A well-known Swedish preacher recently claimed to have received a message from God for Sweden, that was widely reported within Christian media in Scandinavia. The core of the message was that God is about to punish Sweden for its many sins, and that only a short window of grace remains.
”Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good”, Paul said (1 Thess. 5:20-21). It does not matter how renowned or respected a certain preacher is. Everything that is prophesied in God’s name must be tested against the holy scriptures of the Bible and the finished work of Jesus.
Whenever serious prophetic messages are given, it is not uncommon that the person in question says that he (or she) spent time before God in prayer and fasting and, while doing so, received an important message to the nation from above. Prayer and fasting are often used to give extra legitimacy and credibility to prophetic words. But it does not matter how much a certain preacher has prayed and fasted – the prophetic message still must be tried against the truth of the Gospel.
Prophetic messages in the New Covenant that do not agree with Jesus and His finished work are false, no matter how spiritual they sound. “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 19:10). True prophetic words never contradict the testimony of Jesus, but always agree with and confirm the Gospel.
Not too long ago, I heard a world-renown American preacher say on Christian TV: “Unless God judges America, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.”
The American preacher argued that the sins that are committed in America today are even more serious than those that transpired in Sodom and Gomorrah. He is probably right regarding this fact, but is his statement correct in light of the truth of the Gospel? Not at all. God would have spared Sodom and Gomorrah if there only had been 10 righteous people living in those two cities. In America today, there are millions of born-again believers that have been made righteous by grace through faith in Christ. God would not even have judged America had we lived in the days of Abraham, before the cross.
We, however, are not living in the same age as Abraham. Something very significant has happened between then and now, that has totally changed how God relates to the world and how mankind can relate to God. The cross. The atonement. The redemptive work of Jesus Christ. God sent his son Jesus to deal with the sins of the world once and for all.
”that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” (2 Kor. 5:19)
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. (Col. 1:19-20)
25 not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another — 26 He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation. (Heb. 9:25-28)
God does not need to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah for not punishing or judging America. But He would have to apologize to Jesus had He judged America today, since this would have meant that the sacrifice of Jesus was not sufficient and that Christ went through the suffering of the cross in vain. The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus and the cross is enough!
”But He was wounded for our transgressions, He wasbruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.” (Is. 53:5)
The punishment for the sins of the world was laid upon Jesus. Because of that, God is not about to punish America – or Scandinavia – today. His heart is yearning that the good news of Christ’s redemption and reconciliation is shared with every nation and person.
The confusion and lack of knowledge when it comes to basic Gospel truths among Christians is striking! However, God is raising up believers all over the world that preaches the Gospel of grace authentically. Hopefully you are one of them!
