Good Tidings

Nahum 1:15 KJV

Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.

 In this confused day of syncretism and tolerance, God's message of good tidings is often misunderstood and rejected as hateful rather than loving. Today's world wants to view love as something that always feels good from the perspective of the individual. In order to accomplish that we have to tolerate everything.

• We have to tolerate homosexual marriage
• We have to tolerate abortion of babies
• We have to tolerate aggression of Islam
• We have to tolerate the taking of our liberty by the government

In order to make every individual feel good about themselves modern thinking says we must never find anything to be negative.

• Even the criminal must be understood and tolerated and we must be very careful not to make the punishment seem too severe for the crime

God has a very different view of good tidings. It is couched in the backdrop of judgment. This chapter is almost entirely occupied with negativity. What a solemn thought that "no more of thy name be sown." This is a harsh, terrible judgment.

And it is only after realizing the severity of judgment does God offer good tidings. They come as a follow through of the judgment. They can only be received by those who recognize how severe their state is before God.

• There is no such thing as the universal fatherhood of God
• There is no such doctrine as the salvation of all sinners
• There is no good news that death ends the suffering of this life

• The truth is that men have sinned against God
• The truth is that God will judge that sin
• The truth is that this judgment is eternal torment in hell

The “good tidings” is that “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.“