Following his famous sermon on Pentecost, the church “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42). And it wasn’t long until Peter preached another famous sermon (Acts 3:12-26). He addressed the men of Israel and eventually said:
“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:19-21).
These are tough words, but I believe Peter told these Jews that God will send a time of refreshing to Israel, then God will send Jesus back, and then Jesus will begin the time of restoration (restore Israel’s position among the nations; restore morality, peace, justice, righteousness, etc. on earth). It intrigues me that God in His foreknowledge knows when the times of refreshing and time of restitution are.
But consider that God gave all of the Promised Land to Abraham and His descendents (the Jews); that God told Abraham that His descendants would live in another land and serve them (live in Egypt and be slaves there) for 400 years; and the reason why they couldn’t have the Promised Land right away was because the iniquity of the Amorites who lived in the Promised Land was not yet full (Gen. 15:12-16).
God loves everyone, including the Amorites, so He would not allow the Jews to occupy the Promised Land for another 400 years because the sin of the Amorites was not yet great enough for them to be destroyed. But when the 400 years came and went and the Amorites had reached God’s limit on defiling the land, He would cast them out (Lev. 18:24-28; I Kings 21:25-26).
And consider that God told Judah that He had called upon the people to repent many times, but they did not listen, so He was going to use Babylon to destroy Judah, capture many Jews in the northern part of the country and make them serve Babylon for 70 years (Jer. 25:1-11). Then, He added that because of Babylon’s sin, He would destroy Babylon 70 years later (Jer. 25:12).
Before it happened God revealed Judah’s fall and the time of Babylon’s fall (70 years after Judah’s fall). But it did not stop there. God identified several other nations that would drink the “wine cup of this fury” (be destroyed) at that time (Jer. 25:15-26).
Among other things, a cup is a unit of measurement. David’s cup was filled with joy (Psa. 23:5). The believer’s cup is filled with salvation (Psa. 116:13; Jn. 7:37-39). Jesus’ cup was filled with the wrath of God toward the sins of the world (Matt. 26:39). The coming one-world religion’s cup will be filled with abominations and filthiness (Rev. 17:4).
The “wine cup of this fury” contained the wrath of God toward the sins of those nations. Instead of pouring His wrath upon these nations as they sinned, God poured His wrath into a cup. As time passed, the level of His wrath in the cup slowly rose until the “wine cup of this fury” was full. God didn’t punish them every time they sinned, but He was aware of their sins. And their sins caused His wrath to build until His cup was full and He destroyed them.
This process is ongoing, but it can be interrupted and God’s wrath can even be removed from the “cup” by humility, prayer and turning to Him (2 Chron. 7:14). Absent that, and I don’t believe it is going to happen in the United States, the cup that contains America’s sins will continue to fill until there is no more room. Then, the Bible teaches that God will remove a leader (Dan. 2:21), or He will destroy a nation (Dan. 5:25-28), or He will give a nation the basest of men (a terrible leader) to rule over it (Dan. 4:17).
God does not change (Heb. 13:8) and it seems that the United States now has the basest of men for a leader (lying, spying, breaking the law, abortion, homosexuality, etc.). This is a clear indication that the cup of God’s wrath is full. It explains why our president’s lying staff, our cover-it-up Senate, our really angry (but never do anything about it) House and the predominantly silent main stream media are allowing the destruction of America’s biblical foundations. Goodbye Lady Liberty. Your “cup” is full and it grieves some of us to ponder your future.
“If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do? The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. The Lord tests the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates. Upon the wicked He will rain coals; fire and brimstone and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord isrighteous, He loves righteousness; His countenance beholds the upright” (Psalm 11:3-7).
Drink from the cup of salvation before it is too late.
Prophecy Plus Ministries
Daymond & Rachel Duck