Personal from the President

There’s more to Jeremiah than you may think . . .

While driving this past week from Indianapolis to Cincinnati, I listened to the book of Jeremiah in a modern English translation. I’ve read through Jeremiah many times before, but as the months and years move on and as our society becomes more sinful and increasingly defiant towards God, the message of Jeremiah makes a deeper impact on me. Jeremiah is the longest book in the Bible in terms of words with 33,002—ahead of Genesis with 32,046 words.

As I listened, I thought about our work and our mission as we preach to a godless society. Our people are steeped in immorality, idolatry and other sins and have become more oblivious and hostile to what we say.

Jeremiah was an emotional man who was often traumatized as he did the Work of God. He was tormented internally when he saw his country coming apart. He was a patriot as well as a prophet. He loved Judah. He loved God. He also knew full well that God commissioned him to preach a warning message directly to political leaders, preachers, professors and ordinary people. It was not a pretty or popular message. Government leaders tried to kill him. He even alienated his hometown compatriots in Anathoth who wanted to kill him as well (Jeremiah 11:21).

But Jeremiah’s message was not just a vision of Judah’s gloom. It was a message of the surety of God’s hope and love to a people who learned painful lessons and were to be restored to their God.

Sometimes we’re asked about our “warning message.” What is it? The Bible clearly declares: “Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, unless He reveals His secrets to His servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7). We have that prophetic message from the biblical prophets, apostles and even Jesus Himself, which we strongly proclaim today.

Our warning message is far more than a graphic description of the prophesied terrible events that are to come. Our warning message focuses on the consequences of sin, the collective result of breaking or ignoring what God commands all to do. Peter tells us what the outcome and the purpose of biblical prophecy is: “I now write to you . . . that you may be mindful of the words spoken before by the holy prophets” (2 Peter 3:1-2). Peter goes on with a description that easily fits with events of our day: “Scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts” (verse 3).

So, what is our present duty? “Therefore, since all these things [of our present age] will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness . . .” (verse 11). What should we be doing?

Our warning message centers on what presently makes up humanity’s hearts and minds. It is a warning about sin. It is a warning about the consequences—what happens when repentance is scorned and sin is championed.

So here we ask: What is God’s will in all of this? Peter tells us: God “is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9, emphasis added throughout).

What does this mean?

Directly quoting Jesus, the apostle John declared: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). We in the Church are firstfruits (James 1:18), the first to be called the children of God. As firstfruits, we are to proclaim and demonstrate God’s way of life today, so that our future spiritual brothers and sisters—literally billions of people—will have a tangible warning and witness to know what the terrible consequences are of ignoring the wide-ranging and deliberate purpose of God, which Paul described as “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27, English Standard Version).

In that context, we fulfill our calling to “cry aloud and spare not.” Within the power that God gives us, we “tell My people their sins” (Isaiah 58:1-2). This represents a somber and awesome responsibility, one that God describes as fulfilling the role of a spiritual “watchman” (Ezekiel 33:7). If we do not accomplish that purpose to God’s satisfaction, He will hold us accountable (Ezekiel 33:7-9).

As we preach “Thy Kingdom come,” we openly tell of the terrible things that are prophesied to happen. Ours is a daunting work that requires us to stand up and speak with a voice of clarity, a voice that fearlessly declares what will happen and, most importantly, why it will happen.

But even as we deliver this warning message, even as we watch the world fall apart around us, even as millions clamor in anguish, we should also weep. The prophet Ezekiel recorded this remarkable prophecy: “The LORD said to him, ‘Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it’” (Ezekiel 9:4).

We are not a “prediction organization.” There are many religious organizations that solely focus on prophecy as their mission.

We are blessed by God to be able to see prophetic events coming together. But it is not important to smugly “know” what may or may not happen. What is important is our precious understanding of why these things are happening and how we can share God’s attitude toward coming prophesied events: “As surely as I live, says the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live. Turn! Turn from your wickedness . . . Why should you die?” (Ezekiel 33:11, New Living Translation).

As He neared the end of His earthly ministry, Jesus Himself passionately reflected this attitude: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Matthew 23:37-38).

Yes, it is devastating to watch the world spiraling down. You don’t have to go beyond this week’s news to feel the crush of our times on our lives.

Again, as Peter declared, as we watch potential prophetic events heat up, “What manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness?” (2 Peter 3:11).

Do we sigh and cry over the way this world has chosen? Let us look to Paul, as he describes our expected standard of conduct: “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection” (Colossians 3:12-14).

Yes, God commissioned His Church to thunder a warning message. Indeed, we must “cry aloud and spare not.” But as we do, it must be based on an understanding of “what manner of persons ought you to be” as we sigh and cry over the needless abominations manifested during these last days of this present evil age.

I encourage you to listen to the book of Jeremiah and see if this is indeed the message he preached.