I'm looking at the numbers, and they don't look good

In the bible, there's a pattern to the proportions of people saved versus people lost. I just want you to think about the numbers, their proportions, even if I can't make a doctrine out of it. The pattern is still troubling enough.
In the days prior to the flood, the earth had become populated. With average life-spans regularly in the 900-year range, the population could easily have reached several hundred million. Only Noah and his family - eight people- out of millions were found to be righteous, and saved. (Gen 6:9-11)

Sodom and Gomorrah (and Admah and Zeboim) were cities filled with a populace engaging in perversion, corruption, and wickedness. God decided to condemn the entire population of these four cities because of their wickedness. They cared not at all for God nor His ways. (Genesis 19:24-25, Deuteronomy 29:23). Only Lot, his wife, and their two daughters were spared, and even at that, Mrs. Lot looked back, disobeying God and thus was condemned also. Out of the population of four entire cities, four people were spared. (And one of those turned out to be a false convert...)

In Matt 13:3-23; Mk 4:2-20; Lk 8:4-15, Jesus tells the Parable of the Sower. A farmer sows seeds, and the seeds fall on different kinds of ground. The seed is explained to be the Word of God, received in varying degrees of success by the hearers. Some seed fell on the path and it was either trampled or birds ate it. Other seeds fell on rocky ground and withered. Still other seed fell on ground where thorns grew and was choked. The last example was seed that fell on good ground, took root, and grew fruit for the Kingdom of God. These last seeds are Believers. Four kinds of ground, and only one grew into believers destined for the kingdom. One in four.

In Revelation, John is told to write seven letters to seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea. The purpose of the letters was first, literal, each church of that day had a special message they needed to hear. But in a double fulfillment, Jesus also wanted us to know that each church is a type and an age of church-going attitudes that also needed to hear the message through the ages. Of the seven churches/ages, only two were not rebuked: Smyrna and Philadelphia. Five churches were found to have been displeasing to the Lord. Five vs. two


In Matthew 7:13 Jesus warned, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it." In verse 14 Jesus says, "But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Many vs. few.

In Revelation 20:12, John wrote that "I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books."

There are so many unsaved that their names take books to list them, but there are so few saved their names are contained in one book. Books vs. book.

What does this tell you? You can interpret it it however you feel the Spirit is telling you to interpret it, but I see that the pattern from Genesis to Revelation is many lost and few saved.

Therefore am going to take Paul's warning in 2 Corinthians 13:5 to heart and I urge you to do the same:
"Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?"

If you are standing before God and He tells you that you failed the test, it is TOO LATE. Check yourselves now. If you have not accepted Jesus as Savior yet, do not wait any longer. Time is growing short. You can almost hear the trumpet call.

Comments

  1. Another instance of a "fire tornado"
    http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/08/27/vo.hawaii.fire.tornado.kitv?iref=allsearch

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  2. wow, that was amazing footage, thank you for posting and bringing it to our attention! And the scientists say the phenomenon is "extremely rare" but now it has occurred two times in several days...

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  3. It is rare, but I've actually seen more then a "few" of these

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  4. that's a "few" recently-- I've NEVER seen these growing up, or previously

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  5. Can I ask where you got the second picture? Possibly who the artist is?

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  6. Hi Anonymous,

    If you mean the one where the cross is laid over the gap between the secular world and heaven, I got it here:
    http://thelatterdays.blogspot.com/2010/04/wilderness-survival-for-christians-part_2773.html

    no artist was listed...

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