A remark heard recently was this: "It seems that wickedness now is so great that the only way to clean up this world is to burn it up like Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed." The Lord God said of Sodom, "This was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness.... They were haughty, and committed abomination before Me: therefore I took them away as I saw good." Ezek. 16:49, 5049Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. 50And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good. (Ezekiel 16:49‑50). Also the Lord spoke these words to Abraham in Gen. 18 about Sodom: "Their sin is very grievous.”
As the Lord God looks down upon this world today, does He not see the same condition even in the professing Christian lands? How long will He wait before He judges? We cite two very interesting verses in Deut. 29
The generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the Lord hath laid upon it; and that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger, and in His wrath. Deut. 29:22, 2322So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the Lord hath laid upon it; 23And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath: (Deuteronomy 29:22‑23).
Especially we notice that the Lord says, "the sicknesses which the Lord hath laid upon it." Or "the sicknesses wherewith the Lord hath made it sick." Surely these scriptures make clear that present-day plagues and such sicknesses as AIDS and venereal diseases are judgments from the Lord God.
In the New Testament the Lord has forewarned about the condition in this world just before the judgment falls. "As it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all." Luke 17:28, 2928Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; 29But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. (Luke 17:28‑29). All these activities are going on at present and surely we believe that the iniquity and corruption now is like Sodom in the days of Lot.
The last chapter that Peter wrote tells us graphically of coming judgment and of the Lord God's way of cleaning up by fire the marks of iniquity that are so prevalent in this world even now. "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." 2 Peter 3:1010But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (2 Peter 3:10).
Based on this information given for the believer living at this present time, we are exhorted in the very next verse with these words, "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness." v. 11.
Lot was taken out of Sodom before its destruction from heaven. Likewise, all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ will Be Taken out of this world before its judgment by fire. Meanwhile, holiness of life, godliness and purity ought to characterize the Christian. These things bring great benefits to us even in the life that now is. "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." 1 Tim. 4:88For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. (1 Timothy 4:8).
Ed.