CAMPBELLTON, New Brunswick, March 11, 2024 – Jesus once wondered aloud whether he’ll find faith on Earth when he returns. He also mentioned that if God didn’t shorten the final stage of the tribulation period, no-one would survive, but for the sake of his elect he’ll shorten it.

Our numbers are dwindling. Even as the official head count of the worldly church continues to increase, the remnant Church is shrinking day by day with every passing or falling away of a believer. No-one is rising to take their place. Scripture tells of a time when there’ll be silence in Heaven, which I interpret as a time of no more conversions. There may be false conversions (we’ve had those since the beginning), but no more genuine conversions, no more rebirths. God’s voice will no longer be heard by potential converts, so hardened hearts will no longer have the opportunity to soften: “If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your heart.” The opportunity to “seek the Lord while he may be found” will also have ended and no matter how desperate the pleas, they won’t be answered, just like the pleas of those drowning in the Flood waters went unanswered and the screams of those being massacred in Jerusalem were ignored.

When time’s up, it’s up.

There’s a doctrine of men that insists God will rescue anyone who calls on him right up to and including Jesus’ return. The sole intent of this false doctrine is to lull people into believing that there’ll always be more time to make things right between you and God, so that even if you miss the last bus tonight, you can catch one tomorrow morning. But what if there won’t be a bus tomorrow morning? What if there won’t even be any more buses tonight?

When the age of mercy ends and universal judgement begins, the sealing of God’s people will be complete and no more sheep can enter the fold. They’ll be able to exit, but they won’t be able to enter. And if they do exit, they can’t come back.

The book of Revelation tells of a time when there will only be the condemned who’ve taken the mark and the remnant who’ve been sealed. There is no third category of people mentioned, such as, for example, those who’ve refused the mark but haven’t (yet) been sealed. There are only the condemned and the remnant. Find me, if you will, that third category of people in the book of Revelation, because I’ve scoured the text and found no mention of them. There’s just the condemned and the remnant Church.

The purpose of the age of judgement is to determine each soul’s eternal reward. After the sealing, the age of mercy ends and the age of judgement begins. This is not the wrath (the wrath comes after the judgement, after Jesus has taken his Church Home and leaves only the condemned behind); it’s a time of determination. During the age of judgement, all souls on Earth will be tested to see where they belong in the eternal realm.

Being sealed doesn’t exempt you from being tested. Being sealed also doesn’t exempt you from falling into perdition. Being sealed marks you as God’s child, which affords you certain spiritual protections, though not necessarily physical ones. Scripture is clear that the age of judgement will be a time of all-out war against God’s children and that most will be martyred and some will fall.

We always like to believe there’ll be more time. Even Jesus thought there’d be more time for him to do his Father’s work, but when God gave the signal, he had to go. Our time, when it comes, might also come with the sense that it came too soon, that we need more time, that we still have work to do. But God knows best and his timing is perfect, and so like Jesus we’ll have to go.

In the meantime, also like Jesus, we need to devote each and every day to serving God and serving God only – not serving the world, thinking we’ll have the time to serve God later, not dividing our time between God and the world. No, we need to spend each day now serving God and God only, because tomorrow’s not a guarantee, and you will be held accountable (that is a guarantee) for every second you spent as a believer with your back turned to God.

The book of Revelation tells of a sealing and then a time of judgement that is also a time of testing and, for some, of falling away. How do we avoid falling away? By spending each and every day serving God and God only, like Jesus did.

There’s no other way.