Program 268
Heeding Yahuwah’s Warnings

The destruction of Jerusalem teaches the importance of heeding divine warnings. Not a single Christian died in the fall of Jerusalem.

Welcome to WLC Radio, a subsidiary of WLC Radio Ministry, an online ministry dedicated to learning how to live in constant readiness for the Savior's return.

For two thousand years, believers of every generation have longed to be the last generation. Contrary to popular belief, though, Christ did not give believers “signs of the times” to watch for. Instead, he repeatedly warned that his coming would take even the faithful by surprise. Yahushua urgently warned believers to be ready because, he said, “The Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” [Matthew 24:44] 

WLC Radio: Teaching minds and preparing hearts for Christ's sudden return.

* * *Part 1: (Miles & Dave)

Miles Robey: Have you ever ignored a warning? What happened? Did everything turn out all right? Or were you left kicking yourself for not having paid attention?

I think most of us have heard Aesop’s fable of the boy who, getting bored with watching the village’s flock of sheep, cried, “Wolf! Wolf!” When the villagers came running to help, he laughed and laughed, thinking his jolly little joke was hilarious.

The adults, of course, weren’t so amused and told him never to do that again. And he didn’t . . . for a while. But eventually, boredom won out. He again cried, “Help! Help! Wolf! Wolf!” Again, the villagers rushed to protect the flock only to find, once again, the boy laughing at their expense. This time the villagers were even more angry and sternly warned the boy never to do that again.

Well, most of us know the story: a wolf actually came but this time when the boy cried “Wolf!” the villagers didn’t believe him, and the wolf killed the flock. Since Aesop first wrote his tale over 2,500 years ago, giving a false alarm has come to be known as “crying wolf.” The reason crying wolf is viewed as such an egregious lie, is that warnings are important. Warnings save lives. Well … they can, if they’re heeded. But ignored warnings can have very dire consequences.

Hello, my name is Miles Robey and you’re listening to World’s Last Chance Radio where we cover a variety of topics related to Scripture, prophecy, practical piety, Biblical beliefs, and living in constant readiness for the Savior’s unexpected return, whenever that might be.

Today, Dave Wright is going to be discussing the importance of heeding Yahuwah’s warnings. We’ll be looking at what happened when an entire group of people paid attention to an important warning given decades before—and what happened to those who ignored that same warning.

Dave Wright: Thank you, Miles. To start, I have a question for you.

Miles laughs: Uh-oh! I always worry when you start out this way. When you feel the need to announce you’re going to ask a question, it’s generally one I can’t answer.

Dave: Oh, come on, now.

Miles: It’s true! It’s true!

So. What’s your question.

Dave: What do French ambassador Georges Martres, German police psychologist Georg Sieber, Japanese professor Katsuhiko Ishibashi, and American FBI agent John O’Neil, all have in common?

Miles: Uhhh … See? I knew you were going to do something like this! Uhhh … I’ve got no clue. What do they all have in common?

Dave: Every last one of them gave dire warnings that were ignored … with disastrous consequences.

George Martres was the French ambassador to Rwanda from 1990 to 1993. He warned that Hutu extremists wanted to get rid of the Tutsi minority. If I recall correctly, he even used the word “genocide” in his warning. In 1994, one year after he returned to France, an estimated 500,000 to 800,000 Rwandans were slaughtered in the very genocide he’d predicted.

Georg Sieber was a psychologist working for the Munich Police Department. Leading up to the Munich Olympics in 1972, he warned that a dozen Palestinians would invade the Olympic Village, kill a couple of Israeli hostages, and demand the release of Palestinian prisoners. His warnings were ignored and on September 5, eight Palestinians invaded the apartment housing the Israeli delegation, taking 11 athletes and coaches hostage and demanding the release of 234 prisoners. West German officials told Sieber they didn’t need him, and promptly messed up a rescue mission that cost every single hostage their life.

Professor Katsuhiko Ishibashi warned, clear back in 2007, that Japan’s nuclear power plants were vulnerable to earthquakes. When his warnings were rejected by a government subcommittee tasked with looking at that very issue, he resigned from the committee. Of course, we know that just 4 years later, in 2011, an earthquake caused a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

Miles: Wow. And John O’Neil?

Dave: John O’Neil was an American FBI agent who, starting back in the 1990s, began warning everyone in Washington, D.C. he could reach that a terrorist organization called Al-Qaeda, and someone called Osama Bin Laden, were threats to the United States. No one wanted to hear him so, in August of 2001, O’Neil was forced out of the FBI. He took a position as chief of security for the World Trade Center buildings.

Miles: Oh, no!

Dave: Despite being forced out of the FBI, O’Neil’s convictions remained. In fact, in a conversation with a friend the evening of September 10, 2001, he said that he was convinced a terrorist attack on US soil was imminent. Sadly, he lost his life, along with 2,996 other people, the very next morning when the Twin Towers collapsed.

Miles: Wow.

Dave: Warnings are important. Sometimes they’re vital. But they don’t do any good if they’re ignored.

Shortly before the Savior’s death—in fact, just days before—he warned the disciples that Jerusalem would be destroyed. His warning was recorded in Matthew 24, Luke 21 and Mark 13.

Now, in the past we, like many Christians, have believed that he was describing the end of the world as well as the fall of Jerusalem, but this is wrong. Verses 4 through 35 of Matthew 24 are all dealing with the fall of Jerusalem.

Yahushua doesn’t actually say much about the end of the world and he didn’t give any signs to look for. His focus in those passages was the destruction of Jerusalem. Let’s turn to Mark’s account of this discourse. Mark 13.

We don’t have time to read all of it, but I think most of us are familiar with these passages. Read verses 12 through 19, please.

Miles:

Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. Everyone will hate you because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.

When you see ‘the abomination that causes desolation’ standing where it does not belong—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the housetop go down or enter the house to take anything out. Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that this will not take place in winter, because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when [Yahuwah] created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again.

Dave: I want to emphasize these are not signs of the end of the world. These were signs given to warn of the destruction of Jerusalem. And every. Single. One. Came true.

Miles: Wow.

Dave: Josephus records that over 1 million people were killed in the fall of Jerusalem with almost 100,000 survivors sold into slavery. But not a single Christian lost their lives. And that’s what I want to emphasize today. This is an extremely important object lesson for believers living today. We need to learn to pay attention to Yahuwah’s warnings.

There are a lot of lessons we can learn from the story of the fall of Jerusalem.

Miles: We’re living in a world of sin. It’s dangerous. But if we’ll heed the warnings Yahuwah gives us, He will see us safely through.

Dave: Absolutely. And Jerusalem fell, just like the world today, because of wickedness. It’s easy for us to see the wickedness of the Jewish nation, and hard to see our own because we’re used to the wickedness in the world today. But we need to ask for spiritual discernment because the very thing the Jews prided themselves on, the very thing they thought gave them protection from destruction was the very thing that, in reality, was the cause of their destruction.

Miles: And that was …? I know you said wickedness, but what did that look like? How did they not recognize it and still convinced themselves that Yahuwah would save them?

Dave: Their wickedness was a form of religion without the life-changing, heart-changing transformation of true spirituality.

Turn to Matthew 23. The timing of this is very interesting. In Matthew 24 we read that the disciples and Christ are leaving the temple and the disciples say, “Wow! Look how beautiful this structure is!” As we know, Christ’s response was, “Hey, the day’s coming when not one stone will be left upon another!” The disciples thought that could only happen at the end of the age, so they came to Christ and asked, “Okay, so when’s this going to happen?” That’s when he gave them the signs to watch for in the destruction of Jerusalem, adding that there wouldn’t be any signs when he returned, so they’d have to always stay ready.

But the context for this entire conversation is found in Matthew 23. Turn there. This is the Savior’s last visit to the temple. There is no record of him ever setting foot inside it again. It was his last, desperate attempt to reach the sin-hardened hearts of the rulers. And what he did was to call them on their wickedness.

Read verses 13 to 15 for us.

Miles:

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. 

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.

Dave: And verses 27 and 28?

Miles:

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

Dave: So they had a form of godliness, but that’s all it was. They just put on a big show. But they refused to let it transform their lives.

How many Christians are doing the same thing today?

Miles: Too many, unfortunately. And I hate to say it, but I’ve been there, too.

Dave: So have I. I think most, if not all, believers have slipped into that at one time or another. But we’re not to stay there.

What did Christ say when he came over the brow of the hill and saw the city for the first time during the triumphant entry into Jerusalem?

Miles: Uhhh …

Dave: Matthew 23, verses 37 to 39.

Miles: Oh! Uh …

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Dave: Yahushua was heartbroken. He could see where the Jews’ obstinate refusal to accept truth, their obstinate refusal to accept him would eventually lead. And they were too blind to see it.

Part of what made the destruction of Jerusalem so bad was the Jews’ stubborn insistence that Yahuwah would save them.

Miles: Yeah, they still prided themselves on being Yahuwah’s chosen, didn’t they?

Dave: They did. They were so proud of their physical lineage, that they ignored the well-documented fact that Yahuwah’s protection was conditional. Yahuwah only fought for Israel when they were obedient.

You can go through the book of Judges—in fact, the entire Old Testament—and over and over again, the reason other nations could conquere Israel was because Israel forsook Yahuwah.

Well, after the Babylonian captivity, the Israelites finally figured out that their prosperity—or lack thereof—was directly related to whether they were loyal to Yahuwah or committing idolatry. This is when all the traditions of the elders came into prominence. This is when the Pharisees gained the ascendancy, when all the petty little rules came in, such as you can only walk X-number of steps on the Sabbath. Anything further is work.

Miles: You can’t light a fire on the Sabbath; that’s work.

Dave: Right. To this day, Hasidic Jews will hire a gentile to come into their houses on the Sabbath to turn lights on for them.

Miles: Completely disregarding the fourth commandment that says the Sabbath is even for “the stranger that is within thy gates.”

Dave laughs: Right.

Anyway, when the Romans marched on Jerusalem, these Jews were convinced that Yahuwah would fight for them, just as He had under good kings Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah. Clear up to the very end, the Jews inside Jerusalem were convinced that Yahuwah would come and save them.

But they had rejected Him years before. Spiritual pride and self-delusion blinded them to the fact that their continued rejection of Him had resulted in placing themselves beyond his protection.

Miles: That’s the danger of religious hypocrisy, isn’t it? You look like a believer, you sound like a believer, in many areas you may even live your life like a true believer, but if you don’t allow the truth to penetrate the heart, it’s just a show.

Dave: Yahushua saw this danger. Turn to Matthew chapter 15. Here, the Pharisees came to Yahushua and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They eat with unwashed hands!”

So then the Savior gently pointed out that the tradition of the elders itself broke Yahuwah’s law. Even back then, he was trying to open their eyes to the danger they were in.

Then, he quoted from Isaiah 29:13. Let’s read it: Matthew 15, verses 7 to 9.

Miles:

You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

These people honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
    their teachings are merely human rules.

Dave: This was the state of the Jews in Christ’s day and at the fall of Jerusalem. They were so expert at going through the motions, they were convinced they were still Yahuwah’s special people, but they weren’t.

This stubborn refusal to surrender is to blame, at least in part, with the destruction of the temple itself.

Miles: Oh, really?

Dave: Titus—who was then general; shortly after he became emperor—had given strict orders that the temple was not to be destroyed. But the soldiers were furious at the Jews and someone torched the temple against orders. Titus ordered the soldiers to put the fire out but they refused. The heat was so intense that all the gold melted and ran down between the stones. Christ’s prediction that not even one stone would be left upon another was fulfilled as they pried up the stones to get at the gold beneath.

* * *

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* * *Part 2: (Miles & Dave)

Miles: Now, I’ve read that the population of Jerusalem before its destruction was about 80,000 people. That’s big for that time! But it’s nowhere near as large as the over 1 million Josephus says lost their lives. Was he exaggerating for dramatic effect?

Dave: No. At the time the siege began, Jerusalem was swollen with people who had come to, ironically, celebrate the … Passover. It was one of the national holidays that drew Jews from all over. Also, once the siege started, the Romans let pilgrims in, but wouldn’t let anyone leave. So, this depleted their stores of food and water even faster.

Miles: Oh, are you serious?? The Passover?

Dave: Yes. And their spiritual pride was such that they were convinced Yahuwah would fight for them and deliver them. That He would “pass-over” them in protection again. But, as we know, He didn’t.

Miles: And no Christians were lost. How did they escape? Where did they go?

Dave: They fled to a city named Pella.

Miles: How far is that?

Dave: I honestly don’t know. I tried looking it up online. Some sources said it was only 20 miles or about 12-and-a-half kilometers. Other sources say it was almost a thousand miles or over 1,500 kilometers.

Miles: So. Just a wee bit of difference there!

Dave: Just a bit.

Anyway. The point is the Christians got out and they were saved. They’d heeded Christ’s warnings given almost four decades before and not a single Christian lost their lives.

As to how they escaped, again: they paid attention to Christ’s warnings.

In 66 CE, Cestius Gallus, the governor of Syria, was sent to suppress a Jewish revolt. He led an army of over 30,000 south, plundering towns and killing many on the way.

I’ve got here a quote I’d like you to read. It’s from CFR.org and is from an article talking about this campaign. Go ahead and read what’s underlined.

Miles:

Finally the legionnaires arrived at Jerusalem. From their camp on Mount Scopus, the imperial authorities sent emissaries to tell the rebels that they would be forgiven if they would throw away their arms and surrender. The Jews delivered their answer by killing one emissary and wounding the other. The legions then mounted five days of attacks on the capital. They captured the suburbs and were about to assault the inner city when, for reasons that remain mysterious, their commander, Cestius Gallus, the governor of Syria, decided to call off the offensive.

Unquote. That seems incredibly short-sighted to actually kill emissaries sent to them.

Dave: Absolutely. At the very least, it was dishonorable and did not respect the rules of war.

Anyway, no one knows why the governor decided to retreat, but he did. Josephus, who was himself part of the rebellion before being captured, was of the opinion that if he’d persisted just a few more days, he would have won. But instead he withdrew.

This was the sign believers had been watching for. Turn to Luke 21 and read verses 20 to 24.

Miles:

When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

Dave: This is extremely urgent language! It’s saying, if you’re in the countryside, don’t go back into the city to collect anything. Just go! Get out! Flee!

But what’s interesting is that there was a time lapse. Gallus withdrew in November of 66 CE. But Titus didn’t return until April of 70 CE! That’s three and a half years!

Miles: That’s fascinating. You know, you read Christ’s warning in the gospels, and it’s so urgent. They’re told that if someone is on the roof, don’t go inside to gather anything up. Just get out. It’s very urgent.

I wonder how many believers that had rushed to flee were tempted to return in the interim.

Dave: That’s a good point for believers today to consider. They may have been tempted, but they withstood that temptation because we know none of them lost their lives.

Titus’s army was enormous. He led a force of four legions, or 60,000 soldiers in addition to another 16,000 noncombative support personnel. By contrast, the Jews trapped inside Jerusalem had only 23,400 troops.

Miles: All of which contributed to sucking down precious supplies.

Dave: Right. But I want to talk now about a curious event, years before, that prepared a safe haven for believers. Most of us haven’t picked up on the connection here, but I want to bring this out to establish confidence that we can trust Yahuwah. This is how far-reaching His plans are.

Turn to Luke 8. We have here the story of how Christ calmed the storm.

Okay. Picking up the story when they reached land. Read verses 26 through 37.

Miles:

They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. When Yahushua stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. When he saw Yahushua, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Yahushua, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!” For Yahushua had commanded the impure spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.

Yahushua asked him, “What is your name?”

“Legion,” he replied, because many demons had gone into him. And they begged Yahushua repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.

A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Yahushua to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them permission. When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Yahushua, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Yahushua’s feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Yahushua to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left.

Dave: I used to think these people were more concerned about their hogs than that a human being had been restored to his right mind, but Luke explains why: these people were afraid! They’d tried for a long time to restrain this poor sufferer but had been unable to. And then when they saw that the herd of pigs was destroyed by the very same demons that had been haunting this poor soul … yes! They were very afraid of that kind of power.

Miles: Well, to be fair, you can see why. Let’s talk expenses here. A full-grown hog can weigh anywhere between 300 and 700 pounds, or 140 to 300 kilograms. That’s a lot!

I was curious what a whole hog would cost, so I looked it up online. I found a statement that said, quote: “The cost of the hog is priced per pound from the hanging weight (i.e., hog's live weight minus innards, head, and feet). A whole hog generally costs about $600-$750.” Unquote.

So, let’s take that lower number and times it by the number of hogs that drowned. Six hundred times 300 is $180,000 dollars. That’s €173,000, or £145,000. That’s a lot of money! You can see their concern.

Dave: Sure! But now we come to a part of the story I never understood. That’s what happened next. Read verses 38 and 39.

Miles: “The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Yahushua sent him away, saying, ‘Return home and tell how much [Yahuwah] has done for you.’ So the man went away and told all over town how much Yahushua had done for him.”

Dave: I always felt sorry for the man. Here he’d been miraculously delivered from his torment, and—naturally!—he wanted to go with his deliverer! But Yahushua told him to stay and spread the word of what had been done for him.

He couldn’t have had very long. How long would it take for the swineherds to dash back to town to tell everyone what had happened and then return? Fifteen minutes? Thirty? It couldn’t have been longer than an hour. You can see why he’d want to go with Christ and learn more from the one who had saved him from an unspeakable existence!

And yet Yahushua said, “No. Go spread the word of what Yahuwah has done for you.”

Miles: That in itself is unusual. How many times, in Israel, when Yahushua would heal someone, and he’d tell them, “Don’t tell anyone”? It was quite a few!

Dave: You’re right. But this wasn’t in Israel. The reason why Yahushua told so many in Israel not to talk about what he’d done for them was because of the jealousy of the scribes and Pharisees. In fact, John 7 verse 1 says, “After these things Yahushua walked in Galilee; for he did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him.” But they were no longer in Israel here.

Miles: And what could the demoniac—the former demoniac—have really shared?

Dave: That’s a good question. He didn’t know theology. He likely had no clue about the Hebrew Scriptures. But what he had was even more powerful: he had his personal testimony.

A personal testimony is a powerful thing. Sure, from a scientific standpoint, it’s not “empirical evidence.” It’s anecdotal evidence, but anecdotal evidence can be very powerful.

Yahushua told him to go and share what Yahuwah had done for him. And that’s exactly what he did. He didn’t have a lot to share. No theology. No specific doctrines. But he had his personal experience, and that’s impactful.

Miles: Who were the Gadarenes?

Dave: We don’t know for sure, but we do know that when the 10 northern tribes were exiled, the powers-that-be at that time moved foreigners in to live there. That’s what they did back then: conquer an area, deport the natives, and move outsiders in to live there.

So, it’s a pretty safe guess that they were gentiles.

Miles: Where was it? I’m afraid my knowledge of the geography of ancient Palestine is pretty rough. I know Galilee’s in the north and Jerusalem in the south and … that’s about it.

Dave: Well, the village of Gergesa in the region of the Gadarenes was to the east of Galilee in a region called Decapolis. “Deca” meaning ten, and “polis” meaning city.

Miles: So, ten cities.

Dave: Correct. So this is where the demoniac—the former demoniac—lived. And you can rest assured that word spread beyond his local village. It was such an incredible miracle, so unheard of—

Miles: Not to mention what happened to the pigs.

Dave: Right? People that knew him, people that heard his story, spread the word.

And we know his testimony had an impact because when Yahushua later returned to that region, Scripture says that the people welcomed him there.

Miles: Sounds like it was a very, um, “fertile field” for the gospel message.

Dave: Absolutely.

Now here’s where it gets really interesting. One of the cities of Decapolis was … Pella. The very same city the believers would flee to in approximately 40 years.

Miles: Wow!

Dave: The fact that Yahushua was well-known and well-respected in that area, probably some of the people that first met him were still alive. After all, it was only 40 years later. This would create a very safe and very welcoming environment for the Jewish believers fleeing Jerusalem and Judea.

Turn to John 16. This was just before Yahushua’s betrayal, and he was trying to bolster the disciples’ faith and confidence. He knew the trials they would be facing, and he wanted to strengthen them.

What did he say in verse 33 of John 16?

Miles: “These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

Dave: Yahuwah knew the future facing the early believers, just as He knows the future facing all of us. And that’s why He had prepared a safe place for His people to flee.

General Titus made a very telling statement. He said, and I quote: “It is no great accomplishment to defeat a people abandoned by their god.”

Miles: Wow.

Dave: The thing we have to remember is that the very last thing Yahuwah ever wants to do is to abandon us. He strives, He pleads, He woos. He wants to save us!

But He will always respect our right to choose. He’s the originator of freedom of choice. The Jews had rejected Yahuwah clear back when they insisted on having a human king to rule over them. They rejected Him again in the person of his son. And, still again, when they murdered the deacon, Stephen. Divine mercy is very reluctant to step back.

But in the end, Yahuwah will always respect freedom of choice.

Miles: I remember in a previous program you referred to divine punishment as Yahuwah’s “strange” work?

Dave: Yes! That’s, ahhh … let me see …

That’s in Isaiah 28. Why don’t you turn there really quickly? Isaiah 28 and read verse 21.

Miles: “For Yahuwah shall rise up as in mount Perazim, He shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that He may do His work, His strange work; and bring to pass His act, His strange act.”

Dave: Punishment, to our loving heavenly Father, is a “strange” work. It’s something he takes no pleasure in.

In fact, if you look up the first use of “strange” in that sentence, it comes from a Hebrew word meaning foreign or profane. It is not something in which Yahuwah delights or that He enjoys.

The other use of “strange” comes from another Hebrew word which can mean strange and foreign, but also means different, outlandish, and alien. Again, Yahuwah mourns when He has to punish. It hurts Him when we hurt. He will do everything in His power to protect us and take care of us—including preparing a region to accept believers 40 years into the future.

I have here a quote I’d like you to read from a man named Daniel Curry. Would you read that for us, please? Just the bracketed part.

Miles:

There are no safer people [than] when obedient people wait in faith in times of dire need, counting on Yahuwah and Yahushua for their rescue. Who can steal Yahuwah’s children from His hand? No one takes a sheep from Yahushua unless it is part of some plan that more greatly serves Yahuwah’s kingdom than the survival of that sheep.

Dave: And remember: Yahuwah will only lead us as we would choose to be led if we could know the end from the beginning just as He can.

Miles: Stay tuned: How to make Sabbath special for children. Up next in our Daily Mailbag.

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Inference. Extrapolation. Implication. There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of these, so long as they are accurate and consistent with the truth. However, too often the conclusions drawn through inference and extrapolation are incorrect because the foundation on which they are based is wrong.

An example of this is found in the widely held assumption—and, amongst some denominations, the doctrinal belief—that membership in a particular denomination is required for salvation. The Roman Catholic Church is an excellent example of this belief. While more and more Catholic clergy are softening their stance that there is no salvation outside the Roman Catholic Church, the fact is that the doctrine remains a fundamental teaching of their beliefs. And they aren’t alone. Even churches who acknowledge that sincere believers exist in other denominations—and even other religions—will still teach that if you are exposed to “their” particular blend of truth and reject it, you will be lost, implying that their denomination is superior to all others.

These are all inferences, however, and incorrect ones at that! Certainly it is natural for believers to assume that their denomination has a monopoly on the truth. No honest-minded believer would knowingly promote beliefs he knew to be wrong. However, assuming that church membership increases (or guarantees) salvation is simply wrong. People are saved individually, never in groups. Scripture makes this very clear.

If you would like some Biblical evidence to share with those still trapped in this out-moded way of thinking, you need to listen to the program called “Salvation is an individual gift, not a group gift.” [Program 121] That’s “Salvation is an individual gift, not a group gift.” You can find this and other previously aired programs on WorldsLastChance.com or on YouTube!

* * *Daily Mailbag (Miles & Dave)

Miles: Today’s daily mailbag question is coming from the first Arab country to have female police officers. Can you guess where it is?

Dave: Oh! Uhhh … no clue. Which country is it?

Miles: Jordan! Which is also the country that has the world’s oldest statues.

Dave: Interesting. I would have guessed some place in Africa or possibly Persian. So, what’s our question today?

Miles: Well, Ihsan [eeh-SAN] has a question I think every parent is going to appreciate. She writes: “How do I make the Sabbath special for my children? When I was growing up, Sabbaths were the most boring day of the week. My parents would tell us everything we couldn’t do then go and take naps. My brothers and I always looked forward to the end of Sabbath so we could finally have some fun. I want the Sabbath to be the highlight of the week for my children. I would be grateful for any suggestions on how to do that.”

Dave: I love this question. It’s honest. It shows experience and insightfulness as well as the wisdom to see that there is something better than what she experienced growing up.

Miles: It’s a great question. As a parent, we want our kids to love the Sabbath, but yeah. It can be challenging.

Dave: Well, like anything, if we want our children to enjoy the Sabbath hours, it’s going to take commitment and forethought on our part.

I think part of the problem arises when we push so hard to get through each week that when Sabbath comes, we’re simply too tired to do anything but crash. We just want to catch up on our sleep.

Miles: That’s true. If we’re not careful, we can pack each week so full that Sabbath can seem like dragging ourselves across the finish line at the end of a marathon.

Dave: Some weeks are definitely like that. And don’t beat yourself up with guilt if you’ve had a week like that. Yahuwah understands.

That said, if you can pace yourself, if you can get some solid sleep the night before so you’re more well-rested for the Sabbath, that will help you receive a greater Sabbath day’s blessing.

And if you’ve got children, it’s going to take some planning. Because she’s right: leaving children with a list of “thou shalt nots” while the parents go and take naps isn’t going to help kids enjoy the Sabbath.

Miles: How did you make the Sabbath enjoyable for your kids when they were younger?

Dave: Well, when our daughter was very young, my wife and I would take turns playing dolls with her. She recently commented on it as being one of her happiest early childhood memories. She was getting one-on-one time with Mummy and Daddy, and that’s what made it very special for her. She’d set the dolls in rows and teach them Bible stories.

Ihsan doesn’t say how old her children are, but regardless of your kids’ ages, spending some time focused on them, doing things together as a family will create very special happy memories. It goes without saying that the time spent together will be spent in a pleasant atmosphere.

Miles: That’s true. You can’t expect kids to sit quietly all day long and have it be a pleasant experience for them.

Dave: Spending time in nature is a wonderful way to spend some of the Sabbath hours. Obviously, where you live and the weather must be taken into account. But if you live in a flat, even going to a city park, seeing the beauties of nature, going for a walk along a river … these are all ways to get into nature.

Miles: One thing our kids like doing are scavenger hunts in nature. We’ll give them a list of things they have to find, like a feather, a red flower, … a … whatever. It gets them into nature and they have fun while there.

Dave: That’s wonderful. Young children might enjoy coloring or doing a craft project while Mum or Dad read an interesting story. If you don’t have a Christian bookstore near you, you can always print off Bible character coloring pages at an internet café.

Miles: What about for older teens?

Dave: Older teens are at an age when they’re discovering the joys of deep conversation. If you’ve got a group of teens, start a conversation on some moral or ethical dilemma. Ask them which Biblical principles address that particular situation and then sit back and let the kids discuss it amongst themselves. This isn’t an opening for you to preach at them. Let them talk it out amongst themselves. They’ll enjoy it more and learn a lot more that way, too.

I think the most important thing in making happy memories of Sabbath for your kids is, regardless of the age of the child, to spend a lot of fun family time. During the week, they’re at school; you’re busy at work. Spending time together as a family can give the children a sense of connection and love and warmth that is very important. They may not remember specifics of the activities you did, but they will remember how they felt when with you on the Sabbath, and that’s what’s important.

Miles jokes: So no snapping at the little rugrats for having all this pent-up energy!

Dave chuckles: Kids do have a lot more energy than adults. It’s important to take into account the needs of the younger members of Yah’s family. And Yahuwah understands! The last thing He wants is for the Sabbath to be an onerous chore for anyone.

Another thing many kids enjoy are Bible quizzes. If they don’t know the answer, they can look it up in their Bibles. Having quizzes, asking them questions, helps them learn the Bible stories well and in a fun way.

Miles: Charades.

Dave: Sure! Pantomiming Bible stories and guessing which one it is. Again, it takes planning but with Yah’s blessing, the Sabbath hours can draw you closer together as a family, and closer to Yahuwah. They can be the highlight of your children’s childhood memories.

Miles: And what a gift you’re giving your kids to bring them up that way!

We always enjoy hearing from our listeners so if you’ve got a question you’d like Dave to answer, all you have to do is go to our website and click on Contact Us. We look forward to hearing from you.

Up next is Jane Lamb with your daily promise.

* * *Daily Promise:

Hello! This is Jane Lamb with today’s daily promise from Yah’s Word.

It’s so easy to look at the mistakes of someone else and feel superior because, after all, you’d never make a mistake like that! Often judgmental reactions are justified as “not wanting to show approval of someone else’s sin.” But such responses are never, ever in keeping with the way Christ treated others.

Joanne Aurica likes to people watch. Especially while traveling on public transit, she enjoys observing the people around her. One day, while traveling at rush-hour, she noticed two young girls sitting nearby. They couldn’t have been more than 16 or 17 and one of the girls was quite clearly pregnant. She looked utterly miserable. Looking at her, it was easy to intuit that the girl was dealing with all sorts of negative situations, not least of which was the likely distress of her parents. Her anxiety, shame, sadness and depression were easy to read on her face and in her self-conscious body language.

Sitting nearby was a nicely dressed businessman that looked to be in his 50s. He was well-groomed and wearing professional attire. He’d been reading but caught the young girl’s eye and smiled. “How far along are you?” he asked. She told him. Then he asked if she were on her way to a nearby facility for single mothers. She admitted she was.

He then asked, “If you don’t mind my asking, are you planning on keeping the baby?”

“No,” she said. “I’m putting it up for adoption.”

He smiled at her with such warmth and kindness! His words had to be a balm to her young, hurting heart. “Good for you!” He said. “You are doing such a great thing. Thank you for bringing the baby to term and allowing someone who can’t have children to have a child. You are doing a really great thing. It takes courage and you’re to be congratulated.”

His voice was quiet and sincere. Genuine compassion radiated from him. The difference in the girl’s face was instantaneous! From utter misery and sadness, her face transformed to a smile as she said a shy “thank you” to the businessman. Joanne felt as though she were watching Yah Himself comfort a weary soul.

We are never called to judge or criticize others. Saying, “I love you, I just hate your sin” is one of the most judgmental things we could ever say to anyone, and it doesn’t help! Yahushua told the woman caught in adultery, “Neither do I condemn you.” He would say the same thing to the gay man, the pregnant teenager, the divorcée, the addict.

In describing the mission of the Messiah, Yahuwah through Isaiah said:

Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
    my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
    and he will bring justice to the nations.
He will not shout or cry out,
    or raise his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
    and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.

That’s a promise!

Are you feeling judged or rejected? Do you have unrelenting remorse over mistakes you’ve made? Yah’s word to you is one of encouragement, comfort and compassion.

We have been given great and precious promises. Go and start claiming!

* * *Part 3: (Miles & Dave)

Miles: In our first segment, you mentioned how most of Matthew 24 is focused on warning what to watch for in the destruction of Jerusalem. But didn’t Christ give any signs at all to watch for with regard to his return?

Dave: Well, let’s take a look and you tell me. Turn to Matthew 24 and read verses 36 through 41.

Verse 34 Christ says that the generation of his listeners will not die away before his warning—his warning about Jerusalem—comes to pass. In verse 35 he emphasizes that point by saying, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

Then he turns his attention to the end of the world. Go ahead. Verses 36 to 41. And as you read, look for any specific signs he might give.

Miles:

But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

Dave: Any signs there?

Miles: No! Not any.

Dave: What’s being described is an event so sudden, so unexpected, that people will be as shocked as the people were before the flood. It was all “life as normal” until the flood came and took them all away. There’s no way to plan for something you don’t see coming. So, then, he’s going to tell us how to get ready.

Unlike with the fall of Jerusalem, there are no signs to look for. So what are we to do? Verses 42 to 44.

Miles:

Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Dave: This is Christ’s warning for the final generation: Stay awake! You don’t know when I’m going to return.

The thing is, the final generation won’t even know that they’re the final generation. We might be. We might not be. We just don’t know. And that’s precisely why we must always stay ready: because he’s going to return when we’re not expecting it.

We’re all going to be taken by surprise. There’s no way to predict when he’ll come other than it will be life as normal.

This is why it’s of utmost importance that we learn to live in constant readiness for his return. There are no signs; we have to be ready.

Miles: Okay, but … how?

Dave: Daily surrender. Hourly surrender. Sometimes it comes down to moment-by-moment surrender. It’s learning to live with your mind tuned heavenward. When something happens, whether it’s good or bad, your first impulse is to tell your Heavenly Father. It’s learning to live in constant connection to our Creator.

Now, can we do this perfectly? No. We’ll still stray; we’ll still stumble into sin. We’ve still got fallen natures. But we don’t give up. We persevere. We take Christ’s warning to heart. And then, whether he returns in our lifetime or later, it won’t matter because we’ll be ready.

Miles: Hmm. What a high calling.

Thank you, Dave. And thank you to our listening audience for tuning in. Today’s program is called “Heeding Yahuwah’s Warnings.” If you want to share today’s broadcast, you can find it on our website at WorldsLastChance.com. Just click on the WLC Radio icon and look for Program 268: “Heeding Yahuwah’s Warnings.”

We hope you can join us again tomorrow, and until then, remember: Yahuwah loves you . . . and He is safe to trust!

* * *

You have been listening to WLC Radio.

This program and past episodes of WLC Radio are available for downloading on our website. They're great for sharing with friends and for use in Bible studies! They're also an excellent resource for those worshipping Yahuwah alone at home. To listen to previously aired programs, visit our website at WorldsLastChance.com. Click on the WLC Radio icon displayed on our homepage. 

In his teachings and parables, the Savior gave no “signs of the times” to watch for. Instead, the thrust of his message was constant … vigilance. Join us again tomorrow for another truth-filled message as we explore various topics focused on the Savior's return and how to live in constant readiness to welcome him warmly when he comes.

WLC Radio: Teaching minds and preparing hearts for Christ's sudden return.