The Bible's Most Frightening Words

Many people expect Heaven but will wake up in Hell.

Recently I’ve been examining some of the most frightening verses in the New Testament where Jesus said on Judgment Day MANY (not a few) but MANY will say, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?”

On the surface those signs and wonders would seemingly mark a very dynamic true believer, but Jesus predicted, “Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, your workers of lawlessness!’”

This statement of Jesus refers to personal relational knowledge.

In my many years of ministry especially in Israel where there are so many religious and usurping spirits, I’ve had to exercise the ministry of the gift of discernment to survive false teachers and false prophets.

Many people claim certain titles and ministries, and it all comes down to a matter of willfulness and lack of obedience for the false ones.

So the Lord’s warning is scary that he will reject many who claim to have been in relationship with him even performing exploits!

To understand a verse, we must always look at its context. Jesus made this statement about never knowing certain people when he was wrapping up His Sermon on the Mount with a final warning about false prophets.

In Matthew Chapter 7, beginning with verse 15, he warned, “Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.” Then continuing in Matthew 7: 21, Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’” [Sounds like they were super saints, right?]

BUT, verse 23 reveals, “Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’”

Please note very carefully that Jesus didn’t say they were once believers who fell into sin—he said he never knew them in the first place!

When pretend believers protest that they had done mighty exploits, the Judge will make a counter protestation—I never knew you, tearing off their mask. In the corresponding passage, Luke 13:26, pretenders are represented as having gone in and out with Him on familiar terms—the description is even more vivid and awful, “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’” But his reply in Luke 13: 27 is the same, “‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers, you workers of iniquity!”

In Jesus’ words on Judgment Day, we see several important truths: Nominal Christianity cannot save. A person can seem like a believer in the eyes of other people, yet still be an “evildoer” in God’s sight and therefore be sent away from His presence.

In the end, only those who are known by the Lord and who do the will of the Father will enter heaven.

When Jesus said, “I never knew you,” to the false disciples, He meant that He never recognized them as His true disciples or friends. He never had anything in common with them; he never approved of them. Note that Jesus was not breaking off a relationship—there was never a relationship to begin with despite their high-sounding claims and showy displays of religious fervor. The false disciples had no real intimacy with Him.

As Paul explained in 1 Corinthians 8:3, “Whoever loves God is known by God.” The Lord knows who are His sheep.

So the evildoers and troublemakers whom Jesus doesn’t know are fake believers in the same category as those listed in Revelation 22: 15. What a revealing verse! It says, “Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood”. They will be cast “into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” because they never produced genuine fruit of the Spirit but instead produced works of the flesh, amounting to lawlessness, being totally useless to the Almighty.

After those shocking words, Jesus went on to concede his Sermon on the Mount with the “Parable of the House on the Rock.” Verse 24, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because its foundation was on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its collapse!”

When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at His teaching, because He taught as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

British evangelist George Whitefield (1714-1770) once said, “I am content to wait till Judgment Day for the clearing up of my character. When I am dead I desire no epitaph but this, ‘Here lies G. W. What kind of man he was the great day will discover.’”

To contact or support Christine Darg, please visit her website www.JerusalemChannel.tv

The title of Christine Darg’s new book, “LORD, Will You Restore the Kingdom to Israel?” is the question of the hour! Available at Amazon as an eBook or printed copy:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D78QMVCZ