One of the best-loved verses in the entire Bible is Paul's proclamation to the Romans at the end of the first half of his epistle to the believers in that great city. What we call chapters one through eight of the Book of Romans is a lengthy argument for Christ's overcoming of the Mosaic Law - that is, the fact that by coming to earth, leading a sinless life and then accepting our deserved punishment for the many sins each of us commit in our lives, Jesus of Nazareth [the Christ, the Messiah] replaced much of what the Jews of the day followed from the time of Moses forward, meaning the laws specified in the first five books of the Bible (the "Torah", as it were).
When we accept Christ's sacrifice as payment for our sins, and allow Him and the Trinity (God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit) to become the Lords of our life, says Paul, we are essentially dying with Christ on the cross (he says this more explicitly in the book of Ephesians, by the way). And once we have died as men and women, we are reborn as children of God. Well, the Law only applies to those who live, goes his reasoning, so we are no longer subject to the Law.
By the way, this would become a huge issue for Paul as he dealt with the Jerusalem-based Christians, led after a few years by Jesus' half-brother James (who has his own book in the New Testament, by the way). James and Peter and many of the "original" apostles wanted to make Christianity an offshoot of Judaism - and in fact, the Romans saw the Believers as a "Nazarene Jewish sect", generally - while Paul and his followers understood Jesus' desire to bring Him to all the world, Jews and Gentiles alike, without the restraints of the Jewish rites and restrictions handed down on stone tablets. It's what led to Paul's assault upon his arrival in Rome near 60 AD, whereupon he appealed to the Emperor (as a Roman citizen by birth, he had that right), and was eventually shipped to Rome (read the last few chapters of the book of Acts for all of this sometime - it's as harrowing a tale as anything Homer ever wrote!), where he would preach the Gospel for a few years before being killed by Nero for being a Christian *which is all the crime you needed in those days.
Back to the topic of this post.
In the concluding chapter of this argument, chapter 8, Paul tells us that God is always with us, because the Holy Spirit dwells within us, speaking to God for us in groans and whispers when we're not even sure what words to use. Eventually he'll conclude in Romans 8:38-39 with the grand statement that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Before that, however, an even more hopeful statement is expressed in verse 28 - the thought that no matter how terrible something seems to be, it's in God's Hands and so it's going to be all right:
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.
The essence of the sentence reads, All things work together for good. That sounds wonderful! ALL things that happen, God makes into part of His Tapestry of Life, a tapestry which from verses like Jeremiah 29:11 we know are plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Even if you accept that we may not see some of those positive things until we arrive in Heaven, that's still a wonderful promise!
But what does the rest of the verse mean? Well, we know that "for those who love God" means "Christians", and "for those who are called according to His purpose" are God's Elect - also, essentially, "Christians".
So, Romans 8:28 whittles down to, We know that all things work together for good for Christians.
Great. Soooooo... um, what about everybody else? What does God say about you, non-believer?
NOTHING.
There's nothing in this epistle that says that anything "works together for good" for you, or "works together" at all, for that matter. In fact, it's a safe venture to say that to whatever extent things "work together" for a non-believer, it's because Satan or his little buddies are knitting their own little Handkerchiefs of Death, and are stitching in a starring role for you. Yay?
In fact, in the very next verses following his dramatic declaration in 8:38-39, Paul expresses how different the outcome is for Christians and for those who fail to accept Christ as their personal savior - this is Romans 9:1-3 (I'm using the NLT for a change, because it's the clearest on this point):
With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it. My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them.
Think for a minute about what Paul is truly saying here.
He understands how incredible what he's saying sounds, because despite the fact that no one ever doubted Paul's truthfulness, he feels the need to spell out the veracity of what he's about to say: "With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness" should be more than enough, but he continues with "My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it", thereby invoking two-thirds of the Trinity in his declaration. Does he have your attention yet?
He goes on to explain, after eight chapters of detail as to why the Jewish Law is a failed method to reach God, to express his "bitter sorrow and unending grief". For whom? For "MY people". Remember, Paul is - or, was - a Jew among Jews, as it were. Listen to him describe his credentials to the Philippians in Phil 3:4-8 →
If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
So, it's his tribal family he is defending and grieving over - but more than being a Hebrew, Paul is first and foremost a servant of Christ. So, look what he offers to save "his people", knowing full well what it is he's giving up: "I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them."
Not just "cut off from Christ" but an eternity in Hell itself! THIS is how strongly he feels about saving the people he loves! Paul understands the catastrophic consequences of the decision he's making - because he's willing to trade one life (his own) for thousands of lives of his Jewish brethren.
So, let's sum up what we've learned in Romans today:
What happens to the Believers? Let's see: for US, everything in this life, good OR bad, works together to improve our existence here... and then when we die, we get to go to Heaven!
And...what happens to the non-Believers? Well, whatever happens on earth during our lifetime is happenstance (at best), and then we die and spend eternity separated from God in Hell.
It just doesn't seem like that tough of a choice, y'know?
Showing posts with label Holy Spirit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holy Spirit. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
What is illness to the body of a knight errant?
One of the great scenes in Broadway history (IMHO) is the climactic scene in Man Of La Mancha, where Don Quixote was on his death bed, Aldonza and Sancho by his side, and as his memory of his (illusory) knighthood returned, he began to stand...
Don Quixote: "On thy knees to me?"
Aldonza: "My lord, you're not well..."
Don Quixote: "Not well! What is illness to the body of a knight errant? What matter wounds? For each time he falls, he shall rise again! And woe to the wicked! Sancho!
Sancho: "Here, your grace!"
Don Quixote: "My armor! My sword!"....
...and in thirty seconds, he's dead...but dead as a knight errant, not as a demented old man. And that makes all the difference.
I've been fighting a chest cold bordering on pneumonia over the last several days; perhaps that's why I was weak enough to be such a target for the demons pushing me to jump off the bridge last week, I don't know. Knowing I was with my children this past weekend and this week, without my fiancee's help (she was in LA with her grandson), I took it slow and easy all weekend in the hope of saving up energy wherever I could. I had to drive children hither and thither, soccer-mom style, but otherwise I kept things quiet.
Probably too quiet - I didn't write on this blog, nor did I spend any other time writing new material, although I studied quite a bit of Scripture. And I used my illness as the excuse to flag on my duties to the Lord.
Then, as I sat down to write on a different topic altogether just now, the headline you see above emerged unbidden from my fingertips.
("This is God speaking. Can I help you?")
Man Of La Mancha was my second-favorite musical when I was growing up. (West Side Story was and still is first; Camelot was third.) I had a poster of "The Impossible Dream" on my bedroom door as inspiration to keep fighting for what I wanted to achieve. But it's as sterling an example of striving for what God wants us to accomplish for Him as well.
"And I know if I'll only be true to this glorious quest,
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I'm laid to my rest."
It's not achieving the goal that matters in the end; it's the quest itself that makes it worthy in God's Eyes. Richard Ellis hit this on the head in that life-saving sermon I described last Friday. He concluded with a few sentences that could have simply been aimed at me: You say, But Richard, you don't know what I'm dealing with. It can't be beaten. I'm going to die from it, and God won't save me from it. I say, it's not that you're going to die that is the problem; it's how you face death, how you face that challenge that matters. Will you stand up to your demon, or will you let it defeat you?
If I'm "true to my glorious quest", what matter wounds? What matters pain? What does it matter that I'm not going to "win" in the end? It's the battle that matters to God. It's the character that is built in the battle that matters to the Lord.
Don Quixote de la Mancha was a delusional old man. He thought that he was a knight errant of the Spanish Realm, a relic of an era that had long passed. The region, of course, knew him as a delusional old man, and his niece and her husband were literally embarrassed by his behavior (so much so that they take action to shock him back to reality in the second act). But some people around him found hope from Don Quixote's nobility. There were two in particular - Sancho, his "faithful servant" (who simply liked him and enjoyed the "misadventures"), and Aldonza, the barmaid-slash-prostitute whom Quixote has mistaken for "my lady Dulcinea" (who comes to adore the reality he sees for her, preferring it to the seedy reality she's lived). To the two of them, Don Quixote has brought joy and his vision to their lives. Did he "win"? Hard to argue that he did. But the battle was what mattered, and his heart undoubtedly lies peaceful and calm.
I'm going to die from this disease eventually, unless Christ returns before that (as I think, hope, and pray He will). But to cut off the fight prematurely is to miss the point of the fight. I must keep fighting the TAM, fighting the disease, fighting for God's Message to be spread while there's still time.
I'll have eternity to rest and recover. But I only have these few months to serve my purpose for the Lord here on earth before He Returns. And He mandates that I use them for Him, not selfishly ditch the fight to avoid the pain. My pain is temporary, but your Hell would be permanent if I don't share the Gospel with the people who need it.
Don Quixote: "On thy knees to me?"
Aldonza: "My lord, you're not well..."
Don Quixote: "Not well! What is illness to the body of a knight errant? What matter wounds? For each time he falls, he shall rise again! And woe to the wicked! Sancho!
Sancho: "Here, your grace!"
Don Quixote: "My armor! My sword!"....
...and in thirty seconds, he's dead...but dead as a knight errant, not as a demented old man. And that makes all the difference.
I've been fighting a chest cold bordering on pneumonia over the last several days; perhaps that's why I was weak enough to be such a target for the demons pushing me to jump off the bridge last week, I don't know. Knowing I was with my children this past weekend and this week, without my fiancee's help (she was in LA with her grandson), I took it slow and easy all weekend in the hope of saving up energy wherever I could. I had to drive children hither and thither, soccer-mom style, but otherwise I kept things quiet.
Probably too quiet - I didn't write on this blog, nor did I spend any other time writing new material, although I studied quite a bit of Scripture. And I used my illness as the excuse to flag on my duties to the Lord.
Then, as I sat down to write on a different topic altogether just now, the headline you see above emerged unbidden from my fingertips.
("This is God speaking. Can I help you?")
Man Of La Mancha was my second-favorite musical when I was growing up. (West Side Story was and still is first; Camelot was third.) I had a poster of "The Impossible Dream" on my bedroom door as inspiration to keep fighting for what I wanted to achieve. But it's as sterling an example of striving for what God wants us to accomplish for Him as well.
"And I know if I'll only be true to this glorious quest,
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I'm laid to my rest."
It's not achieving the goal that matters in the end; it's the quest itself that makes it worthy in God's Eyes. Richard Ellis hit this on the head in that life-saving sermon I described last Friday. He concluded with a few sentences that could have simply been aimed at me: You say, But Richard, you don't know what I'm dealing with. It can't be beaten. I'm going to die from it, and God won't save me from it. I say, it's not that you're going to die that is the problem; it's how you face death, how you face that challenge that matters. Will you stand up to your demon, or will you let it defeat you?
If I'm "true to my glorious quest", what matter wounds? What matters pain? What does it matter that I'm not going to "win" in the end? It's the battle that matters to God. It's the character that is built in the battle that matters to the Lord.
Don Quixote de la Mancha was a delusional old man. He thought that he was a knight errant of the Spanish Realm, a relic of an era that had long passed. The region, of course, knew him as a delusional old man, and his niece and her husband were literally embarrassed by his behavior (so much so that they take action to shock him back to reality in the second act). But some people around him found hope from Don Quixote's nobility. There were two in particular - Sancho, his "faithful servant" (who simply liked him and enjoyed the "misadventures"), and Aldonza, the barmaid-slash-prostitute whom Quixote has mistaken for "my lady Dulcinea" (who comes to adore the reality he sees for her, preferring it to the seedy reality she's lived). To the two of them, Don Quixote has brought joy and his vision to their lives. Did he "win"? Hard to argue that he did. But the battle was what mattered, and his heart undoubtedly lies peaceful and calm.
I'm going to die from this disease eventually, unless Christ returns before that (as I think, hope, and pray He will). But to cut off the fight prematurely is to miss the point of the fight. I must keep fighting the TAM, fighting the disease, fighting for God's Message to be spread while there's still time.
I'll have eternity to rest and recover. But I only have these few months to serve my purpose for the Lord here on earth before He Returns. And He mandates that I use them for Him, not selfishly ditch the fight to avoid the pain. My pain is temporary, but your Hell would be permanent if I don't share the Gospel with the people who need it.
Tuesday, January 9, 2018
Responsibility
Veteran readers will remember that my "day job" these days is still supervising alternative school students who for whatever reason can't be at the regular high school in our district.
Immediately after a change of semester, we always have a drastic reduction in the size of our population, as many students are sent over to the main campus to continue their education. Either they've "done their penance" for a temporary expulsion for weapons or drugs, or they've demonstrated the ability to attend class regularly and/or complete actual classwork, or caught up with missing classes that prevented them from moving on with their peer group.
The eight young men we have left this January are (ahem) a delightful bunch of children. By definition, they have not demonstrated the above growth, and continue to need our attention here for another semester. During this first week back from vacation, they're acting out about that.
How do we explain what you would think would be patently obvious to a teenager who blatantly refuses to acknowledge their reality?
The argument I just had with an otherwise nice kid about sleeping in class is a prime example. His position, as best I can recreate it, is that "sleeping is not a crime". Which is what he's been doing throughout class the last two days. It feels like I'm trying to convince someone who's holding his breath that "breathing is necessary". Have you ever had that argument with a three-year old? Why-why-why, and there is no end to it? You feel like you'll end up back at the nature of God from the initial question, "Why is that truck red?"
That's how this feels. Why can't I sleep in class? Um...because we have stuff to do? Because you don't get credit for just being here? Because you can't do that at any job or school or whatever? (Short of being a mattress tester, perhaps.) What do you say to the patently obvious?
Yesterday's argument was similar: I can say anything I want any time I want. Um...no, it doesn't work that way. Why not? I have freedom of speech! I can say anything I want! Um... well, ignoring the fact that you're a minor and that right doesn't even apply to you? No, you can't. We give up those kind of rights whenever we enter into a social contract like a classroom situation - but how do you explain a "social contract" to a student who's being so bull-headed that they refuse to stop speaking long enough to even listen to your explanation?
Alas, that student is home for the day, explaining to his mother and grandfather why he can't say anything he wants.
But while he's home, he's not making any academic progress. Perhaps this is more important, though. Sometimes, we have to teach these kids the basics of life and reality.
I truly wish I could simply preach Christianity to them. It may not help, if the Holy Spirit isn't ready to overwhelm them, or if they're actively rejecting Him. But it can't be worse than what they're doing now, can it?
Immediately after a change of semester, we always have a drastic reduction in the size of our population, as many students are sent over to the main campus to continue their education. Either they've "done their penance" for a temporary expulsion for weapons or drugs, or they've demonstrated the ability to attend class regularly and/or complete actual classwork, or caught up with missing classes that prevented them from moving on with their peer group.
The eight young men we have left this January are (ahem) a delightful bunch of children. By definition, they have not demonstrated the above growth, and continue to need our attention here for another semester. During this first week back from vacation, they're acting out about that.
How do we explain what you would think would be patently obvious to a teenager who blatantly refuses to acknowledge their reality?
The argument I just had with an otherwise nice kid about sleeping in class is a prime example. His position, as best I can recreate it, is that "sleeping is not a crime". Which is what he's been doing throughout class the last two days. It feels like I'm trying to convince someone who's holding his breath that "breathing is necessary". Have you ever had that argument with a three-year old? Why-why-why, and there is no end to it? You feel like you'll end up back at the nature of God from the initial question, "Why is that truck red?"
That's how this feels. Why can't I sleep in class? Um...because we have stuff to do? Because you don't get credit for just being here? Because you can't do that at any job or school or whatever? (Short of being a mattress tester, perhaps.) What do you say to the patently obvious?
Yesterday's argument was similar: I can say anything I want any time I want. Um...no, it doesn't work that way. Why not? I have freedom of speech! I can say anything I want! Um... well, ignoring the fact that you're a minor and that right doesn't even apply to you? No, you can't. We give up those kind of rights whenever we enter into a social contract like a classroom situation - but how do you explain a "social contract" to a student who's being so bull-headed that they refuse to stop speaking long enough to even listen to your explanation?
Alas, that student is home for the day, explaining to his mother and grandfather why he can't say anything he wants.
But while he's home, he's not making any academic progress. Perhaps this is more important, though. Sometimes, we have to teach these kids the basics of life and reality.
I truly wish I could simply preach Christianity to them. It may not help, if the Holy Spirit isn't ready to overwhelm them, or if they're actively rejecting Him. But it can't be worse than what they're doing now, can it?
Thursday, January 4, 2018
Living The Easy Life? Too Bad For You!
If you're living a life of ease, of luxury, where nothing really tests you from day to day, then I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this:
You're no Christian. You're in desperate need of salvation.
I don't have the authority to guarantee that, of course. But the likelihood is high.
You see, IF you are a saved Believer, a true child of God, then He will be working with you, and working ON you, to develop your character and understanding of His Word. The goal for every Christian is to be transformed into the likeness of Christ to the closest degree possible on this side of Heaven.
So, how does He do that? By challenging you. Testing you. Putting you through difficult situations (but not impossible - God does not give you more than you can handle with His help) that are meant to help you grow as a person and as a Christian.
Think about it: how do you build physical muscle? By breaking down the muscles you currently have in order to rebuild them stronger. How do boot camp sergeants make soldiers out of eighteen-year olds? By breaking down their old habits before they re-build you the military way. So, how does God bring you up towards Christ's standards? By breaking down those bad habits you have and re-creating you in His Image out of the pieces.
Consider: in my situation, I have a disease that God has allowed me to fight for the last eight years or so. Tubular Aggregate Myopathy is a rare condition; under one hundred people in the world have it. But it's the perfect choice for someone who needs to be slowed down from his 60-80 hour per week band directing job so he could stop and listen to the Lord calling him, to hear the Holy Spirit convicting him of his need for God. I can guarantee that I'd never have been saved otherwise. (And I have my late wife Melissa to thanks for that.) Has my TAM made me stronger? Only in a Christian sense - physically, I'm much worse than I was, and with or without the Rapture I don't expect to see 2019. But my character, hopefully, is more in the likeness of Christ than it ever was before. Which is wonderful if I'm going to see Him so soon!
And what about the Devil? If we're working for the Lord's purposes, we've placed a target symbol on our backs for the demons to attack. But if we're NOT doing anything for the Lord's purposes, the Devil's not interested in what we're doing.
Truth is, neither is God. If you're not in the game, if you're not in the war, then nobody cares what you're doing. Nobody in Heaven or Hell, anyway.
There's a sweet and powerful scene in the movie, God's Not Dead, in which the wealthy financier is talking to his elderly mother, wasting away in the nursing home:
MARK: You prayed and believed your whole life. Never did anything wrong. And here you are. You're the nicest person I know. I am the meanest. You have dementia, and my life is perfect. Explain that to me!
MOM: Sometimes the devil allows people to live a life free of trouble because he doesn't want them turning to God. Their sin is like a jail cell. except it is all nice and comfy and there doesn't seem to be any reason to leave. The door's wide open. Until one day, time runs out, and the cell door slams shut, and suddenly it's too late.
What does your cell look like? Would you like out of it? It's easy: the door's wide open.
You're no Christian. You're in desperate need of salvation.
I don't have the authority to guarantee that, of course. But the likelihood is high.
You see, IF you are a saved Believer, a true child of God, then He will be working with you, and working ON you, to develop your character and understanding of His Word. The goal for every Christian is to be transformed into the likeness of Christ to the closest degree possible on this side of Heaven.
So, how does He do that? By challenging you. Testing you. Putting you through difficult situations (but not impossible - God does not give you more than you can handle with His help) that are meant to help you grow as a person and as a Christian.
Think about it: how do you build physical muscle? By breaking down the muscles you currently have in order to rebuild them stronger. How do boot camp sergeants make soldiers out of eighteen-year olds? By breaking down their old habits before they re-build you the military way. So, how does God bring you up towards Christ's standards? By breaking down those bad habits you have and re-creating you in His Image out of the pieces.
Consider: in my situation, I have a disease that God has allowed me to fight for the last eight years or so. Tubular Aggregate Myopathy is a rare condition; under one hundred people in the world have it. But it's the perfect choice for someone who needs to be slowed down from his 60-80 hour per week band directing job so he could stop and listen to the Lord calling him, to hear the Holy Spirit convicting him of his need for God. I can guarantee that I'd never have been saved otherwise. (And I have my late wife Melissa to thanks for that.) Has my TAM made me stronger? Only in a Christian sense - physically, I'm much worse than I was, and with or without the Rapture I don't expect to see 2019. But my character, hopefully, is more in the likeness of Christ than it ever was before. Which is wonderful if I'm going to see Him so soon!
And what about the Devil? If we're working for the Lord's purposes, we've placed a target symbol on our backs for the demons to attack. But if we're NOT doing anything for the Lord's purposes, the Devil's not interested in what we're doing.
Truth is, neither is God. If you're not in the game, if you're not in the war, then nobody cares what you're doing. Nobody in Heaven or Hell, anyway.
There's a sweet and powerful scene in the movie, God's Not Dead, in which the wealthy financier is talking to his elderly mother, wasting away in the nursing home:
MARK: You prayed and believed your whole life. Never did anything wrong. And here you are. You're the nicest person I know. I am the meanest. You have dementia, and my life is perfect. Explain that to me!
MOM: Sometimes the devil allows people to live a life free of trouble because he doesn't want them turning to God. Their sin is like a jail cell. except it is all nice and comfy and there doesn't seem to be any reason to leave. The door's wide open. Until one day, time runs out, and the cell door slams shut, and suddenly it's too late.
What does your cell look like? Would you like out of it? It's easy: the door's wide open.
Monday, January 1, 2018
Welcome to 2018, possibly our last year on earth, Christians!
I could be completely wrong about the timing of this, of course, but my belief that the Rapture will take place in 3018 is well documented.
But the Lord told us to keep living our lives until it actually happens. “For as were the days of Noah, so will be the Coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away; so will be the Coming of the Son of Man.” (Matthew 24:37-39) Of course, I intend to do my part: I always eat and drink more than I should, and I’m now engaged to be married sometime this summer.
The key, as the following few paragraphs explain, is to remain FAITHFUL to Christ in both word and deed, not wavering in doubt with His supposed “delay” - the Lord is never early or late; He is always just on time - or losing touch with the Holy Spirit (Mt 24:46-51 and Mt 25:1-13, respectively). And the best way to remain close to God throughout is by reading His Word every single day.
That’s why I highly recommend “Bible-in-a-Year” for every Believer every single year, no matter how long you’ve been His Child. Every year, no matter how well you think you know the Bible, He always has something new for you - and I increase the odds by consuming Scripture differently each year. I’ve read the Bible in the KJV, the HCSB, and the ESV; this year, I read along with the Max McLean audio Bible. I haven’t started yet today, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to try reading the New Living Translation. It’s the most popular of the ‘modern vernacular’ Bibles, used by the majority of pastors who choose 21st century language to share God’s Word with their parishioners.
My goal is simply to find new depth in my reading of the Bible, and thus new information from God’s writing. If I could read Greek or Hebrew, I’d choose those in a heartbeat. But even if I was to read exactly the same copy of the Bible every year, I’d do it. Think: 1189 chapters! You won’t memorize it in one reading per year. There are sections I know extremely well. (I don’t have very many exact memorizations in my skull, partly because I DO use different versions of the Bible.) Just make sure you READ!
And you don’t have to read left to right, although so far I have every year. Most reading plans alternate between Old and New Testaments, or perhaps help you follow chronologically. Heck, go alphabetically if you want! JUST READ IT! You will be amazed at what you discover.
What will you learn? Here’s what I think are the most important points that doing this drives home:
1) So many take verses out of context. You cannot do that this way. And you’ll learn WHY in many cases.
2) You will notice how the same thoughts, the same themes recur repeatedly. The more He points something out, the bigger a deal it is.
3) After a few readings, you might finally discover the truth about the Bible: every single book, chapter, verse, word, is about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Good luck, my friends. Be prepared. He is Coming Soon.
Thursday, December 14, 2017
A lesson from Paul
Today, I had to pray for the spirit of fear to be taken away.
I suffered from a sudden attack of introversion, paranoia, and confusion. It was a remarkably scary day - I couldn’t even look my beautiful Dana in the eye.
What else can one do then, but pray?
Pray for God to take away that spirit of fear, and replace it. “For this reason,” Paul told Timothy, “I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God...for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2nd Timothy 1:6-7)
That doesn’t mean He made it easy on me. It was a struggle the entire day, and I lapsed back into paranoia at about 7 pm. But He strengthened me enough that I was able to survive a school day with my alternative students, as well as a meeting with the administration over next semester’s plans.
The moral? Well, there are a few, I suppose.
Trust God. That’s the first and most obvious and necessary one.
And more than that, ASK Him for what you need. Don’t assume that just because He knows what you need, He’s simply going to give it to you without your asking for it. Remember the scene in the Disney movie Aladdin, when Ali is thrown into the ocean and the genie tells him he’s got to SAY the wish before the genie can grant it? Yeah, God’s a little like that.
But even more than that, it’s like how He wants us to pray for our DAILY bread - not a month’s supply all at once, but to keep coming back for what we need daily. Well, God will provide what we need to make it... but perhaps ONLY what we need to make it. He knew how much help I did and didn’t need to make it through the day.
Christ never said life was going to be easy. But He did say it was going to be worth it.
Dana was admiring how I make it through each day given all the health challenges God has entrusted me with, and how she didn’t think she could stay as upbeat as I do fighting as much pain as I fight. But the truth is, we are all given our crosses, and He makes sure they’re never more than we can bear... but also that they’re not so light as to be meaningless, either.
Remember, His purpose for us remaining on this planet (in part) is to develop us into the most Christ-like beings we can become. And that happens through challenges, challenges that develop our character. So, as much as we all would like to shout, “That’s as much character building as I can take, Lord!”, the trust is that He knows EXACTLY how much we can and should take.
That’s why despite the fact that there have been several nights when my pain has been so bad I thought about short-cutting my way Home... I’m still here.
He hasn’t figured wrong yet, and He probably won’t. If I do short-cut some day, then I’ll probably be the one who was wrong, and I could have made it through.
After all, I’ve made it through every test so far.
I suffered from a sudden attack of introversion, paranoia, and confusion. It was a remarkably scary day - I couldn’t even look my beautiful Dana in the eye.
What else can one do then, but pray?
Pray for God to take away that spirit of fear, and replace it. “For this reason,” Paul told Timothy, “I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God...for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2nd Timothy 1:6-7)
That doesn’t mean He made it easy on me. It was a struggle the entire day, and I lapsed back into paranoia at about 7 pm. But He strengthened me enough that I was able to survive a school day with my alternative students, as well as a meeting with the administration over next semester’s plans.
The moral? Well, there are a few, I suppose.
Trust God. That’s the first and most obvious and necessary one.
And more than that, ASK Him for what you need. Don’t assume that just because He knows what you need, He’s simply going to give it to you without your asking for it. Remember the scene in the Disney movie Aladdin, when Ali is thrown into the ocean and the genie tells him he’s got to SAY the wish before the genie can grant it? Yeah, God’s a little like that.
But even more than that, it’s like how He wants us to pray for our DAILY bread - not a month’s supply all at once, but to keep coming back for what we need daily. Well, God will provide what we need to make it... but perhaps ONLY what we need to make it. He knew how much help I did and didn’t need to make it through the day.
Christ never said life was going to be easy. But He did say it was going to be worth it.
Dana was admiring how I make it through each day given all the health challenges God has entrusted me with, and how she didn’t think she could stay as upbeat as I do fighting as much pain as I fight. But the truth is, we are all given our crosses, and He makes sure they’re never more than we can bear... but also that they’re not so light as to be meaningless, either.
Remember, His purpose for us remaining on this planet (in part) is to develop us into the most Christ-like beings we can become. And that happens through challenges, challenges that develop our character. So, as much as we all would like to shout, “That’s as much character building as I can take, Lord!”, the trust is that He knows EXACTLY how much we can and should take.
That’s why despite the fact that there have been several nights when my pain has been so bad I thought about short-cutting my way Home... I’m still here.
He hasn’t figured wrong yet, and He probably won’t. If I do short-cut some day, then I’ll probably be the one who was wrong, and I could have made it through.
After all, I’ve made it through every test so far.
Friday, December 8, 2017
Christians, we're down to our last few months on earth!
This is not a rant against Mr. Trump. God put Mr. Trump in the White House, not the electorate. This is not a warning against bombing North Korea, nuclear war or impending climate change. We are expected to deal with these issues ourselves and with prayers to God. However, ultimately God is in control of all events, and our ending has already been written.
And our script is down to the last few scenes.
When people ask me why I believe the Bible is true, there are two reasons I give. The first is very simple: God tells me it's true, and God speaks through the Holy Spirit to me (as He does to every Believer). He responds to my prayers. His control of my life and direct and indirect movement of the path my life has taken speaks more loudly than anything in writing could.
But the second reason is the fulfillment of hundreds and hundreds of verses of prophecies in Scripture already, from cover to cover. A full 26% of the Bible is prophetic, and there has not been a single prediction which has not come true precisely except for the ones involving the End Times, which have yet to manifest. That's the only thing left in history, as far as God is concerned. The Rapture, the Great Tribulation, and the Second Coming.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with End Times prophecy, let me help you feel better about it:
1) That's not unusual. Very few churches deal with it, because most pastors either find it confusing, or don't believe Revelation, or they just aren't in tune with the Holy Spirit or world events. And if they aren't comfortable with the topic, how can you expect them to preach about it?
2) It's not nearly as difficult as that makes it seem. As long as you know where to look, the sequence of events that lead up to the Rapture of the Believers are relatively clean-cut.
3) What we need to know as Christians isn't much. AND what comes after the Believers take us Home, frankly, doesn't matter to us, because we'll be GONE - watching from Heaven as Satan plays seven years of his torturous games with all those people who didn't follow the Lord's instructions and repent of their sins. After that, Christ will Come once again and the remaining residents will be saved or condemned, and the old earth will be closed for business. But all we have to know is the lead up to the Rapture, which is almost complete.
That's right: just about anyone who's studied eschatology, the examination of the Biblical End Times (including me - God called me to that the first week or two I was saved, much to my confusion at the time), agrees that almost all the boxes have been ticked. Very little remains to be done, and the clock is ticking for a few of the time-dependent predictors to expire soon unless He comes for us in the next few years.
My health is poor, as I've recently written about. But I have a goal of hanging on until the Lord brings the two percent of us home together...and as close as I might be to the end of my physical life, I think I can hold out until then.
How long am I talking about? Christ famously told His disciples in Matthew 24:36, But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. We cannot know the exact date, no matter how logical a particular day might seem to us. But for reasons I'll explain, I feel very confident about the following prediction:
My daughters are eleven, and turn twelve this month. Presuming they maintain their salvation with the Lord, they will not remain on the Earth for their thirteenth birthday.
That's right. I expect that Christ will take us home before 2019. (Very possibly LONG before 2019.) And THAT means it's ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL that YOU solidify your salvation immediately, and that we all help bring as many of our friends along as we can. [If you think I'm crazy, but you believe in the Bible, either you haven't actually read the relevant sections of the Bible OR you haven't paid attention to what's going on around the Holy Land. If you think I'm crazy and you don't believe in the Bible, you're probably not reading this.]
For a more in-depth look at those already-fulfilled prophetic verses, take a look at Daniel 11: God's Timeline. It may not be perfectly accurate, but he/she/it has got the key element correct: Daniel 11 is the key prophecy, and it's almost certainly closing in on fulfillment as far as we Christians are concerned.
And our script is down to the last few scenes.
When people ask me why I believe the Bible is true, there are two reasons I give. The first is very simple: God tells me it's true, and God speaks through the Holy Spirit to me (as He does to every Believer). He responds to my prayers. His control of my life and direct and indirect movement of the path my life has taken speaks more loudly than anything in writing could.
But the second reason is the fulfillment of hundreds and hundreds of verses of prophecies in Scripture already, from cover to cover. A full 26% of the Bible is prophetic, and there has not been a single prediction which has not come true precisely except for the ones involving the End Times, which have yet to manifest. That's the only thing left in history, as far as God is concerned. The Rapture, the Great Tribulation, and the Second Coming.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with End Times prophecy, let me help you feel better about it:
1) That's not unusual. Very few churches deal with it, because most pastors either find it confusing, or don't believe Revelation, or they just aren't in tune with the Holy Spirit or world events. And if they aren't comfortable with the topic, how can you expect them to preach about it?
2) It's not nearly as difficult as that makes it seem. As long as you know where to look, the sequence of events that lead up to the Rapture of the Believers are relatively clean-cut.
3) What we need to know as Christians isn't much. AND what comes after the Believers take us Home, frankly, doesn't matter to us, because we'll be GONE - watching from Heaven as Satan plays seven years of his torturous games with all those people who didn't follow the Lord's instructions and repent of their sins. After that, Christ will Come once again and the remaining residents will be saved or condemned, and the old earth will be closed for business. But all we have to know is the lead up to the Rapture, which is almost complete.
That's right: just about anyone who's studied eschatology, the examination of the Biblical End Times (including me - God called me to that the first week or two I was saved, much to my confusion at the time), agrees that almost all the boxes have been ticked. Very little remains to be done, and the clock is ticking for a few of the time-dependent predictors to expire soon unless He comes for us in the next few years.
My health is poor, as I've recently written about. But I have a goal of hanging on until the Lord brings the two percent of us home together...and as close as I might be to the end of my physical life, I think I can hold out until then.
How long am I talking about? Christ famously told His disciples in Matthew 24:36, But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. We cannot know the exact date, no matter how logical a particular day might seem to us. But for reasons I'll explain, I feel very confident about the following prediction:
My daughters are eleven, and turn twelve this month. Presuming they maintain their salvation with the Lord, they will not remain on the Earth for their thirteenth birthday.
That's right. I expect that Christ will take us home before 2019. (Very possibly LONG before 2019.) And THAT means it's ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL that YOU solidify your salvation immediately, and that we all help bring as many of our friends along as we can. [If you think I'm crazy, but you believe in the Bible, either you haven't actually read the relevant sections of the Bible OR you haven't paid attention to what's going on around the Holy Land. If you think I'm crazy and you don't believe in the Bible, you're probably not reading this.]
For a more in-depth look at those already-fulfilled prophetic verses, take a look at Daniel 11: God's Timeline. It may not be perfectly accurate, but he/she/it has got the key element correct: Daniel 11 is the key prophecy, and it's almost certainly closing in on fulfillment as far as we Christians are concerned.
Regardless of what else is going on in the world, this is the most important subject in the world. Nothing that happens in the United States, no political scandal or policy they could possibly enact could do to or for you what the Scriptures tell us will happen when the End Times arrive - and what I'm going to share with you here is a portion of the reasoning many of us who study these things have that makes us absolutely certain that we are no more than a few years at most from the End of Days.
I understand how melodramatic that sounds, and if it makes you more comfortable, the Lord Himself told us that it would sound foolish, as I talked about just a while ago. If you read this blog regularly, you probably already take the Bible at its Word, but as I mentioned earlier, it's almost impossible for a rational person to realize how many of the Bible's prophecies came true to the letter - i.e., ALL of them! - and not think that maybe there's something deep and truthful about the Scriptures.
- Daniel 11's first manifestation of truth (verse 2-35) matches the conquest and postscript of Alexander The Great to the dot and tittle. (Always loved that expression!)
- Jesus' predictions about the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD ("Not one stone will remain atop another"; the Olivet discourses in three of the four gospels).
- Isaiah and Jeremiah's forecasts of the exile of the people of Israel for exactly seventy years (by the way, the choice of 70 years was to match the missed Sabbaths of 490 years of disobedience. The More You Know...)
- Daniel 9:24-27, which lays out the End Times general form, has already predicted the 49 year gap between the first re-settlement of Jerusalem by those exiles and the reconstruction of the Temple AND the precisely 434 years (to the DAY) until the Triumphal Entry of the Anointed King into Jerusalem (where He would be "cut off").
- Throughout the Old Testament, there are by some counts (meaning, I haven't personally done the counting) close to one hundred specific prophecies about the Messiah, including the specific generation in which He would be born (from six hundred years BC) and the insignificant town of His birth (Bethlehem Ephathah, so tiny that it needed the 'Ephathah' to distinguish it from two larger towns of the same name in Israel). The odds of any dozen of those details being exactly correct are in the quadrillions - and yet every single one of them was fulfilled to the letter. (Tittles and dots, oh my...)
There are many, many more, but the point is made. Either you believe the Bible or you don't. From here on out, I've got to assume you believe it, and move on to the rest of the argument.
Why now? Most generations, including the very first one after Christ's death, thought that they might be the one which saw His Second Coming, which He promised during His forty days on earth following His resurrection, in case you thought that might have been the Second Coming. Nope. Each generation of Christians has prayed to see the Rapture, but many of the details required in the Scriptures for the End Times to begin were not possible. Let's look at some of those, and show you why this generation is the privileged one...
- The Christian gospel must have reached all corners of the Earth. (Mt 24:14) Only in the era of the Internet and the ability of the missionary community to reach those figurative corners of the planet can this have been fulfilled - and it has.
- False prophets bring heresies to the world in the name of Christ, smooth talkers whose goal is accruing money. (2Ptr 2:1) While false prophets have always existed, only in the era of televangelists and the prosperity gospel has this manifested at an epidemic level.
- In Revelation 11, the entire world watches the death and resurrection of the Two Witnesses. Only in the era of global telecommunication could this happen - when John wrote down Revelation, the fastest mode of communication was horseback.
- At what previous time in history could all humanity be destroyed at once? Yet in Mt 24:22, Christ says "if those days (of tribulation) had not been cut short, no human being would be saved." The End Times require exactly today's technology.
- Specifically, Zechariah prophesied about something he himself couldn't imagine: nuclear devastation. "Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet. Their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets. And their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths." (Zech 14:12) Nothing before 1945 would do that.
- When the AntiChrist begins his rule (after the Rapture of the Believers), there will very quickly exist a global government and a global economy with a global banking system. The latter exists today; the former could be created through the UN in a matter of weeks.
- The increasing ethnic conflicts (Mark 13:8, for ex) and terrorism (the word Jesus used for what is usually translated "fearful sights" in Luke 21:11 is also translated 'terror') is indicative of the End Times.
- Daniel 12:4 describes our world today: The final prophecy (of Daniel 11) will be shut and sealed "until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase." In the information age, intercontinental transportation has never been more prevalent.
- In Revelation 9, two hundred million mounted troops are released to storm towards Israel. When John wrote out Revelation, there weren't that many people on Earth! Today, China has a standing army of three hundred million.
There are many more, far too many for the scope of this essay. But all that these prove is that the End Times couldn't have happened until now. Why do we think that there's a reason to expect the Rapture and Great Tribulation in the immediate future?
Here's why: Israel.
"Before she was in labor she gave birth;
before her pain came upon her she delivered a son.
Who has heard such a thing?
Who has seen such things?
Shall a land be born in one day?
Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment?
For as soon as Zion was in labor she brought forth her children" - Isaiah 66:7-8
before her pain came upon her she delivered a son.
Who has heard such a thing?
Who has seen such things?
Shall a land be born in one day?
Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment?
For as soon as Zion was in labor she brought forth her children" - Isaiah 66:7-8
Who would predict 2600 years ago that Zion - Israel - would be born in a day? How can such a thing happen, especially since Israel already existed at the time of the prophecy! But Israel, modern Israel, WAS born in a day: May 14th, 1948. Jews regathered in Israel (Isaiah 11:12; moreso Ezekiel 37 and 38) then but even more so recently. Israel would be a wasteland (Ezekiel 36) - and was for 1800+ years! - and would at the very end become not only a nation but "Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit." (Isaiah 27:6). (Israel is now is a net exporter of produce.)
Even the outlandish prediction of Zephaniah 3:9 -
“For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples
to a pure speech,
that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord
and serve him with one accord." -
“For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples
to a pure speech,
that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord
and serve him with one accord." -
...has come true. In the decades preceding 1948, even before the Holocaust, there was a Zionist movement to revive the dead Hebrew language. When Israel became a nation in 1948, Hebrew was declared the national language and recreated from whole cloth. (A ton of new words had to be invented, for things like "airplane" and "computer" and so forth!) For the first and only time in world history, a dead language was resurrected and re-established. Only God could make that happen. (By the way, there are no swear words in modern Hebrew. A "pure language", indeed!)
But the kicker is this paragraph from the Olivet Discourse, Christ's description of the coming of the End Times. Unusual for the three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke - the gospels which go about telling Jesus' story in a similar manner, because John's came later and had a completely different format), maybe even unique among the three, the description of Christ's words here is virtually identical:
“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." Mark 13:28-31.
He's just finished the description of the "abomination that causes desolation", the AntiChrist, and the Rapture ("And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven." v. 26-27). The "fig tree" always represents Israel in Biblical prophecy - as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, as it has now - and when you see these things taking place, it's time. But this generation that sees the branches become tender will not pass away until all these things take place. That means that the generation that saw Israel become a nation - born in 1948 - will not pass away until the Rapture comes (described in v 26-27).
What's a "generation"? You cannot pin a date on God. (The very next verse tells us so, in each gospel. Mark 13:32-33 says, "But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come.") But we can make an educated guess based on Scriptural evidence, and the Man of God himself tells us in Psalm 90, verse 10: "The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty."
Seventy years from 1948 is 2018. Next year.
Moses gave us a ten-year window, but as we'll read in a moment, events are moving quickly in Israel's vicinity, and it's hard to imagine them extending much farther than next year in any circumstance. In fact, let's look at the signs that the world is reaching that moment Christ and Daniel and others have warned us about: the abomination that created the desolation. The Anti-Christ.
The Scripture that we noted was the one in all three of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), which was virtually identical. And that's notable because those gospels were significantly different from top to tail, which is why all three are in the Bible to begin with. Matthew wrote his gospel specifically to persuade his Jewish readers that Jesus was the long-prophesied Messiah. Mark was the memoirist of the apostle Peter, and he wrote about the deeds of Christ, rather than the teaching of the most famous rabbi in history. Luke wasn't even present for the ministry of Jesus: he was a Gentile doctor and historian who collected from a wide variety of sources to put together a historical document for a non-Jewish audience. (John apparently wrote his gospel several years afterwards, in hopes of filling in some blanks in the three dominant histories of his Great Friend, and wrote of eight specific miracles Christ wrought. He therefore did not include the Discourse at all.)
Yet all three quote much of the Olivet Discourse, and the fragment I quoted in yesterday's post is identical in all three gospels. Matthew 24:32-35, Mark 13:28-31, and Luke 21:29-32 are almost exact (except for the introductory phrase in Luke 21:29). This speaks to the importance of the Lord's message: This is the most important sign to look for.
And as we pointed out, that sign has almost expired.
But there are more details that we can look at, and Jesus told us point blank where to look - “Sowhen you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains." (Matthew 24:15-16). The interesting phrase there to me is the parenthetical, "let the reader understand". Not the listener - the reader! Christ was speaking to His disciples, yet He is specifically warning those who would read His words later! This warning was not for His followers at the time: it was for those who would learn the gospels through text, which wouldn't even be in the next few centuries! ONLY in the days of William Tyndale 1400 years later would the Bible become a book that the common men read.
And He spoke of a specific book of the Old Testament to look at for clues to the coming of the "abomination of desolation" - the writing of the Prophet Daniel. And what did the angel warn Daniel about his prophetic dreams? "But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end." (Dn 12:4a)
We understand these prophecies now because we see the signs around us...because this is "the time of the end."
There are four significant dream-prophecies in the book of Daniel. Daniel 2 describes King Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the four kingdoms, starting with that king's Babylonian empire and ending with the kingdom of iron and clay. Otherwise, there isn't much there. The other three, the visions of Daniel himself, are another matter.
Daniel 7 contains this explanation of his vision in the first year of Belshazzar's reign, regarding that fourth kingdom - these are verses 24-27:
As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise,
and another shall arise after them;
he shall be different from the former ones, and shall put down three kings.
He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High,
and shall think to change the times and the law;
and they shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.
But the court shall sit in judgment, and his dominion shall be taken away,
to be consumed and destroyed to the end.
And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven
shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High;
his kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.
In short, this defines the Anti-Christ as the king who rises from the ten kingdoms (most presume these to be Europe for reasons too lengthy to explain here) and who rules for 3 1/2 years ("time, times, and half a time" - 1+2+1/2=3.5), before being taken down and given to Heaven and the Messiah in the end. This is the first time we see a script for "the End".
But there's more. In Daniel 9, only four verses speak to the vision of Daniel, but they're biggies. 9:24-27 is probably the most analyzed set of verses in the OT. All of the opening of the chapter is dedicated to how difficult it was to get Daniel this interpretation, so listen up...
“Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”
To condense this is difficult, but here we go: The seventy "weeks" are weeks of years, or in other words groups of seven years. (The original Hebrew is seventy "sevens".) The seventy weeks are divided into a group of seven (49 years), which is how long it took to "restore and build Jerusalem" from scratch for the returning exiles; sixty-two more weeks (434 more years) until an anointed one (Jesus) shall be cut off (killed), which happened 434 years to the week. (The Triumphal Entry took place exactly at 434 years. Amazing.) The last week does NOT come right away, which frankly bothers me, but then the OT prophets were generally unable to distinguish between First and Second Coming events anyway (look at the list in the first sentence: three took place at Christ's first visit; three are planned for His return). In the final week, the AntiChrist will make a covenant with "many" for one week (the last 7 years) and during the last half of that (3 1/2 years) he "shall put an end to sacrifice and offering", meaning that's when he will start the final attempt to eliminate the Jews once and for all.
But we still don't have a detailed watch list leading into the End Times, do we? Is it really going to sneak up on us completely? Christ told us to watch for it - surely He would give us a way to DO that, right? Well, Daniel does, in chapter 11, which fools a lot of people for one simple reason: it's already been fulfilled! Daniel's 11:2-35 were already a perfect description of the rise, fall, and aftermath of Alexander The Great in the second century before Christ, resulting in the rising up of Judas Maccabeus as the emancipator of the Hebrew people until Pax Romana (the "Roman Peace" - 'do it Rome's way and nobody gets hurt') led to a tense but still relatively free life for Israel. The problem with this is that it left the last ten verses, 11:36-45, unused and unresolved, without explanation. They appear to speak to the End Times, and have generally been interpreted as "occurring after a ridiculous jump", but never seemed to make sense.
Until now. Because, unbeknownst to anyone until the current days, Daniel 11 is one of those dual Scripture prophecies that show up rarely but more than just this once. It turns out that we can place every one of those verses in context with relationship to the ISIS 'caliphate' and they work at least as well as they did with Alexander. (The full explanation is done on daniel11truth.com, and is explored in such great detail and depth that I won't try to reproduce it here - once you're done here, go read the work done on that site for the closest explanation available.)
The key verse for our purposes becomes the one that matches perfectly with Christ's warning about watching for the abomination that causes desolation in Matthew 24:15. In Daniel 11, that shows up in verse 31: "Forces from him shall appear and profane the temple and fortress, and shall take away the regular burnt offering. And they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate." So, what's happened over the last few years, as this pattern has become apparent (for me, it was three years ago, around verse 22 or 23), is the tracking of the events in the middle east that may or may not fulfill the verses of prophecy given to Daniel. (Terminology is sometimes vague, especially when 2600 years and two languages intervene.)
So, where are we right now, if we're waiting to hear verse 31?
Verse 30 is already complete. The next verse could come at any moment.
That's right. We have passed every single landmark which Daniel told us to watch for in and around the Holy Land before the Rapture happens. The very next event in Biblical history will be the sixth seal of the Lord's scroll, which He began opening immediately after His Crucifixion (in Revelation 6:1) and which triggers the exact same events (Rev 6:12-14) as Jesus describes to us in Matthew 24:29-31 - the earthquakes, the full moon of blood, the stars and sky and mountains having unprecedented disruptions. There is NO QUESTION that the two sets of verses describe the exact same event - the Rapture of the Believers, because the next thing we see, in Revelation 7:9, is the great multitude "from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the Throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands" - the saved.
And if YOU are among the saved, you too in the very near future will be counted among "the ones coming out of the Great Tribulation...they (who) have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" - Jesus Christ, your savior and mine. "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the Throne will be their Shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." (verses 16-17)
Are you among us, friend? Will you be saved from the seven years of hell on earth, and then the eternity of the real hell that will be far worse? All it takes to avoid that horrible fate is to say with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus IS your Lord and Savior. If you're one of those who's put it off while you lived a life of sin - your playtime is up. He is Coming, and He is Coming literally ANY DAY now.
P.S. - One of the things you'll notice when you go to daniel11truth.com is that it's very obviously not a scam for money. You may not agree with the methodology or the conclusions - and believe me, I've studied them hard for three years: I do believe in both - but you won't question the site's honesty. Like me, they just want to see as many people saved as possible, and we are getting frighteningly or ecstatically close, depending on how you look at it. Go over there and spend some time digging through what they have to say. Then revisit my columns this week, and make the only decision a rational person can do. Give your life to Christ before it's too late, because it just about is.
The Scripture that we noted was the one in all three of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), which was virtually identical. And that's notable because those gospels were significantly different from top to tail, which is why all three are in the Bible to begin with. Matthew wrote his gospel specifically to persuade his Jewish readers that Jesus was the long-prophesied Messiah. Mark was the memoirist of the apostle Peter, and he wrote about the deeds of Christ, rather than the teaching of the most famous rabbi in history. Luke wasn't even present for the ministry of Jesus: he was a Gentile doctor and historian who collected from a wide variety of sources to put together a historical document for a non-Jewish audience. (John apparently wrote his gospel several years afterwards, in hopes of filling in some blanks in the three dominant histories of his Great Friend, and wrote of eight specific miracles Christ wrought. He therefore did not include the Discourse at all.)
Yet all three quote much of the Olivet Discourse, and the fragment I quoted in yesterday's post is identical in all three gospels. Matthew 24:32-35, Mark 13:28-31, and Luke 21:29-32 are almost exact (except for the introductory phrase in Luke 21:29). This speaks to the importance of the Lord's message: This is the most important sign to look for.
And as we pointed out, that sign has almost expired.
But there are more details that we can look at, and Jesus told us point blank where to look - “Sowhen you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains." (Matthew 24:15-16). The interesting phrase there to me is the parenthetical, "let the reader understand". Not the listener - the reader! Christ was speaking to His disciples, yet He is specifically warning those who would read His words later! This warning was not for His followers at the time: it was for those who would learn the gospels through text, which wouldn't even be in the next few centuries! ONLY in the days of William Tyndale 1400 years later would the Bible become a book that the common men read.
And He spoke of a specific book of the Old Testament to look at for clues to the coming of the "abomination of desolation" - the writing of the Prophet Daniel. And what did the angel warn Daniel about his prophetic dreams? "But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end." (Dn 12:4a)
We understand these prophecies now because we see the signs around us...because this is "the time of the end."
✝
There are four significant dream-prophecies in the book of Daniel. Daniel 2 describes King Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the four kingdoms, starting with that king's Babylonian empire and ending with the kingdom of iron and clay. Otherwise, there isn't much there. The other three, the visions of Daniel himself, are another matter.
Daniel 7 contains this explanation of his vision in the first year of Belshazzar's reign, regarding that fourth kingdom - these are verses 24-27:
As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise,
and another shall arise after them;
he shall be different from the former ones, and shall put down three kings.
He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High,
and shall think to change the times and the law;
and they shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.
But the court shall sit in judgment, and his dominion shall be taken away,
to be consumed and destroyed to the end.
And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven
shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High;
his kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.
In short, this defines the Anti-Christ as the king who rises from the ten kingdoms (most presume these to be Europe for reasons too lengthy to explain here) and who rules for 3 1/2 years ("time, times, and half a time" - 1+2+1/2=3.5), before being taken down and given to Heaven and the Messiah in the end. This is the first time we see a script for "the End".
But there's more. In Daniel 9, only four verses speak to the vision of Daniel, but they're biggies. 9:24-27 is probably the most analyzed set of verses in the OT. All of the opening of the chapter is dedicated to how difficult it was to get Daniel this interpretation, so listen up...
“Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”
To condense this is difficult, but here we go: The seventy "weeks" are weeks of years, or in other words groups of seven years. (The original Hebrew is seventy "sevens".) The seventy weeks are divided into a group of seven (49 years), which is how long it took to "restore and build Jerusalem" from scratch for the returning exiles; sixty-two more weeks (434 more years) until an anointed one (Jesus) shall be cut off (killed), which happened 434 years to the week. (The Triumphal Entry took place exactly at 434 years. Amazing.) The last week does NOT come right away, which frankly bothers me, but then the OT prophets were generally unable to distinguish between First and Second Coming events anyway (look at the list in the first sentence: three took place at Christ's first visit; three are planned for His return). In the final week, the AntiChrist will make a covenant with "many" for one week (the last 7 years) and during the last half of that (3 1/2 years) he "shall put an end to sacrifice and offering", meaning that's when he will start the final attempt to eliminate the Jews once and for all.
But we still don't have a detailed watch list leading into the End Times, do we? Is it really going to sneak up on us completely? Christ told us to watch for it - surely He would give us a way to DO that, right? Well, Daniel does, in chapter 11, which fools a lot of people for one simple reason: it's already been fulfilled! Daniel's 11:2-35 were already a perfect description of the rise, fall, and aftermath of Alexander The Great in the second century before Christ, resulting in the rising up of Judas Maccabeus as the emancipator of the Hebrew people until Pax Romana (the "Roman Peace" - 'do it Rome's way and nobody gets hurt') led to a tense but still relatively free life for Israel. The problem with this is that it left the last ten verses, 11:36-45, unused and unresolved, without explanation. They appear to speak to the End Times, and have generally been interpreted as "occurring after a ridiculous jump", but never seemed to make sense.
Until now. Because, unbeknownst to anyone until the current days, Daniel 11 is one of those dual Scripture prophecies that show up rarely but more than just this once. It turns out that we can place every one of those verses in context with relationship to the ISIS 'caliphate' and they work at least as well as they did with Alexander. (The full explanation is done on daniel11truth.com, and is explored in such great detail and depth that I won't try to reproduce it here - once you're done here, go read the work done on that site for the closest explanation available.)
The key verse for our purposes becomes the one that matches perfectly with Christ's warning about watching for the abomination that causes desolation in Matthew 24:15. In Daniel 11, that shows up in verse 31: "Forces from him shall appear and profane the temple and fortress, and shall take away the regular burnt offering. And they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate." So, what's happened over the last few years, as this pattern has become apparent (for me, it was three years ago, around verse 22 or 23), is the tracking of the events in the middle east that may or may not fulfill the verses of prophecy given to Daniel. (Terminology is sometimes vague, especially when 2600 years and two languages intervene.)
So, where are we right now, if we're waiting to hear verse 31?
Verse 30 is already complete. The next verse could come at any moment.
That's right. We have passed every single landmark which Daniel told us to watch for in and around the Holy Land before the Rapture happens. The very next event in Biblical history will be the sixth seal of the Lord's scroll, which He began opening immediately after His Crucifixion (in Revelation 6:1) and which triggers the exact same events (Rev 6:12-14) as Jesus describes to us in Matthew 24:29-31 - the earthquakes, the full moon of blood, the stars and sky and mountains having unprecedented disruptions. There is NO QUESTION that the two sets of verses describe the exact same event - the Rapture of the Believers, because the next thing we see, in Revelation 7:9, is the great multitude "from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the Throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands" - the saved.
And if YOU are among the saved, you too in the very near future will be counted among "the ones coming out of the Great Tribulation...they (who) have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" - Jesus Christ, your savior and mine. "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the Throne will be their Shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." (verses 16-17)
Are you among us, friend? Will you be saved from the seven years of hell on earth, and then the eternity of the real hell that will be far worse? All it takes to avoid that horrible fate is to say with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus IS your Lord and Savior. If you're one of those who's put it off while you lived a life of sin - your playtime is up. He is Coming, and He is Coming literally ANY DAY now.
P.S. - One of the things you'll notice when you go to daniel11truth.com is that it's very obviously not a scam for money. You may not agree with the methodology or the conclusions - and believe me, I've studied them hard for three years: I do believe in both - but you won't question the site's honesty. Like me, they just want to see as many people saved as possible, and we are getting frighteningly or ecstatically close, depending on how you look at it. Go over there and spend some time digging through what they have to say. Then revisit my columns this week, and make the only decision a rational person can do. Give your life to Christ before it's too late, because it just about is.
Thursday, December 7, 2017
America's Role in the Upcoming Tribulation Has Just Been Defined.
“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” - First Corinthians 1:18
The Republican-controlled Senate passed a ridiculously unpopular tax code change in the middle of the night last week, after their ridiculously unpopular attacks on the health care system in the middle of previous nights had failed.
You might look at those decisions and wonder why they would figuratively slit their own throats, reducing their own re-election possibilities so drastically by pushing such draconian and voter-provoking measures. I look at the rest of what the Grand Ol’ Party is doing in the fields of voter suppression, media suppression, and literal doublespeak, and realize that they may very well control the outcome of the next election before it ever occurs, regardless of what laws they pass.
It’s been suggested by many that the path this administration is waltzing down so confidently is similar to what Hitler and Nazi Germany did in the 1930s to secure and consolidate power: control all communication, create us-against-them mentalities, and so forth. At most, I think it’s a weak reflection of the Third Reich’s methods - call it Nazi Lite, if you wish.
But what they’re doing does have a purpose, one ordained by God when He arranged for Mr. Trump’s election in 2016. Never doubt that God is still in complete control. Of course He chose this president, as He chose every other leader in history. I wrote about the Lord’s choice of Mr. Trump here several months ago.
I’ve also written before about the Biblical End Times, and the fact that we are now within twelve months of their launch point: the rapture of Christ’s Believers, in my opinion. (My estimation could be significantly off; I know better than to predict a solid date because “no man may know the day or hour” - Matthew 25.)
And I’ve discussed the fact, a profoundly disturbing fact to the egotistical nation that we are, that the United States has NO explicit role in the End Times. We are not mentioned in any manner, not even as “great power from over the sea” or anything like that. We are not a player in the End Game.
But I’m starting to see a possible niche for our nation in the script that Christ’s written in Revelation, a role in the play eschatologists have been studying for centuries and that’s about to play out in real life. Unfortunately, it’s not a particularly joyful one, nor is it a feature part.
Hear me out.
♰
As we come closer and closer to the Rapture, Scripture says that the Holy Spirit will gradually withdraw from the people of the earth - this is Second Thessalonians 2:6-8…
“And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only He who now restrains it will do so until He is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed…”
That capital “He” is the Holy Spirit, or God within us. The Spirit is what has held back much of the evil which the devil has wanted to push upon the people of God’s planet. (Oh, did you think that this was as bad as Earth could get? If you fail to catch the first train out with the rest of Christ’s Believers, you’ll find out just how bad it can get!)
We see the GOP’s government as a remarkably stark example of this - not only the policies themselves, which are heinous enough, but the outright lies and contradictory statements they’ve used to delude. The fact that they are using the evangelical right as a shield is right out of Scripture’s playbook:
“And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold…” - Matthew 24:10-12
When our leaders betray us and encourage hatred of those who are different, and people see the ‘false prophets’, those hiding under the umbrella of the church but preach hatred and neglect of the needy, blatantly contradicting the Beatitudes and Christ’s teachings… you can see why “many will fall away”. “The church is a lie”, they will say. “They’re as rotten as the rest.” And “the love of many will grow cold” when they come to believe that there isn’t a God to rely on for goodness.
(But there IS a loving, reliable God. Never forget that.)
As I’ve documented elsewhere, I believe that the evidence suggests that the Rapture of the true followers of Christ may very happen within the next twelve months. I’ve seen no reason to renege on that forecast, and every reason to confirm it. (Did you see that Saudi Arabia just granted citizenship to an artificial intelligence? Whenever God calls time on the world, it’s going to be before the merging of humanity and its creations, the so-called “singularity” that we’re heading for in the next 20-30 years.)
Once that happens, says the Bible, a new-ish world leader will immediately emerge who will unite the world against the ills that seem to have befallen it. Like our administration and any authoritarian government does, this leader may choose to invent foes to unite against. Notice that the US, because of the actions, the policies, and (let’s be frank) the lack of policies of its administration, has suddenly cast itself as the “lone outcast”, a pariah to be shunned by the rest of the world - but because of the sheer economic and military power we possess, we cannot safely be ignored.
So, we will become what the rest of the world will unite against.
Mr. Trump even pulled an obvious Biblical trigger on Wednesday when he announced that the US would become the only nation in the world to recognize Jerusalem as the rightful capital of Israel. Ironically, while that puts us on the right side of Scripture for once, it’s such a huge political mistake that it almost can’t help but trigger the devil’s tripwires.
The Bible, of course, told us this would happen when the End came:
“Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples….On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it.” - Zechariah 12:2-3
How fitting if the rhetoric of every nation rallying against this decision, either in Muslim outrage or in political fear of Muslim outrage, is what unites the globe against us! Then, in the moment that millions (NOT billions - the number of faux Christians far exceeds the number of real ones!) of Believers vanish inexplicably, the planet will be sent into a temporary chaos that most eschatologists believe the Anti-Christ (i.e., the new-ish emerging world leader) will somehow be able to explain away sufficiently to those who don’t know their Scripture.
No, Mr. Trump is not the Anti-Christ.
He is to be the foil of the Anti-Christ.
Mr. Trump will be to this emerging world leader what Kim Jong-Un is to him: a less savvy mark that he can bully and rally his people against. If you think about it, perhaps America becoming a pariah for an emerging world government run by the devil’s chosen Anti-Christ may not be such a terrible thing! Unfortunately, if we have to live through the GOP’s America in the meantime, it won’t be a particularly pleasant alternative for most of us.
I’ve written about this before: God placed Donald John Trump in the presidency, as he did Mr. Obama, Mr. Bush, and for that matter every other president, premier, chancellor, prime minister and world leader in history. And it’s looking more and more like he is fulfilling precisely the role God placed him there to perform.
What seems more and more apparent is that by relegating our own nation to the sidelines during 2017, we have played out our Biblical role to perfection. The United States of America is about to become an afterthought, as the planet unites to begin the 3½ not-so-bad years and the 3½ terrible, catastrophic, nearly unsurvivable years of the Great Tribulation, ending in the Second Coming, the Return of Jesus Christ as King, and the literal end of human society and even life as we’ve known it.
“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.” - Matthew 24:21-22
In seven years plus maybe six to twelve months (more or less, or however many we have left), every knee will bend, and every knee will bow. Every person on the planet will either begin spending eternity in Hell or begin a new eternal existence with our Lord and Savior when the New Heaven and the New Earth appear.
♰
And this all sounds crazy to you, doesn’t it? The foolishness of a madman, you might say. The prayers of a fellow who’s so sick that he’s grasping at straws, hoping to be caught up to Heaven before he passes away conventionally of his illness. And in one sense, you’d be right. I agree with John:
“He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” - Revelation 22:20
What evidence do I have? Well, I have the Holy Spirit.
And I have a book. The Book.
That Book is the most reprinted, most read text on the planet. 1189 chapters, by forty human authors spread out over two thousand years, all guided by God’s Hand. And fully one-quarter of the material is prophecy: hundreds of pages of predictions, when you add it all up. Of that enormous quantity, every single prophecy so far has come true.
And this isn’t like Nostradamus, made up of vague phrases you can bend to mean almost anything and yet often they still make no sense. These are specific descriptions: the rise and fall of Alexander the Great, described in such detail in Daniel 11 that later skeptics argued it had to have been written after the fact (until earlier copies were discovered to prove its veracity); the precise tiny village (Bethlehem Ephrathah) where the birth of the Messiah would take place, known even then by Herod, the wise men and others awaiting His birth in Micah 5; and so forth. The Bible has been proven to be accurate with every prediction it’s ever given us, and the last unfulfilled prophecies are coming precisely true as we speak.
The countdown is nearly complete. Virtually all of the prerequisites for the rapture have happened. I could be completely off in my forecast of when Christ will call His elect Home - the Bible is inerrant, but I’m certainly not! It might be a few years from now, or maybe even twenty years down the road. It could be tomorrow. But it’s coming very soon, certainly within most of your lifetimes.
♰
There will be three roads that you can take.
Road One is by far the best option, and Romans 10:9-10 details it best:
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
Unfortunately, many people do the second without doing the first: they believe that Jesus is indeed God (which is the implication of believing in His Resurrection), but they don’t follow Him as LORD of their lives, meaning they don’t live by His Words. Be sure that you do BOTH. Many so-called “Christian” churches in 2017 fall under that “false prophet” label discussed earlier in this article, trying to make it seem easier than it is to be an actual Christian. (That's why it'll be "millions", not "billions". Tragically.)
Going to church is not a guarantee of salvation. Having Jesus and the Holy Spirit inside you is.
These people will miss the entire show. Without warning, someday soon (I believe in 2018 sometime, as I’ve said), the true Christians will be taken up to Heaven without the inconvenience of dying:
“But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the End, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father…” - First Corinthians 15:23-24
But that last sentence is Road Two, which may be considered the “null” option, or the “complicit” option. Just go along with whatever the culture and the majority of the world tells you to do.
When the Believers leave, you’ll be told that it was some other kind of phenomenon - electromagnetic, perhaps, or some secret weapon of ‘the enemy’. I’ve no idea; frankly, I’m extremely curious what the Anti-Christ will tell you. But you’ll believe it, because it’s easier that way. And they’ll come together into a one-world government, and one-world economy, and that will be nice in its way.
Even when things get ugly a few years down the road, they won’t get ugly for you, because you’ve got the Mark of the Beast on your right hand (or maybe your forehead), which is how you can buy things in the new economy. Unfortunately, the Bible warned us that that mark is the Devil’s “branding” of you: he has bought you, and disqualified you from salvation. So when Christ comes at “the End, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father,” only then will you understand that you were playing on the wrong team the entire time.
Only at the end, when He casts the devil and everyone who ‘went along with it’ into Hell, will you understand that Jesus Christ is God, that He is Lord, and He was to be obeyed rather than ignored.
Road Two has a very, very bad ending.
Road Three is the most difficult. Once the Rapture happens, Road One isn’t an option any more. You’re living in the Anti-Christ’s world now. However, if you realize this soon enough (and anytime in the first 3-4 years or so should be soon enough, before the “Mark of the Beast” is implemented for all commerce), you can still end up in Heaven instead of Hell.
How?
Step 1: Recognize that the Bible was right. If you remember ANYTHING about the Bible’s version of the End, and you notice millions of people disappear, immediately followed by the emergence of a new world government and leader, I really hope you can figure this part out yourself.
Step 2: Resist. That doesn’t mean you have to go “Rambo” on the world. But it does mean doing what you can to find out everything about the End Times from Scripture, and do whatever you need to in order to avoid falling in with the enemy’s camp. Even if it means…
Step 3: If necessary, die. That’s right. If you can survive all seven years without surrendering to the Anti-Christ, congratulations! But the other way to escape to Heaven during the Tribulation is to die as a martyr. That just means that if the solution to not falling into the enemy’s clutches is to be killed, don’t be afraid of it. You’ll die as a ‘saint’, and you’ll literally wake up a moment later in Heaven. (Revelation promises this, in chapter 6 and elsewhere.) Scary, I know. And you’ll have to endure a lot before that moment, undoubtedly. But in the (eternally) long term, it’s much better than Road Two.
♰
To summarize: The End Is Coming. Quickly. As a nation, we are “doomed” to the sidelines, but that’s immaterial to us as Christians (and perhaps even advantageous).
We must do whatever we can to make sure that not only will WE be safely on Road One, but that everyone we can influence will be there as well.
Non-Christians: find a Believer and let them help you, disciple you. (Read the back entries in our Act II Ministries blog or our new Selected Essays book for our help, but you’re really going to want a live person’s guidance as well.) Don’t wait! Time is short - Do it NOW!
Christians: Yes, you need to start being that annoying person who won’t leave your friends alone about Christ! If they were standing on the railroad tracks when a train was coming, you’d pester them non-stop until they were saved, wouldn’t you? Isn’t this even more crucial? DON’T leave anyone behind if you can help it!
Thank you for reading, thank you for believing, and thank you for sharing. May God be with each of you.
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