I was working in the garage when my wife flung the door open. With tears in her eyes and desperation in her voice, she screamed, “James get in here!” Her sister lives in Hawaii and called to tell her that the whole island had received the following warning message on their phones: “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.” North Korea had threatened this very thing in the weeks prior and now it seemed to be happening, which sent the island into a frenzy. Many were looking for loved ones, including my sister-in-law who was frantically trying to figure out where her daughter’s volleyball team had taken shelter.

As you probably know, it turns out the message was a mistake. What should have been a test was, by human error, simply a false alarm.

Though it was false, the message was powerful enough to lead many to believe they only had minutes to live. However, a message more urgent than a nuclear warhead and more inescapable than being trapped on an island with an inbound missile is the coming judgment of God. Part of our responsibility as believers is to warn everyone of this judgment. The day will come when those outside of Christ will be damned forever and receive the wrath of God for their sins for all eternity. We warn others of that day in hopes they might repent and believe in Christ.

Like the proverbial “boy who cried wolf,” many are so accustomed to false alarms they don’t take heed when a warning is actually true. Our warnings of God’s judgment is often met with indifference and sudden attempts to change the conversation. Likewise, the words of the prophet Ezekiel were not heard as he warned of God’s coming judgment. Ezekiel 12 provides two excuses the people gave for disregarding his warning that we still hear in our day: