Page 4380 - 1970S

back in time from Tyre and Sidon to

Sodom and Gomorrah.

lt

was during

the days of Abraham that these two

cities reached the depths of homosex–

ual degradation. God destroyed them

by raining fire and brimstone upon

them and their environs. Destruction

was widespread and complete! That

area became a desolate wilderness,

and it remains so to this day.

The spiritual point is this: If Jesus

had come to even those two sin-filled

cities as the humble carpenter of Na–

zareth, but performing mighty works

and miracles, the ancient inhabitants

would have repented of their hurtful

and unlawful perversions, and those

cities would have been extant

2,000

years later.

Again, it logically follows that

God will give even those ancient sin–

ners an opportunity to enter His

Kingdom.

Nlneveh To Be Reeducated

For the third time in Matthew's Gos–

pel, Jesus returns to the same theme

of "the day of judgment" (Matt.

12:36)

in relation to the nonrepen–

tance of His generation. "The men of

Nineveh [an ancient Gentile city–

the capital of Assyria] shall rise in

judgment with this generation, and

shall condemn it: because they re–

pented at the preaching of Jonas

[Jonah] ; and, behold, a greater than

· Jonas is here" (verse 41).

This scripture is highly significant

and tells us much more than is readi–

ly apparent on the surface. Jonah's ·

ministry occurred in the reign

of

Jer–

oboam the 11- 793-753 B.C.

( li

Kings

14:23) .

His warning to that

ancient Assyrian city must have been

sometime in the eighth century B.C.

(

The New Bible Commentary Re–

vised,

p. 747). At that time more

than

120,000

people resided in the

city of Nineveh (Jonah

4:11).

Now let's ask a question: How

much did these ancient Assyrians

who heard Jonah know about Jesus'

generation prior to their death? The

answer is

abso/utely nothing.

They

lived hundreds of years

prior

to

Christ 's first coming! How much do

they now know? Still absolutely

nothing! "The dead know not any–

thing" (Eccl. 9:5). How much will

they know when they are resurrected

The

PLAIN TRUTH March

1979

after the millennial period? At that

moment , nothing!

Obviously they won't be able to

condemn Jesus' generation immedi–

ately.

lt

will require a substantial pe–

riod of time for those resurrected

Ninevites to learn the history of Je–

sus' generation. And soaking up that

history will

not,

logically, be the first

order of business after this great res–

urrection. Reorientation to the dif–

ferent conditions of life itself will

take sorne little time.

The Queen of Sheba

But the story does not end with the

Ninevites. Jesus caps off the subject

with a final spiritual comparison .

"The queen of the south [or, Sheba]

shall rise up in the judgment with

this generation, and shall condemn it:

for she carne from the uttermost

parts of the earth to hear the wisdom

of Solomon; and, behold, a greater

than Solomon is here" (Ma tt.

' 12:42).

Prior to this one, all theother exam–

ples in antiquity which Jesus gave

were individually anonymous. Christ

had reference to large groups. of

people- <:itizens of Sidon, Tyre, Sod–

om, Gomorrah , Nineveh- cities

whose ancient inhabitants' personal

names have long since been forgotten

(except,ofcourse, byGod Himself).

The Queen of Sheba was a Sa–

baean monarch who journeyed to Je–

rusalem in the tenth century B.C. to

test King Solomon's wisdom. She

went

a~ay

very impressed (

The New

Bible Dictionary,

p. 1172) . But at the

time of her resurrection, the Queen

of the South will

not

know a thing

about the history of Jesus ' genera–

tion. That she willlearn over a period

of time.

All of these examples from the

book of Matthew (people who lived

in different generations) are coro–

pared to the. citizens living in the cit–

ies and towns of Jesus' generation.

Jesus tells us they are all to be

resur–

rected with

the generation that lived

in Jesus' time.

He gave enough word previews of

generations of people living at wide–

spread and different times in human

history to substantiate the fact that

most of humanity will be

a/ive to–

gether

at the same time on this earth.

There will be pre-Fiood men and wo–

men, all the lsraelites (all lwelve

tribes, including lhe Jewish people;

see Romans 9-11 ), those who lived

during lhe Middle or Dark Ages, and

everyone living

even now

who for

whalever reason has nol had an op–

portunity lo accepl Christ and grow

toward salvalion .

These Festival& and You

If you are a true Christian and you

remain failhful unto dealh, you will

be privileged lo partake of a better

resurreclion (Heb. 11 :35) al Christ's

second coming. But whal about your

friends and relatives {living and

dead) who have known little of

Christ, His gospel, and the Kingdom

of God ?

Here is

your future /egacy!

After

reigning and ruling with Chrisl for a

lhousand years (Rev.

20:3-6)

in a

world of generalion a fler generalion

of new people who have never lived

before, you will

then

be privileged to

see lhe resurreclion of your ances–

lors, kinfolk and acquaintances. You

will help teach them God's way of

salvalion .

These lhen are the vital meanings

of the annual festivals kept around

the globe by lhe Worldwide Church

of God. Can you begin lo see why its

members observe these annual sab–

bath days year a ft er year? When one

observes these annual festivals, he or

she is tasling the good powers of the

age to come! He or she is actually

acting out a preview of the wonderful

world tomorrow!

O