Preface: We think of Hollywood as the epicenter of our entertainment culture....and it probably is....but Broadway was the foundation. It's odd in this respect....how God's Word gives us this warning in Matthew 7:13...."Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it." Brothers and sisters....we are going to be winnowed down....events will determine this....just as they did in Jerusalem and Rome and elsewhere....and it is going to be difficult. Would it not be wise to know this beforehand. I would think so....as Jesus even told us...."Be on your guard; I have told you all things beforehand." (Mk 13:23)
Broad Is The Way.....March, 2021
It was a major movie....with big stars....and a plot that was in the news all around the world.....but it still didn't do well at the box office. I'm going to give the ending here in case you want to just boot it up on your computer....for free....and watch it.
The Hollywood stars were Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner and Tony Perkins.....(a year before Psycho).....and Fred Astaire....the year was 1959....and the plot was that there had been an atomic war....and the people in the city.....(Melbourne).....at the southern tip of Australia....as far as they could tell....were the only people left on earth....as a radioactive cloud that enveloped the rest of the world....was just about to reach them. The movie was....On The Beach.....a title that you might think would star Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello.
OK here's the ending....Perkins character and his wife kill themselves with a pill distributed just like that vaccine being distributed today....and they take along their infant baby. Fred seals himself in the garage and turns on the sports car. Ava Gardner takes the pill.....as Gregory Peck and the men of his United States submarine choose to sail home and at least die in their own country. Gee...I wonder why the theater crowds didn't go for the film?
It had already been in book form so everyone pretty much knew how it was going to end. The United States government didn't want any part in assisting with the movie....but the Australian government didn't mind doing so.
The folks of Melbourne went about business almost as usual in the months before the cloud reached them....accepting what was ahead....but as the time did get near.....the film focused in on a Salvation Army type rally.....where a man preached something or other....as the people stood around like zombies. The last scene in the movie is the same setting in the city....with the banner flying overhead that read...."There Is Still Time...Brothers"....only there are no people around this time....as they all had gone home to take the pill.
In a way the book of Revelation is similar.....as it describes the end....as everyone is running to the caves....hoping that the rocks will fall in on them....rather than them having to face the wrath of the judgment of God. The difference is that by this time in Revelation.....God's redeemed....those that survived the Antichrist....had been taken up in the air to meet their returning Lord and Savior and King.
The priests and the rulers in Jerusalem were sick and tired.....to put it mildly....of Jeremiah constantly telling them that God was going to judge the city and all of Judah. They persecuted him.....and almost killed him....trying to shut him up....and they had their own false prophets telling them that the best was yet to come. The Baptists had had it with Charles Spurgeon warning them....and the Anglicans were not thrilled either with J. C. Ryle. Billy Graham didn't get real serious with God's judgment on America until later on. Oh he would preach it earlier....but he was driven by it as time passed.
We don't want to hear this type of message.....but like it or not we are going to have to face it. Do you have twenty-four minutes to give to this subject.....maybe you could skip a half of some March Madness ballgame....or take a break from the spring cleaning. R. C. Sproul's radio program....(renewingyourmind.org)....broadcast a Stephen Lawson teaching episode this week titled.....The Wrath Of God. It actually sobered me up a little....and I thought I was already sober. Just Google it.....Stephen Lawson, The Wrath Of God....and see if it has a similar effect on you.
