It's going to be sheer terror for all who dwell on the earth

"And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!"(Rev. 8:13).

On more than one occasion I've heard people say that they refuse to go to the doctor because they don't want to hear any bad news. But if there is a problem not knowing it will not make it any better. In fact early detection of certain illnesses can save your life. In this sense knowing the bad news can be good news. My two older brothers and I had the difficult task of delivering some bad news to my father. We had to inform him that he had prostate cancer. He took it very hard and in the subsequent months that followed he went through some hard times. But almost twenty years later my father is cancer free. If he would not have known about the potentially fatal disease he had in time the outcome would not have been good. The same goes for our spiritual lives. The bad news is that we our sinners deserving of eternal judgment. Although this news is not pleasant it’s the bad news that makes the good news good. And that good news is that Jesus died on our behalf to pay the price for our sin and rose again to give us life. We did the sinning but Jesus did the dying. And all who turn from their sin and trust him as Savior and Lord will receive the gift of eternal life.

Jesus will one day descend from heaven and all who know him as Savior will be taken up and meet the Him in the air to be forever with him in glory (1 Thess. 4:13-18). Those who do not trust Jesus and are alive before he returns will enter into a period of great tribulation. During that period John describes an angel flying in the midst of heaven shouting, "Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth" because of the great tribulation that he knows they will be experiencing at that time. It will be sheer terror for those who do not know Jesus. May knowing this bad news move us like the angel to fly around this world proclaiming the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The clock is ticking. Don't wait until it's too late.