To all people God calls “His own”.
Dear friends,
What do you suppose the world population was at the time of the great flood and the ark? Is there some respectable estimate out there? I would like to know. What is clear, though, is that only EIGHT people were on board when God closed the door. If you were one of the eight, you would have known and loved hundreds or more of those who dis-qualified themselves for survival. They would have been your family, probably, among them, your parents, your children, your siblings, your friends, church people, priesthood, craftsmen, industrious people, families, community leaders, doctors, nurses, teachers, charismatic people with influence…similar to the types and distribution of folks today.
Influential people were then, as today, responsible for dissuading great masses from believing the truth. They all drowned, influencers and influenced, never to weaken the faithful or the Message again. Imagine the grief and horror of witnessing and knowing of the agony and death of so many that you dearly loved and had prayed for and witnessed to. Would there have been any joy or self-satisfaction in surviving? Any self-righteousness? But consider the facts. The eight that survived were those that believed God’s words so sincerely and personally that their efforts were concentrated entirely on God.
It had to have been an extreme heart ache, remaining totally and uncompromisingly dedicated to God and his work while wondering if your loved ones were going live or die—while making your life a witness to them. When the prophesied disaster struck, only eight survived. It may not be reasonable to expect many, even those closest to us or those held in high esteem, to understand the expedience of preparing, gathering and obeying for the coming flood of international and local disaster…and building the way out of this prophesied and inevitable destruction. It is still expected of us, though, to keep personally focused and prayerful in our determination to perform that which Christ has given us to do. There must always be hope, and prayers, that larger numbers of individuals will be gathered by God to build his kingdom.
The ark today is the Kingdom on the earth, a place of safety and refuge for the preservation of the pure gospel of Jesus Christ and those of the world who will attach themselves to it. This is a very serious business and we must not think of it in any lesser terms than God’s. Consider that our eternal Father’s plan and vision for Zion is not a theory. With Him (and thus it is so) it is a concrete reality with all of its major and minor parts, to the last detail and last person, in place and operating. Does God expect anything less of us?
Jesus is instructing us that now is the time for action, not more words, not more officious rhetoric and pontification, not more self-importance and imaginary status. It is the time for action, your action—because Zion will not come to reality by any other means.