The Day of the Lord and the Wicked

This is from The Missing Cross to Purity:

Selections from the Works of Francis Howgill (1618-1669)

SECTION III

What the Day of the Lord is,
and what it will be to the Wicked [the unpurified].

Though the day of the Lord is pure light and brightness, and mixes not with night, which is of a contrary nature; yet it is a day of blackness and gloominess, and a notable terrible day unto the wicked, who hate its appearance, and hate the light, who are children of falsehood, and of deceit; whose deeds are evil. It shows or manifests them and their deeds; as it is written in Job 24:17: “the morning is unto them as the shadow of death.” The appearance of the Lord frightens them; and they would run from it as a thief that digs through a wall and breaks open a house in the night while deep sleep is upon men; such an evil man is afraid when the day appears that discovers his actions. The day of the Lord will steal upon those who live without restraint upon earth; whose hearts are set to seek after wickedness, as for hidden treasure; and it will come upon them as a thief. They, being children of the night, and bringing forth fruits of darkness, will have their portion in utter darkness. Thus shall the ungodly perish, and have their portion with hypocrites. Think of this all you railers, and revilers of the Light and the appearance of God, and repent. For as with the wild ass that snuffs up the wind at her pleasure, and those who seek her will not weary themselves with her, yet the time comes when she will be found and taken; the same will be with all the ungodly, though they may run as a wild ass, and traverse their way as a swift dromedary, yet the day will come, when they will be overtaken in the midst of their security; and they shall not escape.

And though the children, teachers, and believers of this world, who profess the Scriptures, have prayed for the day of the Lord, yet when it comes, it will be as a burning and devouring fire, and they will fall as stubble before it; for whatever is reprovable is manifested by the day in which God appears; and it shall appear, even to the wicked and to the ungodly. So all you hirelings who preach for hire, and you people who love to have it so, you shall not be hidden; and all opposers of the Truth shall be found out, and shall be convicted of their hard speeches, and ungodly deeds. What makes your deeds manifest is the day, and it will convince you; for even the wicked shall see His appearance, although to condemnation, shame, and, contempt.     

"They shall look on Him whom they have pierced." For even in the wicked God has a witness which is pure, which checks often, though they regard it not, because the god of this world has blinded their eyes; but when Christ, the Light shall appear, He will make that to see in the wicked, which the god of this world has blinded; and they shall behold Him in dread; and His pure appearance shall make them horribly afraid. Although they would not see, they will be made to see; and they will be made to hear what they would not hear, when God sounds his trumpet, to give warning to all, that the dead, both small and great may arise, “some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”*

[*Some to shame and everlasting contempt is not everyone else who did not awaken to everlasting life. The Lord says a perpetual shame and everlasting approach applies to the false prophets, Jer 23:30-40, which would include the preachers of Christianity not called by the Lord, not taught by the Lord, not perfected by the Lord, not authorized by the Lord, not sent by the Lord, not speaking with words heard from the Lord immediately before speaking, and not doing only what the Lord shows them to do. Everyone who fails to learn how to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, will meet His fury, (but not forever and accompanied by His compassion).]

--Hall Worthington

The Day of the Lord - Section II 

The Day of the Lord - Section V 

Exposure of Politicians - May 20, 2022

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II Corinthians 2:15-16:  "For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life."

Vengeance in New England

This is from The Missing Cross to Purity:

Many Calvinist Puritans [Congregationalists] had left England to escape the earlier age's religious persecutions, and they established colonies in Massachusetts. When the Quakers arrived and told them they did not have the true faith, these refugees of persecution turned to become massive persecutors themselves. From William Sewel's 1695 History of the Christian People Called Quakers: The Governor of Massachusetts; the magistrates of Boston, Cambridge, and Salem; the priests, and many other officials viciously persecuted the Quakers, (or anyone who dared care for them), with beatings, whippings, chopping off ears, boring tongues through with a hot iron, and hangings; these persecutions were applied to men, women, and even their accompanying children without mercy. They called both Quaker men and women witches, possessed of the devil. These criminal, unchristian persecutors, themselves met strange, dramatic deaths, sometimes acknowledging it was the judgment of God. John Endicott, the vicious governor who had so many whipped to the point that all their flesh on their backs was destroyed, himself was afflicted so that his back slowly rotted away, with a stench that drove away any would be relievers. But the entire Boston area suffered an even stranger judgment - quoting Sewel:

"Yet one thing remarkable I may mention here, which when I first heard, could not fully give credit to: but thinking it worth the while to make a narrow inquiry into it, I did so, not only by writing, but also from the mouths of persons that had been eye-witnesses, or had been informed by such; and from these I got this concurring observation, namely,  that the country about Boston was formerly a very fruitful soil that produced excellent wheat; but that since the time this town had been stained with the blood of the Quakers, so called, no wheat, or similar crops, would grow to perfection within twenty miles, though the ground had been ploughed and sown several times; for sometimes what was sown was spoiled by vermin or insects; at other times it grew up, but scarcely yielded more than was sown, and so could not support the cost of planting; and in another year the expected harvest was quashed by another accident; and these disappointments continuing many years, the people at length grew weary of making further trial, and so left the ground untilled; notwithstanding that twenty miles off from Boston the soil is fruitful, and yields very good corn. But there having been so many reiterated instances of unfruitfulness nearer the town, ancient people that are alive still, and remember the first times, generally agree in their opinion that this was a judgment from heaven, and a curse on the land, because of the shedding of innocent blood at Boston. This relation I had from so many credible persons, (though the one knew nothing of the other, as differing much in time), yet what they told me did so well agree in the main, that I could not but believe it, though I did not initially believe it to be credulous; and therefore I have been the more exact in my inquiry, so that I can no longer question the case; but it seems to me as a punishment on that blood-thirstiness which now has ceased long ago."

In England, [George] Fox met some of these persecutors with questions so penetrating that it deeply shamed them, and they admitted their guilt of murdering the Quakers. Fearing prosecution from the relatives of those murdered, they fled back to New England. Even when rarely possible to prosecute their persecutors in court, Quakers consistently declined to prosecute them, leaving them to God's judgment.

The fate of the Boston persecutors
Josephus on John the Baptist