ALL MURDERS, EVEN THE FORGOTTEN ONES, WILL BE JUDGED AND AVENGED
This is a horrible world; a world of torment and ugliness, of torture, pain and death. The atrocities of this earth are like an iceberg – the majority are hidden underneath and are not seen. Two posts back, I had an article on the two verses of Revelation 9, verses 20 and 21. I did just the first part of this study, which was the Introduction and Idolatry. Now we come to Murders.
We are going to continue on this occasion with the next verse from Revelation chapter 9. Let us read the last two verses and then take up this presentation from the last verse.
Revelation 9 20 “The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood which can neither see nor hear nor walk, 21 and they did not repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their immorality, nor of their thefts.”
INTRODUCTION
If you recall, we are looking at one of the reasons why the seven-year Tribulation will continue full term, and that is: in spite of the judgments from God falling in wrath, men and women on the planet will not repent. So hard are their hearts that not even the two horrific judgments of Revelation Chapter 9 will cause them to repent. The specific sins are stated, four of them, and the first one is murder, which we will delve into on this occasion.
The word used in Revelation 9:21 is the word meaning murder or slaughter. The passage says they would not repent of “their murders,” which indicates that murder will be a constant matter in the Tribulation, even in spite of the fact that God’s judgments are falling with ever-increasing intensity. I think we need to recognize the application to the Tribulation years, that is, that the restraining ministry of the Holy Spirit will be removed at the Rapture of the Church, and everything will be very much worse. But this matter goes much deeper. All God’s accounts are to be settled, and some may extend over thousands of years before they see fulfillment. For example, the nation of Egypt is to be punished for what it has done to Israel, but after that, God will save them, and great blessing awaits. That prophecy has been held over for 2,750 years.
Isaiah 19:16-25 “In that day the Egyptians will become like women, and they will tremble and be in dread because of the waving of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which He is going to wave over them. The land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt; everyone to whom it is mentioned will be in dread of it, because of the purpose of the LORD of hosts which He is purposing against them. In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and swearing allegiance to the LORD of hosts; one will be called the City of Destruction. In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD near its border. It will become a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the LORD because of oppressors, and He will send them a Saviour and a Champion, and He will deliver them.
“Thus the LORD will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day. They will even worship with sacrifice and offering, and will make a vow to the LORD and perform it. The LORD will strike Egypt, striking but healing; so they will return to the LORD, and He will respond to them and will heal them. In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, ‘Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.'”
OPENING THE PAGE ON MURDERS – THE TRIBULATION WILL BE THE VERDICT
This world has committed murders and bloodied its record horribly, and God has not wiped that away; the day of reckoning will happen, and the Tribulation years will be this reckoning. The world will be called to account for the murders it has committed. How are we to understand these murders, and what are some examples?
Matthew 15:19 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.”
Mark 7:21 “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries.”
Firstly, out of the corruption of the fallen nature, murders will come. Matthew 15:19 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.” It is one of the consequences of fallen humankind. However, through the ages, millions of murders have not been solved or even known to human justice. These have mounted up, and the account is thick with examples. Man thinks he has gotten away with murder throughout the years of the world’s history, but individuals will be called into account at the Great White Throne. The world itself will have to answer for following Satan’s lead – John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning…”
One point we could make is that the world is guilty of murder because it has not addressed the penalty correctly. I don’t want to open up a side issue; suffice it to say that the Bible has clearly given the death penalty for murder (in the covenant with Noah). God has never revoked that, and the New Testament would support that also. The death penalty was given because of equality where one man’s life was balanced with another man’s life. God’s judgments in the Law were always commensurate with the crime. So it will ever be. To equate one man’s life with 14 years of jail in nice conditions, often being paroled after 10 years, is not the justice that God would uphold.
Because the world is guilty of forfeiting penalty, it will be held responsible for these judgments; and also because it will not repent of all this while God’s judgments are ongoing in those 7 years. That is vital – they will NOT repent!
ACCUMULATED PENALTY
The next point we can make is the one of accumulated penalty. In the name of “God,” millions of murders have been committed against God’s own dear children by the Roman Catholic church and by Islam, by despots and dictators, and by other persecutors as well (especially by Communism), including some by the English Church of England. These will be avenged by an avenging God, and combined numbers run into tens of millions, if not into hundreds of millions. [Check out the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre of French Huguenots in 1572.]
Deuteronomy 32:41-43 “If I sharpen My flashing sword, and My hand takes hold on justice, I will render vengeance on My adversaries. And I will repay those who hate Me. I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh, with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the long-haired leaders of the enemy.’ “Rejoice, O nations, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance on His adversaries, and will atone for His land and His people.”
In this age of grace, Christians do NOT pray for vengeance on their enemies. Matthew 5:44 “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you,” but God will do it.
Remember the passage we already looked at in chapter 6 – Revelation 6:10 “And they cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?'” where the tribulations saints pray for vengeance on those who slaughtered them, and God just told them to wait until it is all fulfilled. It will happen. That will be a correct prayer in the Tribulation, as it is a time of judgment and wrath.
THE WORST DICTATORS IN THE LAST CENTURY plus, Leading into the 2000s
The next point is a serious one too. It deals with the horrible atrocities committed by individuals and political regimes from the distant past to the present. God has moved on some empires and nations for the murders committed, but generally, the time of judgment is still held up; however, judgment will happen. We speak of the ones in the recent past, like Pol Pot in Cambodia, the slaughter in Sudan by Islam, and by dictators like Stalin and Mao Tse Tung, and the multitudes of warlords today. The numbers connected with these atrocities are staggering.
It is estimated from historical sources that the following is the count of death, and people killed by and through the following: (NOTE – it is hard to get exact statistics on these; I have investigated many records to get the following, and they are still only estimates.
HITLER AND NAZI GERMANY:
By genocide, the murder of hostages, reprisal raids, forced labor, “euthanasia,” starvation, exposure, medical experiments, and terror bombing, and in the concentration and death camps, the Nazis murdered from 15,003,000 to 31,595,000 people.
Most likely 20,946,000 men, women, handicapped, aged, sick, prisoners of war, forced laborers, camp inmates, critics, homosexuals, Jews, Slavs, Serbs, Germans, Czechs, Italians, Poles, French, Ukrainians, and many others. Among them, 1,000,000 were children under eighteen years of age. And none of these monstrous figures even include civilian and military combat or war deaths. We cannot and will not forget 6 million Jews that may or may not be included in the above figures. An estimated 40,000,000 to 50,000,000 people died during World War II. One estimate says the deaths personally alone through Hitler were 17 million.
STALIN AND RUSSIA:
Stalin was one of the ugliest dictators ever who existed. He was responsible for the death of 32,584,000 during the Stalin years in his forced camps. Stalin starved to death an estimated 3.9 million in the Ukraine. This dictator was from hell.
From https://hawaii.edu/powerkills/USSR.CHAP.1.HTM
In all, Rudolph J. Rummel states that the Soviet system killed 61,911,000 victims.
(RUDOLPH J. RUMMEL, b, 1932, BA and MA from the University of Hawaii (1959, 1961); Ph.D. in Political Science (Northwestern University, 1963); Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, Omicron Delta Kappa. Taught at Indiana University (1963), Yale (1964-66), University of Hawaii (1966-1995); now Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Hawaii. Received numerous grants from NSF, ARPA, and the United States Peace Research Institute. Frequently nominated for the Nobel Peace.)
MAO ZEDONG – CHINA
In the history of the world, no one has been as murderous and satanically possessed as Mao Zedong [Judas was worse]. He was responsible for the deaths of at least 45 million people between 1958 and 1962 (estimates range from 49-78 million deaths).
It is not merely the extent of the catastrophe that dwarfs earlier estimates but also the manner in which many people died: between two and three million victims were tortured to death or summarily killed, often for the slightest infraction. When a boy stole a handful of grain in a Hunan village, local boss Xiong Dechang forced his father to bury him alive. The father died of grief a few days later. The case of Wang Ziyou was reported to the central leadership: one of his ears was chopped off, his legs were tied with iron wire, a ten-kilogram stone was dropped on his back, and then he was branded with a sizzling tool – punishment for digging up a potato.
The current leader of Communist China is following in Mao’s footsteps. President Xi is a mass murderer with one estimate of 2.9 million.
Pol Pot – 1.7 million. Hideki Tojo – 5 million. Leopold II of Belgium – 2 to 15 million. Ismail Enver Pasha (vile Ottoman Turk died in 1922) – 2.5 million. Kim Il Sung 1.6 million.
Don’t think for one moment that God has brushed these blackest sins away. Satan was a murderer from the beginning, and like Satan, these satanic (satanically possessed) men will receive their just verdict, and they deserve it! The retribution of God for murder is coming swiftly on the world.
THE IMMORALITY OF NATIONS AND WORLD BODIES
Things have happened in the past where armies would decimate the conquered peoples, but nothing like the severity which has been in the last two centuries. Largely, the world has either been unwilling to address these great travesties of human injustice or unable to address them. Burma continues with already a multitude slaughtered, but where is the United Nations? Man won’t address these, but God will. The UN ignores the tragedy and bloodshed in some of the African nations. Our hearts go out to destitute African people. Hitler and Japan were challenged only because of their threat to Britain, France, and the USA; otherwise, nothing would have happened.
What is sad is that the world won’t repent of these, and as we see in our verses, people hardened their hearts to become hard stone. God has not forgotten.
Considering nations like Biafra, just to choose an example, the world sat by while unspeakable atrocities were committed (Burundi, another, and The Sudan) where UN armies could have intervened but had no interest. Not only was there the neglect of intervention, but even to compound it, there was neglect in supporting the people left destitute by war and starving to death. We know some humanitarian organizations helped, but the world did little. Genocide was overlooked, and so was the means to help keep these people alive.
All this is murder – that is the baseline. To allow people to die when you could have helped them live is tacit murder. This sort of situation is played out time and time again. This must be included under the murder umbrella, but God’s retribution will come.
Murder for greed or lust is another matter high on the list. In this, the Roman church has very bloodied hands. One only needs knowledge of the Vatican treasures to realize the wealth of the western world in medieval times, and the gold of the Central and South American natives was pillaged by death and violence by the Roman church and its ambassadors like Pizarro and the greed of the Spanish armies. The Spanish were great papists and murdered in the name of the church. All this, too, will be called to account.
Tribes have attacked tribes through hate and greed. Terrorism, wars, and the atrocities of wars like stealing and rape and murder of the innocent have and are adding to the account. The first recorded biblical crime was a murder, and it has multiplied from there. The antediluvian world got so bad that God records that every thought of man’s heart was evil continually. There was no other option but extermination through judgment, and the Tribulation comes because of this state of the human heart. After all, these Tribulation days will be as evil as in Noah’s era:
Matthew 24:37-39 “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.”
THE CRIME OF ABORTION, WHICH IS MURDER
There remains one more thing that I think maybe is the greatest cause of murder today in the world, and it will NOT go unavenged. I speak of abortion. The official figures from the World Health Organization as of 25 November 2021 state there are around 73 million deliberate abortions each year (called “induced abortions”), and there would be a lot more not in WHO statistics. This subject of abortion is always a tricky one to address, as Right to Life has found.
Firstly, you can’t get pro-life education in the community easily, as the Government forces are against you. Secondly, the pro-abortion lobby and politicians are so entrenched and nasty, hard-hearted people – well, I suppose that is a trait of murderers! The feminist movement, with its hard-lined humanism and anti-God philosophy, is an evil movement with a great share of support from humanist psychologists. The battle against these people is nasty because they are nasty people. After all, they are murderers!
Abortion clinics, Family Planning, and Government counselors all are strong advocates of the abortion position. I mean not only in Australia but worldwide. Now we have in Australia the abortion pill, which most but not all legislation supports. Most Australian States provide abortion right up to the end of pregnancy and Queensland right up to the very day of birth. Is that not mockery of God who said, “be fruitful and multiply”?
This greatest form of continuing murder will continue, and in the Tribulation, God will remember the murders in wombs since the time when men knew how to perform and execute abortions. The last 50 years, in particular, have been a tragedy in defenseless murder. It is on God’s account. It will not be forgotten.
This is not a pleasant subject to bring before us, but remember, God is not mocked. The hand of God’s wrath is very close.