It's vacation week for much of America. I'm going to go a little easy myself this week and get a bunch of reading done. I thought for this week I'd bring forward some of the early essays I wrote.
With 5,200 essays written here since 2009, there are some you may have missed, lol. I published this one in May 2009. You can see my heart even since the earliest days of this blog. Salvation, and judgment.
I know many of us have heard the phrase, "When God closes a door, He opens a window." And He does! He sends the Holy Spirit and His angels to nudge us along the paths He knows are best for us to travel; for career, for morals, for Christian growth, for all our behavioral choices. He nudges us along that way. (Acts 16:6-7).In RomComs, the scenes when a guy is rushing toward the girl at the end of the movie, and he HAS to get to the restaurant, but just as he arrives at the place, the owner switches the OPEN sign to CLOSED. The guy bangs on the window and pleads to be let in. Because it's the movies, the owner shrugs, smiles, and he always lets the guy in. The guy rushes to the girl and they hug and all is well.
That's the movies. However, there will come a day on our earth when the door will close and no window will open. There will come a day when no kindly restaurant owner will shrug, smile and let you in anyway. Once the door to salvation is shut, it will STAY shut.
The door is a frequent metaphor in the Bible. In John 10:9 Jesus says: "I am the Door, if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture." There will be a day when it will be too late to enter in to His kingdom. He will shut the door against you and you will be barred from entering. Is that a mean thing? No, it is what the reprobate asked for. Those who reject Jesus will be given their desire: separation from Him. No entry.
Matthew Henry said that Jesus did not come to satisfy curiosity but to guide men's consciences. Noah took about 100 years to build the ark. During that time the people saw, they questioned, they mocked. However they all were given legitimate chance to enter in. Only 8 were deemed worthy and one day, "Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the LORD closed it behind him." (Genesis 7:16). The door was shut against them that rejected God and they were lost in the rising waters.
Then Jesus came, and we have had two thousand years of Bible truth, Gospel truth, and His work on the cross pointing the way. During that time the people see, they question, they mock. However they all are given legitimate chance to enter in. "He said to them, "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to." Luke 13:24
He has told us that the day will come when "Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.' "But he will answer, 'I don't know you or where you come from.'" Luke 13:25
Once the rapture comes and the Bride Church is united with her Groom, things change. The Tribulation begins and the age of Grace is over.
A close reading of 2 Thessalonians 9-11 indicates that salvation will be very, very difficult as many will labor under a delusion and accept the false for the real. We do know that many will be saved because the Bible talks of those beheaded for the name of Jesus. (Tribulation Martyrs). But the delusion will be pervasive and effective. There is no guarantee of post-rapture salvation being widely available. Treacherous times. No one is guaranteed a tomorrow because death lurks, as well as God giving you over to your sin (Romans 1:24) and even in these last Days of Grace, one should not wait to come to the cross.
He has warned us. The door will close someday. Whether it is upon your death or that He allows your hardened heart to remain hard or that He allows you to accept the delusion...the door to salvation will close. I think it would be the worst thing in the world to be operating under the Hollywood fallacy that the kindly restaurant owner will relent and open the door to you after all.
The door is open TODAY! All you need to is pray to be saved from your sins, believing in Jesus the Son and His resurrection and His ability and willingness to cleanse you of sin's blots. Do it today, while the door is open.
"And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut." (Matthew 25:10).
