The prophet Isaiah warns us that in the last days God is going to “turn the world upside down.” He declares, “Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down” (Isaiah 24:1).
According to this prophecy, sudden judgment is coming upon the earth, and it will change everything in a single hour. Within that short span, the whole world will witness fast-falling destruction upon a city and a nation, and the world will never be the same.
If you are attached to material things — if you love this world and the things of it — you won’t want to hear what Isaiah has prophesied. In fact, even to the most righteous of God’s people, what Isaiah says might seem unthinkable. Many would surely ask, “How can an entire world be stricken in one hour?”
If we didn’t believe the Bible is God’s pure Word, few of us would take Isaiah’s prophecy seriously. But Scripture makes it clear: in a single hour, the world is going to change. The church is going to change. And every individual on earth is going to change.
The apostle John gives a similar warning in Revelation. He speaks of destructive judgment coming upon a city and nation: “In one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her…. For in one hour so great riches is come to nought” (Revelation 18:8, 17).
In Isaiah’s prophecy, the city under judgment is cast into confusion. Every house is shut up, with no one coming or going. “The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in” (Isaiah 24:10). The entire city is left desolate: “In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction” (24:12). All entrances and exits to the city are gone. The passage indicates that a fire has come, a blast that has shaken the very foundations of the earth (see 24:6).
We who live in New York City know something about this kind of scene. When the Twin Towers were attacked, the ominous fires and smoke could be seen ascending to heaven for miles. Recently, New Yorkers panicked as a mass of steam erupted from below a city street. People ran in all directions screaming, “Is this it? Is this the end-all attack?”
Today, multitudes of secular prophets are saying a nuclear attack is inevitable. The target they mention most often is New York, but it could happen in any major city: London, Paris, Tel Aviv, Washington. Neither Isaiah nor John names the city upon which destructive judgment falls.I don’t intend this message to frighten anyone.
Let me make clear at this point: I don’t intend this message to frighten anyone. Paul tells us that as disciples of Jesus Christ, we have already passed from death into life. We who call on Jesus as Lord should be confident that no matter what happens in this world, his shed blood saves and redeems us.
Therefore, we are not to fear any newscast, but rather to be attentive to what the Lord is doing in the world. Like many people, I hear grievous reports that make me want to tune everything out. But the truth is, God moves in the midst of such times, and through them he speaks warnings to all who would hear his voice.Isaiah’s prophecy points clearly to our generation.
I believe, along with many eminent Bible scholars, that Isaiah’s prophecy points to the last days. By that, I mean our present time. In short, sudden judgment is coming, and Scripture strongly indicates it is now at the door.
At this point you may be wondering: “How can we be sure we’re the generation this prophecy points to?” We can know by two reasons that such judgments are imminent:
1.A growing number of prophets warn of an apocalyptic disaster at the door. When I use the word “prophets,” I speak not just of those in the church. I’m talking also about “secular prophets.”
There are several precedents for secular prophets in Scripture. God used Assyria as his rod of correction with Israel. And he appointed King Cyrus as his servant to assist Israel: “(The Lord) saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure” (Isaiah 44:28).
Likewise today, God uses secular prophets to send warnings. These become “his prophets” for a season. And their prophecies can be harder than those delivered by believers. The message I’m writing here is mild compared to the prophecies being delivered by all manner of secular voices. Just check your newspaper or radio reports.
“Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7).
2.Sudden destruction comes when the cup of violence overflows. Sensuality, perversion and greed are running rampant throughout our society. Yet, when God sent the Flood upon the earth, it was because of a worldwide eruption of violence: “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence” (Genesis 6:11).
Right now, there are numerous wars and bloody uprisings taking place around the globe. Yet foremost in my mind is the violence being waged against children worldwide:
- I think of the sexual violence of pedophiles. Children all over the world are being raped, kidnapped and forced into enslavement in the global sex trade. Recently, a pedophile in the U.S. was discovered running a web site that advises other pedophiles on the easiest places to pick up children. There is no law in place to stop this man. The world’s largest church denomination has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to settle the claims of those who were molested in childhood by clergy. Tell me, how long will God endure the pitiful cries of children who are molested by those who would represent Christ?
- Thousands of children in Africa are being slaughtered in tribal wars, hacked to death by machetes. Young boys — even those under ten years of age — are enlisted into tribal militias and forced to murder men in initiation rites.
- Here in the U.S., the blood of millions of aborted babies cries out from the ground.
- Reports of school murders no longer shock many of us but continue to terrorize our children. We may grow hardened to such reports, but God’s heart is grieved by them.
I tell you, there is no worse violence than the brutalizing of children. Heaven is crying out, “Woe, woe! Your judgments have no cure.”1. In one hour, God is going to change the whole world.
A sudden cataclysmic event will strike, the first of the final judgments of God. This great event will cause the earth to reel. And Isaiah says that when it hits, there will be no place to escape: “The lofty [proud] city, he layeth it low…even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust” (Isaiah 26:5). “The inhabitants of the earth are burned” (24:6).
Once this happens, utter chaos will erupt. All civic activities will stop, and society will descend into massive disorder. Government agencies will be helpless to restore any kind of sanity. No state troopers, no national guard, no army will be able to bring order to the upheaval.
You well remember that when the Twin Towers were destroyed, help poured into New York from all over the world. An army of people came to assist in whatever way they could. But the scene in Isaiah’s prophecy is different: this calamity is clearly beyond humankind’s capacity to respond.