The Time is At Hand! Quotes

“It is fashionable to avoid talking of the wrath of God. Karl Barth for years neglected the theme and likewise most contemporary theologians. But the Apocalypse knows no such finicky reserve. There are sixteen references to wrath here. Moderns have forgotten that the most loved verse of the Bible warns that unbelievers will “perish.” The sun that melts wax also hardens clay. No one can be the same after hearing the gospel. They are either better or worse—much better or much worse. But God’s wrath is not irritable and moody like ours. It is the inevitable recoil of holiness against all that would destroy.”
― Desmond Ford, The Time is At Hand!: An Introduction to the Book of Revelation

“Many of the features of the Calvary Atonement are in this frightening chapter, because all that was fulfilled by Calvary is now to be consummated. The blood, the darkness, and the fierce heat of the sun—emblematic of the wrath of God—and demons incite men to their last conflict with God. Why are they here? Their presence is to warn men that if they reject Christ’s Atonement they too will endure the Cross. After probation’s close, when terrible wars with their blood-shedding erupt, and nature testifies to man’s rebellion by drought and famine, when evil angels control the thoughts of men, then will Calvary be reenacted, but this time on the rejecters of God’s love. All must sacrifice. Either we sacrifice our all for Christ our Saviour, or we sacrifice true joy, contentment, and the life to come.”
― Desmond Ford, The Time is At Hand!: An Introduction to the Book of Revelation

“Observe that “the everlasting gospel” has primacy in this warning, for only the conviction of the infinite love of God for weak fallible sinners can nerve us to resist evil even at the price of life itself.”
― Desmond Ford, The Time is At Hand!: An Introduction to the Book of Revelation

“The essence of the final crisis is no mere ritualistic observance, but absolute loyalty to the Christ of Calvary. Eden’s test seemed to be over an insignificant trifle, yet on the hinge of that trifle swung the door of destiny. The last test, as with the first, may also be over what at first seems trivial—but obedience to the exact requirements of the eternal God is the primary duty of all rational creatures. Only those constrained as Paul (2 Corinthians 5:14) and for the same reason are enabled to preserve the delicate balance of responsibility towards both God and man, avoiding the terrible brood of both pharisaism and antinomianism.”
― Desmond Ford, The Time is At Hand!: An Introduction to the Book of Revelation

“The seven churches and the seven seals are now succeeded by the seven trumpets. To the seven churches, Christ manifests himself as Priest, Prophet, and King; in the seven seals we see him as Prophet, King, and Priest; but in the Trumpets he is King, Priest, and Prophet. As Priest he tended the lamps, as Prophet he foretold the destiny of the church and the world, and as King he rules and judges.”
― Desmond Ford, The Time is At Hand!: An Introduction to the Book of Revelation

“Our destiny is assured if we continue to trust, but we are to fear and tremble lest we be seduced from him by our own carnality. There is no “once saved, always saved” in this book, nor anywhere else in Scripture.”
― Desmond Ford, The Time is At Hand!: An Introduction to the Book of Revelation