The Scourge Of Racism
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If as a professed Christian you read through the November 25, 2018 post, “Standing In The Evil Day,” under the category, Encouragement, with skepticism and scoffing, then you may not be a Christian at all or deadly unbelief has a grip on your heart. By express divine will, faith in God is to characterize the lives of those professing to be Christians since through it we are saved and live before God (Habakkuk 2:4; Matthew 21:18-22)! Just because amazing works of power may not pop off every day through us who have faith, does not mean we are not to believe they are possible anytime we look to our God to speak or act in accord with His will. Not to live with such expectancy of faith is to automatically limit what God can do through us as I write in this edited 2013 repost.
Originally Posted March 17, 2013
Reflecting further on what the Lord led me to write last week about my journey and encounters I have had with fearful, this present world focused professed Christians who are silent in the face of evil,1 I have seen how many such persons also walk in a spiritually debilitating cynicism regarding the genuineness of Christians like myself that are truly zealous for the Lord and His Kingdom. Because they never had or long ago quenched the Spirit’s fire (of course, some in the flesh are simply envious or threatened), they refuse to believe anyone else could be so passionately “sold out” to Christ and attempt in some way to either discourage them through negative acts or obstruct their ministry efforts.
The churches and their pulpits are filled with these professed Christians that live in cynical unbelief not only concerning the genuine commitment of other Christians, but most devastatingly, the power of God! Since biblical Christianity is about faith in God from beginning to end (Romans 1:16-17), unbelief for a professed Christian would surely have consequences. First and foremost among the consequences of unbelief is the impossibility of pleasing God (Hebrews 11:6).2 Lack of faith in God by His people not only displeases Him, but their deeds (sin) born of unbelief grieve Him (Psalms 78:40, 95:7-11; Ephesians 4:30). Unbelief also limits the display of God’s power among His people (Psalm 78:41-42; Mark 6:1-6).
Now, while the context certainly shows the unbelief of the people in His hometown was influenced by their familiarity with Jesus and His human family (Mark 6:1-4), the end result is the same for not believing: the Lord could not do any “mighty work there,” (Mark 6:5, NKJV). The Jews of Nazareth in the 1st century had done just as their forefathers in history and limited the power of God being displayed in their midst by Jesus through unbelief. Please note the Lord’s reaction: “And He marveled because of their unbelief,” (Mark 6:6, NKJV). The Son of God who knows the hearts of all men and the history of His own people, Israel, still walked away in stunned amazement at the unbelief He encountered in Nazareth that day.
No doubt our Lord continues to be amazed by the many Jews and Gentiles since those days to this hour that profess to know Him personally, intimately as Christians and yet, do not believe in Him. Indeed, surveying the earth at the time of His return, the Lord with sober amazement concludes, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth,” (Luke 18:1-8, NKJV)? Today, to counter the many sensationalist charlatans who act as if they have harnessed God and His power to do their commanded bidding (and are mixed in with the authentically gifted which has been the case from the 1st century--Acts 19:11-17), those of cynical unbelief go to the other extreme and teach God is no longer doing any works of power through men.
To be sure, the men at both ends of these extremes displease the Lord (Matthew 7:21-23; 23:13-15; 2 Timothy 3:1-9). However, those that walk in and teach cynical unbelief are far more wide spread in the churches; destroying the faith of some and discouraging many by their own unbelief smugly presented. Faithful Christians; aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ understand the continuing display of God’s power through the Holy Spirit is how we live in faith every day (1 Peter 1:3-5).3 God responds to our prayers for miraculous intervention to heal, deliver, breakthrough or alter circumstances on our behalf (Mark 11:22-26; Luke 11:9-13). But even when He does not, the knowledge of His good end and joy of His living presence sustains us (1 Peter 1:6-9)!
We also pray for each other in expectant faith as dear children (James 5:13-18; 1 John 3:21-23, 5:14-15). Finally, we successfully engage in the family war against Satan in the strength, armor, weapons and resources the Father supplies to us as His sons through faith (Ephesians 6:10-18; 2 Corinthians 10:3-6; 1 Peter 5:8-11)! Rather than limiting God through unbelief, through our child-like faith we completely free Him up to do whatever He wills in the display of His power on our behalf and to His glory! Nonetheless, professed Christians walking in cynical unbelief among the carnal practitioners of manmade Christianity the religion has led the way into apostasy unfolding for centuries and leading to the foretold full blown major event shortly to come.4 The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 See the August 9, 2015 repost, Silent Endorsers Of Evil under the category, The Faith.
2 Read Easy Belief, reposted on July 8, 2018 under the category, The Faith
3 Learn more about the aspiring strong man and great woman of God in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. It is available at all major internet book-
sellers, by order at your favorite brick and mortar bookstore or in the Strong Man Store.
4 See the February 2, 2014 post, The Falling Away, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
Since the fall of Adam, God has ordained as a general rule that men relate to Him exclusively by faith--that is, trust and confidence in as well as reliance upon Him! Adam failed to do this in spite of actually being able to look upon the indescribable glory of God his Creator’s face and experience the awesome wonder of the divine attributes for he willingly disobeyed Him (Genesis 2:7-8, 16-17, 3:1-11). Adam’s unbelief brought upon him and his progeny to come God’s promised consequence of death and then some (Genesis 3:17-19, 22-24; Romans 5:12).1 Now too, while men He has selected may see His glory, He declares ‘“no man shall see Me, and live,’” (Exodus 33:17-23, NKJV).
Those mortal men then that arrogantly insist that they will believe in God when they see Him with their sin-filled eyes are doomed since they never will and would die if they did! For how can sinful men look upon the purity of absolute holiness (Isaiah 6:1-7)? No, it is yet another manifest display of God’s grace that He has required that men relate to Him by faith. As it is written, ‘“Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith,’” (Habakkuk 2:4, NKJV). And again, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him,” (Hebrews 11:6, NKJV).2
The truth of the foregoing is why no one can be saved from the wrath of God--another consequence of unbelief in Him, apart from faith in the Gospel of His Son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins, was buried and rose again on the third day (John 3:16-21, 36; Romans 1:16-17; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4). As He did with the first man, Adam, God gives all the free will to choose to believe His Word this time in the Gospel. Obviously, you must first believe God exists which He also allows the choice to do or not. However, in the face of the vast evidence of His very real existence, it is written twice, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God,’” (Psalms 14:1a, 53:1a, NKJV).
Not believing in God does not relegate Him to non-existence! The evidence for the existence of the living God and Creator is all around us generally in His creation starting with “the heavens” and by special revelation through His written Word (Psalm 19:1-11, NKJV). So overwhelming is the evidence for God’s existence, His “wrath” when it comes will fall upon willfully unbelieving men who have actively suppressed the truth even as it is manifested “in them” and who “are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God,” (Romans 1:18-21, NKJV). They will be “judged” and spend eternity separated from God in “the lake of fire,” (Revelation 20:11-15, NKJV). Truly also, those without an excuse include Christians who fall away in unbelief!3
If as it is written, “the just shall live by his faith,” how is it many that profess to be Christians in these latter days are convinced their unbelief is of no consequence to them now or eternally? Scripture is clear such ones have been deceived either by themselves or others. For endurance to the end by faith is taught throughout the New Testament (Matthew 24:13; Colossians 1:21-23; Hebrews 3:5-19, 6:4-8, 10:26-39; 2 Peter 2:20-22; 1 John 2:28-29; Revelation 2:25-29).4 Indeed, professed Christians who live as though there is no God are in for a rude awakening since He will not be “mocked,” (Galatians 6:7-8, NKJV). Conversely for the faithful who have endured by faith, they as “the pure in heart” are “blessed” since “they shall see God” in eternal peace (Matthew 5:8, NKJV).
1 Death has been the undeniable reality of the human experience for millennia. What many do not consider is that before Christ, everyone that died went to Hades to await the judgment. After His death, burial, visit to Hades preaching His victory, resurrection and ascension to glory with the saints He liberated (Ephesians 4:7-10; 1 Peter 3: 18-22), only those refusing to believe in Him for salvation die and go to Hades. This is the staggering reality occurring every day on earth previewed in the fourth seal Christ removes opening a scroll of prophecy for His apostle John to see (Revelation 6:7-8)!
2 The impossibility of pleasing God without faith is what makes The Epidemic Of Unbelief In God the Lord led me to write about September 25, 2022, under the category, En- couragement, so wickedly devastating for the guilty who yet again as Eve at the beginning, fall prey to the deceiving work and destructive end goal of Satan (Genesis 3:13)!
3 Read the February 2, 2014 post, The Falling Away, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
4 In my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, I write about the spiritual strength to endure God supplies His aspiring strong men and great women in the image of Jesus Christ who by faith “endured the cross,” (Hebrews 12:1-2, NKJV)! Get the book along with the companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Wo- man Of God Women’s Group Study in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
Following up last week’s post,1 as yet another display of grace before His wrath comes upon those that refuse to believe in God, He will present the reality of His existence to them through some mighty, unprecedented warning judgments. These unprecedented warning judgments will be so sudden, stunning and jarring that denying the existence of God thereafter will be impossible! Instead, the foretold events of God’s judgments plainly manifested as in the days when by great displays of His power He brought Israel out of Egypt,2 will reveal what is really at the core of guilty mankind’s unbelief in Him: hearts so hardened into sin they refuse to bow to and glorify God as God!
Indeed, it is not as if God’s current remedial judgments occurring all around us as foretold do not pack enough information to convince men of His reality. But even some professed Christians are refusing to acknowledge the obvious hand of God in the rising global heat and other weather events of climate upheaval (Jeremiah 23:16-22), “famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places” because they want the world to remain unchanged for their profit. As mothers know, however, when the birth pains of pregnancy suddenly begin there is great change. Birth pains are underway in the earth because the Kingdom of God is about to be born into it (Matthew 24:3-8, NKJV)!
An unchanged fallen world may be the desire of sinful men, but not the Holy God who created the universe in accord with His purposes and plans for man now, being fulfilled through His Son, Jesus Christ (Isaiah 45:12; Colossians 1:13-18; Hebrews 2:5-10)! For this cause, the Kingdom of God must come to earth so all He has promised as an inheritance to His Son is realized (Psalm 2:7-8). Therefore, God in grace and longsuffering has sent only remedial judgments while having the Gospel of His Son preached throughout the earth to this hour that though they have been severe in many cases over the past 2,500 years, men have been able to recover with relative few exceptions.3
In the destructive aftermath of the coming unprecedented warning judgments as a precursor to His full-on wrath initiating “the day of the Lord,” only He is able to bring forth restoration (Isaiah 13:6-16, 35:1-10, NKJV)! At Christ’s opening of the “seventh seal” and Almighty God’s entire prophetic scroll, “seven trumpets” announce the judgments of grave warning as signs expressly from Him and motivated in part by the prayers of His saints that begin suddenly from the sky (Joel 2:30; Luke 21:11; Revelation 5:1-10, 8:1-6, NKJV). The first trumpet is “hail and fire…mingled with blood…thrown down to the earth” resulting in “a third of the trees” being “burned up…and all the green grass,” (Revelation 8:7, NKJV).4 The judgment is similar to one God has previously done (Exodus 9:13-35)!
This storm has literal blood mixed with hail and fire pouring down on the targeted undisclosed region of the earth. It comes upon a world indifferent to the shedding even of righteous blood (Revelation 6:1-4, 9-11). Note that only a third of the trees are burned up--apparently God the Creator knows enough about the earth He created not to burn down all of them since they contribute to the air we breathe! Thirds are a theme in the warning judgments and indicative of their ends to display God’s reality, invite repentance and preview some of what is coming in His full-on wrath. Only an omniscient, omnipotent God as He is could selectively burn up just a third of the trees but all of the green grass (Isaiah 40:25-26)! Surely, this is enough information to believe God exists isn’t it?
1 Read the October 2, 2022 post, Unbelief In God Has Consequences, under the category, Instruction.
2 See the September 29, 2019 post, God Almighty In A 21st Century World, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
3 Among the most notable exceptions is ancient Babylon God declared would never rise again as has been the case (Isaiah 13:17-22; Jeremiah 25:12-29, 50-51).
4 Other contemporary word for word translations of the Bible such as the ESV, NASB and NET include “a third of the earth was burned up” in this passage as the center column notes in my NKJV also indicate. Learn more about word for word Bible translations in our Fruitful Bible Study Self-Paced Video Course on the Strong Man Virtual Institute YouTube Channel.
This is the second of an edited two part 2013 blog I have reposted for Black History Month. Only God could have foreknown the timely need for this fresh exhortation (and truly the whole body of messages I have delivered from Him since 1979 as a former pastor of mine from Fort Worth, TX, Rev. Tom Franklin recently called to tell me) to professing Christian black Americans in our churches given the heightened uneasiness now in black communities across the nation over the deaths of unarmed black males. As well, there are the overabundance of other community needs the Gospel, Word and power of Jesus Christ alone expressed through the churches can meet--if they will.
Originally Posted February 10, 2013
Black churches are the place oppressed souls came for a momentary release from burdens too great to otherwise bear and carried too long from the last service. My heart is in complete empathy with the black pastors since slavery that have looked out on seats filled with beleaguered black humanity in expectant anticipation of church services that would all too briefly yet necessarily transport them to a plane of existence away from their painful troubles in this world.
Primed by the soul stirring performance of musicians and singers, the preacher’s job was to deliver a message that would cause his own and the burdened souls present to take flight! The preachers knew then as they do now that among the sea of sweaty, shouting and dancing ecstatic souls there was a number who were not saved and many more that really did not care to deepen their spiritual maturity through purposeful Christian education. Still, the born again, relative faithful few growing in grace through daily meditation on the Word of God and walking in the Spirit were in the assembly too and apparent even to their oppressors on the outside.
Truly, it was the faith, hope and perseverance of those faithful few slave and free maturing saints among my forefathers that drew out the mercies of God to enable His bringing us “a mighty long way.” For as surely as many a gospel singer today belts out, “I shoulda been dead and gon” celebrating the mercies of God to save sinners, such is also true for our African ancestors who like all other Gentiles were of no great note to the Almighty. Many Gentiles nations have been destroyed from the face of the earth or where for example, are the ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians Philistines, Moabites and more recently the Aztecs and Incas?
Slavery as it turns out, is a preferable alternative to eternal death since this is the deserved end of all sinners (Ezekiel 18:4; Romans 6:23). Thus, in the humility of Daniel and Levites in the days of Nehemiah who found themselves ministering during and after the judgment of God poured out on His only chosen people, Israel, respectively, my faithful Christian forefathers understood the spiritual realities (whatever men in the flesh might speculate) surrounding the enslavement and suffering of our people as the permitted, less than deserved remedial judgment of the sovereign God upon sinners (Daniel 9:1-19; Nehemiah 9:1-37).2
These aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ waited on God’s deliverance from their suffering in His timing because He would do so out of the same mercy and grace He had already shown to spare their physical lives and souls from eternal damnation! Additionally, the record of the Lord’s dealings with Israel in the Bible including their deliverance from Egyptian bondage stood as irrefutable evidence that God could and would someday do the same for them.
Faithful Christian slaves instilled this faith and hope in their children rehearsed thousands of times in their unique spirituals and work songs and left as a legacy to descendants as well as faithful Christians the world over as a latter day witness of what biblical perseverance is all about. I confess that I am unworthy of the example of patient endurance empowered through God’s strength left by my faithful Christian slave and free forefathers that continued in the blatant evil of Jim Crow segregation, racial bigotry, discrimination, injustice and terrorism right up through the mid-20th century.
Greater than their roles as a haven and outlet for emotional release, black churches have also been the incubators of leadership not only among their ranks, but extending out into the larger community. In fact, there was a time especially immediately following slavery through the Civil Rights Movement where church and community leadership was nearly identical. Reconstruction preachers such as Hiram R. Revels who served as a United States Senator from Mississippi and later, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. a Congressman out of New York are representative of a wide network of black clergy involved in all levels of the political arena. Most of them, however, served effectively in their local towns as social liaisons between the community and the white power structure.
It was on the historical shoulders of social activist black preachers that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood leading participating pastors and their churches to what will be known until Christ shortly returns as the pinnacle of their spiritual potency as national Civil Rights advocates during the period from 1955-1968. While King Lieutenants such as Rev. Jesse Jackson continued on nationally, Rev. Aaron Johnson of North Carolina is among preachers that made an impact in individual States.
Though it is true much religious, political and social good has come historically from black churches in all of their denominational configurations, tragically, after the “mountain top” experience of the Civil Rights Movement, there has not been a similar widespread, unified and concerted effort to refocus on their biblical mission commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 28:18-20. If there had been such a refocus, most of our communities in cities across America would not resemble war zones with violence, murder, other forms of lawlessness and familial irresponsibility ruling the streets.
Indeed, while not perfect, born again, faithful, spiritually maturing folks do not practice willfully sinning against God! Yet, for example, most incarcerated black Americans (overflowing the nation’s prisons) will tell you he or she is a Christian and grew up in the church. So, what happened? Nearly all grew up with Christianity the religion of men in churches still locked in the “safe house” mentality and shackled by human traditions that do not major on determining authenticity or insist on purposeful Christian education leading to spiritual maturity as should have been the case with a post-Civil Rights Movement refocus. This state of affairs cannot be blamed on “the white man” since again in pride, black churches belong to blacks!3
Black communities now need the churches to fully be the Church of Jesus Christ! This means as Civil Rights activist and entertainer Harry Belafonte strongly implied in his recent appeal to black churches on a NAACP Image Awards telecast, they must step up and go beyond being a place of religious refuge, political and social activism. Authentic, spiritually maturing black American Christians in their assemblies are needed as the “church of the living God” (1 Timothy 3:14-15, NKJV) led by Jesus Christ as Lord, to stand firm on God’s Word and moral order; infused with power from on high, to liberate prospective strong men and great women of God from the chains of Satan!
Christianity the religion is utterly worthless to set these men and women truly free or get them to God as the Lord Jesus plainly taught (John 8:31-36, 14:6)! As in impassive white, so, in emotionally fervent black churches practicing Christianity the religion of men, the Lord calls the willing to repentance, revival and the strength He supplies His people to please Him and do His will (Colossians 1:9-12). Get my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics to learn more about God’s strength.4
2 Visit https://fromslaverytovictory.org/, a Web Site sponsored by Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. to journey through a very concise, biblically accurate and satisfying elaboration of this point in a presentation entitled, Does God Care About African Americans?
3 I stand ready to offer Christian education consulting or assistance to any interested pastor. Contact me by any of the ways listed on our Web Site Contact Page.
4 The combined work of E. Franklin Frazier, The Negro Church in America and C. Eric Lincoln, The Black Church Since Frazier published in 1974 by Schocken Books, Inc. served as a reference source for this blog.
Among the epidemics of just this 21st century caused by things naturally unseen is the most deadly of all: unbelief in God! After nearly 2,000 years of being “to God the fragrance of Christ” as His faithful spreading the Gospel and witnessing Him throughout earth, the world is still wicked and growing worse; having rejected His faithful, our message and witness as an “aroma of death leading to death,” (2 Corinthians 2:14-16, NKJV).1 Indeed, this is happening despite more than a millennium of dominance by Christianity as manmade religion over most of the world starting from the Middle Ages when men at least outwardly professed a belief in God. Now, they are turning even from this!
The turn away from a general belief in God can be traced to the 14th century rise of humanism during the Renaissance that made man rather than God the center of existence.2 This philosophy elevated human reason as more authoritative than the Bible and religion and spurred such critical historical events as the 17th century European Enlightenment as well as the divorce of science from a biblical worldview of creation beginning earnestly with Charles Darwin’s “Theory of Evolution” in the 19th century. Today, all of our nation’s secular and not a few professed Christian educational institutions operate with the mindset God’s existence is only a faith construct of the religious.
It is one thing for the unsaved world to be turning away from belief in God with a corresponding rejection of His Word including prophecy, but it is another over the top thing for anyone claiming they are Christians to do so! Nevertheless, I have pointed to recent research in other posts that shows the epidemic of unbelief in God fully infecting the unsaved population of our nation is growing too, among many that profess to be Christians who are de facto apostates.3 I am convinced of the Lord that this epidemic of unbelief with its beginnings in the Renaissance which was certainly in part a freeing reaction to corrupt, stifling, dead manmade Christianity the religion, is also a satanically cultivated outcome of it!4 Truly, He foreknew these days and wills that His faithful not be discouraged by them.
Speaking of Himself as the manifestation of God’s Kingdom, His glorious future return after enduring Israel’s rejection and warning that it will be “as it was in the days of Noah” and “Lot” (Luke 17:20-37, NKJV), the Lord Jesus Christ “spoke a parable” to His hearers encouraging “that men always ought to pray and not lose heart,” (Luke 18:1, NKJV). The Lord compares the response of an unjust judge to a persistent widow and that of God to “His own elect” waiting on Him and vengeance on the faithless wicked who have mistreated them a long time (Luke 18:2-8a, NKJV). God’s elect and faithful are to wait on Him in persevering faith which tragically, the Lord laments in a rhetorical question He will not find in predominance on earth at His return (Luke 18:8b).5
1 As I write in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics and will not cease declaring, God’s faithful are always going to include every aspiring strong man and great woman of God in the image of Jesus Christ! The book is available with the companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
2 Use your favorite search engine for articles on the origin of humanism.
3 See the 2019 Pew Research Center article, In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace. Also, learn how lack of a biblical worldview is widespread in professing American Christianity and among its leaders in a recent study by the Cultural Research Center directed by Dr. George Barna at Arizona Christian University.
4 Read the two-part post beginning August 21, 2016, Christianity The Religion Of Men, under the category, Instruction. Religion constructed and controlled by men is a fully inferior substitute for relationship with the living God whose reality in “wrath” is near to being displayed because they purposely “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” a- bout what can be “clearly seen” of Him “in” and all around “them,” (Romans 1:18-21, NKJV).
5 The Lord’s lament affirms what He has repeatedly led me to write concerning the number of those “who are alive and remain until” His coming as being very small (1 Thes- salonians 4:15, NKJV). Indeed, He even speaks to this remnant in advance warning them to stay alert in their persevering faith near the time of His sudden appearing (Rev- elation 16:15).
The march to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the end of this world as we have known it under the dominion of evil is moving just as it has been foretold in the ‘“Scripture of Truth,’” (Daniel 10:18-21, NKJV). As part of this march, I stand in awe of the sovereign God who in wisdom has given men the knowledge to develop technologically at a faster pace in the last 200 years than at any time in all of the millennia before. The telegraph to computers and cell phones, the first automobile to space flight, modern appliances and robotics; all attest to this truth in serving the divine end time purposes and proving that still--regardless of technological progress, man’s chief problem is sin since its works through him have not abated, but only intensified (Joel 2:1-11; Revelation 9:13-21).
With the merciful heart of God, we do not rejoice at the foretold troubles coming upon this world because of sin. However, Christians are not supposed to be falling apart either. Indeed, many professing Christians and their leaders are even in denial and behave as if everything is going (and should continue) as it always has. They fear the future and do not by faith “look up” (Luke 21:28, NKJV) as God intends--having given us His prophetic Word as advance knowledge--because they in disobedience love this present world and their carefully laid plans and dreams rooted in it (Luke 9:23). As I present in this edited 2013 blog repost, God has raised up this Ministry among others to call the weak to His strength as those alone that will endure to receive the promised salvation.
Originally Posted October 6, 2013
It is so very heart breaking to see people all over our nation and world coming unhinged at the slightest provocation; unglued and falling apart at the seams leading to acts of rage and violence in these times of stress. It appears that the natural self-control and fear of consequences resident in most human beings that serve as a restraint to injury to self and others is dissipating and the Bible gives us an important reason why. I do sympathize with the provocations and stresses of life in this world that can lead to the mental and emotional states of mind persons get to that cause them to become unhinged and unglued.
However, the Word of God plainly teaches that these things are so in these latter days because He is allowing mankind in the main--that has spent much of nearly the last two millennia rejecting the Gospel--to now have it their way in the face of His coming wrath (Romans 1:18-32). God (who alone has been evil’s Restrainer) is permitting lawlessness through the venting of humanity’s natural sinful impulses and the instigating, pressuring work of demons to steadily increase and eventually commonly “abound” out of control because this is the kind of kingdom men as sinners choose when they reject the righteous Kingdom of God (Matthew 24:12; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12; 1 John 3:4, NKJV).
To add to the misery of the God haters and rebels in these latter days, the God of creation that created it for man, is causing it to convulse violently against its fallen rulers in anticipatory birth pains of its restoration in peace under the immortal sons of God (Mark 13:8; Luke 21:10-11; Romans 8:19-22)! As a result, anxious fear about what is coming upon the earth will also be added to the life stresses that are causing people to now fall apart and soon, to die from mass heart failures (Luke 21:25-26). Sadly, among such persons are many professing to be Christians.
It is in this context of the present stresses and those foretold still to come that God has called forth our strong man of God cause. We are not just about a book and brand. Jesus Christ is the Strong Man of God demonstrated by His life, death and resurrection to immortality! Men from Adam’s son, Seth, have known the strength and blessing that comes from calling “on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:25-26, NKJV) and the Lord Himself has commanded men to “be strong” from ancient times (Deuteronomy 31:23, NKJV).
Now, though, it is at “the ends of the ages” that calling on the name of the Lord and being strong in the strength He supplies to His faithful and obedient ones is of the utmost prophetic urgency and absolutely imperative (1 Corinthians 10:11, NKJV). For as I have written previously (in blogs and my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics) and will continue to proclaim with Scripture in the face of the world’s escalating stresses as well as hatred and persecution of Christians, only the strong in Christ will persevere to the end and eternal glory (Matthew 24:13; Mark 13:13)!1
The strength supplied to His aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ is nothing short of divine power through the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 3:14-16)! Thus, God’s strength is not a human emotion or moment of euphoria. God’s power is of the real, continuing spiritual substance of His eternal being that created and upholds the universe! And so, the great apostle writes again, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might,” the source Scripture for the slogan of Strong Man Ministries: Making Men Eternally Strong (Ephesians 6:10, NKJV)!
In His strength combined with the whole armor of God which includes the “shield of faith,” aspiring strong men and great women of God are expected to stand against all manner of adversity as well as “the wiles” and attacks of the devil and his “spiritual hosts” working through willing human agencies in these evil days just as our Lord Jesus did (John 16:32-33; Ephesians 6:11-18; 1 John 5:4-5, NKJV). Christians from a biblical perspective, then, are not supposed to become unhinged, unglued or panicked to the death during the course of what we see happening in nor defect from Christ seeking escape from suffering to the world.
We stand firm in our trust in Christ and the very real supernatural strength our God supplies to us as aspiring strong men and great women of God. We also continue to act as a moral people walking in the righteousness of Christ and to the bitter end proclaim and witness the Gospel about Him and His coming Kingdom. Unless, therefore, there is a Holy Ghost fired movement such as ours to help men and women professing to be Christians become aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ, many will perish in the swift rolling tide of increasing lawlessness, troubles, demonic activity and the violent convulsions of creation coming upon this world with divine permission. In spite of this, a “falling away” is foretold (2 Thessalonians, 2:3, NKJV).2
Nevertheless, in the meantime, if we restore many men, their families and communities for even a short season before the darkest days arrive, it has all been worth it. So, we preach the Gospel compelling men to come to Christ and in coming to Him, become strong men of God in His image (Romans 8:29)! Pastors and churches that are guilty this is your cue: get out of the way; stop resisting us in this mission clinging to your comfy lives supported by the mindset of manmade Christianity the religion in the old paradigm of God’s permitted temporary existence. Repent if you will and in this new paradigm where Christianity the religion of men in their own strength is plainly revealed to be marked out for divine destruction (Isaiah 47:8-15; Revelation 18:1-8), stand with and welcome our cause, Ministry and biblically rooted message (Acts 4:23-31; Romans 8:31-39; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17; 3 John 5-8). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, “Who is on the Lord's side?”
1 Purchase my book at any major internet bookseller or the Strong Man Store on our Web Site, www.thestrongmanofgod.org.
2 See the February 2, 2014 blog, The Falling Away, under the category, Bible Prophecy to learn more about this coming event.
Faithful Christians will point out the events of the first trumpet have all happened exactly as God’s written Word foretells as does every calamity in the sounding of those to follow. The second trumpet features “something like a great mountain burning with fire” hurled from the sky “into the sea.” It results in “a third” of it becoming “blood” and the same fraction of “living creatures” killed along with “ships” that are “destroyed,” (Revelation 8:8-9, NKJV). With the third trumpet, “a great star fell from heaven burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and…springs of water” making them “bitter” (as it is named) with poison from which “many men died,” (Revelation 8:10-11, NKJV).
The fourth trumpet heralds an event never before experienced by men: the sudden cutting of a “third of the day” and “night” time hours so that a full day is no longer 24, but 16 hours (Revelation 8:12, NKJV). This is impossible men have scoffed for centuries and that is the point! Yes, in the natural order of things Almighty God set at the beginning day and night are generally 12 hours each (Genesis 1:1-5, 14-19; John 11:9). Only He could intervene to temporarily cut short the length of a day not only as a fitting judgment upon a world rebels against His order of mankind have thrown into chaos,5 but for the sake of His elect impacted by His judgments (Matthew 24:22; Mark 13:20).
Those still not ready to acknowledge Him will painfully receive more evidence (Revelation 8:13). God will allow physically altered locusts as if from some genetic engineering experiment gone awry controlled by the angelic governor of “the bottomless pit” to torment men without His “seal” in the fifth trumpet “for five months,” (Revelation 9:1-12, NKJV).6 The living seal of God is the Holy Spirit that can only be received one of two ways. The first way now, and to the end is to repent and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be saved from one’s sin (Acts 2:36-40; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22). The second is exclusive to and for the protection of God’s future elect Jewish remnant (Revelation 7:1-8).7
The sixth trumpet unleashes “four angels…to kill a third of mankind” using “horsemen” numbering 200 million riding some remarkably equipped “horses” that do their killing through “fire, smoke, and brimstone,” (Joel 2:1-17; Revelation 9:13-19, NKJV). Never having seen anything like this army or the scale of death and destruction they bring you would think this would be enough for all the unsaved survivors to fall to their knees in repentance and glorify God who they absolutely know is behind it. But this does not happen as with fully hardened hearts like Pharaoh of old, they obstinately refuse to repent even of idolatry among other transgressions and iniquities (Revelation 9:20-21)!
After a delay, the last seven years of God’s prophetic timeline He gave to Daniel commence.8 He sends His two witnesses to ‘“prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth’” which occupy the first half of the seven years. They consume those who would kill them with “fire” and bring “plagues” upon the earth “as often as they desire,” (Revelation 11:3-6, NKJV). Since he “ascends out of the bottomless pit” immortal and is indestructible, “the beast” or Antichrist is able “to make war against” God’s two witnesses, “overcome…and kill them,” (Revelation 11:7, NKJV). Still, men refuse to repent and glorify God during the multiple judgments of the sixth trumpet thus far.
In fact, other than God’s Jewish elect and Christians, the whole world rejoices when His two witnesses are killed by the Antichrist; not allowing “their dead bodies” to be buried as they celebrate their demise and this apparent victory over God (Revelation 11:8-10, NKJV). This despicable revelry shows how totally hardened into sin depraved humanity at this point is. But my God will always have the last word and shows His greatness and power once again by raising His two witnesses from the dead then, summoning them up to Heaven by ascension in the sight of “their enemies,” (Revelation 11:11-12, NKJV).9 Certainly, they glorify God as God after witnessing these things--no!
Instead, the pall of dread is suddenly interrupted and replaced with terror by a “great earthquake” that causes “a tenth of” Jerusalem to collapse and “seven thousand people were killed.” Finally though in Israel, there are fearful hearts willing to humbly give “glory to the God of heaven” and the events of the sixth trumpet end (Proverbs 29:1; Revelation 11:13-14, NKJV). Blowing of the seventh trumpet follows announcing in advance the victory of God and His Christ’s Kingdom, full-on “wrath,” judgment “of the dead,” “reward” of His “prophets…saints, and those who fear” His “name, small and great, and” the destruction of “those who destroy the earth,” (Revelation 11:15-19, NKJV).
5 Read the July 27, 2014 post, God Of Order, under the category, Instruction. At last, God will vindicate me in standing with the relatively few other faithful Christians that have maintained He has not changed regarding the place of order in His creation including the family and His house! Learn more about God’s unchanged order of mankind from the Bible in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. Get it along with the companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Wo- man Of God Women’s Group Study in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
6 For those that take pleasure in scaring themselves at Halloween, the hideous appearance of these creatures will bring unimaginable real fear with pain to them and be no fun or laughing matter!
7 God making a distinction between His people marked out as belonging to Him by the Holy Spirit and those that are not in this fifth trumpet warning judgment ought to make it very clear He is not only real, but knows and favors His people (Romans 8:9b). This is the same God who did a similar thing with Israel when with great plagues upon Egypt, He protected them (Exodus 8:20-24)! Let the saints watch out however, the unsaved (that plainly now, without the Holy Spirit includes Christian impostors, religionists and apostates) will be bitterly resentful.
8 See the January 30, 2022 post, The Right Side Of History, under the categories Bible Prophecy and Biblical Worldview to learn about the seventy sevens prophecy God gave Daniel the prophet and The Divine Delay, posted February 6, 2022 under the category, Bible Prophecy for insight into what is both the end of an in the moment and extended delay.
9 Resurrecting to immortality His two witnesses and causing them to ascend to Him exactly “three-and-a-half days” after their death is itself a sign to the saints this similar experience is three-and-a-half shortened years away for them and warning to the entire world it has the same amount of time left before the Day of the Lord arrives!
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