Have you ever been sick with the flu or some other ailment and gotten well, only to get sick with the same condition days or weeks later? Doctors call that a “relapse.” Persons with substance addiction will often relapse in their treatment process, going back to booze or pills in a moment of critical weakness after months or years of sobriety. A similar phenomenon is often found in various events of things that strangely occur again, described by the popular phrase, “History repeats itself.”
In talking about His second coming, Jesus announced a prophetic relapse that would prevail in our day – “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.” (Matthew 24:37). He also said – “It (will be) the same as happened in the days of Lot…” (Luke 17:28). Jesus was revealing that if we want to understand certain present and future events we need to look back to certain historical events because their comparisons ring with alarming similarities.
The days of Noah were characterized by the permeation of darkness across the earth. I wrote extensively about this darkness in the first volume of “Dismantling Doctrines of Demons – Disclosing the Darkness.” The Scripture describes it this way – Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually (Genesis 6:5). This was apparently not isolated to a region, but widespread generally across the ancient world. It was also not some mild form of wickedness but the kind of intrinsic evil so prevalent and sinister that – the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart (Genesis 6:6). That’s a staggering realization! How sorry and grieved was God about this condition? – And the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land…for I am sorry that I have made them.” (Genesis 6:7). Wow! God actually said that!
Today’s progressive-minded perceptions about God can’t handle Biblical revelations like this. Their unbalanced emphasis on love, grace, mercy, and acceptance simply cannot accommodate a perspective about God that cultural & individual sin could be so repulsive that God would actually regret He ever made humans and determine that He must eradicate human life from the face of the planet! Yet, that is exactly what Genesis reveals to us.
Jesus said that as it was in those days, it is and will continue to be in our day. It’s not hard to look around and see the same permeation of wickedness increasing across the national and international landscape. Jesus prophesied that – lawlessness will increase (Matthew 24:12), and the Apostle Paul affirmed that – evil men…will proceed from bad to worse (II Timothy 3:13). The intensity and acceleration of radical evil across our land are alarming and astounding. God will not tolerate its spread and destruction any more today than He did in Noah’s day. That ancient condition of wickedness is the context in which God declared – “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever.” (Genesis 6:3). Yes, God is patient and longsuffering concerning our sin, but there is a point at which that patience and merciful endurance reaches its limit. That’s another thing progressives can’t seem to wrap their heads around, but it is a grave and sobering reality.
Here's a staggering analysis a person could pose: Is my rebellious disregard for God’s Word, will, and ways so persistent in my life that God would become sorry that I was ever born? Would God actually take my life in death to keep my sinful lifestyle from further influencing & affecting the lives of others around me? Those kinds of confrontative questions cause unsettling discomfort among many, but you can’t argue the facts of Noah’s day nor the response of God to them. Jesus declared that our day will be just like Noah’s day, so “Yes,” God certainly could!
God sent His only begotten Son (Jesus) to die on the cross so that our sins could be forgiven and we could be offered the gift of eternal life. That death was for, and that offer is extended to every single living individual regardless of gender, sex, race, creed, or color. It is offered in grace, mercy, and love, but its option respects the free will of human choice. God will not force you to accept the sacrifice of His Son and the forgiveness & salvation it brings. If you continue to reject the righteous truth of God in favor of your own right to live the way you choose, He will eventually abandon you to those sinful choices. But know that your rejection of Him results only in destitution, destruction, and death for you, both physical and eternal death in hell. An LGBTQ+ protester recently held high a banner that read, “Hell bound and proud!” The point couldn’t be more graphically illustrated.
That brings us to the evil condition of rampant cultural sexual immorality. No question of its prevalence in our day, but what about the days of Noah and Lot since Jesus declared there would be stark similarities?
The Scripture gives us one general statement about the spiritual assessment of the inhabitants of Lot’s community – The men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord (Genesis 13:13). Now, what kind of sin & wickedness would need a modifier in the Scripture that “exceedingly” would best describe? We are told that when two male visitors came to Lot’s house, the men of the city surrounded his house and demanded – “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them.” (Genesis 19:5). The Bible doesn’t mince words and the term “relations” refers exclusively to sexual relations, in this case, clearly homosexual relations, an act Lot himself describes as “wicked” (Genesis 19:7). When Lot refused their assault – they pressed hard against Lot and came near to break (down) the door (Genesis 19:9). It appears the hostile, militant demand for homosexual rights and accommodation is not a new trend!
Lot was warned immediately to get out of the city because God was about to destroy this place (Genesis 19:13), and indeed – rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from heaven and overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground (Genesis 24-25). If you travel today to where some archaeologists believe these cities once stood, it is barren and desolate, and brimstone pellets (sulfur) can still be found embedded in the sand and rock. Nothing can grow there, and it is completely uninhabitable.
How did such wickedness and evil manage to permeate the worlds of Noah and Lot? We are given an extraordinary glimpse into the sinister activity of darkness working in their midst - Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose…the Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. (Genesis 6:1-4). Two terms used in this text give us insight into their identity. “Sons of God” refer to angelic beings of the kind that were cast down out of Heaven with Satan during his revolt and coup attempt against God (Revelation 12:9). These demonic beings took on human forms and mated with human women for the purpose of procreating a race of people that were exceptionally evil. Their male offspring was noticeable because of their sheer height and came to be called “the Nephilim,” or giants. It is assumed that Goliath may have been from this demonic bloodline.
It helps at this point to remind ourselves of the fundamental purpose for which Satan and his demons operate – to kill, steal, and destroy (John 10:10). Any activity of darkness is meant only for those consequential ends. All three of these sinister objectives are carried out in the context of deception, for the devil – is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). Satan is not at all interested in a person’s sexual orientation and erotic pleasure; he only wants them to suffer and die! Sexual pleasure & indulgence is a smoke screen of deception serving as a pleasure trap to lure persons into eventual destitution, destruction, and death. Satan has always sabotaged what God created for good and corrupted it into evil (Isaiah 5:20). Sexual deviation & perversion serves as one of the most effective weapons in hell’s arsenal for accomplishing his sinister plan of death in the lives of men and women.
Just as human women in Noah’s day served as surrogates for demonic beings in procreating an extraordinary race of evildoers, Paul reveals – The Spirit explicitly says that in the later days, some will fall away from the faith paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. (I Timothy 4:1). Demonic spirits in our day are carrying diabolical doctrines of evil, impregnating them into the minds of millions of people in our culture to believe, promote, and practice behaviors & lifestyles of wickedness. It is producing generations of people who give no regard for the truth and authority of Scripture but live according to individual rights, personal desires, and self-serving demands. Many are even walking away from their faith to pursue these ultimate vanities.
While millions see this trend as new norms according to the modern “woke” revolution, the historical societies of Noah & Lot experienced a different and rude awakening sure to fall upon the widespread evil of our day. In short, judgment is coming! When we herald that warning, we are labeled as homophobes, hate-mongers, conspiracy theorists, or doomsayers, but that is the message of Biblical revelation that cannot be denied or ignored. It will befall the evil inhabitants of the earth in similar fashion to Lot’s day when – fire and smoke and brimstone will kill a third of mankind (Revelation 9:17-18). What fell upon Sodom & Gomorrah will fall upon America and the world!
Judgment won’t come by a global flood as it did in Noah’s day, for God set the rainbow in the sky as a symbol of that promise (Genesis 9:15-17). Perhaps one of the most revealing signs of this prophetic relapse is indeed that rainbow. Jesus shares the divine attribute of God as being omniscient (all-knowing). That is, Jesus knows all things past, present, and future at all times. Do you think it is a mere coincidence that a rainbow was a key symbol in Noah’s day and is now a key symbol in our day? The rainbow is one of those good things God established as holy & divine but which Satan has reformed & corrupted into an evil symbol (gay pride). Don’t kid yourself; it is no coincidence!
John’s Revelation vision records catastrophic judgment soon to come, the likes of which human history has never experienced. It includes severe global economic collapse, widespread famine & poverty, pandemic pestilence & disease, wars, violent protests & civil revolutions, massive earthquakes, and asteroids plummeting the earth along with other cataclysmic anomalies never before witnessed in outer space. Millions upon millions of people will die, and the face of our planet will be dramatically altered by the devastation these judgments will render.
But just as in the days of Noah and Lot, God is faithful to His true followers. Before He rained flooding judgment upon the earth, God secured faithful Noah and his family safely in the ark (Genesis 7:16). Before the impending judgments John describes in Revelation unfold, God will remove His committed followers from the earth and safely into Heaven (I Thessalonians 4:13-18).
Many laugh and mock at these words, but Scripture declares this truth and its coming realization will bring about a shock & awe so devastating that every living person, even those who vehemently deny the message of the Bible, the church, and the witness of millions of believers in Christ, will finally be brought to their knees in crushing humility to admit, “Jesus really is whom they said He was! The Bible really is true! I was wrong!” They will plead with God for mercy; they will try to flee somewhere, anywhere, to escape the bloodshed and death all around them but to no avail.
Why am I painting this alarming picture of impending gloom and doom? Because Jesus announced it would be, and God’s authoritative Word of truth declares it so. It comes back to the question, “Do you believe it or not?” I simply and unapologetically do! But here is another reason: we are reaching the critical point in global society of an irrevocable impasse. What do I mean by that? The line has been drawn in the sand, and the sides are quickly being taken. Once that choice is made, very few, if any, appear to be rescinding. They are digging their heels deeply in place and screaming hostilities to the other side for their choice. Militant division has never been more culturally solidified than we see every day in America and around the world. Many have unfortunately decided in their hearts that they will have nothing to do with God & Christ and are content to live in total rejection of His offer of salvation, resentful of any person who tries to compel them otherwise. This separation is nearing a point of completion when the last person to receive Christ will do so during this present age of grace. Once that final choice is made, I don’t believe Jesus will delay a single moment before commanding the angel to sound the trumpet and usher the church into Heaven. That moment is imminently close!
So, while we remain faithful to herald the good news of the Gospel to those who are lost without Christ, our proclamation must take on the gravity of judgment. I don’t want anyone I know and love to be left behind and suffer the kind of catastrophic judgment that awaits those who reject Christ. Do you? Our plea must take on an element of stern warning. We are seriously close to a major shift in prophetic events unfolding on mankind like never before seen in Biblical history. How could we have preached these prophetic truths for thousands of years and not realize there would come a moment in human history when they would begin unfolding in quick & inevitable fashion? That moment is here. Time is short, and our evangelistic efforts must take on the element of a more fervent zeal.
The Noah-Lotic relapse is underway!
Rick M. Smith
Author, Pastor & Speaker
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