God is longsuffering. God is patient. God is kind. But this is not the way God is portrayed by many.

The picture given by any number of churches, ministries, and groups is that God is very short tempered, very angry and very hostile. These same sources usually tie God to themselves in some way. It goes something like this: "If you don't listen to what we say, God is really going to get you for this."

Based on the Biblical record, exactly how patient and loving is God? And will God's patience, love and generosity be extended into the future?

Let's begin by going back and taking a look at several examples. These are examples of God's mercy, God's witnessing, God's warnings, in the past.

2 Peter 2:4-5 has a number of statements about what God did anciently. To be sure, we see God's wrath on the one hand-but we also see God's patience on the other.

God's Mercy in Ancient Times

Peter says, "For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell, and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment." Notice He did not eternally condemn even the rebellious angels, but deferred their judgment until later.

Peter notes that God,

"And did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly."

But Noah was 120 years building that ark!

Noah must have said to the people, "You know this is bad." Noah was a preacher of righteousness even as he was preparing the ark. So, when people would say, "Why are you doing this?" he would reply, "Because of everybody in their wickedness; because of the evil that is going on in the world."

Peter continues, citing the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were condemned to destruction and ashes. This was done to make them an example for those who would live ungodly thereafter.

Peter notes in verses 7-8 as an example to us,

"And if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for, by what he saw and heard, that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day with their lawless deeds.)"

God was more than fair in this situation-you all probably remember the big bargain that Abraham struck with God.

Abraham said, "God, you won't destroy that city if it has fifty righteous will you?" God said, "No, if there are fifty people righteous I won't destroy it." "Well, then," Abraham said, "How about forty five?" "I won't destroy it for forty five." "How about forty? How about thirty? How about twenty?" Each time a similar reply. And then, finally, Abraham got down to ten. "For ten righteous," God said, "I won't destroy the city."

But, He did destroy it because there weren't ten righteous to be found.

The point is that God is very longsuffering. God is very patient. He is not a "hanging judge" bent on punishing for the slightest infraction!

Mercy In Moses' Time

In the time of Moses, God gave the Egyptians (both the Egyptian people and the Egyptian King) warning after warning.

He said, "Let my people go-if you don't let them go-I am going to do this." He would send a plague and then Pharaoh would say, "I will let them go."

And as soon as the plague was abated Pharaoh would change his mind. So God would send another plague. And so it went.

Finally God said, "You know you are just hardening your heart. You are not going to do it." And only then did He destroy the infrastructure of the greatest nation of its' day.

Mercy Toward Israel

In Jeremiah 25:4-6, you see a similar pattern with Israel. God was patient over so many years, and Jeremiah notes this:

"And the Lord has sent to you all His servants the prophets again and again..." (Your translation, probably the King James, says "rising early and sending them." The Modern translations interpret that Hebrew phrase as "again and again.")

Time and again God sent the Prophets to Israel. "...but" says Jeremiah, "you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear," The prophets said, "Turn now everyone from his evil way and from the evil of your deeds, and dwell on the land which the Lord has given to you and your forefathers forever and ever; and do not go after other gods..." and so on and so on.

But the people didn't listen.

Witness of Creation

God says there have been other witnesses extant in the world-all kinds of them. For instance, look in Colossians 1:23, all the while we have this witness, says the apostle Paul, talking to the Colossians.

"If indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister."

Note that Paul was talking about the "hope of the gospel" being proclaimed "in all creation under heaven."

Have you ever questioned, "How is that? How is it that the hope of the gospel can be proclaimed to the whole world, when the disciples never made it over here to the American continents."

How was the gospel preached to every creature? To the whole world? Psalm 19 may explain what Paul is trying to say, because certainly Paul didn't go personally to every creature. He didn't go to every single person or to the whole creation. And he, being a very educated person, certainly knew enough about world geography to have known this.

But notice Psalm 19:1-4 and what it says God has done.

"The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, ..."

Did you ever get up in the morning and see a sunrise?

It continues "And night to night reveals knowledge." You look up at night into the heavens and the stars and the galaxies and the expanse of our heavens. "There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard." The scripture says, however, that even though they have no voice, "Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their utterances to the end of the world."

How is this possible?

There is not a person on this earth who doesn't live and know of the daylight or of the stars at night. Unless you are blind you can view the great expanse of the universe and can tell that there is a moon up there and stars. If you have eyes to see, you can tell the expanse of God's great creation in the heavens.

So here you have God's continuing witness to the entirety of the world.

God's Witness through the Prophets

Prophets would also come with another type of witness. A prophet would tell Israel, "Don't do this. Don't do this."

The prophets and preachers of righteousness have their place but they are not the ultimate witness. The creation witness of God is greater.

At all times you have the stars in the heavens and the great beautiful sunrises and the lovely sunsets and all of creation as a witness.

And Paul says in Romans 1:18-20,

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse."

God's creation is a continuous and complete witness, time and time again. We all have this witness that remains a witness all the time.

Commission to The Church

In the New Testament, we find that Jesus gave His disciples a straight forward commission. This commission is found in Matthew 28:18-20. Jesus says:

"All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

This was a basic straightforward commission for the church-go and make disciples. It is a different commission than that of the prophets, or of the witness of the heavens.

Now, some churches forget that commission. They say that is not their commission.

Why? Because that is not what they want to do. They would rather turn to Matthew 24:14 and say that this is their commission:

"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then shall the end come."

They will quote that and say, "This is our commission. This is what we are doing. This is the whole purpose of our work, of our program, of our broadcast, of our literature, of our existence: To preach this gospel to all the world and when we have preached it, the end is going to come."

"When we have completed the work," they believe, "God is going to drop all the bombs. He is going to punish and destroy because people didn't listen to our program or read our literature or pay attention to our booklets and didn't repent on the spot because of what we said."

Now a lot of churches do that-I'm not just talking about one or two by the way. There are numbers of groups that hold this to be the case.

They feel that their literature, their program, their broadcast, their ministers, their policies are God's policies and if you don't listen to what they say you are rejecting God's word and God is going to kill you. You have had, they feel, "your final warning."

Have you ever heard people say that?

God and His Final Warnings

Is that true? Is the message of any single group the final warning? Is a broadcast or a piece of literature the last witness that anyone is going to receive before the end of the age?

According to your Bible...No!

God would really be a short tempered God the way that they picture Him. Their attitude is, if you reject what we say, then God is going to get you.

Why do they take this approach?

Although they do not recognize it, it is because they believe they have been right when everyone else is wrong. They feel it makes them so wonderful and great in God's eyes. Actually it is only in their own eyes.

The real truth is, if you look at the prophecies going on out into the future, mankind will have multiple end-time warnings-and they do not come at the hands of man.

These are warnings which neither the church, nor you nor I nor anybody else nor any other group nor any other organization or program or broadcast or association has anything to do with.

Let me show you what God himself is going to do without you, without me, without anybody. And He is going to do it because God loves the people of the world. And because He is patient and He is kind.

The Two Witnesses

One of the first things, according to the book of Revelation is that there are going to be two witnesses.

Revelation 11:3-7 says,

"And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies; and if anyone would desire to harm them, in this manner he must be killed. These have the power to shut up the sky, in order that rain may not fall during the days of their prophesying; and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. And when they have finished their testimony, the Beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them."

And so, for three and a half years, 1260 days, they are going to be invincible. No one can kill them and they are prophesying the whole time. They are making statements, they are talking the whole time.

But at the end of the three and a half years they are going to be killed. That is the end. And then there is going to be great deception.

Revelation reveals other witnesses from God.

The Seal Witness

In Revelation 6:12-17 we read of the sixth seal.

"And I looked when he broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as the fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. And the sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come; and who is able to stand?'"

God is going to show them an enormous witness. When the moon turns like blood, the sun grows dim, the heavens roll back, and a giant earthquake takes place-that's a pretty big witness, wouldn't you say?

That is an enormous witness! It is probably more of a witness than a magazine that is put on a newsstand, or a program that goes out which somebody inadvertently tunes into while they're trying to find a football game.

Gospel Preached by Angels!

Another witness is the trumpet plagues. Do you remember the trumpet plagues? God opens up one after another of these plagues-and each of them constitutes a witness.

Look at Revelation 11:15. When the seventh angel sounded there were loud voices in heaven.

"And the seventh angel sounded;... the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; And He will reign forever and ever."

So at the end of all these plagues one giant loud enormous voice is shouting. As the Apostle Paul wrote in the first book of Thessalonians 4:16, "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout."

I don't know whether these voices in heaven and the sounding of the seventh angel are heard on earth-it appears that they are. But this is: Revelation 14:6. "And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth,..."

We have an angel delivering the eternal gospel to those who live on the earth. Every nation, every ethnic group, every kind of people, every language in the whole world-this angel has the power to communicate with-just as occurred on the day of Pentecost after Christ's crucifixion.

And here is what he says with a loud voice,

"Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and seas and springs of waters."

Here is an opportunity to obtain God's mercy as late as it is in human history at this point in the Book of Revelation. God is sending this angel with one more giant appeal. With good news-you can still mend your ways and choose to fear God. You can still worship Him. You can still put your life in His hands.

But this is not all.

Two More Angels

While the first angel has come out proclaiming, "Fear God." A second one, verse 8, comes and says, "Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great,..."

Remember Babylon the Great is what everyone is worshipping at this point. She has them in her clutches. She made all the nations drunk from the wine of the passion of her immorality.

The second angel says in effect, "She's gone. Don't worry about Babylon. You can still fear God. She's gone. She's fallen."

Now to verses 9 and 10,

"And another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, 'If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or upon his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.'"

Now, we have a powerful statement in verses 11-13,

"And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; and they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name. Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. And I (John) heard a voice from heaven, saying, "Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on! 'Yes,' says the Spirit, 'that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds, follow with them.'"

Here we see this witness of God's mercy even as late as the three angels warning the world. They are saying, in effect, "Here is what you can do. Fear God, Babylon has fallen, don't worry about that. It is as good as gone, Babylon is going to be taken away. Worship God-get rid of this mark of the beast. Don't worship his image."

Even as late as this is, it is not the last warning. Even at this late date you have people still holding out, people who are so deceived into that system, so attached to it, so addicted to it, that they stay with it. And God is holding out the olive branch of His mercy.

The Last Plagues

Now we come, in Revelation 16:5-9,

"And I heard the angel of the waters saying, 'Righteous art Thou, who art and who wast, O Holy One, because Thou didst judge these things; for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and Thou hast given them blood to drink. They deserve it.' And I heard the altar saying, 'Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Thy judgments.' And the fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun; and it was given to it to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues; and they did not repent, so as to give Him glory."

There are certain people who are not going to repent. But, evidently, all through this time there are others who probably are finally repenting.

Revelation 16:11-12 says of the unrepentant,

"And they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores; and they did not repent of their deeds. And the sixth angel poured out his bowl upon the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, that the way might be prepared for the kings from the east."

So here are plagues-the seven last plagues-and even in them witnesses, warnings, praise of God, the destruction of the wicked.

How many warnings do people have to get?

And then it comes down, of course, to the actual battle of the Great Day of God Almighty. And they see, Jesus coming, revealed in heaven and coming as though He is riding this white horse. How merciful!

Let's go back now to Matthew 24:14.

"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come."

How much is God going to do for people? How much is God going to warn them?

Well, God warned Israel time and again.

God is very patient. God said in effect, "I sent prophets to them time and again. Telling them. Telling them. Telling them. Witnessing, Warning."

And in the end time God is going to warn the whole world in similar fashion. He is going to warn them over and over again.

Romans 11:33 says this about God's marvelous, wonderful judgments:

"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways."

Our Local Witness

Now, there is yet another witness-one which some today begin to see in themselves. If we understand what we are doing here we understand we are also a witness. But we need to see ourselves in perspective.

People know we are here. We even published a little advertisement once in the Pasadena Star News. Have we, in a sense, warned the city of Pasadena? Are all those people who didn't come here when they saw our advertisement really deserving of all the seven last plagues with no further warnings to be given?

Of course not! But I know of organizations that believe just that. And they believe that if they sponsor a little broadcast airing about four, five or six in the morning-that if anybody slept through it-it doesn't matter-the witness has been given.

Or, if they have a program over in some part of the world where ninety percent of the people don't speak English, their little broadcast in English is still the last witness.

One organization even believed, for a time, that if their leader just walked around shaking hands with national leaders and said a couple of words about "give and get" then all the masses under that leader have been given the final warning.

If you believe these things, then in your thinking you really have shrunken God down a great deal. You have made God the size of petty human beings.

But is that the way God is? NO!

I don't think that Matthew 24:14 has to do with a group, a church, a particular body of people. It has nothing to do with some human endeavor which, if you don't hear and heed, then the end will come on you and you are going to be forever sorry.

Why? Because the Bible says that this gospel will be preached in the whole world as a witness to all nations.

Now, you know, it is not a witness to all nations if you are one among a hundred different broadcasters on Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon, Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, and/or any other day. It is not a witness if you are on one religious station that carries religion all day long and you've got one slot in there.

As we have seen, Jesus gave a commission to His church. The church was to go and make disciples. That is the main commission for us. Go and make disciples of all nations. Preach to them, baptize them and teach them whatsoever Jesus commanded His own disciples. This is to be the purpose of our witness as a congregation and for all Christians.

Consequences of Deception

It seems to me that when people begin to think of themselves as God's only instrument, God's only warning, God's only witness, it can become a problem-a serious problem.

Why? Because then they struggle to justify their actions that haven't produced the expected results. They have to explain why they bought all this radio time, all this television time, published all these magazines and sent out all this literature.

"We did all these works in Christ's name-and the end still isn't here." So they are always coming up with a new reason.

"Well, the end isn't here because we didn't build God's House yet."

"Well, the end isn't here because we haven't published magazines in different languages."

"Well, the end isn't here because there were dissidents in our midst and we have to clean out the church of all these people who didn't really believe." (And the dissidents are what slowed down the end of the world?)

"The end isn't here because there is a trial and testing period and God is just trying to see how long the people will hold on and see if you are going to be faithful even though we had it right. God is trying to test you to see if you're going to hold on even after an extended period of time."

They are always trying to come up with some kind of end time excuse. Why isn't the end here? "If we have done all this mass publishing, if we have done all this radio and television evangelism. Why isn't the end here?"

Constantly questions develop which are born of unfulfilled expectations-constantly there is a need to develop new excuses. It has happened in group after group.

Why? They are trying to tie the end of the age, to a single person or group. It doesn't matter who the individual, or church, or association, or whatever is. Such efforts simply do not fit. They really don't fit. In my mind, (I am speaking for David Antion now, not for anyone else) it doesn't fit according to the Scriptures.

God's Many, Many Warnings

As I understand the Bible, God is going to warn and warn and warn and warn, and at the very end there is going to be a final warning by angels. People are going to be shown by an angel the everlasting gospel as angels fly in their midst.

We have a warning in Hebrews 2:1. In the previous chapter it talks about the angels and how the angels are ministering spirits and how the Son of God is greater than all these spirits. And then it says, in verse 2, that for this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from it.

"For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable," that is steadfast, "and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense... "

In other words, when God sent angels (and here we are not only referring back to all the times in Israel's history when angels came-but also in the New Testament.) If you trace it back you will find that the manifestation has been through the Angel of the Lord. The Angel of the Lord came to them and the Angel of he Lord did this. And the Angel of the Lord spoke here and did that. And if you transgressed and violated commands and instruction given to you through the Angel of the Lord, that violation was punished.

So, "For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord?"

How Salvation Was Announced

Now listen to the way the salvation was given. How does God tell people that He is giving eternal salvation to them?

It was confirmed to us by those who heard (verse 4), God was also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.

Even in the first century, when Jesus was on earth, Jesus talked about the great salvation that could come. He revealed it to the original apostles. And those original apostles shared this message with people at that time. It says specifically that God was bearing witness with them. On top of all that the disciples did various miracles and wonders by gifts of the Holy Spirit.

And that's how God did it-He went over and above. Do you think that God would just send a few men, to go out here and say to these people how their eternal lives are at stake, and their physical lives are at stake, and their families are at stake. So a few people just go out and say, "This is going to happen, and we are the true church and you better believe it and if you don't believe it, then you are going to die and that is it, and goodbye." And they turn around and walk off and God says, "Well, the people had their warning. They didn't accept it." Slam! Is that what is going to happen? No. That is not the way God works. Because God is patient. Because God is merciful. And because God is loving.

Why Plagues so Gruesome

Why do you think the plagues of Revelation are so gruesome? Don't they sound harsh? People are dying and the waters have been turned to blood. The sun comes out to scorch men. Earthquakes take place. Hail comes out of heaven and all the rest.

Why is God so harsh? Is He harsh because somebody walked by a magazine, looked at it, and threw it down and said, " I don't believe that?" And now God is going to say, "You deserve to be scorched and tortured and tormented and bombed and blown apart and starved and smashed and squashed and wrung around because you rejected our magazine"?

That doesn't make sense.

The people who hold out until the very last plagues understand what they are doing. What do you have to do if you hold onto the mark of the beast, to the worship of the beast and his image, and you hold on to those things until the very time of the seven last plagues?

Do you know what you will have to have done? You will have to have rejected the two witnesses and their warning. You will have had to applaud their death. You had to have spurned the heavenly signs. You had to have rejected the angelic messenger that flew in the midst of heaven and talked in every language under heaven and told you that Babylon is fallen.

You will have to have spurned them as they urged you to worship God and fear Him and to stop worshipping the beast because those who did so were going to get plagues.

What It Takes To Be Hard-Hearted

You had to say, "I don't care!" You will have had to turn your back on so many miracles and so many divine signs.

And to come to that point of hardness you will have to have been doing so many other things constantly. All through the rest of your life you've had to be rejecting God's witness through his creation. You have had to ignore the witness that pours forth by day and the knowledge from the stars at night. You have had to reject all of that.

Do you know why God's plagues at the end are so severe? Because these people have become so entrenched and hardened. That's why.

Not because they rejected a magazine or turned off the radio at the wrong time or turned to a different television station. Not because they thought that some organization might not have been the right one. Not because they didn't become converts because of our witnessing.

Isn't it true that others are telling men to become converted and be part of their church? In fact, fifteen hundred or more organizations are preaching conversion in some form.

And just because they don't become converted to our church you think God is going to scorch them and squash them and do all these things-these terrible tortures? Is listening to our message the only one that God will count?

That doesn't make sense.

There are, of course, those who will have wrong religious beliefs, for Christ said there would be counterfeits. But by the time of the final warnings, organizations and doctrines will not be relevant.

Those who hold on until the last plagues and who are in the end blaspheming God when he brings these plagues, are not those who have subscribed to a few false doctrines or not known some of God's truths.

These are people who have gone through warning after warning after warning after warning, without believing and acting on anything! God has had (just like with Pharaoh), to have gotten increasingly severe before He finally breaks them. And then they still gather to fight God at the very end.

These people are caught up in a powerful deception- gripped in a state of mind that holds them entrenched. God is not going to leave them without a warning. God has never done anything like this before-it will be more than even in the days of Noah.

Warnings Before the Flood

From Adam to Noah, do you think that the world didn't have a witness? From Adam to Noah, there were two cherubim sitting at the edge of Eden, guarding the garden of Eden. From Adam to Noah, they were the two witnesses of their day.

Did you ever think of that? The cherubim were there from the time that Adam sinned. People could have said, "Where did they come from? Why are they here? "

Don't you think that Adam told his children, who told their children, "We sinned. We can't get back in there. That's paradise in there, but we can't enter because we did these bad things. But One will come to bruise the head of the serpent that caused us to be deceived."

From Adam to Noah there was a witness. And during the time Noah was building the Ark there was a witness. And following that there were witnesses all throughout the Old Testament. It is replete with warnings, testimonies and pleadings.

God is so much more merciful, His loving ways, His kindnesses, His fairness, than men's minds conceive.

All Glory to Christ

The Bible says, "God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son."

Romans 11:32-33 reflects his attitude of mercy,

"For God has shut up all in disobedience that He might show mercy to all. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?"

Do you think any of us could advise God how to do it?

"Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to Him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever."

It is not you and I with our great witness that will get the glory. We are not going to stand at the end and say, "We told you, we told you so. We were the ones, you know it was us, we were the ones. Remember, here we are and we get the glory" patting ourselves on the back.

You know who is going to get the glory? There is only one person who is going to get the glory. Only one person that should. "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever, Amen."

Written by: David L. Antion