The Final Crisis is Upon Us
We are living at the very end of time. All around us we see the final prophecies being fulfilled. The signs of the times are there for all to see if they are only willing. We are privileged to be living in one of the most dynamic and most important times in this earth’s history. We are privileged (if you can call it privileged) to bear witness to the last agonizing convulsions of this world’s history. Already we see God’s warning judgments beginning to fall on a world that has despised his grace. On a people, on a world that has rejected God we see calamities and catastrophes of every degree, both natural and man-made, on land and by sea. Soon, and who know how soon, the warning judgments will give way to the far, far more terrible punitive judgments.
The Holy Spirit is Being Withdrawn
Even now God’s Holy Spirit is being withdrawn from a world that has nothing but contempt for Him. We see all over the world various agencies of unimaginable evil combining their forces and consolidating to make war against those few who dare remain true to God. Every device of satanic deception is being put in place to shake and destroy the faith of believers. And for those whose faith will not be shaken, the most horrible persecutions are being prepared. Truly Satan rages because he knows his time is short.
Everywhere people have become infatuated with abominable vices that would have horrified earlier generations, and they hardly draw a comment from anyone these days. Satan has so blinded the eyes of so many that few even recognize the evil for what it is. In the eyes of the world, the most abominable vices have become virtues, while Godly virtues have come to be seen as abominations. We have seen a whole generation raised up to believe that their personal entertainment is the end-all of existence. Surely if ever the Scripture was true that in the last days men would be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, it is now.
Around the world we see whole armies of men, possessed of demons, gleefully taking the lives of men, women and children, while praising God for their slaughter. Truly the restraint of the Holy Spirit upon the wicked is being released from this world, and Satan is being allowed to an ever-greater degree to have his own way. The world will soon know to its utter horror what it means to have rejected God.
Satan has perverted justice, and has made the courts a weapon against Christianity. “Justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.” (Isaiah 59:14). Satan has filled the hearts and minds of the people with the most selfish desires. The personal gratification of sensual appetites, the unending quest to make themselves a center of attention has become the ultimate goal and purpose of life for multitudes. Other people have become only things to be used in their quest to fulfill their own personal desires. Theft, fraud, deception, has become so common place that it has become the expected norm of society. Even your own identity is no longer safe from theft.
Compassionate Christian Warriors Needed
Now is the time for Christian warriors to stand up and be counted. Our every thought should be, “How can I best glorify God?” But sadly, even among many professed Christians, the Lord in not in their thoughts. Are we using all that God has given us to bring light and life to others? Or are we planning and devising means for glorifying ourselves. We should be studying with all the passion and power of our heart and mind how to lift up Jesus before a world on the brink of destruction. This is our commission. But how many Christians have lost sight of their very purpose of being in their quest to be like the world.
In love and compassion for the lost we are to sound the warning to a dying world. Love cannot allow the multitudes to be lost without giving faithful warning. And it is only in love, the agape love of God, that we can be fit to give that warning. Our message will not be popular with the world at large. It will be mocked, ridiculed and vilified. That love which seeks to warn the sinner to turn from his evil way will be called intolerance, hatred and bigotry. But nevertheless, we are, no matter what the opposition, in love for the sinner, faithfully to give that warning.
Ezekiel 33:11 “Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die.”
There is a Point of No Return
The time is coming, and it is not far off, when just as in the day of Noah, humanity will have passed a point of no return, a point beyond which God will not let sin go any further. Humanity has largely forgotten that God keeps record of every act of fraud, of all the perverted insolence of man. And to their horror they will have to meet this record in the Day of Judgment.
The World Cannot Solve Its Problems
There are few today who truly understand what the underlying causes of the world’s troubles really are. Few who have the spiritual eyesight to see that in abandoning God the world is being ruled in an ever-greater degree by Satan. And in having abandoned God the world will find that it is powerless to solve the ever-increasing number of problems that plague it. Crime, corruption, terror, poverty, the vilest immorality – the world is powerless in the face of these evils apart from God. And as God’s Holy Spirit is withdrawn from the world at large, these things will only increase, and men will move from one depth of depravity to another.
Scripture Will be Fulfilled
The words of Paul will literally be fulfilled (indeed, is already being fulfilled). “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
Scripture clearly tells us what the condition of the world will be just before Christ’s return. But how few there are who give any heed to the warning. Are we doing our best to give the last warning to a dying world? The world moves on from one evil to another, from one abomination to another, heedless that Jesus is coming soon. God sends His warning to a sin sick world. Heaven sent warnings are given, but they are unheeded, even mocked. And as Pharaoh hardened his heart at the Word of God, so the world is hardening its heart against the Word of God. And just as that hardening of heart was the destruction of Egypt, even so it will in these last days be the destruction of the earth.
It is for the sake of the few who will yet turn to and worship God that this world is allowed to continue on for a little time longer. It is for the sake of those who will yet hear the voice of God and turn and be saved that God hold off the final judgments. Not all in this world has yet taken the side of Satan against God. But soon, God will rise up and the proclamation will be made: “He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still. And behold, I am coming quickly.” (Revelation 22: 11-12).
The Great Deception
Satan is a diligent Bible student. He knows that his time is short, and he is seeking to shake the faith of every Christian. And except as we are filled with the Spirit of God and His Word, we will be powerless before his deceptions. Except as we have on the full armor of God, we will not be able to stand. These last days will be a study in contrasts. On one hand there will be the relatively few who, filled with the Spirit of God, are walking in the light of His glory. On the other, there will be the overwhelming masses, filled with the spirit of Satan, walking in his darkness. The distinction between the two will be sharp and clear.
Just before Jesus comes, Satan will attempt to pull off the greatest act of identity theft that the universe has ever witnessed. Satan, when the time is ripe and the people of the world are most desperate for some kind of deliverance, will appear in all that remains of his former angelic glory claiming to be Christ returned. He will work miracles that will astound the world, and a world that has rejected God, a world that can no longer distinguish between good and evil, between light and dark, will fall at his feet and worship him as though he was God.
“Christ has come, Christ has come,” will be the shout of the world, and this will be a nearly overwhelming temptation for God’s people. But God’s people will not be deceived. They will, by the grace of God’s indwelling Holy Spirit, have the spiritual perception to know the difference. This is a time when “the just must live by faith.” Everything you see, everything you hear will scream out, “This is Christ.” But God’s children, (just as Jesus did when Satan came to temp Him in the wilderness of temptation), will take their stand on the living word, “It is written.” This is the only foundation upon which they can stand securely.
Stand True to God
Fearful tests and trials are yet to come to God’s children. But like Daniel tossed in the Lion’s den, like the three tossed into the fiery furnace, God will be there with them. They will come through the fire untouched by even the smell of smoke upon them. Rage as he will, Satan can have no power over God’s children. God will be our shield, our fortress.