Here’s what we’ve established thus far in this series. We’ve quickly surveyed the prophetic landscape. Looking at what the prophets said – and what Christ Himself told us, we see that we are on the edge of the ultimate fulfillment. JESUS CHRIST IS LIKELY GOING TO RETURN IN THIS GENERATION. We’ve also seen that Jesus held the 1st century Jews responsible for knowing the time of His first coming. They had Moses and the prophets, the scriptures, the word of God. Yet they refused to recognize Him. So, he held them responsible. And Jerusalem was destroyed a little over thirty years after Calvary. We too have the prophetic scriptures that speak about the time of His return. So, WE TOO ARE RESPONSIBLE TO KNOW THE TIME OF OUR VISITAITON.
A Day of Judgement is Coming
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” (Hosea 4:6)
Those words are stark and powerful for the nation that rejects God and His laws. “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you…. Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” That day of judgment is appointed for the land that sees fit to ignore God’s word. And so, we have done. Some will say, ‘It can’t happen in America. We’re too powerful, too self-reliant, – too modern.’ To some, the notion of divine punishment is even beyond consideration. Yet the Israelites were God’s people. And God turned from them and allowed the surrounding lands to execute His judgment whenever they strayed from Him into spiritual adultery. What’s that? Whenever they put other gods before Him. We too live in a nation and a culture that has rejected God. We have replaced Truth with preference, -and Divine Law with tolerance for the ungodly.
Let’s just look at a few examples. According to polls, over half of those claiming to be evangelical born-again Christians believe that Jesus is NOT the only way to the Father. (That’s a contradiction of Christ’s own words.) According to surveys a significant proportion of clergy from mainline Protestant denominations, – Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalians, Baptists, and the like, – reject the main tenets of the Christian Faith. They do not believe that Jesus was God, – that He rose from the dead, was born of a virgin, provided atonement for our sins. Tell me, what is the purpose of Christianity if these things are not true.
Then there are the over 60 million legal abortions performed in the United States since Roe v Wade. Add to that the fact that the American Roman Catholic bishops said that Jews don’t really need Jesus to be saved. Or that the Pope has ‘opened the door’ for ‘good atheists’ and practicing homosexuals to be saved. Other whole denominations have changed, – or set aside, – God’s word on homosexuality. They are marrying same-sex couples and have ‘gay’ clergy, and even a sodomite bishop. All in the name of tolerance! God’s morality has been set aside for cultural preference. Our political leaders are no better. Shortly after 9/11, born-again President George Bush told us that the Allah worshiped by the Muslims is the same as the God of the Bible. Not to be outdone, then Senator Barack Obama informed us that good Jews and good Muslims will all get to heaven. Yet he claims to be a good Christian. Yet John 3:18-19 reads: “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” Condemnation, – because men loved darkness. [It is NOT narrow to stand on the Truth. In fact, it is the only loving thing to do. And that Truth is that Jesus is the only road to salvation and communion with the Father. In John 14:6 we read: “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” We were all once condemned. And so we share the only solution to that condemnation, the total reliance in faith, on our Lord Jesus Christ. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)]
Now because we know the signs and because can expect the imminent return of Christ and because we know that we are responsible to know the time of our visitation: We can know A DAY IS COMING WHEN EVERYTHING WILL CHANGE! Biblically we can know that we are on the edge of something that the Scripture calls Jacob’s Trouble. We live in the prelude to the Last Days, – the time of birth pangs. In fact, we can set aside Scripture for a moment and realize just by looking at the world situation that we live in a time of extreme danger. First we must understand that we can find historical parallels for the times in which we live. There is an interlocking systemic inevitability about the geopolitical situation today, that rehearses the days that led up to the First World War. Barbara Tuchman’s Guns of August, reveals how no one really wanted that war. Yet it came, driven by alliance and folly on the part of the world’s statesmen. Millions died and our world order was forever changed. The conditions that led to the Second World War showcase another parallel reality that we are living today. Let’s flesh it out.
During the 1930’s we had Germany driving the world toward world war. Today, it is Islamo-Fascism that is playing that role, whether in the form of the terror networks like al-Qaeda, – or in hegemony-seeking Islamic states such as Iran. Both are religious / messianic in nature. Hitler was a messiah figure, putting on pagan spectacles such as the Nuremburg rallies, where torchlight and hate drove and channeled the German nation to a frenzy. Der Fuhrer promised a 1,000 year reign, for his Nazi state which in the course of things, managed to transform even that nation’s Christianity into an altered paganized shell of its former self. As for Islam, they are expecting the Mahdi, or Islamic Messiah to emerge out of chaos to assume control, – in Jerusalem, – of a worldwide caliphate. It will vanquish and slaughter Christians and Jews, – setting up, – that’s right, – a 1,000 year reign. While Hitler fueled his socialist revolution with anti-Semitism and hate, – Islam is anti-Israel and thrives on a culture of death. It is a religious duty to war and slaughter in the name of Islam. [Christ even warned of this as recorded in John 16:2: “…the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.”] Nazism and radical Islam both use religious motivation to animate their followers to pursue empire. In both cases, they are for the most part, opposed only by a decadent, pleasure-seeking West, – devoid of the will to even maintain its’ cultural heritage in the face of these religiously motivated zealots. [Europe is in a state of progressive surrender to Islamists as elements of Sharia are showing up all over that continent. Authorities are cooperating in even in the suppression of information regarding the soaring crime rates in the Muslim communities. As rapes and assaults soar, governments are not addressing those issues – and instead are punishing those that point out the facts. We have as examples News Years Eve 2015 in Cologne Germany, where thousands of North African asylum seekers and illegal immigrants assaulted over 1,200 German women, with nearly 500 of those assaults being sexual in nature – including 24 rapes.[i] And then there is Rotherham, England, where the police systematically covered up the fact that over a 16-year period, Pakistani gangs had “trafficked, tortured and raped” over 1,400 girls and women. When these crimes were reported the police just ignored them.[ii]] In this time as during the rise of Nazism in the 1930s, the threats are purposefully and methodically ignored. Back then, there was only the voice of Winston Churchill to cry out in the wilderness against the gathering storm. He was mocked and shamed and shunned for his efforts. It is much the same today for those watchmen sounding the alarm.
In our day we see forces falling into place, stoking the fires of inevitable conflict. Crises abound: In the Middle East, Israel, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, North Korea and on and on. Terrorism rears its ugly head. Russia is flexing its muscles in Europe and making serious inroads in Latin America, as China stakes out its claims to Taiwan and the South China Sea. There is the ever-present danger of war. A war involving Israel could quickly bring in much of the world. It would create opportunities for Russia and North Korea to make trouble, – and even for the Chinese to take American ally Taiwan. Then there is the very real threat of domestic terror. The FBI tells us there are terror cells in place in all 50 states, ready to wreak havoc against the American infrastructure as best as they can. Iran is one of the chief sponsors of terror today. And they are working toward acquiring the ability to produce nuclear weapons with the blind cooperation of Europe and much of the world. (Military experts believe Tehran already has a limited number of nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them, acquired from the former Soviet Union.[iii] [iv]) [The danger lies in their official Mullah-driven theology which calls for the destruction of Israel and the creation of the chaos necessary to enable the rise of the Islamic messiah, the Mahdi.] A nuclear weapon would allow them to execute an electro-magnetic-pulse weapon attack against the United States. An EMP could take out a large portion of the power grid, resulting in the deaths of tens or even hundreds of millions of Americans, as society shuts down. A successful EMP would result in the shut down of hospitals, farms, the transportation system, food and goods distribution, water purification, power generation and more. Stocks of basic supplies would be gone within days. As food became scarce, there would be riots and marauding bands would appear. But whether from an EMP or a massive Tet-offensive style terror campaign against the US, that some believe is being planned: Society would break down. (The operatives in such a massive terror attack would be Middle East terrorists and MS-13 gang members, training and staging right now in Central America.) As order disintegrated, civil liberties would be suspended. Martial Law would be invoked. Even General Tommy Franks, who led the initial successful stage of the Iraqi War, warned that the Constitution would not likely survive the next major terror strike. This is not play. We are facing a very real time, when our world will change. The real question is: Just how will we deal with it? What can we do? What does God’s word say about His provision in these times?
“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.’…. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day, Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.” (Psalm 91:1-2, 5-6)
[i] Leaked document says 2,000 men allegedly assaulted 1,200 German women on New Year’s Eve, Washington Post, July 11, 2016
[ii] David French, You Can Count on Governments to Conceal the Truth about Islamic Crimes, National Review, January 12, 2016
[iii] KAHLILI: Iran already has nuclear weapons, Washington Times, October 27, 2011
[iv] Jerome Corsi, Military experts: Iran already has nuclear weapons, World Net Daily, August 24, 2015
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/08/military-experts-iran-already-has-nuclear-weapons/#VjtUzBQEv03mzbIH.99
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