Lesson 456 - Junior

Memory Verse

"Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments" (Revelation 16:15).

Notes

Mockers

Spread out before us is a stirring picture of the last days when Jesus is to come. There will be scoffers, the Bible says -- people who will turn away from the thought of Jesus' coming back to earth. Now they have come, and they are saying, "Where is the promise of his coming?" They say that all things are just the same as they have been from the creation. They do not want to believe Jesus is coming, because their heart condemns them. They are living to please themselves and do not want to get right with God. Others do not believe the Bible account of creation. They do not want the information given by the Bible -- "they willingly are ignorant."

The Bible says, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Moses, who wrote the Book of Genesis, got his information from God. But the unbelievers receive their information from other people or from the imaginations of their own heart.

Man's Teachings

Some men Teach that creation started when a cell was washed up onto the shore, and all life began from it. Those men do not tell from where the cell nor the life in it came. They do not mention how the land and water came into existence. But the Bible states that God created them. There are still other men who teach that the sun was a mass of melted rock revolving so fast that a piece flew off. Going around at a high rate of speed would tend to make the piece round. As it cooled off and slowed down it became the earth. Neither do these men tell of the origin of the sun; but the Bible tells us that God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven" [GEN:1:14]), and "God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night" [GEN:1:16]).

There are other men who say that life just came into being in the slime and became a simple form of life, much like the amoeba, a jellylike creature, which can be seen only through a microscope. Through experiments, other scientists have proved that life does not spring into being of its own accord but must come from some other life. In [GEN:1:21] we read: "God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good." Then, God created man in His own image.

Thus, concerning the beginning of the earth and of life, scientists do not agree with one another. Their ideas give way to other theories and they in turn are cast aside and forgotten, but the Word of God is sure. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." The word "create" means to bring into being. God spoke the heavens and the earth into being. There was nothing until the power of God caused them to exist. He spoke the word and the work was done [PS:33:9]).

Evolution So-Called

"God created" are the words that the evolutionists do not like. They give credit to a process of development in animal life. But the Bible says God created everything "after his kind." Plants did not grow from water. Animals did not grow from plants. One kind of animal did not grow from another kind of animal. God made lions. He made cattle after their kind -- the cows were made cows -- they did not change from some other animal [GEN:1:25]).

Some people try to tell us that by living in different climates the animals become different. We know that a dog's coat is heavier in the cold winter, and before the hot summer much of the hair comes out, so the dog's coat is not so heavy. But whether a dog lives all the time where it is very cold or all the time where it is very hot, a dog is still a dog. It does not become another animal.

Evolutionists try to point out ways in which men and animals are similar, but there is such a difference that bones can be identified as to whether they belong to a man or to an animal. It can also be told by the stain whether the blood is from a man or from an animal.

Fossils

Newspapers often publish accounts of the finding of rocks which unbelievers say are millions of years old, or the bones of prehistoric animals that they hope will justify the theory that man evolved from a lower form of life. But true geologists say there is no sure way of knowing how old a fossil is. They are not found in order according to certain events. In many places the fossil deposits are exactly contrary to the order of so-called evolution. In such cases the evolutionist calls them "faults," and says that the mountains must have been lifted up by a great convulsion and pushed over a great many miles into the "faulty" positions in which we now find them.

The Great Flood

They do not take into account the Great Flood that God sent upon the earth in Noah's time when all the fountains of the earth poured out water, and the heavens poured down rain for forty days and forty nights. This vast amount of water surging over even the highest mountains of the earth could scoop out valleys, overturn rocks, form great channels and rivers, and completely change the earth's surface, for the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth [GEN:7:19]).

Let us take notice of what the Bible says and be not overcome by any of the modern teachings of evolution. No matter how reasonable such men's argument may seem, may each person believe God and the Bible. "Let God be true, but every man a liar" [ROM:3:4]). May we hold fast the faithful Word as we have been taught [TIT:1:9]).

Jesus' Coming

Just as surely as God sent the Flood to destroy the earth in Noah's time, so surely will God's judgment come again upon the earth, though He has delayed that judgment until now so that men might repent. The prophets in the Old Testament and the Apostles in the New Testament all tell about Jesus' coming, first to catch away His own people from this earth. Then great judgments will be poured upon the wicked people. He will come again to earth with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon the ungodly (Jude 15) whom He will "consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming" [2TS:2:8]).

In spite of scoffers, and in spite of those who put off His coming, saying, "There is no hurry, I will get saved by and by," Jesus will come. Are you eager for the coming of Jesus? Do you love the thought of His appearing? "If the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up" [MAT:24:43]). So we are to watch and pray lest Jesus' coming should find us unprepared.

In the day of final judgment, "the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." The earth shall be folded up like an old garment and destroyed.

How should we, who believe these things, live? How holy we should be! How careful we should be of all our words and all our deeds! "Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless."

Questions

1. Why do some people scoff at the thought of Jesus' coming?

2. Of what are the scoffers "willingly ignorant"?

3. By what means was the earth first destroyed? Why?

4. By what means will the final destruction of the earth come?

5. In what way is God's counting of time different from ours?

6. Why has Jesus not come to this present time?

7. How will Jesus come?

8. What will happen in the final judgment of the earth?

9. For what do God's true people look?

10. Seeing that we look for these things to come to pass, how should we live?