Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight is study #36 of Genesis, chapter 19. We are going to read Genesis 19:26:

But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

In our last study, I mentioned that God has always known perfectly the circumstances of our present time. For a while we thought, “What is going on? How could things have worked out the way they did?” We were so sure that May 21, 2011 would be Judgment Day, as the Bible locked in to highlight that date, and none of us thought there was even a possibility it would not happen. It was certain. It would happen. Again, the Bible says, “For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” It was God’s purpose to give the certain sound to blow the trumpet and warn the people and He could accomplish the salvation of all those in the world He intended to save.

I think that is obvious, but at the same time these circumstances set the stage for what would happen to the enemies of God. And the world is certainly not “the friend” of the true kingdom of God. It set the stage for all the enemies in the world and all the enemies that populated the churches. The churches were bitter. They were upset that these same people that dared to proclaim that judgment would take place on a specific date were the same people that had dared to speak against the corporate church and say they were ruled by Satan and people should not enter into the churches. It was a grievous affront to them and now they joined forces with the world. Is that not ironic? Only God could arrange circumstances like that. They joined hand in hand in celebration with the world that Christ had not come (on May 21, 2011).

Just think about that. The corporate churches were celebrating that Christ had not come. It just goes to show that it is all lip service when the multitudes of professed Christians that populate the churches and congregations of the world speak of the coming of Christ. It is the last thing in the world they want. They want a relationship with God, as they want to be called by His name, but they will “eat their own bread” and “wear their own attire,” with their own doctrines and gospels. But they just want to “throw the name of Christ around.” That is all they really want. They want a link to God through the Bible because the Bible seems to be a connection to God and, therefore, they want that identification, but it is as if they are saying, “But let us not get serious about the things the Bible says.”

You know, that is one thing about proclaiming a date because the proclamation of a date is a proclamation of a Bible doctrine. When you see the Biblical timeline of history that came from the Bible and then you see the time relationships between historical events and project it in to the future (like the seven thousand years from the flood ties to May 21, 2011), the Scripture develops the doctrine for the date for the end of the world. It came right out of the Bible. So, there was an uneasiness among the professed Christians in the churches of the world and their thinking was along these lines: “How can you lay things on the line like that? How can you fully trust that doctrine?”

You know, look at the churches and name a doctrine and you can find fifty variations of it. One church believes one thing and another church believes another thing, and so forth. They realize they are all saying different things about the same Book, but it is no big deal to them. It never occurs to them that if there are fifty different views of the same doctrine, it would mean at least forty-nine of them were wrong and, perhaps, maybe all fifty of them were wrong. But, you see, it does not worry them because their doctrines are never really tested in the sense that a doctrine regarding a “date” is tested. The good thing about going to the Bible to develop a date is that our doctrine will be “tested” because that date will arrive, and it will be seen whether it is right or wrong and whether we did our homework correctly. The doctrine is tested and if it is incorrect, we can make correction, according to 2Timothy 3:16: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” And we have seen that the date of May 21, 2011 was not an incorrect date, but we had some things wrong regarding the outworking of the judgment and how God would bring the judgment. We were looking for it to happen on a physical level, but we should have looked on the spiritual level. But that gave us opportunity to return to the Bible and to study more and receive correction.

That kind of exposure and that kind of testing of a doctrine makes it publicly known. It cannot be hidden like the churches “hide” their free will gospel by bouncing from verse to verse. When we bring up a verse that contradicts what they are saying, they nod their head and say, “Interesting,” and then they bounce to another verse. It is the same thing with the doctrine of the “seventh day Sabbath” and those that refuse God’s change in program to the Sunday Sabbath. We show them what the Bible says in Matthew 28:1, but it is as if they do not hear and they quickly turn to another verse. There is no awareness that their doctrines are all wrong and cannot stand up to the light of the Word of God, the Bible, and they are content because there is no “trial by fire” of their doctrine. They can just continue to believe what they believe and what their church’s traditions have taught. But when a doctrine is published and declared with a date and exclamation point, there is nowhere to hide. One cannot just bounce from here to there.

Of course, at the time of the end, the Lord in His wisdom raised up the doctrine of the end of the church age for the purpose of putting the churches to the test and to publicly find out where all those in the churches stood. God opened up the doctrine of the end of the church age and issued the command to flee to the mountains and to “come out of her” and go out into the world. We were to leave Judea and flee to Babylon. God did that publicly, but there were so many that remained in the corporate churches that numbered almost two billion; there were so few that came out that those that remained felt no shame or public humiliation for disregarding the command to come out. They comforted themselves in their numbers: “Look at all of us that are still here. It is just those few oddballs that came up with a date.” Therefore, they were even more comforted when the date failed (according to their understanding) because nothing happened outwardly.

So, God set this elaborate worldwide stage to bring a snare or trap upon all the inhabitants of the world. We looked at Luke 21:34-35:

And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.

The snare would come. God would rain down “snares, and fire and brimstone.” It was all spiritual and because God’s judgment came upon the world in a spiritual way, the world could not see it and, therefore, for them it did not happen. The churches were part of the world by that point and they did not see it and, therefore, for them it did not happen. That was the snare and now they could turn upon the people that had been so insolent: “Let us face it – these people did not know their place. How dare they scare the whole world? How dare they conduct themselves in such a manner while saying they are Christians? They are not like the rest of us that stayed in the churches. You know, we also talk about Christ and the end of the world, but in a very mild way and in its proper place.” I am being sarcastic, but the truth is that they love the world and they want the world to continue forever because they are not saved. This world is their inheritance and, therefore, they pay lip service to the end of this world and its destruction, but they must “play it down” because their people do not want to hear that. So, here was this group of date setters: “They must have been of Satan, because look what they said about those of us in the churches. Good for them – they were wrong and now everyone can see how wrong they are!”

In this manner, intense pressure was applied to everyone. To those that were professed true believers and seemingly believed these things and proclaimed it boldly, when the date came and went and that intense pressure came, they turned back. From their point of view, it (the date) was wrong. Nothing happened. Everyone says so, including the world and the churches. Nothing happened. From their perspective, it was as if these individuals were saying, “I was wrong. I looked like a fool. I better get on the right side of things as fast as possible. Since everyone over there is throwing stones this way, let me circle around and get over to that side.” {Laughter}

I should not laugh. It is not funny, but that is exactly what some people did. They then became the worst of the critics and the chief of the “stone throwers,” probably due to their embarrassment. Also, now they had to show their “new-found friends” that they were truly on their side, so they attacked and assaulted the people of God All of these things were going on and there was confusion. After just a few weeks (and I have to say this) the Lord allowed Mr. Camping to suffer a stroke and he was taken out of the picture. He had soon realized it was a spiritual judgment and he was the one who pointed out that verse in Revelation where it says the righteous will be righteous still and the filthy will be filthy still. He was the one who said we must stop sending forth tracts and stop the print presses and evangelization unto salvation. He saw this in just a few weeks. It is amazing how soon God opened his eyes to the fact that we were now to feed the sheep. If he had continued, there were those that loved Mr. Camping and followed him, but they were not really following the Bible. For whatever reason, they became enamored with a man and once that man was taken out of the picture, it became only what the Word of God said and there was no “personality” to follow. This added to the testing and the snare that God had laid, and more and more people began to go backwards. They went back to the churches, back to former doctrines and, in some cases, they went back to the world.

So, we can see why God gives us this verse in the context where Jesus says that the day of the coming of the Son of man would be like the days of Lot. Again, it says, “But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.” What a warning! “Remember Lot’s wife,” the Lord said in Luke, chapter 17.

Lord willing, we are going to do just that in our next Bible study, as we continue to discuss these things.