THE REAL End-Time THREAT
 National
elections are now just weeks away and the airways are
filled with information whose purpose is to influence
our thinking and ultimately our vote. That candidates
and their campaigns are busy in this way is normal,
but what is interesting to me is the advertising time
being bought by special interest groups. Even that
is not so unusual, but their messages and methods of
delivering those messages have captured my attention.
They have cut to the chase, so to speak, and are using
fear. A subdued form, perhaps, yet it is still fear.
Consider
the following general theme. Pictures of pollution
are scrolled across the screen while a somewhat agitated
and anxious voice urges viewers to make their demands
known to the candidates with words about safe and clean
energy in the next decade. Another picture is suddenly
displayed, this one of a chunk of ice breaking off the
Arctic icecap. Now the voice says the public should
demand of the candidates a response to the “global warming
crisis”. The message continues by raising the alarm
about dread diseases, etc. The bottom line of their
message is somebody should know what to do about all
these horrible and life-threatening problems that are
destroying our planet.
Lest there
be a misunderstanding we should certainly be vigilant
regarding the stewardship of the earth and its resources,
and we are correct in our pursuit of cures for dread
diseases, etc. The rub, however, comes in the presentation
of the message. The unlearned mind will conclude that
pollution, high energy costs and dread diseases are
the most dangerous threats to the planet and ultimately
to the human race. Wrong. Remember Luke 12:4,5? And
I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those
who kill the body, and after that have no more that
they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear
the One who after He has killed has authority
to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him! (NASB).
And the “One” referred to here is God Himself, not Satan
as some have erroneously taken it to mean.
To begin
with, what credible authority can speak categorically
about global warming? Too much disagreement and too
little evidence. Further, there is the present focus
on nuclear power as being the answer to clean and safe
energy. But, there is no consensus there, either.
And regarding dread diseases, pharmaceutical companies
are not going to invest fortunes in disease treatments
that will not produce a return on their research and
development costs plus a profit.
All of
this gets the undivided attention of the secular world,
but in actuality the real threat to mankind is not connected
with energy, the climate and physical disease. And,
it does not have anything to do with politicians or
public consensus. The real threat can only be defined
by God, and He said, “The soul that sins will die.”
(Ezekiel 18:3: Romans 6:23). Not only will such a soul
die physically, but will experience eternity in the
lake of fire which is the second and final death (Revelation
20:14,15). That is the real threat. Everything else
will mean absolutely nothing in a million years; in
fact, it will mean zilch just one moment after a person
dies. It is just that simple.
Unlike
man’s perceived problems about the planet, there is
a solution to the very real threat of eternal death
and that has been taken care of by God through the cross
of Jesus Christ. The glitch comes because the overwhelming
majority of people flat-out refuse to acknowledge this
and thus refuse to avail themselves of God’s grace.
They will ultimately face
His wrath,
and when that finally happens they will no longer be
concerned about those things they believed were so important
during their earthly lives. These will not even register
as a blip on the screen.
So, in
a nutshell what is this threat that is so great that
it trumps all those other problems? God’s judgment.
In short this end-time generation is totally out of
kilter with God’s plan, and will very soon feel the
heat of His burning wrath. At the most basic level
this is seen by: 1) rejection of God and the Bible,
2) idolatry, 3) rejection of the sanctity of human life,
and 4) immorality (heterosexual and homosexual).
Rejection
of God and the Bible is the seminal problem because
everything else stems from it, directly or indirectly.
When society attempts to live outside God-given parameters
the whole effort defaults to failure. Trains need tracks,
and so does the human race. It is nothing less than
the epitome of pride and arrogance to think mankind
in general and people individually are so wise and all-knowing
that God is no longer a player in the game of life.
Jeremiah said, I know, O Lord, that a man's way is
not in himself; Nor is it in a man who walks to direct
his steps (Jeremiah 10:23).
Look around
at the multitude of people who make choices about careers,
marriage, religious affiliations, etc., with total disregard
for what God has said about these matters. Sadly, any
number knows quite clearly what He has said. They simply,
in their hardness of heart, reject it out of hand.
Each Sunday
thousands of sermons are presented with the theme of
unity and love. Love of self, neighbor, pets and the
planet are all mentioned at times. But, seldom does
a preacher expound those texts dealing with the command
to love God and His word. Quite often just the opposite
is what is presented. That is, a person’s love for God
and His sovereignty in our lives is firmly, and even
condescendingly, moved aside in the name of love for
just about anything or anyone else you can imagine.
It is impossible for one to claim love for God and then
reject what He has said, no matter how piously it might
be done. In Matthew 24 Jesus issued a warning about
lawlessness during the tribulation causing the love
of many to become cold; we are living in the shadow
of those circumstances today. Have we ever considered
there are some things we are not to love? How about
1 John 2:15?
Many reject
God and the Bible because they believe they are self-sufficient
in life. What a pathetic joke. Each year from June
to November we are reminded of just how ignorant and
impotent we really are when it comes to hurricanes and
other weather phenomena. Even the best experts often
fail miserably in their predictions, even having to
update their forecasts as the season progresses. Not
one single solitary hurricane or tsunami has been stopped
by man’s wisdom and forethought. Not one has been re-routed
or reduced in strength by man’s insight and power.
And yet people have the audacity and gall to demand
God remove Himself from their lives because they no
longer need or want Him!
Idolatry
is alive and well in latter-days western culture at
this very moment. And, it is not always limited to
the worship or veneration of people or “deities” represented
by statues and icons. Anything, no matter who or what
it might be, that commands top-billing in a person’s
life is an idol. It is about priorities and is really
not that difficult to understand. It is just difficult
to accept. It can be a job, sports, hobby, possession,
spouse, intellect, whatever. Anything that comes between
a person and God is an idol. Recently a young dad told
me he was not bringing his family to a special meeting
at his church on Sunday night because his young son
had a ball game. Wonder what lesson about priorities
was learned that night?
Abortion
is the murder of a baby before it is born. Euthanasia
is the murder of a person when someone says it is time
for that one to die, and in either case life is no longer
sacred. Movies and computer games depict the wholesale
slaughter of people to the point that both kids and
adults have been made insensitive to it. Random acts
of cold-bloodied murder are requisites for membership
in some gangs. Road rage can quickly escalate to murder.
Some types of so-called “music” glamorize and glorify
rape, murder and mayhem. All, of course, in the name
of entertainment protected by free speech. The despicable
thing about it all is the public is buying up this stuff
as fast as it is produced.
In his
second letter to Timothy, just before Paul was killed,
he warned of the coming violence in the last days.
One characteristic he mentioned is brutality (2 Timothy
3:3). The word basically means “untamed”, as a wild
animal is untamed and totally uninhibited about carnage
and butchery. Whether the context is abortionists,
Moslems who behead and mutilate, or common street thugs
who murder simply for a thrill the meaning is clear.
When God is dismissed attitudes about life become dispassionate
and negligible. This is not where we are going; it
is where we are.
Volumes
have been written on the immorality of this terminal
generation. And, incredulously, it has been said we
Christians should not attempt to intervene by legislating
morality and forcing our value system upon others because,
as the old saying goes, “You cannot legislate morality.”
Hogwash! We legislate morality all the time. Statutes
forbidding rape, theft, murder, incest, perjury, etc.,
are all part of the moral law. Further, the Christian
value system is not of our own making — it is God’s,
and no man has the right or authority to cast it aside.
Government
legislators, due to corruption within their own ranks
along with their politically correct and paralyzing
fear of being labeled as “religious reactionaries”,
have kowtowed to the God-haters thus capitulating to
every gutter-level, distorted and anti-God perversion
the human mind can conceive. When civil leadership
in a state like California endorses so-called same-sex
“marriage” the dregs at the bottom of the sewage tank
have been reached.
How, we
might ask in indignation, can such a society escape
both the degradation and collapse inherent to this God-hating
agenda along with His absolutely righteous and totally
devastating judgment? It cannot be done. When, we
might further ask, was the last time we have heard anybody
of distinction from the worlds of media, government
and entertainment demand anybody do anything about the
immoral and deadly impact of rap music, the homosexual
agenda, sexual libertarianism and other forms of godlessness?
Seldom if ever. Yet, collective society has such undiluted
insolence as to raise its mouth and mind from the gutter
only long enough to demand somebody do something to
protect fish, woodpeckers and the polar ice cap lest
the race disappear from the face of the earth.
The real
threat to this planet and its inhabitants is not social
and environmental in nature; it is moral and spiritual.
Those who point this out are generally considered crude
and unsophisticated. The evidence is very clear that
even in many churches feel-good religion and devotion
to secular agendas trump the “thus saith the Lord…”
passages. Thus, after a careful comparison of the liberal
denominational world with biblical history and prophecy
I think we would be wise to stand with the likes of
Jeremiah, Amos and John the Baptist. The only other
option is to fall with fools. DLM
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