Archive for June, 2021
Mark of the Beast – Physical or Spiritual?
In reality, as I’ve said before, Eschatology (the study of end times), is not a hill to die on, at least not for me. Yes, I have strong opinions about what the Bible says regarding the end times and I tend to take Scripture “literally,” meaning in its most plain and ordinary sense. Others believe they have good reason for seeing end times events as allegorical or symbolic. I’m reminded that God expects not unanimity, but unity. When we disagree over things that are not hills to die on, we need to agree to disagree and carry on in the cause of Christ. Can we do that?
No Fear of (Offending) God and False Prophets
The false prophets Jesus mentions are here now. I just came across another person yesterday, named Mike, who at first seemed to be genuine. I listened to his 15-minute video where he made several claims related to CV-19 vax. He said the vax was rolled out initially with about 20% of the people getting the real thing, while 80% received saline. He said over time, this 20% will be increased with successive booster shots until most or all of those who received the saline vax will receive the real thing. Since most who received a saline version experienced no negative symptoms, they will without hesitation go back for all boosters, getting the real thing, ultimately resulting in forms of prion disease (like Mad Cow) over the next 3-5 years. Sounds plausible and a brilliant way to do it, if that’s what they did.
Greatest Need
I think of Bill now. I cannot help wondering of course if there was more I could have said or done to help him realize his need for Jesus. I am confident that God – who loves Bill far more than I ever could – has given Bill every opportunity he needed. Beyond this, God is the only righteous Judge and will judge accordingly, not just Bill, but all of us.
Dearth of Discernment?
There appears to be a growing discernment dearth, for the lack of putting it another way. Christians, by and large, are failing to see the signs. I’m guessing it’s because they are failing to read His Word or have that Word expositionally preached. For too long, it seems that seeker-sensitive churches have “warmed hearts” while not educating believers or professing Christians. The result is a growing tide of church-goers who cannot distinguish between truth and lies.
Fearing the Lord Wrongly
Instead, as we read in Exodus 20, the people were actually afraid enough of God that they went to Moses and said, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” (v 19). It was good that their fear heightened their senses and made them think about God. The problem is that they feared God wrongly. While they were cognizant of their sin and depravity compared to God (a good thing), they failed to comprehend His love for them as seen in His willingness to meet with them and teach them.
Harsh Love
Authentic righteous zeal can only result from the heart that fears (offending) God. If it does not stem from that starting point, it is a put on; pretend. While that may look good to others, it does not impress God because He sees the heart.
Apostates and Impostors
Psychology teaches, as Cloud points out, that people need to learn to love themselves more than they already do. Psychologists believe and teach that people who fail to love themselves (or they’d say, have the proper amount of self-esteem), are causing great harm to themselves and others because of their emotional bondage to a flawed ideology. That flawed ideology is the biblical concept of depravity, sin and rebellion against God. This is actually the root of Satan’s first temptation, teaching Eve that she needed to love herself more, to take care of her own felt needs by rebelling against God.
Simple Way to Understand Fear of the Lord
The goal of every Christian – I believe – should be to have such a desire to never OFFEND God that this desire produces within us the necessary ability to not offend Him. It simply makes more sense to me to understand the fear of the Lord in terms of desiring not to offend God rather than simply the more general “fear of the LORD.”
Laodicean Church Age is NOW
Society is inundated with pronounced, growing abject evil that is being normalized and we don’t understand why people cannot see it. We need to remind ourselves of Paul’s words about God sending the world a strong delusion so that they will believe the lie (2 Thessalonians 2:11). The “lie” here likely refers to all lies that usher in the final global kingdom to be ruled over by Antichrist. This strong delusion is going to be a major impetus in bringing forth the NWO and Antichrist. We cannot force people to see truth, but of course we need to tell them anyway.
Fear of Impending Death Pushes World Toward Revelation
All this is to say that global society is quickly moving toward the time when all will be in place to allow the final global kingdom of Daniel 2 to come to the fore. There is nothing we can do to stop this from happening and we should not spend our time or energy trying to stop it from happening. God says it will happen just like the previous kingdoms came and went – Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Grecian, and Roman. God has a number of purposes in allowing these kingdoms to come into existence and the entirety of the Bible lays it out.
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