True Christianity # 689
689. John's baptism prepared the way because, as shown above [677-678], it brought the baptized people into the Lord's church that was to come, and brought them into the company of those in heaven who were awaiting and desiring the Messiah. Therefore angels protected them by preventing devils from breaking out of hell and destroying them. This is why we read in Malachi, "Who can endure the day of his coming?" (Malachi 3:2), and "so that Jehovah will not come and strike the earth with a curse" (Malachi 4:6).
There are similar statements in Isaiah: "Behold, the cruel day of Jehovah has come, a day of indignation and wrath and anger. I will shake heaven, and the earth will quake out of its place in the day of the wrath of his anger" (Isaiah 13:9, 13; see also Isaiah 13:6; 22:5, 12).
In Jeremiah that day is called a day of devastation, vengeance, and disaster (Jeremiah 4:9; 7:32; 46:10, 21; 47:4; 49:8, 26). In Ezekiel it is called a day of anger, cloud, and darkness (Ezekiel 13:5; 30:2-3, 9; 34:11-12; 38:14, 16, 18-19). Amos, too, refers to it in similar terms (Amos 5:8, 18, 20; 8:3, 9, 13). We read in Joel: "Great and dreadful is the day of Jehovah. Who will endure it?" (Joel 2:11; see also Joel 2:1-2, 29, 31). Also in Zephaniah: "In that day there will be the sound of a cry. The great day of Jehovah is near. That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and repression, a day of devastation and desolation. In the day of Jehovah's wrath the whole earth will be consumed, and he will make an end of all the inhabitants of the earth" (Zephaniah 1:7-18). There are similar statements in other passages as well.
[2] These passages make it clear that if baptism had not prepared the way for Jehovah as he was coming down into the world - a baptism that had the effect in heaven of closing off the hells and protecting the Jews from total annihilation - [all people there, as stated above, would have been struck with a curse and would have perished]. Likewise Jehovah says to Moses, "If I rise up among you, I will consume the entire population in a single moment" (Exodus 33:5). This is further reinforced by what John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him: "Brood of vipers, who warned you to escape from the impending anger?" (Matthew 3:7; Luke 3:7). For references to John teaching about Christ and his Coming as he was baptizing, see Luke 3:16; , 31-33; 3:22 and following. All the passages just given clarify how John prepared the way.
Amos 8
1
Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit.
2
He said, "Amos, what do you see?" I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then Yahweh said to me, "The end has come on my people Israel. I will not again pass by them any more.
3
The songs of the temple will be wailings in that day," says the Lord Yahweh. "The dead bodies will be many. In every place they will throw them out with silence.
4
Hear this, you who desire to swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail,
5
Saying, 'When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may market wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel large, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit;
6
that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, and sell the sweepings with the wheat?'"
7
Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob, "Surely I will never forget any of their works.
8
Won't the land tremble for this, and everyone mourn who dwells in it? Yes, it will rise up wholly like the River; and it will be stirred up and sink again, like the River of Egypt.
9
It will happen in that day," says the Lord Yahweh, "that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day.
10
I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will make you wear sackcloth on all your bodies, and baldness on every head. I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day.
11
Behold, the days come," says the Lord Yahweh, "that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Yahweh.
12
They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will run back and forth to seek the word of Yahweh, and will not find it.
13
In that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint for thirst.
14
Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, 'As your god, Dan, lives;' and, 'As the way of Beersheba lives;' they will fall, and never rise up again."
