"Also I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities. and lack of bread in all your places; yet you have not returned to Me," says the LORD. I also withheld rain from you, when there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon, and where it did not rain the part withered. So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied; yet you have not returned to Me," says the LORD. "I blasted you with blight and mildew. When your gardens increased, your vineyards, your fig trees, and your olive trees, The locust devoured them; yet you have not returned to Me," says the LORD. "I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt; your young men I killed with a sword, along with your captive horses; I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils; yet you have not returned to Me," says the LORD. "I overthrew some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning; yet you have not returned to Me," says the LORD. "Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel; and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!" --- Amos 4:6-12
“God is a God of love – He would never do anything bad and He certainly would never send anyone to Hell – how could He be a God of love and do bad things that would bring pain and suffering into the lives of people?”
And so the reasoning goes on in broken record fashion. From theologians, seminary professors, influential church leaders and pastors all the way into church pews occupied by the laity, increased numbers are buying into a multifaceted heresy which boils down to one simple statement – “God would never do anything that would bring pain and suffering of any kind to humans because He is a God of unconditional love!”
This perverted view takes place due to:
- the acceptance of the apostate position that the Bible is simply a human production of writings which are contradictory and subject to a wide variety of interpretations.
- the idea that past cultures were victimized by superstitious practices and ideas about deities and these are reflected at times in the Scriptures. You know, the God of the Old Testament is a raging maniac who is mad all the time at somebody!
- the fact that there has not been a serious effort to examine the total revelation given to us in order to more fully identify the God Who brought a mighty universe into existence by mere spoken command. God is revealed to be a God of love and compassion which the human mind cannot begin to comprehend. However, He is also a God of chastising actions and ultimately a God of wrath and judgment if His chastising actions do not bring a people to full repentance and reconciliation with Him!
In this age of the Gospel it means personal and corporate repentance of all sin, the receiving of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and ongoing commitment to serve Him as Lord over all the affairs and relationships of life, personally and corporately!
Our republic is going through a lot of calamities of many kinds – military operations in confusion, financial uncertainty with a national debt in excess of 8 trillion dollars, environmental and weather instability, many diseases out of control, and social unrest of unprecedented proportions, to mention just a few.
Review carefully the conditions for blessing and warning of what will happen for persistent disobedience to God in Deuteronomy 28. Also notice the pattern which leads to God doing some very “bad things” as outlined in 2 Chronicles 36:11-21.
It's rather obvious that God has been speaking and calling for some time, but there has been no real desire to turn from our rebellion as a nation and seek His mercy and forgiveness, has there? How long do you think it will be before He drops the "other shoe?"
And the LORD God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against His people, till there was no remedy. Therefore He brought against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, on the aged or the weak; He gave them all into his hand. --- 2 Chronicles 36:15-17
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