God Destroys the World’s Wall of Illusion

God Destroys the World’s Wall of Illusion

This world is in rebellion against God (1John 5:19). One of the consequences of this rebellion is that the world does not want to know the truth (about God, reality, and each person’s need for a savior from sin). It would rather live a fantasy, an illusion.

“Because of rebellion . . . truth was thrown to the ground” (Daniel 8:12 NIV).

“Go now, write it on a tablet for them, inscribe it on a scroll, that for the days to come it may be an everlasting witness. 9 These are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the LORD’s instruction. 10 They say to the seers, ‘See no more visions!’ and to the prophets, ‘Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. 11 Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!'” (Isaiah 30L8-11 NIV).

But such rebellion naturally has consequences.

“Therefore, this is what the Holy One of Israel says: ‘Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit, 13 this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant. 14 It will break in pieces like pottery, shattered so mercilessly that among its pieces not a fragment will be found for taking coals from a hearth or scooping water out of a cistern” (Isaiah 30:12-14 NIV).

It is this promised ominous collapse of the world’s wall of illusion by God that is the subject of this writing.

The time for the collapsing of the world’s wall of illusion and deception is near. This will happen after the ultimate deception which the world desires makes himself known.

“That day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction” (2Th. 2:2 NIV).

This man of lawlessness will perform the ultimate act of lawlessness by setting “himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God” (2Th. 2:5 NIV). This is the ultimate deception, to think of oneself as God. This ultimate act of deception will take place at the End because the End is the time when the ultimate of everything, both good and evil, reaches its ultimate, its end point, the culminating of all things, The end of this world culminates in the ultimate evil of the evil one declaring himself to be God, the ultimate deception, while the ultimate good also comes to ultimate fruition, in the return of the Lord Jesus.

“The lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming” (2Th. 2:8 NIV).

The End is the time of ultimates, the time when the wall of illusion must come down so that the God and his truth may be revealed in all its splendor and absolute reality. No more illusions. No more relying upon human governments to provide protection for the lawlessness of sin in people’s lives, such as legalization of the killing of babies and unnatural lust (Rom. 1:24-27).

This passage in Romans is one of the clearest in Scripture regarding the wall of illusion which the world has built to keep out from its wicked heart the truth of God’s Word, so that it can live in a fragile bubble of fantasy where it can indulge its sinful passions with illusory impunity.

“They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator” (Rom. 1:25 NIV).

They exchange the truth of God for a lie because that is what they want. But what sinful human beings want does not change the truth of the reality of sin and punishment for unrepented sin. Time after time, God warns those who will listen (and those who will not) to put away their fantasy world where sin is vaunted as freedom instead of the slavery it really is (John 8:34). He warns them that if they do not stop living a lie, they will be killed by the truth, as John saw in his vision of that final Day, in which he saw the ultimate end of all those who refused to repent, wherein they were “. . . killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse” (Rev. 19:21 NIV). That sword is the Word of God (Rev. 19:15), which Word is truth (John 17:17).

In all this, there is no longer a time to repent, for unrepentant sinners have finally run out of time. All that is left is the time for punishment, and God will be absolutely just in meting out that punishment.

“‘Should I not punish them for this?’ declares the LORD. ‘Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?’ A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land: 31 The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?” (Jer. 5:29-31 NIV).

“What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches? 4 Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives or fall among the slain” (Isaiah 10:3-4 NIV).

God will not forever let this world sink ever more deeply into increasing evil and wickedness. There is a day of final judgment for the unrepented sin of this world. God must judge this world and punish it. Nevertheless, because he is merciful, he sends call after call for repentance before that final judgment, along with a foretaste of how terrifying that final judgment will be. That foretaste is all the many judgments that have now begun falling upon this earth: historic floods, fires, storms in the natural world; increasing violence and unnatural hatred inspired by the devil against all that is reasonable and good, against God and his people; in fact, all the wicked things listed by Scripture for the last days:

“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God– 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them” (2Timothy 3:1-5 NIV).

Another book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, is full of terrifying descriptions of the judgment of God for all these sins. Amazingly, however, despite all of the many chances God gives the world as that end rapidly approaches, it still refuses to repent (Rev. 16:9-11), still refuses to let go of its illusion that it can go its own sinful way and that God can do nothing about it.

“You boast, ‘We have entered into a covenant with death, with the grave we have made an agreement. When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place (Isaiah 28:15 NIV).

But God replies to this arrogant boasting of the world that thinks it is safe from God’s punishment because of the wall of illusions it has built to protect it:

“So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: . . . I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line; hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place. 18 Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the grave will not stand'” (Isaiah 28:16-18 NIV).

This destruction of the world’s wall of illusion must take place, because God is the ultimate of all reality, the rock-bottom essential, the ultimate, supreme truth and existence; therefore, nothing false or illusory shall be able to stand before this ultimate reality, but must fall down to be exposed for the fraud that it is.

“I will break down the wall that you have smeared with whitewash, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation will be laid bare. When it falls, you shall perish in the midst of it, and you shall know that I am the LORD” (Ezekiel 13:14 ESV).

The foundation of the world’s wall is exposed for the fantasy and illusion that it is by the unassailable truth of God’s reality. Those who refuse to see this but trust instead in any of the world’s illusory falsehoods will be destroyed in that fall. For all must be exposed; the true reality of every person’s heart, his or her true character, will be exposed for all to see in the final judgment of the God who is unassailable light (1Timothy 6:16). The book of a person’s heart (2Cor. 3:2-3), his or her true character, will be exposed for all to see:

“And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books” (Rev. 20:12 NIV).

What are these books that are opened in the final judgment? They may be actual books, records, of each person’s deeds done in his or her life, stored in a sacred vault in heaven. A number of God’s people have seen such books and record rooms in visions and have shared those visions with God’s people. Whether you believe such visions or not is up to you. But what is certainly true is that each human being has recorded within his or her own person a record of all that was done in that person’s life. It is called memory. For now, that memory is shielded from inspection from all others; the books of each are closed. But in the judgment, all will be revealed. The books will be opened.

“For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. 18 Therefore consider carefully how you listen” (Luke 8:17-18 NIV).

We should indeed consider carefully how we listen to what God tells us ahead of time of how it will be to stand before him in the final judgment of the penetrating light of his glory. For that is the time when all will be exposed by that glorious light.

“Everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14 for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: ‘Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you'” (Eph. 5:13-14 NIV).

This, then, is the final warning of the imminent collapse of the world’s wall of illusions by the light of the coming of the Lord. The splendor of his coming is available even today, before that final day–if the reader will allow that light into his or her heart, letting the light of Christ shine on them.

“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.17 I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line; hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place” (Isaiah 28:16-17 NIV).

Jesus is the sure foundation which will take the place of the foundation of lies upon which this world has built its house. Those who trust in him will not be ashamed but will have the solid foundation that the waters of the End cannot wash away, as Jesus taught in his parable of the two houses, one built on sand and the other on the rock (Mt. 7:24-27).

Listen, then, one more time to the dire warning which the Lord has issued to a world that refuses to come to the Rock who is Jesus, upon which foundation alone is there salvation and escape from the coming judgment. Listen, all who continue to trust in the world’s wall of fantasy and illusion (government, education, science, money, self and anything else in which one trusts, rather than trusting in God):

“I will break down the wall that you have smeared with whitewash, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation will be laid bare. When it falls, you shall perish in the midst of it, and you shall know that I am the LORD” (Ezekiel 13:14 ESV).