The Scourge Of Racism
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In the post, Kings And Judges With Christ, under the category, Encouragement, on August 8, 2021, I wrote to encourage God’s faithful about the glorious vindication and victory our God gives us after suffering in the cause of Christ and the Kingdom. This vindication and victory comes at the forced end of three and one half years of what the Lord Jesus describes as “great tribulation” the saints will endure with only a tiny remnant surviving. They will see Christ’s return with mortal eyes before being “changed” and joining the greater number of resurrected saints en route to Him in the sky (Matthew 24:15-22, 29-31; 1 Corinthians 15:50-57; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, NKJV).
To “bypass death”--one of the common mortal human experiences of living on earth--as the Lord had me mention in another place, is a prospect of magnitude beyond incredible!1 Biblically conservative teachers of God’s Word all well know, believe and teach His consequential judgment of death for Adam’s disobedience presented in Genesis 2:15-17 and set in motion as his and his progeny’s experience in perpetuity the day he actually sinned (Genesis 3:6-11, 17-19, 4:8, 5:5). Death has been so routinely the normative experience of mankind since, it is a byword for certainty and inevitability. Even the Son of God, Jesus Christ, died--not for any sins of His, but ours!
Indeed, the Lord took on a mortal body and permanently became one of us as the Son of Man, to die in our place and make atonement for our sins (Isaiah 53; John 10:14-18; Romans 3:9-26; Hebrews 2:14-17, 9:22-28). And though the Lord was resurrected from the dead on the third day after and is “alive forevermore” (Revelation 1:18, NKJV) still, He died! The Bible records only two exceptions to the rule mortal humans die. Enoch and Elijah bypassed death millennia apart by God’s sovereign will and actions (Genesis 5:21-24; 2 Kings 2:9-11). These men had in common a single minded devotion to God. So then, a mortal bypassing the experience of death is extremely rare!
Yet clearly, bypassing death is exactly what the apostle Paul sets forth as revelation from Christ he is to convey as a reality for those among the saints “who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord,” (1 Corinthians 15:51; 1 Thessalonians 4:15, NKJV). Rather than death, these remnant saints are instantaneously transformed from mortal to glorious immortal and “caught up together” with those resurrected “in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air,” (1 Thessalonians 4:17, NKJV). The bypass of death here is plainly the experience of those saints who remain alive through great tribulation until that “day of the Lord” and His wrath arrives (1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, NKJV).2
As I wrote in a August 9th Facebook post promoting the August 8th blog, “God has ordained that His saints should suffer in the cause of Christ and the Kingdom in part as a matter of His “righteous judgment” to “be counted worthy of” it and the glories that follow (2 Thessalonians 1:3-5, NKJV). This “is also totally consistent with His eternal spiritual principle: “…before honor is humility,” (Proverbs 15:33, 18:12; 1 Peter 1:3-12, 5:5-11, NKJV)” as I wrote too. Seeing the revealed weakness and falling away to date of many professed American Christians during God’s Coronavirus judgment, it is evident many do not possess a mindset to suffer anything for Christ and the Kingdom.3
This, of course, is the other reason the Lord in wisdom allows His professed people to go through various trials and finally, the great tribulation to demonstrate our faith, love and faithfulness in all perseverance; naturally separating out from our midst those that are not really His or sold out to Him!4 The perseverance of the saints is not a foregone conclusion as some teach. The Bible allows for real Christians to fall away in unbelief (Matthew 24:10; Hebrews 3:7-19). Perseverance is the God expected and helped outcome of a real Christian’s displayed faith, love (shown by obedience) and faithfulness through the most severe trials and tribulation to the end (Mark 13:13; Romans 5:1-5; 2 Corinthians 1:20-24; Hebrews 6:11-12, 10:32-39; 1 Peter 1:5-9; Revelation 12:7-13:18, 14:9-13).
Therefore, bypassing death is not the experience of billions of professed Christians in an “any moment” secret mass event that removes them from tribulation as is popularly depicted by many conservative evangelical Christians in what is called “the rapture.” But consistent with its biblical rarity, the bypass of death is for a remnant of faithful saints. Their faith, love and faithfulness in all perseverance enduring the greatest hardships and persecution against the saints of God in human history will be rewarded with the honor of bypassing death and being made immortal wherever they stand at the Second Coming of Christ!5 Whether they are conscious of it or not, these will all be of those we are teaching to be aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ!6
1 See the two-part post that begins January 5, 2020, Revelation’s Seven Churches In Time, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
2 Included among these preserved from death remnant saints are Jewish Christians who have suffered as a group historically longer than any other Christians! Read the two-
part post beginning February 16, 2020, Christ’s Message To His Faithful, under the categories, Bible Prophecy and Encouragement along with the one that follows on March
1, 2020, Offended By The Truth? It is under the category Call To Repent for very serious reasons tied to the February post.
3 In the January 5, 2020 blog already cited, the Lord enabled me to foresee the negative consequences that have occurred because professed Christians were not able to “go
to church.” Once again, the never should have been day of soft pedaling the Gospel to build big churches and pastor egos is over! Sincere repentance fed revival remains
the only solution for helping willing professed Christians prepare for so many even more severe trials and tribulation than the Coronavirus pandemic that are on the way.
Read also the March 29, 2020 post, Standing In Christ’s Strength, under the category, Encouragement.
4 See the two-part post starting June 7, 2020, Days Of Separation, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
5 Read the two-part post, The Prayers Of The Saints, under the category, Bible Prophecy that starts on March 16, 2014. Also, read my 2017 multi-part purposeful work to dis-
till what is coming and motivate professed Christian men to get in the game entitled, Restoring Men In Two Minute Drill, beginning on July 30th under the categories Bible
Prophecy and The Cause. Sadly, many of these men do not possess the heart of Lot for God much less Enoch or Elijah (2 Peter 2:7-8).
6 The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics is my flagship instructional resource for teaching aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ who are the
Lord’s faithful! The book and companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study are available at your favorite internet
book seller and in the Strong Man Store.
On the joyful occasion of Palm Sunday last year, the Lord led me to write soberly about the why and what for of His Coronavirus judgment declaring it “a major magnitude ‘shot across the bow’ to the world that God has turned a corner on His forbearance with mankind.”1 On this Palm Sunday commemorating the foretold nearly two millennia ago triumphant, yet lowly entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem as Israel’s King (Matthew 21:1-11), I am privileged by Him in this post to wrap up my exposition of the biblical Gospel as a special emphasis to black American males with whom I share ethnic identity.2 Hereafter, none as victims in truth will again say, “no one like me ever told me!”
In declaring the biblical Gospel beginning with last month’s Black History Month post and all this month, I have repeatedly stated that those who repent and believe it are saved from their sins and the wrath of God.3 As I wrote specifically in last week’s post, the wrath of God is the naturally aroused, settled response of His eternal holy Person and character to sin that He judges in perfect righteousness and justice. Sin is not natural to God or the environs of glory in which He dwells. Sin like a virus arises from and is the unique experience of man and angels that have willfully come short of and rebelled against the divine will (Genesis 3:1-11; Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:11-19).
The wrath of God toward sin and sinners is a narrative and prophetic theme throughout the Bible. His wrath makes its first appearance in the biblical narrative at the rebellion of man where God not only affirms in righteousness and justice His fore stated penalty for it physically, but spiritually too, as He separated from His now, sin tainted and guilty creature. Even so, God also displays His grace toward man by promising a Deliverer and providing a temporary covering for his naked body and sin guilt as an animal was slain and its life poured out on behalf and instead of man. In doing this, God signifies what must be done to forever turn His wrath away from man (Genesis 3:15, 17-19, 21-24)!
God’s promise of a future Deliverer is the first mention of it in the Bible as prophecy and His unspoken, but clearly implied continuing wrath toward sinful mankind until all would be fulfilled. Indeed, after writing “God is a just judge,” David adds, “and God is angry with the wicked every day.” God’s delay to judge is due to His longsuffering grace waiting since the ancient king of Israel further warns that if the wicked person does not repent, His retribution will follow (Psalm 7:11-16, NKJV). For this reason, Noah’s generation endured an earth destroying global flood as the first instance of divine wrath poured out upon unrestrained human wickedness (Genesis 6:3, 5-17).
While thereafter, the Bible records many regional and localized displays of His wrath (Genesis 19:12-29; Exodus 15:1-7; 2 Chronicles 24:17-25), the reality God would “once more” express it not just on the whole earth, but the universe too, is what prophecy thematically and consistently asserts; “the day of the Lord” the apostle Peter warns is delayed only again by His longsuffering grace waiting for those He foreknows will be saved from it (Isaiah 2:10-22, 13:6-13, 40:3-5; Joel 1:15-20; Amos 5:16-20; Zephaniah 1:14-18; Luke 3:1-7; Hebrews 12:25-29; 2 Peter 3:1-10, NKJV)! The Day of the Lord is one and the same as The Day Of Vengeance He had me write about in 2016.4
As the Lord Jesus Christ was the divine instrumentality enabling this nearly two millennia period of grace through His death on the cross, burial, resurrection and ascension, so, His glorious return will finish the approaching Day of God’s wrath and vengeance (Isaiah 53, 61:1-2; Mark 14:60-62; Acts 1:9-11; 2 Thessalonians 1:3-12; Revelation 1:4-8, 6:12-17). For He endured the wrath of God toward human sin upon Himself in our place as our “Passover” “Lamb” and “once for all” atoning, eternally sufficient sacrifice that any who repent and believe on Him through the Gospel should receive a pass from having to experience it for themselves (John 1:29, 3:16-18, 36, 19:30; Romans 5:6-9; 1 Corinthians 5:7; 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10, 4:13-5:11; Hebrews 9:11-15, 27-10:14, NKJV).
Rejecting His grace throughout severe, escalading warning judgments now, underway with the global Coronavirus pestilence as one among many foretold adversities (Matthew 24:3-31; Revelation 8-9, 11-14), sinners alive at the Day of the Lord will suffer the full outpour of His long held wrath that completely transforms the landscape of the earth and leaves relatively few mortals (Isaiah 42:14-17; Revelation 15-16)!5 God’s wrath is righteous because He did not create us to be rebels that even murder His holy sons, but to be one in fellowship with Him forever!6 Therefore, do not be caught with a proud, stubborn, angry and willfully ignorant heart refusing God’s salvation in the Gospel of Christ who confirms the authenticity of the former days and His own coming Day of wrath (Luke 17:20-37).
(As per usual, there will not be a post on Resurrection Sunday. I will be celebrating my 44th year since becoming a beneficiary of God’s grace to save sinners through faith in Christ on Resurrection Sunday 1977. The Lord saying the same, my next post will be on April 11, 2021.)
1 Read the April 5, 2020 post, God Is Speaking, under the category, Call To Repent.
2 See the March 14, 2021 post, The Gospel Is For Black Males Too!, under the category, The Cause
3 Read the two-part post beginning on February 21, 2021, Willful Ignorance Destroys under the category, Black History and this month’s posts all under the category, The
Cause.
4 See the June 5, 2016 Post, The Day Of Vengeance, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
5 Despite the unscientific attempts by evolutionists to interpret the empirical data to the contrary, the evidence of cataclysm consistent with what would have occurred
during and after the global flood of Noah’s day is everywhere to be seen on earth including our nation’s famous Grand Canyon. They look at it as a wonder of nature
over evolutionary millennia (Romans 1:18-21); the Lord’s faithful see tragedy and ruin as the recent aftermath of His wrath potently displayed globally for the first time
upon rife human wickedness which no one in good conscience can deny is coming to this again (Genesis 7:11-8:14; Psalm 29:10)!
6 Learn about the eternal destiny of every faithful Christian man who is also an aspiring strong man of God in the image of Jesus Christ in my book, The Strong Man Of
God: Back To Basics. It is published by Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. and available in print or digital formats at major internet booksellers. You can also
purchase a print copy in the Strong Man Store. A summary introduction of the strong man of God in Christ’s image is presented on the strong man of God Web Site.
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