Mat 24:37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

In Cornerstone's Pastor Yang Tuck Yoong regular "A Word for the Season" on 09 Mar 13, the pastor who has been in the forefront of moral defence against gays in Singapore reiterated that "There’s a high calling for this nation to be a moral barometer for the nations, something which I’ve echoed again and again in my messages. We’re living in the Days of the Son of Man and the warning must go forth of the impending dangers that lie ahead."

 And whilsts Pastor Yoong can reflect on how Singapore is getting richer, we have forgotten that the mega churches in Singapore are one of the wealthiest in the world even owning Suntech and shopping centers. The church has benefited from increasing wealth in SIngapore. Our calling is not to uphold morality but as a new Antioch for the message of the Gospel being a port city where the nations gather.

The morality and dangers here were obviously referring to homosexuality which the Pastor has hitherto went to the Minister of Law to insist on the full measure of the 377A law against gays be retained with the 2 years jail sentence.

This is not biblical, for the warning of Mat 24:38 of the impending disaster was not due to immorality, but the great tribulation suffered by Christians who remained faithful to the Gospel message that Jesus is God incarnate, and the Messiah. The Jewish religious leaders were very hostile to Christianity and later on the Romans. And this occured with Christians persecuted by the Romans and later by the church hierachal.

The key reference of end times in Mat 24, was that the sign was in Jerusalem and the falling of Christians who lost their faith in the midst of persecution and because they became lawless and wicked departing from righteousness. It was not about gays being the barometer of morality! The lawlessness here is bound up in self and the church hierachal who became one with the world with her self centered desire for power, control and wealth.

Jesus was correct in Mat 24:5 when He said "For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.", for we have put on the power and position of authority of Christ on the Holy Fathers as being infalliable and exalted Mary as the co-redeemer with  assumption to heaven.

In Mat 24:5, Jesus talks about the abomination in Jeruslaem where the the sanctity of the temple was violated by the pagan roman soldiers and torn down. It was not suprising that another faith when they had controlled of Jerusalem some 600 years later quickly built a giant dome there with inscription implying that Jesus was not the Son of God. They took the 2nd coming of Jesus very seriously.

The fear of the nations of the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ was reflected in Mat 24: 30 "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." They were afraid of the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ because they had destroyed the temple of God, persecuted Christians, and the Church herself has made the city on the seven hills their own heaven on earth. The tribes of the world were afraid because they had worshipped other gods, and not Jesus.

 There is an apparent contradiction in Mat 24, where it initially mentions about wars, tribulation, and strive and the desolation of the temple, and lawlessness, but then the tone changed later with reference to the days of Noah where there was relative calm and peace before the flood.

Pastor Yoong tried to read into the bible by referring to lawlessness (as homosexuality) in this present generation, when it was actually referring to an earlier phase when Christians had fallen into lawlessness by being one with Caeser who ordered the destruction of the temple in AD70. 

We live in the period of relative peace just like in the days of Noah. The issue is not immorality due to gays as warned by Pastor Yoong, but the message of Noah of redemption in the Ark was not heard. The population throught it was foolish to build an ark.

Noah's Ark is a representation of Jesus, whose resurrected body will carry us through the waters of baptism for our sins. The message from the days of Noah is not about Singapore being the banner of morality, but that the Gospel message was preached but few believed. It was the rejection of the message of redemption in Jesus Christ, and not believing that there is a narrow road to heaven.

If salvation is universal as claimed by some irrespective of race or religion, it would not have been the narrow road to heaven, and Jesus would not need to take up the cup of suffering. We deny the message of the Cross by preaching about morality or in the other extreme having no need for personal redemption in Christ replacing it with relationships instead of the Kingdom of God where Christ is the head.

Noah's Ark is the Grace of God to mankind in Christ Jesus, and our redemption above the storms of destruction which will come in the blink of an eye in the 2nd coming of Christ. We can't save the kingdoms of a fallen earth either through good works or through insisting on a morality through strict religious man made laws on a fallen humanity. 

We are not called to warn about the impending dangers of immorality thus ushering in the doomsday in the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ, but we are called to preach Christ, our Saviour and Redeemer. No one knows the time, the place or the season, but with Christ in the vessel I can smile at the storm. We are living in borrowed time, a time of grace where the Gospel is freely preached, yet all we could do is to hunt down gays when there is so much sin in the church and lawlessness prevails in the church hierachal.

It is God's grace that is waiting for the world to come to Jesus before the 2nd coming. It is reflected in the rainbow in the sky which is the flag of the GLBT tribe.

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"As it was in the days of Noah", a word in season, 09 Mar 13, Pastor Yang Tuck Yoong from Cornerstone website.

An interesting article appeared in the Wall Street Journal on Singapore entitled “Wealth Over The Edge” and the writer, Shibani Mahtani, describes the obscene amount of wealth that is being flaunted in this tiny island state. He reports of $26,000 cocktails that have been laced with diamonds, of traffic jams freckled with Ferraris, of world renown clubs that gross well over $100,000 each evening, of the billionaire jet-set flying in and out of this city in their fancy private jets, and where the uber rich now consider Singapore a hip city to be seen.

Welcome to the world’s newest Monaco, a haven for the ultra-rich in what until recently was mocked as one of the most straight-laced, boring cities in the world. When most people think of Singapore, they think of an order-obsessed Asian version of Wall Street or London’s Canary Wharf, only with implausibly clean, sterile streets and no crime. The Southeast Asian city-state of five million people is perhaps best known for banning the sale of chewing gum or caning vandals, including American Michael Fay in 1994 for spray-painting cars, and where drug traffickers face the death penalty, writes Shibani. But over the past decade, Singapore has undergone a dramatic makeover, as the rich and famous from Asia and beyond debark on its shores in search of a glamorous new home – and one of the safest places to park their wealth. Many well-known billionaires are now flocking to this city, not just to set up shop but to live in it. And then there are, of course, your average millionaires, more of whom can be found among Singapore’s resident population than anywhere in the world. According to Boston Consulting Group, the island had 188,000 millionaire households in 2011 – slightly more than 17 percent of its resident households – which effectively means one in six homes has disposable private wealth of at least $1 million, excluding property, business and luxury goods. Add in property, with Singapore real estate among the most expensive in the world, and this number would be even higher. Singapore also now has the highest gross domestic product per capita in the world at $56,532, having overtaken Norway, the U.S., Hong Kong and Switzerland, according to a 2012 wealth report by Knight Frank and Citi Private Bank.

 Also, reports Shibani, the toys of all these millionaires and billionaires are visible across the city-state. A country roughly the size of San Francisco, it now has 449 Ferraris, up from 142 in 2001, while its Maserati fleet has grown from 24 to 469. Yacht clubs are popping up along with super-luxurious shops, like the Louis Vuitton Island Maison, a flagship boutique of the ubiquitous luxury brand housed in its own floating pavilion.

The question is – where is all this leading to? Singapore is definitely now one of the hip cities of the world and the playground for the rich and famous. But what about our destiny as a nation? What does the Word of God warn us about this? It is undeniable that the transformation of this island state is nothing short of miraculous, but I believe there’s more than just meets the eye. There’s a high calling for this nation to be a moral barometer for the nations, something which I’ve echoed again and again in my messages. We’re living in the Days of the Son of Man and the warning must go forth of the impending dangers that lie ahead. I’ll address this in the messages over the weekend. Pastor Yang Tuck Yoong 9 March 2013