They Did Not Repent

Continuing in the book of Revelation, the very last book of the Bible, we are still finding God's call for people to repent.  That place of the first step.
Midway through the seven years of judgment / Tribulation, we read "the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.  And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts."  Rev 9:20,21.
People just kept right on living lives of debauchery and egotism.  No relenting.  No turning.  No repenting despite God's judgment bearing down on them.  Even right up to the final judgment of the people on earth, we read that God is looking for repentance.  So important is this one action that God will tighten every last screw on the life of a person to, if possible, bring them to the point of repentance.  Man, woman, child.  him or her.  me or you.
Seal, trumpet and bowl judgments have been cascading down upon the people of earth throughout Revelation.  By the very end, with only 4 judgments remaining, we hear the familiar refrain.
"Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire.  And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over the these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory."  Rev 16:8,9
"Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain.  They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not repent of their deeds."  Rev 16:10,11
Five verses later, we read of an angel pouring out the final bowl saying, "It is done!"  Judgments have their conclusion also.  The end of this last judgment finds the heart of those remaining on the earth unchanging.  There is nothing further to do.  They did not repent even when given such evidence of their need and their opportunity.  God has been patient for thousands of years.  God has been merciful.  God has been faithful.  God has been persistent.  God has been beyond accusation.  God.

Chest Pain

The revelation of Jesus Christ will occur in the future.  Exactly when it will happen is not known.  But it will happen.  He will return to the earth.  He has made known to us what some of the events surrounding His return will be.  Revelation 1:1 says that the revelation - the uncovering - of Jesus Christ is preceded by things that must shortly take place.  This means that the time is near.  According to Revelation 1:7, Jesus is "coming with the clouds and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him.  And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. "  The word mourn means "to beat one's breast as a strong expression of grief." The entire planet will finally see this One and it will produce a reaction of extreme pain in the heart.  Interestingly this does not happen in Revelation until chapter 19 - after the seven year period known as the Tribulation.  The Tribulation is a time of intense suffering and judgment unleashed on a world that has refused to turn to God.  A world that has refused to repent.

The judgments coming to the earth are, in part, for man's good.  At first reading it may appear that God is merely an angry being lashing out at people who just didn't know any better.  However, this is not the case.  God has been reaching out to a sinful world that has rejected Him from the very beginning.  He absolutely does not want anyone to perish and has revealed Himself to every person on the planet in some way.  Romans 1 tells us that every person has received some level of awareness of God - whether in their thoughts or through the visible world around them.  These are two great witnesses to all human beings - their conscience and the creation.  

In our study, we find that even during the Tribulation God is hoping for repentance.  God is hoping that people will turn to Him.  However, by the end of it, many will not.  The evidence forced upon their conscience and the judgments on creation will be so obvious that those who do not repent will have no excuse.  They will be judged forever based on their own lives instead of receiving the gracious offer of forgiveness that God has provided for them.  It will be too late to avoid the consequences.  Time's up.  Their fists will bruise their chests.