If you dare!
(Samuel Davies, "The Universal Judgment!")
"Then I saw a great white throne—and HIM who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from His presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened . . . If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life—he was thrown into the lake of fire!" Revelation 20:11, 12, 15
What an astonishing scene is this! The stable earth and sky cannot bear the majesty and terror of His look; they fly away affrighted! This is the Judge before whom we must stand; and this is the manner of His appearance!
But is this the babe of Bethlehem—who lay and wept in the manger?
Is this the supposed son of the carpenter, the despised Galilean?
Is this the man of sorrows?
Is this He who was . . .
arrested,
condemned,
buffeted,
spit upon,
crowned with thorns,
executed as a slave and a criminal, upon the cross?
Yes, it is Him! The very same Jesus of Nazareth!
But oh how changed! How deservedly exalted! Heaven and earth flee before Him!
Now let his enemies appear and show their contempt and malignity!
Now, Pilate—condemn the King of the Jews as a usurper!
Now, you Jews, raise the clamor, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" Now bow the knee in scorn, spit in His face, and buffet Him! Now tell the scourged impostor that He must die!
Now despise His grace,
now laugh at His threatenings, and
now make light of His displeasure—if you dare!
Ah! now their courage fails, and terror surrounds them! Now they try to hide in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. Now they call to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"
But, alas! That LAMB who once bled as a sacrifice for sin—now appears in all the terrors of a LION! Oh! could they hide themselves in the bottom of the ocean, or in some rock that bears the weight of the mountains—how happy would they think themselves!