, those things are all accepted as just a way of life—it is not really so bad—everyone is doing his own thing, and it is now becoming the accepted modern way of society, Dr. So-and-So (of the Community Church ) said so in his sermon just last week! Yes, and now that society has accepted it they want to bring all this stuff into the church and present it to God for his blessing! Why shouldn’t he accept it, they have! These things don’t seem to shake people to a realization that God can’t go back on his word, He isn’t going to accept all this! Instead He is going to do exactly what he did in the days of Noah and Lot. HE IS GOING TO DESTROY IT! And everyone who doesn’t have the true revelation of Christ is absolutely going down with it! All these materialistic things and easy way of life have blinded them. They have now simply accepted all these things as normal. None of these things seem to shake them anymore. No doubt, Lot’s married sons and daughters, as he frantically pleaded with them to leave the City, their undisciplined spirits couldn’t understand why their old eccentric, fanatical father would be so disturbed, things weren’t half as bad as he pretended. And poor Dad, thinking that two angels had informed him God was going to destroy such a peaceful, loving, open society as was going on in Sodom and Gomorrah!! To the daughters, captured by this materialistic liberated, free spirit as well as their mother, these things going on just simply could not be that bad. They absolutely couldn’t see their society through the eyes of God and realize it had gone so far the only thing God could do with such a present society was to destroy it because of its evil. To them evil had become good!
As Lot and those two daughters began to climb over the hillside, the pull of that wicked city -was simply too great for Ms. Lot, for, as yet she had not heard any sounds of Judgment falling on the City like her husband said would happen! Her desire for the life in Sodom she had grown accustomed to was now so strong and loud, she was unable to hear the rumble of what was already taking place underneath them. All she could think of was her social appointments of that day as if that was eternal life. Some people can spend more time in- volved in social events than they can with God! There is nothing wrong with these things provided they can be treated and placed in their proper perspective and handled as such. But beloved, they’ are not eternal life! None Of this can give you a ticket to glory!
DOUBTED GOD’S WORD
What was going on in Ms. Lot’s mind briefly before she being disobedient to the word of God, looked as she was dragged along the trail, having to be pulled step by step. Something sure made her look back! The angels warned, don’t look back! Lot certainly wasn’t looking back, neither were his two daughters who also had left friends, brothers, sisters, and loved ones back in Sodom, the same as had Ms. Lot. Nevertheless, Ms. Lot got so far up the mountainside and the pull of those things back there in Sodom—her home, position, children, etc. was simply too much for her! No longer is her heart with her husband, nor with her two precious virgin daughters who are walking along in front of her. Why do you suppose Jesus placed so much emphasis upon that phrase when he spoke of the materialistic events of those two periods, climaxing it by saying REMEMBER LOT’S WIFE! She wasn’t an immoral woman, on the contrary she was very clean. She had her dignity and her feeling of self-security in a nice home but she would have been much better off had she slept in a doghouse in Sodom because that would have been much easier for her to leave instead of what she was forsaking.
GOD’S WARNING MEANT LITTLE
Her thoughts were on those other daughters who were nicely married off into their security and they certainly wouldn’t leave their environment and easy way of life. No, and she did not want to leave hers either! The warning of God’s word is now meaning less and less to Ms. Lot as she journeys up the mountainside with this great pull of Sodom on her spirit. Why did she have to leave when others were not leaving: Maybe it was all a joke! Perhaps her husband had misunderstood the two angels, after all how could she be sure they were two angels sent from God. Sodom simply wasn’t that bad! NO different from any other place— why should anyone think God would destroy her peaceful, loving free spirited friends—after all she hadn’t heard any judgment fall On the city like she was told would happen when they left!
No doubt the moment she looked back over the skyline of that beautiful city below was exactly when that judgment struck and she was immediately turned to a pillar of salt. Beloved, God did this for a memorial and even allowed that pillar of salt to stand there and Jesus said thousands of years later, speaking to a society at the end of the age. REMEMBER LOT’S WIFE. That event is still the talk of those areas today. Those cities sank. fire and brimstone fell turning the city to ashes’. When the sun went down that night on the other side of the mountain, only three people had escaped the filth and pollution as well as the plague of that city. (Taken from ISRAEL GUIDE, Pg. 321) (Sodom) mis). Along a track running by the seashore we reach the cave of Sodom, at whose entrance a youth hostel composed of modern cabins has been put up. The salt mines lie a few minutes walk to the north, and right above the cavern’s opening a salt pillar clearly outlining a standing human figure is pointed out as the wife of Lot who “looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.” The Sages of Israel, of the third century, recommend: “If one sees…(the pillar of salt of Lot’s wife)…One should give thanksgiving and praise to the Almighty.”
ESCAPED CITY BUT NOT JUDGMENT
But always remember, every person who perished in these two cities were not perverted nor people. violent immoral, Everything that perished that morning was not living immoral lives. They were not someone in jail; someone getting drunk; somebody assaulting another, etc., NO, hundreds of those people who perished simply lived a fairly moral life but enjoyed the ease and pleasure the materialistic side of life furnished for them, and their vision reached no further than that. Though all the criminals went down because God was against that; though all the went down because God was against that. a” the others wenV- down also because they simply had no further vision than just to live in the world and enjoy all the pleasures of the flesh life has to offer.
FINAL WARNING
Yes, Jesus said REMEMBER LOT’S WIFE and I say to you dear reader, REMEMBER LOT’S WIFE! It was NOT HER MORALS OR HER BAD CHARACTER OF IMMORALITY that turned her to a pillar of salt, IT WAS SIMPLY HER LOVE AND DESIRE TO FOLLOW AND ENJOY THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD! Christ finishes his statement by saying, He that loseå his life shall find it. What did he mean? When you lose your social status, your social life Of this natural living; when you your worldly dignity; when you lose your worldly vision for material security of tomorrow and you are able to find yourself in Jesus Christ and the world no longer speaks of you as that wonderful social person you once were. instead they now look upon you as a misfit in a modern free liberated society but WHO CARES, you have found your life in Jesus Christ and you are not only building your security in him for tomorrow and the next day but
