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Cataclysmic Judgments

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• If you would today, to three passages: Matthew 24, Luke 17, and 2 Peter 2. You'll understand why just in a little bit. We're going to look at three passages. The title of the message is "Cataclysmic Judgments." Cataclysmic judgments. So look, if you would please, in Matthew chapter 24, and let's read verses 38 and 39. Then we'll go to Luke chapter 17. So notice, if you would please, Matthew chapter 24, verse 38: "For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." Now if you will look in Luke chapter 17 at verse 27. Luke 17, verse 27. Note what the Word of God says. Luke 17, verse 27: "They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all." Now one last passage, there you have it in 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 5.

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• Where the Word of God says, "And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly." Let me just remind you, some of you were not here last week, but I would encourage you, if you have not listened to that message or looked at it, that you would, because the title of the message is, "Will America Be Destroyed? And Will You Be Dispossessed?" And I went through the Bible and showed where God was absolutely sovereign and God had the right to dispossess any nation that He chose to dispossess because everyone was under His sovereign control. And it was just like you and I, if we had rental properties and we had someone who would not pay his rent and someone who was destroying our property, we would do everything we could to kick them out. And that's exactly what God did to several nations. And that's exactly what He did

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• to the southern kingdom and to the northern kingdom later on, as I showed. And of course, today we're building upon that with this message on cataclysmic judgments. When I mention cataclysmic judgments, I must ask, what kind of scenery arrives in your mind when you hear the word cataclysmic? Usually when we think about that word, we conjure up in our mind images of death, destruction, chaos, confusion, and upheaval. So if you were to look up the word cataclysm or cataclysmic in the dictionary, you would come up with two basic definitions. Number one is this: any violent upheaval, especially one of a social or political nature. And then number two, physical geography: a sudden and violent physical action producing change in the earth's surface. So, a devastating earthquake or a flood would be an example of what you and I would call a cataclysmic change in the earth's surface or geography.

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• The French Revolution would also be an excellent illustration of a political cataclysm, because during the French Revolution, there were thousands that were beheaded and murdered, and churches were destroyed, businesses were destroyed, all under the guise of democratic tyranny. Of course, there are also theological cataclysmic judgments as well. Those judgments take place in time and in history. God does indeed judge nations in time and in history. And I pointed out last week, and I'm going to quote it again, someone has said that this is true, that God judges nations in time and in history because, quote—and I'm quoting—"Nations do not have a soul to damn nor an arse to kick." And the word "arse" is an old English word for the rear end. So that is exactly right. That is why God does indeed judge nations in time and in history. So I want you to look in your Bibles, if you would, to Proverbs chapter 11 and verse 31. Proverbs 11, and look if you would please at verse 31. And here's a truth that goes along with that statement. Proverbs 11,

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• verse 31, God says, "Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner." So the righteous are going to be recompensed in the earth. That means they are going to be recompensed in this life. They are going to be recompensed in time and in history. And the word "recompense" means to pay back, is what it amounts to. I give you what you deserve, is what it amounts to. So the truth of the matter is this: Christians do not have to wait until we get to heaven to be blessed. We are blessed in time and in history. And I've pointed out before, God's blessings always follow obedience. And certainly God is saying in Proverbs verse 31, He is saying, look, if I give the righteous rewards in time in history, how much more am I going to give the wicked and the sinner what they deserve in time in history as well? So we have then what are known as temporal judgments. Now here's a point that most people have overlooked, because we see temporal judgments everywhere. We see them in tornadoes and hurricanes and floods, in all kind of what you and I would call tragedies or catastrophes. But in Proverbs—and not in Proverbs, but

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• I'm sorry, in Job chapter 19 and verse 29. Job 19, verse 29. Here's a passage that would do you well to memorize so that you can apply it and think every time you see what the world calls a tragedy or catastrophe. And Job chapter 19, verse 29, God says, "Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment." Now listen to what He said: "Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment." Job 19, verse 29. So, what God is saying is that every temporary judgment, every temporal judgment that you and I see in time and history is just simply pointing to the reality and the fact that there is an eternal and there is a final judgment.

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• Now, every passage that I read when we began this message—in Matthew, in Luke, and in 2 Peter—each one of these passages happened to be about Noah's flood. And every time you saw the word "flood" in each one of those passages, it was from a special Greek word. Guess what? That Greek word happens to be kataklusmos. Hmm. That's the word flood. Kataklusmos. That is where we get our English word cataclysm. Hmm.

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• So God is saying that that flood was a cataclysmic judgment, a cataclysmic event. So I want you to look in your Bibles, if you would, to the book of Genesis chapter 7. Genesis 7 and verses 11 and 12, and you will see why momentarily. Genesis 7, look in verse 11. The Bible says, "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights." Now, I want you to note that certain day of the month, all of a sudden, the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened. Now Noah preached approximately 120 years and really never had any converts, and the Bible says that he was indeed a preacher of righteousness. So here's a good question: Why did those people not believe Noah when he talked about rain coming and a flood coming and God opening the windows of heaven and the foundations being broken up?

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• Why did they not listen to Noah? Why did they not believe Noah? Here's why, if you'll look in your Bibles to the book of Genesis chapter 2 and verse 6. The antediluvians, that is those people who lived in Noah's day, had never seen rain. Rain is a common occurrence for us. It's happened about every day this past week or so in our place, for which I'm thankful. But in Genesis chapter 2 and verse 6, the Bible says, "But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground." Well, back in Noah's day, it was the mist that went up. And here's Noah preaching that there's going to be a great flood, and they've never seen a flood. They've never experienced a flood. They've never experienced rain falling from heaven, etc. And so the truth of the matter is, that is exactly what happened. Now, that is why in 2 Peter 2 and verse 5, which we read earlier, it said this: "And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the cataclysm upon the world of the ungodly."

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• It's called a cataclysm. So God then brought a cataclysmic judgment upon the old world. He judged them in time and in history. So please understand, this is referred to as a cataclysmic judgment. Now I'm going to also suggest to you that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain were also the result of a cataclysmic judgment. I want you to look in your Bibles, if you would, to Genesis chapter 19 while you're there. And as you're turning to Genesis 19, let me explain something to you in light of an article that I'm going to be reading to you just momentarily. But let's read this first. Look in Genesis chapter 19 and let's begin reading there with verse 23. The Bible says this: "The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew

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• upon the ground." Now, I want you to watch this. God not only destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, He also destroyed the cities of the plain, He also destroyed all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.

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• Now when the Bible says that God rained in verse 24 brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven, the word "brimstone" is actually burning sulfur. It is a stone that actually burns. Now the reason I'm going to explain to you now is the difference between an immediate work of God and a mediate work of God. An immediate work of God is when God works without the use of means. A mediate work of God is when God works, but He uses means. So if Dinah got sick, say with a terrible disease, and we all came and prayed for her and God just miraculously healed her and raised her up, that would be an immediate work of God. If we came and prayed for her and God did not raise her up immediately like that, but He did use medicine and He did use doctors, that would be a mediate work of God. God is working through and using means. So how in the world did God rain

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• fire and brimstone out of heaven? Now there are some that are suggesting, and I think based upon some evidence, that what God did was send a meteorite and hit Sodom and Gomorrah. Well, God certainly controlled it one way or the other. So it's either going to be an immediate work of God or it's going to be a mediate work because God is going to use it one way or the other. And so the reason they are suggesting that it might have been a meteorite is because of the super-heated material that was found upon the land.

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• Now I want you to listen to this. The researchers presented preliminary findings on the subject at this year's annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research in November and have been developing the theory since at least 2015. They state that the evidence from radiocarbon dating indicates that a group of civilizations flourished in the area for over two millennia until approximately 1700 BC, when the mud brick walls of the buildings in the region simultaneously disappeared and only the stone foundations remained. Hang on.

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• At the same time, the pottery in the settlements was heated into glass in a space of milliseconds, according to the results of an analysis of the zircon crystals formed in the process, indicating that they were briefly exposed to temperatures of approximately 4,000 to 12,000 degrees Celsius, comparable to the temperature of the surface of the sun. Now, 4,000 degrees Celsius is equal to a temperature of 7,232 degrees Fahrenheit. So if you take 7,232 and multiply it times 4, you get 21,696 degrees Fahrenheit. So they're saying that the temperatures that they found in this zircon had to be super, super hot. Let me go ahead. The explosion rained down platinum as well as molten lava on the region, according to two of the archaeologists, and this further confirms that a meteor was the source, given that platinum is found in higher concentrations in meteors than on earth. Approximately 40,000 to 60,000 people living in the region

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• were killed and a 500 square kilometer area was rendered uninhabitable for 600 to 700 years, the researchers estimate. They believe that the area was stripped of its topsoil and that salts from the nearby Dead Sea were spread over the land, destroying its fertility.

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• Now we should look in Genesis chapter 19 and verses 27, and I hope you can understand this statement: "And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD: And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace." In other words, it happened instantly. It happened suddenly. It was a complete and total devastation.

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• Now, when you and I think of something like this happening, we normally think of a nuclear explosion. And by the way, if you have not done any research recently on how to prepare yourself and how to survive a nuclear explosion, I think you need to do so, especially in light of what has been happening in Russia just recently, since there is an insurrection in there. And they were saying that this one man, I can't pronounce his name, maybe even had access to nuclear weapons. And I hope that's been worked out, but I'm just simply saying, if you are in the impact of a nuclear weapon, there's no preparation needed because you will be incinerated instantly. However, if you are miles and miles away, it's not the impact or the explosion that's going to get you, it's the radioactive fallout, which you can protect yourself from. That is a fact. But I'm just simply pointing out the fact, when we think of something like this, we now today think of a nuclear explosion. But let me show you, I want you to turn in your Bibles back to Matthew chapter 24 and look if

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• you would please at verse 7. Matthew 24 and verse 7. Look at what our Lord says. Matthew 24, verse 7, our Lord said, "For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places." So clearly then, we would certainly consider a famine God's divine judgment, especially based upon Amos chapter 4, and certainly the pestilence. Wars, wars can be very destructive and they can happen instantly. And even though they may not be nuclear, I remember reading about Selco in that Bosnian war. He was from Bosnia. They went to bed fine.

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• No problems, woke up the next morning surrounded by armies. And of course he went on to say how they had to burn all the trim in their houses and all the trees around just to stay warm and just to cook, and then they had to go out at night and try to evade the snipers just to find things to eat. Yeah, we would call that a catastrophe. We would call that a tragedy. We would call that a cataclysmic judgment. But notice, if you would, our Lord is just simply talking about the fact that these things are going to be happening. Certainly an earthquake would be a catastrophic judgment. That is for sure.

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• So let me ask you this question. Since we've looked at Sodom and Gomorrah and since we've looked at the flood, are there examples of cataclysmic judgments outside of the Bible? And the answer is yes. I'm going to give you two of them today. In fact, I'm going to mention a third one just in passing. But I want you to understand that, yes, things like this do indeed happen in time and history. The first one I'm going to tell you about is about the island of Jamaica. A lot of people go to Jamaica for a vacation. It's certainly one of the beautiful islands, that is for sure. But Jamaica, originally claimed by England, but it was too far for England to protect, and so Jamaicans then turned to privateers, to buccaneers, to pirates, to protect them from Spain, because Spain was on the warpath at that particular time. The unofficial capital of Jamaica at that time was a city called Port Royal. It was one of the busiest and wealthiest ports in the West Indies. It was known as the storehouse and the treasury of the West Indies.

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• It was also known as one of the wickedest places on earth. It was a port for all of these pirates and privateers and buccaneers. Here's a fact that most of you probably have never considered. Listen to this. Port Royal grew to surpass Boston—that is Boston, Massachusetts—Port Royal grew to surpass Boston as England's most prosperous New World settlement. Wow. But now, since this place was the port for the pirates and the buccaneers, drinking and gaming houses, slave trading, brothels, taverns, grog shops attracted all these pirates and the cutthroats and the whores. And this was considered one of the vilest places upon the face of the earth. I've already said it was called the wickedest city at that time, but it was also called the Sodom of the New World. So you have Port Royal and you have Jamaica, and that was exceedingly wicked. So what these privateers and buccaneers and pirates would do is they would attack the Spanish ships and steal all the gold and silver and whatever else they wanted. And they would bring it back then to Port Royal in Jamaica.

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• And of course, it became known now to be an extremely wealthy city, but also an extremely wicked place as well. So, what happened? At 11:43 AM local time on June the 7th, 1692, Port Royal, Jamaica was hit by a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake. The earthquake caused a landslide which forced a section of the harbor to collapse into deeper water and then generated a tsunami which destroyed 90% of the buildings in that city. Furthermore, after the main shock, a further two-thirds of the city slipped into the sea within two minutes. The city was completely covered with water. Approximately 2,000 people drowned, and about 1,000 more perished from the earthquake.

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• Graves were opened and bodies were being washed about. Enormous waves tossed the ships from the harbor into the buildings, and in many places, the ground literally opened up and swallowed people alive. And then, of course, sealed back together.

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• Now here's an article I'm going to quote from. It's the National Geographic article titled, "How the Wickedest City on Earth Was Sunk by an Earthquake." July the 29th, 2022 was the date of this article. So here it is. On the morning of June 7, 1692, the church rector of Port Royal, Jamaica, was running late for a lunch appointment. But a friend entreated him to delay just a while longer.

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• It was a small choice that saved his life. The ground began to roll and tumble, and quaking only increased in intensity, and the two men soon heard the church tower collapse into the rubble. The rector sprinted outside, racing for open ground. By his description, the land split open, swallowing crowds of people and homes in one gulp and then sealing closed. The sky darkened to red, mountains crumbled in the distance, and geysers of water exploded from the seams ripped in the earth.

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• He turned to see a great wall of seawater swelling high above the town. In the space of three minutes, Port Royal, the fairest town of all the English plantations, the best emporium and mart of this part of the world, exceeding in its riches, plentiful in all good things, was shaken and shattered to pieces.

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• Now, here's some direct quotes from people who were there. Reverend Heath wrote, "Port Royal was terribly destroyed by an earthquake and breaking into the sea upon it. The destruction was sudden. In four minutes multitudes were killed by the falling houses. I believe God I never in my life saw such a terror. The earth opened and swallowed up people before my face. The sea swallowed up the greatest part of that wretched sinful place. They're so wicked I fear God will utterly destroy all by this dreadful judgment. By this terrible judgment God will make them reform their lives, for there was not a more ungodly people on the face of the earth." That was the pastor. Here's a Quaker resident, John Pike.

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• He wrote on June the 19th, 1692, "Ah brother, if thou did see those great persons that are now dead upon the water thou couldst never forget it. Great men who were so swallowed up with pride that a man could not be admitted to speak with them, and women whose top-knots, their hairdos, seem to reach into the clouds, now lie stinking upon the water and are made meat for fish and fowls of the air." A resident, Samuel Bernard, wrote, "We shall be unworthy of God's mercies if we be not by His judgments taught to learn righteousness."

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• What was left of the Jamaican Council issued this order: "We are become an instance of God Almighty's severe judgment. Therefore, every future 7th of June be kept and observed by all the inhabitants of this island as an anniversary day of fasting and humiliation, in hopes that acknowledging manifold sins and wickedness committed against His Divine Majesty may appease God's imminent wrath and prevent heavier judgments." So everyone that's left alive is recognizing the fact that this is a cataclysmic judgment from God.

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• The Reverend John Shower wrote this in 1693. He said, "It is dreadful to think how atheism and infidelity prevails, and barefaced deism with the rejection of Christianity and all revealed religion. If you do not unfeignedly give up yourselves to God in Christ as your Savior and sovereign, your judgment is near, your destruction is at hand. You must perish, and that more dreadfully than most others in the world." So here's the thing that I want you to think about: three minutes' time. Two, three, four at the absolute most—and the two would be the earthquake, and the three would be the swallowing, and the four of course would be the devastation of all the houses—but in three minutes' time, it was over for Port Royal. Not only were hundreds of people drowned or buried alive, but corpses floated upon the water.

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• Skeletons were torn from the tombs in the graveyard. The buccaneers' loot and all of that wealth was gone. Their royal, rowdy living was over.

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• Now I want you to hold on, because I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Revelation chapter 18, and I want you to see this description of the fall of economic Babylon. Look at it in Revelation chapter 18. In fact, we can begin reading with verse 10. And here's what the kings are there, standing afar off, and these people watch, standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, "Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come." And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more: the merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,

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• and cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men. And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all. The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, and cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city! And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate." When you stop and think about the destruction that could happen to economic Babylon in one hour, and the destruction that happened

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• in Port Royal, Jamaica in three minutes. And have you considered this? Some people do not even get the luxury of three minutes. You consider how fast a bullet can travel, how quickly an automobile can crash. You don't get three minutes. So here is Port Royal, Jamaica, totally destroyed by a cataclysmic judgment from God. I'm going to give you another one. If you've never read anything on the Johnstown flood, I would encourage you to do so, because you will see, I think, where we are today by studying the Johnstown flood. Johnstown, Pennsylvania, is another example of cataclysmic judgments. The account of the flood that I'm going to give you is found written by Edwin Hutchinson, excerpts from "Floods of Johnstown," published in 1989. This flood actually happened in 1889, May the 31st, 1889. By the morning of May the 31st, 1889, there was water in the streets of Johnstown. People had water up to their ankles. And so what they were doing was all the store owners were moving their wares up out of the water. People in their homes were lifting up all their furniture and stacking them on blocks or anything to get them out of the water.

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• And because they understood that water usually came from snow melts, it would be coming from excessive rain, and they were used to this kind of stuff. So here's the quote I want to give you. Even as the residents of Johnstown prepared for their long wait—that is, they just thought it was normal flooding—activity at the South Fork Dam, just 14 miles above the city, was frantic. The South Fork Dam held back Lake Conemaugh, the pleasure lake of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. Officials there feared the dam would fail. Since mid-morning, they worked to avoid this because they feared the consequences. The lake was a little more than two miles long and little more than a mile wide at its widest spot and 60 feet deep at the dam itself.

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• Among the attempts were efforts to add height to the dam, then to dig a second spillway to relieve pressure from the breast, and finally to release the heavy screens placed on the overflow to keep the stock fish from escaping into the streams below. Little after 3 p.m., when most people in Johnstown were settling in to be marooned for the evening, club officials and the laborers they recruited, as well as a good-sized audience from the little community of South Fork just below the dam, watched in dumbfounded horror as the dam just moved away. Listen. Within an hour, a body of water which engineers at that time estimated moved into the valley with a force of Niagara Falls rolled into Johnstown. Within 14 miles of accumulated debris which included houses, barns, animals, and people both dead and alive. And those who saw it coming described it as a rolling hill of debris about 40 feet high and a half a mile wide. But most only heard the thunderous rumble as it swept into the city to add Johnstown to a wake that already included bits and pieces of the communities of South Fork, Mineral Point, Woodvale, and East Conemaugh.

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• Some continued to wait out the disaster in their houses. Others were picked up by the flood wave for a wild ride through the town to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company stone bridge, where debris piled 40 feet high and over 30 acres and then caught fire. I don't know how fire can burn with all the water and wet, but it did. Still others were shot down the Conemaugh River to die or to be rescued at Nineveh, Bolivar, or some other community downstream. The dam that washed away was a 72-foot-high earthen dam. 72 feet high. When it broke, when the dam washed away 14 miles from Johnstown, it was over for Johnstown in 10 minutes. And the scale of this flood is almost unimaginable.

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• So I'm going to give you some statistics. I want you to think about this. We're talking about a cataclysmic judgment. Here it is. Number one, 2,209 people died. Ninety-nine entire families died, including 396 children. 124 women and 198 men were left widowed. More than 750 victims were never identified and rest in the plot of the unknown in the Grandview Cemetery. Hang on, listen to this one. Bodies were found as far away as Cincinnati, and best I can tell, that Cincinnati, Ohio was nearly 400 miles away. Listen now, bodies were found as far away as Cincinnati as late as 1911. So it happened in 1889, 1911 they were still finding bodies. 1,600 homes were destroyed. $17 million in property damage was done. Now that would have been $17 million in gold dollars in 1889, which should have

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• been in the billions today. Four square miles of downtown Johnstown were completely destroyed. The pile of debris at the stone bridge covered 30 acres. And I already pointed out the distance between Johnstown and the dam was 14 miles. The dam was owned by the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, an exclusive club that counted Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick among its members. Listen to this. The dam contained 20 million tons of water before it gave way. About the same amount of water as goes over Niagara Falls in 36 minutes. If you've ever seen Niagara Falls—I have, I've been there—the water is astounding. So the dam held 20 million tons of water. Flood lines were found as high as 89 feet above river level. The great wave measured 35 to 40 feet high and hit Johnstown at 40 miles per hour. Think about that. You remember how wide that was? And it is running and hitting this town at 40 miles an hour. Listen to this one. The force of the flood swept several locomotives weighing 170,000 pounds each as far as 4,800 feet.

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• That's almost a mile. 170,000 pound locomotive swept nearly a mile away. And $3,742,818.78 were collected for the Johnstown relief effort from the United States and 18 foreign countries. Well, today that would have been a whole lot more. Like I said, that was 1889 money. And Johnstown, of course, continued to have some floods, like in 1936, 1977. But the American Red Cross, led by Clara Barton herself, which was organized in 1881, arrived in Johnstown on June the 5th, 1889. It was the first major peacetime disaster for the Red Cross.

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• Now, let me ask a question. Why in the world did these people stay in their homes when water was ankle-deep in their homes and maybe even deeper in the streets? Why would you not say, "Hmm, I know there's a dam 14 miles away. That rascal might break. Let me leave from here." Why would they not do that? Because the people were used to a little bit of flooding. The snow melts, the excessive rain, when they would let additional water off from that dam, they were used to it.

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• And moreover, here's their attitude: "That could never happen here. That dam would never break. We'll never, ever experience anything like that." You remember last week, I talked about American exceptionalism, even Christian exceptionalism, even national exceptionalism. You know, this is the attitude that we have in America. We can never, ever experience anything like this because we are a Christian nation—which we are not a Christian nation, not by any stretch of the imagination.

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• I mean, stop and think about this. How about—I'm going to mention this third one—2004, the tsunami that struck Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia. It was a 9.1 earthquake that occurred in the Indian Ocean and then propelled a tsunami toward the shoreline, and the tsunami hit with such force that there were approximately—probably more—but 230,000 lives lost. That was 2004. So, let me ask you this question: Why would God not judge us? I mean, we're wicked, we're vile, and we're transgressors.

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• Why do we consider ourselves the exception? We have oceans. Not only on the West Coast, but on the East Coast. And look at the Gulf of Mexico. And you do know, I hope, that Russia has a Poseidon torpedo, which is actually a nuclear torpedo, that they can activate miles out in the ocean that will produce a tsunami that will come on land and wipe out miles inland. I mean, when you stop and think, we have oceans. Even if

  #45 | 44:57 to 45:41 | cleaned

• there were not attacked by a foreign enemy, we have fault lines and we have shifts in those fault lines. All I'm saying is, it could happen here like it could happen anywhere else. Now let me show you how God clears up exceptionalism. I want you to look in your Bibles, if you would, to the book of Luke chapter 13. Luke 13. And I want to read the first five verses, and then I'm going to come back and make some comments. Look at it. Luke chapter 13, beginning with verse 1. "There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices." Which was an atrocious thing. "And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?

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• I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."

  #47 | 47:02 to 47:08 | cleaned

• Now you must remember that Jesus Christ Himself was from Galilee. He is from Nazareth in Galilee. Yes, He was born in Bethlehem, Judah, but after they came back from Egypt, He was raised as a Galilean. He was a Nazarene. And so they come to our Lord and say, "Ah, there were some Galileans down here who were worshiping God and giving His sacrifice, and Pilate had them murdered and their blood mingled in with the sacrificial blood of their animals." And our Lord said, "Wow, do you think that these Galileans were exceedingly great sinners? That they were sinners above everyone else? I tell you, no."

  #48 | 47:08 to 47:55 | cleaned

• Now listen what He said: "But except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." And then He brought this up Himself: "Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."

  #49 | 47:55 to 48:30 | cleaned

• What is our Lord doing? He's destroying exceptionalism. He's saying you don't have to be a big, bad, ugly sinner to perish in judgment. You're a sinner—that's sufficient in itself. And our Lord is warning us. He's demanding repentance. He's demanding that we repent of our sins. Listen, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and physically, we must not only turn from sin, we must turn to Him. So, what He is saying is there is no Galilean exceptionalism. There's no Judean exceptionalism. There's no American exceptionalism. There's no national exceptionalism. There's no individual exceptionalism. No, no, no, unless you repent you shall perish. Repent or perish. That's exactly what our Lord is saying. Cataclysmic judgments. Most Americans and most American Christians think that nothing like that can happen here. Let me make just a couple of applications. I want you to think about this. I'm really, in one sense

  #50 | 48:30 to 49:51 | cleaned

• of the word, tired of seeing certain signs. And I see one every Sunday morning as I drive to church. It's right beside the highway, and in big bold letters it says, "God Bless America." And I have to stop and ask myself, why should He bless America? We don't bless Him. We don't worship Him. We don't obey Him. In fact, we do everything contrary to Him. We won't even mention His name in schools, in governmental buildings, or in courtrooms.

  #51 | 49:51 to 50:34 | cleaned

• What I'm about to tell you happened probably 20 to 25 years ago. I was in a courtroom to support a Christian brother, a fellow pastor. He and his wife were being charged with something that was just absolutely insanely ridiculous. And so another pastor's wife was on the stand to testify about the duties of a pastor's wife, which would show that this woman was totally innocent of what she was being charged with. When my pastor friend's wife got on the stand to testify, the judge said, "You cannot mention the Bible in this courtroom." Now, how in the world can you explain what the duties of a pastor's wife are without mentioning the Bible, without mentioning Scripture? That's 20, 25 years ago. We know what the Bible mentioned in this classroom. We know what the Bible mentioned in this courtroom. We know what the Bible mentioned in this governmental building. Why?

  #52 | 50:38 to 51:51 | cleaned

• Lord, the point I'm trying to make is water is around our ankles and around our knees and we're not even paying attention. Wow. We're already under His judgment. All you've got to do is look around in our sick, perverted, and wicked societies. That's it. It's just like the quote-unquote "pride parade." There's nothing to be proud of. Perversion is not something to be proud of. But here's what they were chanting: "We're here and we're queer and we're coming for your children." We're coming for your children. Really? Don't come for mine. Don't come for yours. I'm just simply pointing out the fact we're already under God's judgment. Look, if you would, what is being promoted by our government?

  #53 | 51:53 to 52:43 | cleaned

• Approved by our churches and tolerated by the people. And it's going to get worse until God sends His cataclysmic judgment and wipes out a lot of people. "The righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner." So the truth of the matter is, it's only a matter of time until we experience a cataclysmic judgment. Because God does judge nations and societies in time and in history.

  #54 | 52:44 to 53:37 | cleaned

• He judged the antediluvians in Noah's day. He judged the people of Sodom and Gomorrah in Lot's day. He judged the people of Jamaica, 1692. He judged the people of Johnstown, 1889. And all you've got to do is look around at all the hurricanes, all the tornadoes, all the floods, all the famine, all the pestilence. And you see, God is in control of all this. All you have to do is read Amos chapter 4.

  #55 | 53:42 to 54:18 | cleaned

• Remember years ago, Pastor Bob McCurry—he was alive then—he and I were at a meeting where about a hundred preachers had gathered together. Hurricane Andrew had just come through Florida. And there was one preacher that was there. He was a tall, lanky black man. Dr. Dixon asked him to pray. And I remember Brother McCurry and I were sitting side-by-side. And that old black man started praying, and the next thing you know, I was like this with my head up, my eyes open, and my mouth hanging open. And I looked to my side, and there stood Brother McCurry, same way, eyes and mouth open. You know what? That old preacher prayed, "Lord, we know that you're sovereign. We know, Lord, that Hurricane Andrew has gone in the path that you directed before the foundation of the world. We know that you're in control. We know that your judgments happen." And I said to myself, after he got through praying, and then I looked at Brother McCurry, I said, "That man did more preaching in five minutes than most of the preachers have done all day."

  #56 | 54:23 to 55:52 | cleaned

• There are cataclysmic judgments. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your truth. May we be forewarned. May we pay attention, Lord, to the water that's around our ankles, up to our knees, and coming up to our loins. Father, we pray that You will grant us repentance as individuals and help us to be wise to prepare and wise to be warned. As Your Word declares, "A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished." Give us Your grace and Your mercy, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T13:11:17Z