Prophecy before the Flood - Jude 14-15

JD11-01

© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1973)

We are going to look at Jude 14 and 15. We are dealing with this book of apostasy which has a great deal to tell us about where the world is moving in our day on the basis of what it has done in the past. One of the things that this particular passage deals with is the antediluvian civilization, the pre-flood civilization, and the things that characterize that civilization which was business as usual. This eats like a disease upon the lives of those of us who are biblical Christians. It is quite obvious that it is very difficult for some Christians to be faithful attenders of the Word of God. They manage to stagger into church once or twice a month. They manage sometimes to be able to stomach two services in a row on a Sunday. But, by and large, the age of apostasy is indeed upon us, and it is reflected among believers.

One of these days, these believers are going to have the same experience that the people in Noah's day had when the rains began to fall and the fountains of the deep began to break up. Noah had been building this huge ark in his garage for such a long time. He finally opened the doors and it started floating out, and these people decided to start clawing, pounding, screaming, and yelling to get in. Sooner or later, the flood is going to come into your life, as it does to all of us. Then I can guarantee you it will be too late for you to remember all those times when you needed the Word and you don't have it. That's the time you're going to be running off to somebody to get some help that nobody can really give you because help in spiritual things is a matter of preparation and build up in the past. We are living in an age of apostasy.

One of our elders this evening told me about a church that he heard of recently where they got a new minister and everything was going modern. They even had a band, but they started playing rock music. It was a really rank liberal church. A little old lady who had been going there all her life and had been a regular church attender rushed up finally after the service to the bearded minister and said, "This is absolutely disgraceful: this dancing around in the aisle; this hugging one another; this love stuff; and, this fooling around and carrying on. I want to tell you that if Jesus Christ were aware what was going on here, He'd turn over in his grave."

Now this is what is meant when we say that this is the age of apostasy in its most dramatic and classical form. It is because people are just that ignorant that some of us are just that nasty, that persistent, and that offensive in trying to get you alerted that the most important thing you have to do in your life is to feed your souls. Yet, we are preoccupied with much of everything else just like they were before the flood began.

Jude 14 and 15 take us way out there to that civilization before the flood. It tells us some things that we need to know about what God is going to do about this business of apostasy. He does have a plan. Jude 14 is actually going ahead to what God is going to do at the Second Coming of Christ to the apostates in the tribulation. This is one reason perhaps that the book of Jude stands just before the book of the Revelation. The book of Jude is somewhat in the form of a foyer to enter the dramatic end times declarations of the book of the Revelation. Jude here in these verses leaps all the way from the time of Enoch before the flood to the time of the Second Coming of Christ in the tribulation.

Genesis 4:17-22

Jude 14 says, "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these saying, 'Behold, the Lord comes with 10,000 of His saints.'" The Bible reveals the existence of a very great civilization before the universal flood that covered the earth. Genesis 4:17-22 describe that civilization. In verse 17, we find that they had built great urban centers of population. Verse 20 tells us that they were engaged in extensive cattle raising. Verse 21 tells us that musical skills flourished. Verse 22 indicates that crafts had developed with manufacturing skills and techniques. It was a civilization that the natural man in his day was quite proud of. It had a system of education to transmit this civilization, and the system of education was very careful to screen its teachers by what it called accreditation in order that those teachers were thoroughly qualified to pass along a way of life that excluded God. They attempted to have happiness without God in every respect--the idea that life can function without God.

As you listen to the reports on what college students are hearing today in state schools, you have a little bit of a feeling of what it was like in the educational system before the flood. Man had achieved a great and dramatic position of operating without God, and he was going to have his society solve all of its problems. Well, we know where it ended. It ended where the minds of people were so trained and so excluded God, that every thought that ever filtered into the mentality of everybody who lived before the flood, the Bible says, was continually evil. The whole world was filled with violence. The splendor and the advancement of this civilization was matched by its wickedness and its degeneracy (Genesis 6:5).

God gave this pre-flood civilization a revelation about the future. He gave it through a man named Enoch. He is the only prophet in this period whose words are preserved for us. Enoch was a great preacher in the midst of this Canaanitic civilization. A very small portion of what this prophet of God had to say is preserved for us, and he speaks about the destiny of all apostates. So Jude 14 tells us that Enoch was the seventh from Adam. Enoch was the seventh family head (the seventh patriarch) from the time of creation. It was something like this in the patriarchal period:

Adam to Enoch

  1. Beginning with Adam, he was 130 years old when he had a son named Seth. Adam died when he was 930 years old.

  2. The second generation was Seth. When he was 105 years old, he had a son named Enosh, and Seth died when he was 912 old.

  3. The third generation was Enosh. When he was 90 years old, he had a son named Kenan. Enosh died when he was 905 years old.

  4. Kenan was the fourth generation. When he was 70 years old, he had a son named Mahalalel. Kenan died when he was 910 years old.

  5. Mahalalel at age 65 had a son named Jared. Mahalalel died at 895 years of age.

  6. Jared at 162 years of age had this son of whom we are speaking, Enoch. Jared died at 962 years of age.

  7. Enoch was number seven. He was the seventh from Adam. When he was 65 years old, he had a son named Methuselah. Methuselah was the oldest man that ever lived. Enoch lived for 365 years and then, the Bible tells us, that God took him alive to heaven. He did not die. His son Methuselah went on to a very ripe old age of 969 years, the oldest man that ever lived.
This is important that we see how Enoch is the seventh from Adam because there's another Enoch in the Bible who was a son of Cain. He's spoken of in Genesis 4:17, but we are speaking of the Enoch here in Genesis 5, and he's described in verses 18-24. He is the Enoch who was the father of Methuselah.

Prophecy

We read in Jude that this Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied "of these." "These" refers to the apostates. The word "prophesied" is "propheteuo." "Propheteuo" means "telling for the divine councils." It was the communication gift that existed before the church age. It is the comparative gift to what we have today in the pastor-teacher gift. "Propheteuo" (prophesied) is in the aorist tense. It refers to that point in the past of Enoch's generation. It is active which means that Enoch did the preaching himself; that is, that he was a great communicator of the Word. It is indicative. His preaching was an actual historical reality. He was God's spokesman.

Pastor-Teacher

The basic difference between a prophet in the Old Testament and a pastor-teacher in the New Testament is the source of their materials. The prophet's source was conversations with God which came to him in a form of visions, dreams, or angelic messages. To the extent that Scripture had been written, a prophet would also use that. But the pastor-teacher's source of information today is strictly the completed canon of Scripture. Therefore, he has the time-demanding, and yet responsible, task of analyzing what the canon of Scripture has to say, and to the best of his capacity, to exegete it (to explain it) to the people of God. That's the only reason he breathes. That's the only reason the blood flows in his veins. That's the only reason he draws his next breath. The churches that have recognized and understood that this is the reason God has given them pastor-teachers are the churches that are the most abundantly blessed.

There is a lot of resistance in our day to this issue. There are a lot of people who constantly keep shifting out of churches that have come to the vision and the realization of this ministry of teaching people the Word of God--feeding the flock. It is fantastic how people don't like it. They have all kinds of stereotype images, but the pastor-teacher has a fantastic full-time job trying to search out what the canon of Scripture has to say. That's his only source of information.

Now both the prophet and the pastor-teacher have basically the same job which is teaching Bible doctrine to God's people. However, there were also special communicators in the Old Testament. They had men who had both the office of prophet as well as the gift of prophecy. We have men in this category such as Moses and Jeremiah. And at the start of the church age, they had the apostles like Peter and Paul who were a very special type of communicators. These were super communicators. The Lord Jesus Christ was also a prophet in this sense.

Enoch

Enoch was this kind of a communicator. He spoke for God a message concerning "these" (referring to the apostates) illustrated by those of Jude's day. "Of these" is in the dative case. It's a dative of a disadvantage. What he had to say concerning these people was the ruin that they were headed for. Enoch's prophecy applied specifically to the apostates of the tribulation period when Jesus Christ returns, because he describes the Lord coming with his ten thousands of saints. He is not referring here to the church age apostates since the church was a hidden mystery to the Old Testament prophets. They didn't know anything about it. We have this taught in Ephesians 3:1-6, Roman 16:25-26, and Colossians 1:25-26.

Enoch is illustrating the divine judgment which is to come upon all apostates by the destiny of those in the tribulation just before the return of Christ. At the end of the tribulation, the apostate unbelievers are to be removed from this earth, and they are to be cast into a fire of judgment in Hades. Prophecy often will relate the historical future to the historical present to illustrate something. That's what Jude is doing. He's taking the apostates of his day. He's going back to what Enoch revealed to that pre-flood civilization concerning what God was going to do to the apostates at the end of the tribulation period when the Lord returns.

Let's review that we have this straight. We had the cross of Christ some 2,000 years ago. Then we have the age of grace since the time of the cross. We will soon have the rapture of the church. The rest of the world goes on into the tribulation period for a period of seven years. It is at the end of this seven-year period that the Second Coming of Christ takes place. This is the point at which Enoch is speaking about, Christ coming with his ten thousands.

Methuselah

This son that Enoch had, as we indicated, was named Methuselah. His name, as is often the case with people in the Bible, is a significant name. Methuselah is made up of two words in the Hebrew. It's made up first of all of this word "Methu" which is "death" (or "to die" really--it's a verb here). It's made up of "shelach" which means "to send." These two put together make up "Methushelach." The word means "to die, to send." Methuselah meant "when he is dead, it shall be sent." That's what the name means. Methuselah died the year the flood began. Jewish tradition says he died seven days before the flood waters fell upon the earth when he was 969 years old.

This Old Testament name, as usual with names in the Old Testament, was given to this son because it was a significant name. Apparently, God instructed Enoch to call his name Methuselah in order to warn people every time they heard his name that something very dramatic was due immediately in the near future in history. When he (Methuselah) is dead, it (the flood) shall be sent.

So the revelation to Enoch from God was that all of humanity was going to suffer a death by a flood which was tied to the birth of Methuselah. As long as Methuselah was alive, people had a chance. The day that Methuselah died, by tradition a week before the flood, it was all over. The flood and the judgment of God was on its way. Genesis 5:21-22 record for us that Enoch walked with God after Methuselah was born. Apparently, the coming of this son, the revelation from God through the name of this son of what was coming upon this earth, brought Enoch into a deepened fellowship with God as he had never had before. It was apparently a level of successful Christian living such as had been enjoyed by few of the people of his day. It was one on such a degree that God said, "This man I take to myself alive into glory."

This was a spiritual experience that was rather amazing here before the flood. Every time Methuselah's name was spoken, here was a warning of impending judgment. All of humanity was hanging on the life of this child. Enoch's marvelous intimate walk with God probably stemmed from this revelation about his son. After all, once he knew this, what was the pleasure in all of the things that were preoccupying people in the flood? It was all to be wiped out. And he believed it. There are a lot of people today who don't believe that the return of the Lord is very close who are planning their lives and making their futures and getting ready to do long-range things that, in all likelihood, they will never realize. Our time as Christians is short. Our world is doomed, and it's seeking peace.

Enoch was taken alive to heaven at 365 years old. He never died. This pictures the rapture of the saints. Faith in God's Word was the key to Enoch's deep fellowship with God as we read in Hebrews 11:5. Even the miracle, however, of the fact that Enoch disappeared and went alive to heaven did not turn humanity from the abandonment of its sin in those pre-flood days. Genesis 6:5 and 6:12 indicate that it just went right on. The fact that Methuselah was the oldest man that ever lived tells us something about the grace and kindness of God. 2 Peter 3:9 tells us of his longsuffering. The oldest man that ever lived was the man upon whom the judgment of God hinged. When he died, the judgment was to come. It is expressive of the grace of God that the oldest man that ever lived was the man who carried this terminal signal. God gave ample time for the people to change their minds. They had maximum opportunity to repent. So it is today that God waits for people to go positive toward him (2 Peter 3:8-9, 15). However, when the flood came, the only people that survived the flood were Enoch's great-grandson Noah and his family.

The Second Coming

So, Jude 14 says, "Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, 'Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints.'" This is referring to the Second Coming of Christ at the end of the tribulation. It is Enoch predicting what is going to happen to the apostates of the tribulation era. When it says the Lord is coming, that refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. He "comes" is the Greek word "erchomai." "Erchomai" means "to arrive on the scene." It's in the aorist which means it's going to be in that point of time after the tribulation. It's active, meaning that Jesus Christ will physically and publicly appear. It's indicative. It is a fact of future history.

This is the same event that the apostle John saw and recorded for us in Revelation 19:11. John says, "And I saw heaven open and, behold, a white horse, and He that sat upon him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. And He had a name written that no man knew but He Himself, and He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word of God. And the armies that were in heaven followed Him upon white horses clothed in fine linen white and clean."

This is exactly the same event to which Enoch is referring about the Lord coming with his tens of thousands. This is where history is moving and nothing can stop it. It's as good as done. The saints who are coming with Christ, who are accompanying Him, are described as being in the ten thousands. It's plural. What that means is that it is an unlimited number--a vast number of people who will be returning with Him. His saints primarily refers probably here to the saints of the church age. These belong to Jesus Christ. These were taken previously here at the rapture point, which is described in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17. These saints are of value. They are representing those who return with Christ. These have been in heaven with Him at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

The transfer of Enoch alive to Heaven was perhaps a reward or blessing before the flood for his faithful preaching about this event. The doctrine of the return of Jesus Christ, therefore, is as old as Enoch's day which is at least 6,000 old today, and still the physical return of Jesus Christ is scoffed today. I won't take the time to relate to you all that the liberals have to say concerning the idea of the physical appearance of Jesus Christ from heaven. The saints referred to are probably then those of the church age, and they are to come in their physical resurrected bodies back to reign with the Lord.

Judgment

Now what's the purpose of this return? Jude 15 says, "To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." The word "to execute judgment" is the reason for the return of Christ. The word "execute" is the usual Greek word for "do" which is "poieo." It simply means for Him to come to do something. What is he coming to do? Well, He's coming to remove apostasy from the earth in order to prepare the way for the millennium. You cannot have a perfect environment, which is what the millennium is, as long as apostasy exists upon the earth. Jesus Christ is coming in order to remove that. It's in the aorist which means it's the point of time of His Second Coming, when He comes to execute this sentence on the apostates. It's active. He's going to do it Himself. It's infinitive. It indicates a principle or a reality or a historical fact.

What He is coming to bring upon them is described as "judgment." In the Greek it is "krisis." The word "krisis" means "justice." He is going to come and give people that, which in all fairness, they deserve. In other words, He's going to come as an act of judging. This same word is used by Jesus Christ concerning Sodom (Luke 10:14). It is used in Hebrews 10:27 of what God is going to do with unbelievers--to treat them in justice. It says that He is going to execute this judgment "upon all," or "against all;" that is, against all these apostates.

This is not speaking of Christians. Christians never face judgment (in this sense). John 5:24 makes it clear to us that we are taken care of once and for all in respect to this: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that hears my Word and believes on Him that sent Me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life." The only judgment you and I as Christians are going to face is the Judgment Seat of Christ spoken of in Romans 14:10 and 2 Corinthians 5:10. This will be a judgment to explain what we have done with our lives, so to speak, relative to the divine good that we have produced. Don't ever let any preacher scare you silly with the notion that someday you're going to get to heaven and they are going to flash all of your bad deeds on a television screen. God has taken care of sin. It is wiped out. There is no judgment. We have nothing to face on that account. You can breathe easy about that. You and I as believers will never face this judgment. The judgment of Jude 15 here is upon unbelievers. We who have been taken to heaven before this tribulation period will have faced the judgment for our works. We will have been rewarded, or we will have suffered loss.

You notice that the word ungodly here is repeated several times. These people have been dealing in an ungodly way in various ways. This is the Greek word "asebes." "Asebes" means impious. This was a word which was used in the Greek language to describe a person who failed to pay his due respect to the gods. He was not respectful to the gods, so he was described as being impious. This is used here of the people who reject Christ in the tribulation, so they are called impious. These ungodly impious unbelievers are brought to a place where they are brought under the judgment (that is, the trial) "to convict all that are ungodly"--all that are impious.

The word "convict" means "to bring to trial" in order to declare them guilty. From this there is no appeal. Matthew 25:41 speaks of this consequence: "Then shall He say unto them on the left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." This is aorist active infinitive. Aorist means that it's a one-for-all point action. It's a trial before judgment, and there's no appeal from it. It's an active trial that God Himself will execute upon the apostates. For what? It says, "For their ungodly deeds" (their impious deeds)--everything that the unbeliever cranks out and pours out from his old sin nature including his human good. These deeds are the apostate substitute for the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

If you think that somehow you can manage to get by with God on the basis of what you do, this is the verse for you to be aware of. Everything that comes from your old sin nature, whether it be the vilest of sins or whether it be the finest human sympathetic heartfelt good that you may do for humanity and its need, in one way or another--everything that stems from the old sin nature, God describes as impious deeds. These are deeds which you have impiously committed. These are your substitutes for the work of Christ who performed divine good. If you hope to stand before God on this basis, you will be doomed. This is what Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us--that we are saved by grace, and it is not of our works. It is something that God has done. It is something that He has provided for us.

These apostates are often people who are good people. These apostates are going to be out in the tribulation, and they are going to see that the world has been hit by disaster. You cannot imagine the kind of disaster that's going to exist after this period when the rapture has taken place, and all the believers are moved out. It's like these bumper stickers that are going around: "In the event of the rapture, this car will self-destruct," or something of that nature. The event of the rapture is going to shock people, but I'll tell you what the apostates are going to do.

They're going to grit their teeth. They're going to elect for themselves officials who are going to stand up and say the nice things they want to hear. They are going to say encouraging things. They are going to wave the flag of hope, and they're going to charge forward once more. They're going to try to straighten this out. They are going to be working on the environment. They're going to be working on people's needs. They're going to be working on all the things that the world is struggling to resolve today. These people are not going to be checking out. What they're going to be doing is what the Bible describes as ungodly deeds in the form of their human good. They think that somehow they're going to perhaps be able to appeal to God to remove the judgments that have crashed upon them. They are ungodly people. They work in a state of unbelief.

Their negative volition toward the truth of God is reflected by their hard (or the word should be "harsh") speeches which impious sinners have spoken against Him. The book of Revelation tells us that these people, these human good personalities, are going to be standing in the tribulation period shaking their fists against God and blaspheming Him because of these judgments which He's bringing upon them. They have spoken with harsh impious words. Underneath, the apostate is always a harsh impious person.

Those two verses that we looked at previously here in this context that gave us those five descriptions concerning apostates are well worth your remembering. They are well worth your considering because they described to us the subtleness of the apostate and the fantastic damage he can do. The first kind of an apostate you should be on guard against is your Christian friend. It is the Christians who are the most devastating apostates in your life. But you don't look for that. They're the hidden reef type. You have to learn to recognize when that Christian friend of yours is speaking out of line. He is simply irrational because he has been saying, "No" to God so many times. Underneath, he has harsh words for the very things that are the mind of Christ. Outwardly he'll project a very scintillating personality. He has a phony sweet smile, but his motive is to distort the Word of God, so he attacks what is the truth of God and what God is doing with harsh words. An apostate will discourage you. He will have discouraging words.

All of this, the Word of God says, is against Him. That is the Lord Jesus Christ. The nature of this judgment that God is going to bring in the tribulation, which Enoch predicted, is described for us in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9: "And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, from the glory of His power." When the Lord Jesus Christ arrives on the scene, He is going to deal in a judgment of fire upon these apostates. This judgment of fire will consist of apostates being removed from off the surface of the earth and being placed into the flames of Hades.

Matthew 24

The Bible refers to this judgment of Enoch at the end of the tribulation in several places. Frequently, these very judgments are misconstrued and applied to the rapture of the church. You have one in Matthew 24:36. This is not a reference to the Rapture. 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 are a reference to the rapture. This reference here in Matthew 24:36 is a reference to the Second Coming and the removal of unbelievers at the end of the tribulation. Remember that what is going to happen here at this point at the end of the tribulation is that a new civilization will begin in the form of the millennium. Historically, civilizations always begin with everybody saved. That's what happened with Adam. Adam began the first civilization. Everybody was saved, and then unbelievers developed. The flood came along and wiped it out, which shows us something else about civilizations. They always begin with everybody born again, and they end with a worldwide catastrophic event.

A new civilization, the second one, began then with Noah. Again, we had a condition where eight people were on the face of the earth and they were all believers. The civilization of mankind, viewed as a whole, has again deteriorated. We are going to approach the time of the end of the tribulation. At this time again, God will remove all unbelievers. That's what Enoch was predicting. A third civilization will now begin in the form of the millennium. The millennium will begin again, like all civilizations of the past, with everybody born again. When you come to the end of the millennium, again there will be a worldwide catastrophic event. The angels of the Lord are sent to sweep through the humanity which is upon the face of the earth to cull out all those who have gathered in rebellion against Christ; that is, children who were born in the millennium and who did not yield themselves to the king who is ruling over the whole earth.

So we're dealing here with the next civilization that's going to come along. It's going to wipe out all unbelievers, and it's going to start with all believers. Matthew, as a book, does not deal with the church page with truth that is pertinent to the church age. The "church" as a word is mentioned twice in the book of Matthew. It's mentioned in Matthew 16:18 where it's in the form of a prediction concerning the coming of the church age. It is also mentioned in Matthew 18 where it refers to Israel as a congregation. Matthew is dealing instead with the age of the law. Most of the prophecy in the book of Matthew therefore applies either to the tribulation or to the millennium. This book does not have anything to do with the age of the church.

It may teach some truths which are pertinent and applicable to the age of the church because these are taught in the epistles. This book may reflect certain standards of God's righteousness. However, it is not a book that is directed toward the age of the church. Actually, it is a continuation of the Old Testament. Matthew, however, is dealing with the age of the law. That's why the Sermon on the Mount does not apply to this age. Yet, all the dewy-eyed liberals, and all the 85 percent of the preachers who haven't learned their lessons well enough to be able to explain too much to God's people, are up there hustling for people to live according to the Sermon on the Mount.

I'd be curious to see what would happen to your banker if you walked up to him tomorrow morning and said, "Say, listen. We'd like a $50,000 loan in order to build a chapel for Berean Memorial Church." He would say, "Oh, I'm sorry. What's your collateral?" And you'd say, "My signature. I write real good." And he'd say, "I'm sorry. That won't work." And you'd say to him, "Are you a Christian?" He would say, "Of course, I'm a Christian, and I do all these things that prove I'm a Christian. I don't smoke; I don't chew; and, I don't go with girls that do. And any of that kind of stuff." You would say to him, "I'm glad to hear that you're that kind of a Christian. I want to show you something out of the Sermon on the Mount where it says if anybody wants to borrow, give it to him. Do not say, 'No' to him. As a matter of fact, if he wants to borrow something from you, give him even something more. How are you going to call yourself a Christian and tell me that you're going to disobey the Sermon on the Mount? It says you should lend me this $50,000."

Well your banker is going to be smarter than you are. He's going to sense that there's something wrong with that Scripture today. The Sermon on the Mount is the constitution of the kingdom of heaven when Jesus Christ the King is ruling. You're going to get in a lot of trouble if you try to literally live up to the Sermon on the Mount. You're going to learn the hard way that it's not designed for this age. That's why it's in the book of Matthew, because it belongs to the kingdom age.

Look at Matthew 24:36. It says, "But of that day and hour no man knows; no, not the angels of heaven; but My Father only." God the Father, who is the author of the divine decree, knows when and where the Second Advent of His Son occurs. "But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. The analogy here is between the Second Coming of Christ and the end of the age before the flood in which Enoch lived. He says, "As in the days here of Noah, so are the days going to be in the tribulation just before Jesus Christ returns." Now what's going to be the same in these days as the coming of the Son of Man. 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."

This does not mean that these were bad things that they were doing. There was nothing with what they were carrying on with here in the normal social relationships of life. The problem was that they were preoccupied with these to the exclusion of the mind of God. These people were preoccupied with business as usual; making their future; making their plans; and, going on with their lives. They had no thought for the intake of the Word of God on a day-by-day basis. God was not to be found in their thinking. Why?

I'll give you the key to it. Here is the apostate's keyword. This is the word that the people in the tribulation are going to be using. These are the two words that they used before the flood. These are the two words of people who have brought themselves spiritual disaster have always used. That is, "too busy." "I'm too busy to listen to tapes. I'm too busy to study the Word of God. I'm too busy to be at church when the Word is being taught." Now that's a condition before the days of Noah. In the days of Noah before the flood, people were too busy. The result was in Matthew 24:39: "And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." The flood removed the unbelievers. It was a surprise to them, but there was no escape. When Jesus Christ returns a second time, this is the same identical thing that is going to take place in just the same way. They will look and they will be unprepared for what is coming.

Matthew 24:40: "Then shall two be in the field. The one shall be taken; the other left." This is describing again the end of the tribulation. Two shall be in the field; one taken; and, one left. The believer will be left to go into the millennium, and the unbeliever will be taken to experience what? The judgment of fire, and removed into the keeping of Hades. "Two women shall be grinding at the mirror. The one shall be taken; the other left." Here you have the same division--the comparison between what happened before the flood and what is going to happen at the end of the tribulation of which Enoch, who lived before the flood, was predicting.

Parables

We have the parables in the Word of God that give us this same judgment of fire that God is going to bring upon apostasy. In Matthew 13:24-30, we have the wheat and the tares. The wheat are the believers going into the millennium; the tares are the unbelievers who are gathered for what? The burning. This is explained in Matthew 13:36-43. In Matthew 13:47-50, we have the good fish and the bad fish parable. This again speaks about believers who go into the millennium (the good fish) and the bad fish who get put off the earth with a judgment of fire in Hades.

Matthew 25:1-13 is one of the most famous parables of the ten virgins. People constantly seem to get this one mixed up in what God is saying here. Five of the virgins had oil in their lamps. These were prepared to go into the millennium. Five of them were caught without the oil. They were the unbelievers. They were cast into the agony of the fire of judgment. The judgment of fire specifically which will be upon the unbelieving Jews at the end of the tribulation is described in Ezekiel 20:34-38. This is the Jewish judgment of fire. The gentile judgment of fire is in Matthew 25:31-46, the sheep and the goat division.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1973

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