Study – Grow – Know

Preaching on the End Times?

August 29, 2020 at 1:41 PM 4 comments

This is a quick one – aren’t you glad? 🙂

Just said to my wife this morning as we were cleaning out the garage – why aren’t we hearing more preachers preaching on the end times/last days?

Then a friend on Twitter posted several different videos from preachers who are preaching on the end times. The first one is from Olive Tree Ministries and clips from Mark Hitchcock and the second one highlights comments from Pastors Tom Hughes and Brandon Holthaus.

We were listening to one pastor of a small church in Tennessee this morning and the message was an old fashioned salvation message. Certainly, there’s nothing wrong with that but I wonder if Christians need more than that? After all, the main purpose of the Church is to equip the saints, to build them up. It starts with salvation clearly, but Christians need to get way beyond the initial step of receiving salvation and begin to understand the full blessings of our salvation and what it provides for us. This should translate to Christians going out into the world with the express purpose of reaching the lost with the salvation message.

In essence though, I cannot help but wonder if that pastor who preached a full message on salvation was essentially preaching to the “choir”? Would it have been more beneficial to provide a message that might have helped Christians in that congregation deal with what is happening now in society? Certainly, tack a strong salvation message onto the end of that message in case anyone there did not really know the Lord and needed to do so.

My point is that there is a great deal happening in society today. It is causing tremendous angst and upheaval throughout society. Christians are affected as well. Some doubt what’s happening. Sometimes, we get upset at the lawlessness in society. Sometimes, we doubt that God will prevail, if we’re honest with ourselves.

What does it take to overcome these things? It certainly takes faith in God and as the days ahead appear darker, it will take greater faith. God will guide us through the coming dark days if we are willing to submit to Him. It’s a partnership and that partnership requires our humility and willing submission to Him and His purposes.

If we focus too much on what is happening throughout many cities, it is easy to become discouraged, upset and even angry. But in spite of these difficult days, as I’ve said so often, the Christian’s number one priority is to fulfill the Great Commission. We do not have the option of remaining on the sidelines.

Mark Hitchcock in the interview above with Jan Markell (top video), essentially says that he believes at least some of the judgments that occur in the upcoming Tribulation period (starting in Revelation 6), appear to be bleeding over into our current Church Age. We can place the blame on Bill Gates or others who seem to have been working directly with the lab in Wuhan, China, where the Coronavirus 19 appears to have escaped from, but the truth is that God has allowed it. If people are guilty of purposefully releasing CV-19 into society globally, they will be held accountable, but what is God’s role in this? At the very least He allowed it. During the coming Tribulation, He actually sends the 21 judgments of the Seals, the Trumpets and the Bowls. They all come from the throne room of God.

Christians, it appears we are living at the very end of the Church Age. We do not know when the Rapture will occur and we do not know the exact date that the coming Tribulation will occur.

We do, however, know that both will occur exactly when God, who previously decided these events, says they will. In the meantime, it is exceedingly important I believe, to draw as close as possible to God. Rely on Him for everything.

My wife and I have decided to put our minds to memorizing Romans chapter 8. It’s a wonderful chapter. I woke up at 3:00am this morning and I simply started reciting Romans 8:32 – “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (NKJV)

As Paul stated, he wanted to know Christ and the power of His resurrection life. I want the same especially in these days when things are growing very dark.

The entire chapter of Romans 8 begins with this thought, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” It ends with this thought, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Folks, these spiritual “bookends” from Romans 8 enclose some tremendous thoughts and truth that we need to avail ourselves of so that we will think as Jesus thinks and do His works. We must not shrink from it.

May the Lord bless and keep you. May He powerfully work in you for His good pleasure!

Entry filed under: Atheism and religion, christianity, dispensationalism, eternity, Life in America, rapture, Religious - Christian - End Times, Religious - Christian - Prophecy, Religious - Christian - Theology, salvation, second coming.