What the Bible says about Divine Punishment
(From Forerunner Commentary)
Such a person is living under divine punishment. God is faithful to what He is for good or ill. There are no hollow threats from God. Many today live cursed lives because of the way they treated or are still treating their parents.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Fifth Commandment (1997)Related Topics: Dishonoring Parents | Divine Punishment | Fifth Commandment | Honoring Parents | The Fifth Commandment
What are we to think of the disasters this nation has been experiencing of late? If they are not direct signs of the apocalypse, what are they? What God says to Israel through Amos.
Between verses 7 and 12, God mentions sending them drought, blight and mildew, locusts, plague, military defeat, and divine punishment for sin, yet after every disaster, Israel still refused to repent. So, God warns them in verse 12 that He would bring on them a major judgment—His wrath, their Day of the Lord, a day of “darkness, and not light” (Amos 5:18-20).
This passage suggests that the disasters we have recently seen are warnings to the nation that God is aware of its sin and the people's drifting from Him. He is trying to get their attention so that they realize that they need to repent and return to Him. These disasters, then, are precursor judgments and threats, prods to motivate repentance and a restored relationship.
The ultimate judgment of God comes later, and Christ's return happens according to the prophecies recorded in Scripture. They are straightforward—not esoteric, not discernible only to biblical numerologists or experts of some mysterious Bible code. The prophecies will be fulfilled in real, visible, unmistakable events.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
The End Is Not YetRelated Topics: Apocalypse | Day of Darkness | Day of God's Wrath | Day of the Lord | Disasters | Disasters as Warnings from God | Disasters Motivate Repentance | Divine Punishment | God's Judgment | God's Judgment for Rebellion | God's Warning | God's Wrath against Sinning People | Great Tribulation as Inducement to Repentance | Ignoring God's Warnings
In these seven verses, Jude expands on his general description of false teachers in verse 4. He compares them in turn to the unbelieving Israelites, to the angels that sinned, and finally to the perverts in Sodom and vicinity. He is giving examples of the three major hallmarks of apostasy:
Unbelief, the Israelites' major failing.
Rebellion, which the angels who sinned did.
Immorality, what occurred in Sodom and Gomorrah.
Unbelief, rebellion, and immorality all result in divine judgment and punishment. The Israelites died in the wilderness, the angels that sinned were placed under restraint, and Sodom and Gomorrah were blasted off the face of the earth. We cannot find better examples of divine judgment and punishment than these.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
JudeRelated Topics: Apostasy | Divine Justice | Divine Punishment | False Ministers/Prophets | False Teachers | False Teachers, Characteristics of | Immorality | Jude | Perversion | Rebellion | Sodom and Gomorrah | Unbelief