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01.10.2005

Solomon is Calling, Part 1…Judgment of God

Hello family and friends.

I suppose that most of you are experiencing the same feelings as Carol and I when it comes to the earthquake and tidal wave that killed so many people in Asia. As followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, the first reaction was one of intense grief and sorrow for the families of those swept away by the waves of water. This sorrow only intensified in me as I thought about the heartbreaking reality that most of those souls opened their spiritual eyes in Hell, with the exception of the young innocent children who opened their eyes in Heaven with our Lord.

The next article I am working on is called “The Wise Man” and this tragedy fits right in there. These are days when, more than ever, we need to walk in the wisdom of God. For many are asking if God had anything to do with this devastation and death? Why did he allow this to happen? If he is so powerful, why didn’t he prevent this from happening? Sadly, I have not heard one person on Fox News or CNN ask how many of these people went to Hell or Heaven.

The question…why does God allow this…should be changed to…why shouldn’t he? Doesn’t he have every right to? Instead of questioning or blaming God, people should heed the warnings of Solomon and begin fearing the God of Israel and repent before they are next to fall victim to the consequences of their sin. Remember also that Paul told the Roman believers….the wages of sin is death. I know this sounds harsh and unloving to many Christian ears, but think about it a minute. Most of Christendom in America has been utterly seduced by a “self” gospel of possibility thinking that preaches only the love and prosperity of God, a gospel that ignores, diminishes, or even rejects the truth that the God of Israel is also a God of justice and wrath. Wars, famine, pestilence, and earthquakes are instruments of his wrath, both in the Old and New Testaments, even against his own people who habitually refuse his reproof, Proverbs 1:7, 20-29, Jeremiah 24:10, Matthew 24:3-14. These false preachers of Christendom have failed to warn the world that Jesus is returning to separate his followers from those who despise and reject him, and then establish his millennial Kingdom on Earth, Matthew 25:31-46.

We should all know how much the God of Israel loves all of mankind. As I said, he had every right to destroy all mankind again, but before the world was formed he decided to take upon himself human flesh and die for our sins, that through our repentance and faith we could be reconciled back into his fellowship. His love for us was so consuming that he sent his Son down to his Earth, to reveal himself publicly to his chosen Jewish people and the Roman Empire that ruled the Gentiles. How did all of mankind react to this heavenly visit? He sent his Son with a message of love and judgment, exposing the deep need in men for a spiritual rebirth…and we killed him. That’s how lost mankind is my friends. We are all born from our mother’s wombs that way.

Some are saying that what happened in Asia is just the beginning of birthpangs, the opening sorrows of God’s coming wrath upon all those who doubt or deny the Lord Jesus Christ and his coming Kingdom. Is this disaster a warning from the God of Israel that Daniel’s 70th Week of judgment and wrath is near? I believe the prophecies of the Revelation are about to be fulfilled. At the time I received Jesus as my Lord years ago, he exposed the wretchedness of my sin nature that was sending me into eternal condemnation, and I knew then I deserved to suffer his wrath, and like the poor souls in Asia, be swept away forever into the bottomless pit of Hell.

But at the same time he showed me the horror of my sin, he offered me a way of escape from my sin nature through his shed blood on the cross. He offers us all a way of escape from his wrath to come, but we must repent and reach out to grab his hand by faith.

Paul said to the Thessalonians and to you today….And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8.

Your eternal friends. Jack and Carol Hook

P.S. President Bush said on December 19….I will bring peace to the Middle East. Does this declaration from the most powerful man on Earth reflect the Wisdom of God or the wisdom of this world? Do you care?