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    God's Just Judgment of a Nation Supplement
    God's Just Judgment of a Nation Supplement
    God's Just Judgment of a Nation Supplement
    Ebook298 pages4 hours

    God's Just Judgment of a Nation Supplement

    By James Tarter

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    This book is a collection of 12 appendices and 4 chapter supplements to GOD'S JUST JUDGMENT OF A NATION. This SUPPLEMENT or topics in it probably are best for those who have read or are reading that core book, although I make each discussion full enough to stand by itself. Here I call attention to Apx. 4, which shows God's justice to all and mercy to many in His way to judge nations generations after some sins. Apx. 5 shows God's government of the earth from Mt. Zion, and shows requirements for believers in Jesus to participate in this government under King Jesus. Apx. 7 offers unusual insights into God's amazing work to develop His fully Christ-like Church. Apx. 12 provides beautiful insights into God's work to bring together the Church and Israel. A reader of GOD'S JUST JUDGMENT OF A NATION can check the free Preview of the SUPPLEMENT, which contains all of it, and see if other appendices and chapter supplements may help him/her. Each has useful content for some believers.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLulu.com
    Release dateApr 11, 2011
    ISBN9781257506248
    God's Just Judgment of a Nation Supplement

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      Book preview

      God's Just Judgment of a Nation Supplement - James Tarter

      God's Just Judgment of a Nation Supplement

      God’s Just Judgment of a Nation Supplement

      Preparing Our Nation to Receive a Blessed Just Judgment

      Dr. James M. Tarter

      Copyright Page

      14th Edition

      ISBN 978-1-257-50624-8

      Copyright 2001, 2006, 2018 by James M. Tarter.  All rights reserved.  Permission granted to make copies for purposes consistent with furthering the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God.

      Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE® (1995 Updated Edition): 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation.  Used by permission.  (www.Lockman.org)

      I call the New American Standard Bible the NAS.  I add boldface or underline to specific words and phrases in Scriptures to add my emphasis for discussion.

      Introduction: Filling in the Basic Picture With This Supplement

      This Supplement is designed for those who have read or are reading God’s Just Judgment of a Nation, which is called the book in this Supplement.  The book gives a basic picture of what God calls His people to do to save a nation and move it into the great future that He gives to any nation that joins itself to Christ Jesus as His disciple.  The U.S. is normally used to illustrate the principles.  The book covers the main points that are most likely to be needed now or in the near future, but omits or condenses many relevant points in order to provide a clearer and simpler basic picture.  My goals for this Supplement are to fill in parts of the picture that I omitted, and to give a fuller Scriptural foundation for some parts of the basic picture.  I intend to keep the entire Supplement as a free PDF and Preview at www.lulu.com.

      Most of the 12 appendices fill in or add to the basic picture.  Each appendix can be vitally important to some readers but unimportant to others.  Each appendix is written to cover its topic from the Bible with its own perspective, and the references to the book, another appendix, or chapter supplement are included to help readers integrate a brief discussion of an idea into the whole picture.  Therefore a reader should be able to follow the key ideas of an appendix without turning often to other sources. (In Apx. 1, 6, 8, 10, I do suggest that the reader turn to a book in his Bible that the appendix focuses on using the NAS).

      A chapter supplement elaborates on a topic in the chapter, such as the Joel 2 judgment, the timing for the outpouring of God’s Spirit, and His giving the Elijah ministry to the Church in a land before its Day of the Lord.  The supplements also fill in some points from Joel that we did not discuss much, such as how the nations separate according to their relationship to the Lord Jesus at the consummation of the age.

      TERMS FOR REFERENCES. Your book supplements what I call the book: God’s Just Judgment of a Nation (the Preview contains the whole book and is free at www.lulu.com under James Tarter).  Your book contains only chapter supplements and appendices, so that I call it this Supplement.  In this Supplement, a reference to Chapter 7 means Chapter 7 in the book (this Supplement has no chapters).

      Page numbers in this Supplement are page numbers in a printed copy, free Preview, or free PDF download of the book.  A reference to another part of this Supplement is called Apx. # or Chapter # supplement, or a more specific location – for example, early Apx. 1.

      Appendix 1: Amos’ Example for Nations Today

      In Chapters 3, 7, and 15, we examine parts of Amos as they arise in Joel.  We see much evidence that ancient Israel in Amos serves as a historical example of a nation that refuses to repent according to the principles of national judgment in Joel.  We need an example, because the principles are easily missed.  In this appendix we consider Amos systematically.  Our approach to Amos here confirms how it illustrates the principles in Joel about God’s work with nations in our day.

      Because God uses Amos to illustrate Joel, He makes most of its major lessons for nations today easy to see by simply reading Amos.  Therefore I shall state some of its major obvious applications without a further explanation, while most of our attention will be directed toward bringing out and explaining some major lessons that are less obvious.  I recommend that you open your Bible to Amos.

      Lessons for Nations Today from 7 National Judgments in Amos 1:3-2:5

      Amos 1:3-2:5 God briefly declares specific sins and pronounces just judgments of seven ancient nations surrounding ancient Israel, the focus of the rest of Amos and the primary example that God gives to illustrate Joel’s principles for nations that refuse to repent.

      What can Amos 1:3-2:5 show about the judgment of nations today?  This Scripture provides a part of the basis for the claim that God has or will ultimately judge every nation on earth – while it exists (Chapter 7).  In this section we consider highlights of what Amos 1:3-2:5 can show about nations now.  I recommend that you read Amos 1:1-2:6 in your Bible now, which tells about the seven ancient nations and introduces Amos’ prophecy about ancient Israel’s judgment (2:6).

      Each of the eight descriptions begins: "For three transgressions of … [nation] and for four I will not revoke its punishment."  In the first seven God specifies a sin or two that provoked the judgment, declares that He will send fire that consumes specific strongholds (fortresses or citadels) in the nation, and usually adds a few details about the specific judgment.  The devastating punishment is just (or deserved): before God specifies only one or two sins, He says that a larger number of sins causes the punishing national judgment.

      After the same beginning for ancient Israel, God uses the rest of Amos instead of a few verses to describe its sins and judgment.  Ancient Israel is God’s chosen example to illustrate clearly how Joel’s general principles are worked out in nations that refuse to repent.

      What in this Scripture suggests that every nation will be justly judged?  Seven is often used in the Bible to indicate completeness or fullness.  Consider this sequence in the Bible: God uses figurative language in Joel (like locusts) to give the general pattern and principles about judging nations before the great and awesome Day of the Lord.  Immediately after Joel He briefly pronounces a just judgment of seven nations in Amos 1:1-2:5.  Then in the next verse He begins His extended pronouncement of judgment of ancient Israel in the same way, but then He elaborates on Israel’s judgment in the rest of Amos.  Ancient Israel is the nation that God uses to illustrate what Joel shows for nations that refuse God’s calls for repentance and turning to Him.

      Amos 1:1-2:5 is the bridge in Scripture that connects His pattern and principles in Joel with His example for us in Amos 2:6-9:15.  The seven in this bridge is a hint to me that before Jesus returns at the global Day of the Lord in Joel 3, every nation will be justly judged: held fully accountable for its unresolved sins in its national history.  The first footnote * at the end of this Apx. 1 shows four strong confirmations of this hint of the just judgment of every nation while it exists.  A second footnote ** shows a good way that God may send fire that consumes strongholds in nations today (words used in all 7 short judgments).  Here we proceed with learning from God’s example of ancient Israel.

      Insights for Nations Now from the Sins of Ancient Israel

      Every nation has its own combination of sins, so that some specific sins in ancient Israel will not necessarily be key sins in every nation today.  Nevertheless, God has chosen ancient Israel as the example for the nations today, and so it is good for readers to consider Israel’s sins with a view toward their own nation’s sins.  The sins that caused ancient Israel’s judgment could well be stumbling blocks for many modern nations.

      Israel’s sins can be put into three basic groups: abusing other people, especially the poor, helpless, needy, and righteous in Israel; the empty, phony religion that abused God’s holiness; and Israel’s arrogant refusal to repent from iniquity and to truly turn to God.

      Amos is very clear about these sins, so that there is little need to go into detail about the first two groups here.  But ancient Israel’s refusal to repent of its sins is very instructive for any nation today.  We shall find many insights in this appendix.

      Amos’ Clear Illustration of Joel about a Nation that Refuses to Repent

      Remember (Chapter 3) how Amos 4:6-11 helps us to understand Joel 1: Amos 4 is one of the Scriptures corresponding to the season of Joel 1 of a land, and all of them helped us to consider the nature of this season of afflictions instead of focusing only on physical locusts.

      Amos 4 especially helps us to see that the nation is stubbornly refusing to repent and turn to God in the Joel 1 season of afflictions.  After indicating afflictions on the people of Israel, God concludes five times, Yet you have not returned to Me.  This demonstrates how God repeatedly calls people to repent in this Joel 1 season, but in this case (our example Israel) they refuse to repent or even hear Him. Therefore God tells the people in Amos 4:12: Prepare to meet your God.

      The description of the afflictions in Amos 4:6-11 is set up by a series of nine questions asked in Amos 3.  For example, v. 6 asks: If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people tremble?  If a calamity occurs in a city, has not the Lord done it?  These questions help the people of Israel and believers now to realize that such afflictions did not happen by chance: life without God caused them, because the nation had left Him with His protection and had stubbornly refused to repent and turn to Him.  If people do not like their situation, then they should seek Him about it.  (Actually, God does not like it either).

      What??  People are often offended by this idea in Amos 3:6, but that prejudice can keep someone from understanding the shakings in Amos 4 and Joel 1.  If one turns to God, then He can show that insisting on mere justice is devastating (as Luke 13:1-5 shows), but also that they can be saved by receiving His forgiveness in Jesus.

      We saw (p. 74 in Chapter 8) that Amos 5:15 confirms another key development in Joel.  The uncertainty in Joel 2:14, "Who knows whether He will not turn and relent?", is also stated in ancient Israel’s final call to repentance in Amos 5:15: "Perhaps the Lord God of hosts may be gracious to the remnant of Joseph."  On the same page, we saw that Jonah 3:9 further confirms this conclusion for this same situation.  The sure promise of 2Chron. 7:13-14 is no longer available to a land at its final call to national repentance in Joel 2: the season for the sure promise has passed.

      Amos’ Illustration of Joel’s Day of the Lord on a Nation

      We have also seen (Chapter 7) how the bear-and-snake analogy in Amos 5:19 helps us to understand the Joel 2 judgment of darkness.  V. 19 enables us to see the two-fold nature of the curse more clearly than anything in Joel, and both have been primary features in the practical outworking of this judgment in the last 70 years.  Although we have good reasons from Joel itself to realize that Joel 2:2-11 does not refer to the army of believers, many believers miss the reasons (shown in Chapter 7 Supplement), and so Amos 5:19 helps us avoid this error.

      Amos 5:18 and 20 also reinforce the connection between Amos 5:19 and the Joel 2 judgment of darkness on the nation’s Day of the Lord (Chapters 7, 15).  Indeed, I used the way that Amos illustrated the principles in Joel to show the Scriptural meaning of the Day of the Lord on a single nation. Let us briefly review this dark Day of the Lord.

      ¹⁷"And in all the vineyards there is wailing, because I shall pass through the midst of you," says the Lord.  ¹⁸Alas, you who are longing for the day of the Lord, for what purpose will the day of the Lord be to you?  It will be darkness and not light; ¹⁹as when a man flees from a lion and a bear meets him, or goes home, leans his hand against the wall and a snake bites him.  ²⁰Will not the day of the Lord be darkness instead of light, even gloom with no brightness in it?  (Amos 5:17-20)

      Notice that the Lord says, I shall pass through the midst of you, and immediately describes the dark Day of the Lord coming on ancient Israel.  This was not fulfilled on ancient Israel by His coming visibly or physically, but by His coming spiritually to hold Israel fully accountable for unresolved sins throughout its history when the nation rejected Him at this pivotal time. His coming spiritually established the awful national judgment of darkness that this Scripture calls the Day of the Lord.

      Indeed, this meaning of the Day of the Lord fits into the timing of God’s promise to pour out His Spirit on all mankind after a nation’s final call to repentance and before the great and awesome Day of the Lord comes to the nation (Joel 2:28-31, as discussed in Chapter 10).  If the people are prepared so that they recognize and receive Him at this pivotal point, then a nation today joins itself to Jesus and becomes a part of His people, and He pays the just penalty for the nation’s sins.  If the nation rejects Him in His holy justice by ignoring Him or worse, then the nation also rejects His sacrifice and must pay its own just penalty.  This devastates the nation today even like ancient Israel.

      This Day of the Lord on an individual land also fits into the description in Micah 1 (Chapter 15).  In Micah 1 the Lord comes from His holy temple to judge two unrepentant nations for sinfulness and sins that had been getting ripe throughout their history.

      Now let us see how Amos 5:17-20 leads into the rest of Amos.  We see what His people and priests did to cause the Day of the Lord to be awful, and shows how their lives on earth were justly devastated.

      Alas for Many Christians on Their Nation’s Day of the Lord

      The only people who are longing for the day of the Lord are those who thought they were in good standing with Him.  In Amos 5:18 God tells them, Alas.  He goes on to show that this Day of the Lord on the unrepentant nation would be an awful darkness and gloom instead of brightness and light.  This should shock us!

      Believers cannot look to the Day of the Lord for a personal escape, or use their longing for Jesus’ return to substitute for obeying His voice to serve Him and others.  This service helps the land to repent and turn to Him.  A grievous national judgment awaits every unrepentant nation before He returns, but believers can save their land.  The Day of the Lord on an individual nation is merely a just judgment when God makes the nation fully accountable.

      Today there is much work to do in any unrepentant nation as its Day of the Lord draws near, even as there was in ancient Israel.  Their outward religion without real repentance deceived only themselves.  God was angry at the idolatry of His people in the land, and also angry at those of His people who casually accepted this idolatry, injustice, and unrighteousness (Amos 5:21-27).  Therefore Amos 6:1a says, "Woe to those who are at ease in Zion and to those who feel secure in the mountain of Samaria."

      Then God shows that His judgment on the Day of the Lord comes especially on those who ignored this problem while lavishing themselves with luxuries.  Consider Amos 6:3-7:

      Do you put off the day of calamity, and would you bring near the seat of violence?  Those who recline on beds of ivory and sprawl on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall, who improvise to the sound of the harp, and like David have composed songs for themselves, who drink wine from sacrificial bowls while they anoint themselves with the finest of oils, yet they have not grieved over the ruin of Joseph. Therefore, they will now go into exile at the head of the exiles, and the sprawlers’ banqueting will pass away. (Amos 6:3-7)

      Christians who work to serve themselves luxuriously in the midst of the great idolatry and iniquity in their nation deceive themselves.  They need to re-examine themselves and what God is saying to them.  For one thing, God calls His people corporately to prepare the way for Him in the land as the time approaches for His coming to the land in His holy justice – the nation’s Day of the Lord – so that the nation as a whole unit receives Him instead of ignoring or rejecting Him.

      Most of the people in ancient Israel were not shocked by the Alas and did not seek the Lord nor grieve over the ruin of Joseph.  Therefore they went into exile at the head of the exiles.  Likewise, the Day of the Lord on China, for example, was very tough on almost everyone in China, but especially on the Christians there.

      Zeph. 1 agrees with this picture from Amos.  Consider v. 14-15:

      ¹⁴Near is the great day of the Lord, near and coming very quickly; listen, the day of the Lord!  In it the warrior cries out bitterly.  ¹⁵A day of wrath is that day, a day of trouble and distress, a day of destruction and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness.  (Zeph. 1:14-15)

      The context of v. 14-15 emphasizes that this judgment specifically affects His stagnant and complacent people.  Consider v. 12 and 4-7a:

      It will come about at that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are stagnant in spirit, who say in their hearts, "The Lord will not do good or evil!" (v. 12)

      "So I will stretch out My hand against…those who have turned back from following the Lord, and those who have not sought the Lord or inquired of Him."  Be silent before the Lord God!  For the day of the Lord is near. (Zeph. 1:4, 6-7a)

      The Nation’s Ultimate Rejection of God’s Call to Repentance

      Ancient Israel’s ultimate rejection of its final call to repentance is shown in Amos 7 and describes a potential development in the U.S. and many other nations now.  Amos’ intercession had saved the nation from destructive just judgments, but the time came when God declared that He would judge all who were not upright in Israel (Amos 7:1-9).  Amaziah was the religious authority representing the Lord in Bethel, which was where the king lived and which means house of God.

      While the land was in great idolatry, the influential Amaziah repudiated God’s call to repentance through Amos.  Amaziah tried to provide a sanctuary for the king (Amos 7:13).  A sanctuary from what?  The situation makes it clear that Amaziah wanted this to be a place of refuge from being challenged by the living word of God.  Surely King Jeroboam did not resist his efforts, because he did evil in the sight of the Lord and practiced Israel’s idolatry (2Kings 14:24).  Amos 7:17 shows that Amaziah’s success brought an awful judgment on himself and his family, but also ensured that Israel would receive its awful national judgment.  Up to this point God’s many pronouncements of judgment were really warnings that could have stimulated repentance (as we see from Jer. 18:7-8 in Chapter 8).

      In nations today there are many respected religious leaders who call themselves Christians while they bless idolatry, deny the authority of the word of God, and fight against repentance and turning to the God of the Bible.  In this way they make idolatry respectable and confuse those who do not know what the God of the Bible is saying.

      This example can show us that even though we do need unity in the Church in order to bring about national repentance – we need a good corporate response to God – we should also realize that there are some highly influential tares who call themselves Christians, but who fight vigorously and insidiously against the repentance that God wants now from the nation and its people (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43).  For example, leaders in many denominations falsely assure people that the U.S. does not have a vital need now to follow God’s word in the Bible, because the tares really do not believe the Bible.

      I shall add my conclusion from 2Chron. 7:13-14 and elsewhere: although people who falsely profess to be Christians are a major problem in nations today, it will be overcome if only the true Christians in

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