Revelation 16:8-11, “And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.”
No, I do not believe Revelation 16:9 has anything to do with getting born-again. Notice that Revelation 16:9 says they "repented not to give Him glory." That is, they refused to change their mind to show God some respect. The Bible say that they repented not to believe to be saved. This is not about salvation, but honoring God.
In Jonah 3:10 the Bible says that the Assyrian Ninevites turned away from their evil ways, and God spared judgment upon the land. Jonah 3:10, “And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.” The Bible says in Jonah 4:11 that they didn't know their right hand from their left. God knew that they hadn't been blessed to know the truth. The Ninevites were ignorant of truth. God even cared about the animals, which you can read in Jonah 4:11. If the Lord destroyed the people, then no one would have remained to care for all the animals, and they would have died. Our great God is so good and ethical that He even cared about the many cattle in the land. That is a wonderful God!
So Jonah 3:10 is similar to Revelation 16:9. These are not matters of salvation, but of respecting and fearing God. The Ninevites did not get saved, they feared God so that God spared them imminent doom. Sadly, one hundred years later the Ninevites went back into wickedness, so that God sent the prophet Nahum to pronounce judgment upon the Ninevites, and the Babylonians came and defeated and conquered the Assyrians.
The United States today and its associated territories like Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are wicked. We are guilty of murder (abortion), sexual immorality (adultery, divorce, homosexuality, fornication), public nudity wherever there is water, lying greed and taking advantage of each other, idolatry, rebellion, indifference, false religion, et cetera. I am fully convinced that Revelation chapter 18 vividly describes the coming nuclear destruction of the United States in one hour by fire, which will ripple throughout the world and cause the impoverishment of sea merchants and everyone whose wealth is dependent upon trading with the USA. I am so sick of the filth, pride, arrogance, hatred and wickedness of the American people.
When God spared judgment upon Nineveh, Jonah was angry about it. Jonah warned Nineveh to burn! Admittedly, I want America to burn too! But unlike Nineveh who didn't know their right hand from their right, Americans today know exactly what they are doing, because we have Bibles and preachers which the Assyrians didn't have. As Jesus warned, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah, than it will be for these modern wicked cities and nations who have preachers, but still refuse to repent.
So we learn that even though a group of people won't get saved by faith in Jesus Christ, God is often still willing to honor repentance from sin. Of course, we know that repenting of sin is NOT part of the Gospel. Know such teaching is found in the inspired King James Bible. Only the Devil's corrupt modern Bible versions teach that a person must forsake their sinning to be saved, but the accurate King James Bible has no such teaching. The ONLY thing that a person must repent of to get to Heaven is their UNBELIEF.
As we saw in Jonah 3:10, the Bible says that God saw their WORKS, that they repented (change their mind) to TURN from their "EVIL WAY." The Gospel of John in the New Testament, teaches to simply BELIEVE ON HIM (Jesus) to be saved, We see this in John 3:16, 35, 47; 6:29-30; 11:25. John never tells the reader to forsake sinful ways to be saved. This same Apostle John penned the Epistle of John, showing us how to KNOW that we are saved. In his epistle John is writing to believers, whereas the Gospel of John is written to everyone, particular the lost.
God wrote the Holy Bible to all mankind, but only the saved man can understand spiritual things (1st Corinthians 2:14-16). I've heard people say that God only wrote the Bible to the saved, but that is not true. In Acts chapter 7 we read about the Ethiopian eunuch who was reading from the Old Testament book of Isaiah, but he couldn't understand it. So Phillip showed him how to be saved, and he did get saved; and then water baptized as a new believer.
The Gospel of John is God's Gospel tract to humanity according to John 20:31. All that Christ requires, as stated in John 6:28-29, is that a lost sinner BELIEVE ON CHRIST to be saved.
The Gospel of John is God's Gospel tract to humanity according to John 20:31. All that Christ requires, as stated in John 6:28-29, is that a lost sinner BELIEVE ON CHRIST to be saved.
