Strong Man Of God Blog

          As the Lord led me to warn in a December 2016 post, the window of opportunity for the unhindered preaching of the Gospel and witnessing of Christ in our nation is steadily closing as it increasingly becomes irreligious and hostile to biblical Christianity.¹  Occurring simultaneously as I also spoke of in that post is the general hardening of hearts to the Gospel by especially our under fifty year-old fellow citizens.  Apparently, many of these same folk along with disobedient professed Christians refusing to repent from biblically plain sin falsely believe God’s offer of forgiveness does not have an expiration date.  The truth is, all any of us has is right now, to do as God wills!

          God wills that no one should die before accepting His free offer of forgiveness through repentance from sin and faith in the Gospel of His Son, Jesus Christ!  This is the message He has had faithful Christians proclaiming throughout the earth as He has waited in “longsuffering” for nearly 2,000 years (2 Peter 3:9, NKJV).  That a time limit was attached to how long the Lord would wait in forbearance before ending it is evident in His whole Word, but also in the Gospel proclamation itself (Isaiah 57:16; Matthew 3:1-12; Mark 1:14-15; Acts 3:18-21, 17:30-31).²  Sinning, unfruitful professed Christians are also subject to the limits of God’s forbearance (Luke 13:6-9; Romans 1:18-2:11).

          God waited many years for men to repent in the days of Noah while he constructed the ark of deliverance from the global flood of His wrath which came after it was finished (Genesis 6:5-7:12; 1 Peter 3:18-22).  God also waited until Lot and his family were escorted out of Sodom by angels before destroying it with Gomorrah after many years of forbearance (Genesis 13:7-13, 18:16-33, 19:15-29; 2 Peter 2:6-8).  God waited too, in two major judgments of Israel nearly 700 years apart.  First, in 609 B.C. after almost 400 years of waiting He sent a remnant of Judah out of the land in three waves before in His wrath, Babylon destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C. (2 Chronicles 36:5-21).

          Second, in 70 A.D. the Romans destroyed Jerusalem too, and the people were scattered after a generation of divine waiting as the Lord Jesus Christ foretold before His death, burial, resurrection and ascension (Luke 21:20-24).  Faithful Christians who took Christ’s warning to heart no doubt escaped from Jerusalem before its destruction as is traditionally held.  All of the foregoing instances of God’s longsuffering forbearance have in common among them that there were hardened hearts to repentance among those who perished in His eventual judgment that fell!  We are seeing evidence of hardening hearts toward God and His call to repentance from sin in our nation at this hour.

          So many men I share the Gospel with are hostile toward the message as avowed secular atheists, humanists and those who formerly grew up in and attended churches.  With hardened hearts they do not want to hear it.  The under fifty year-old group (Millennials and Generation Z) that have grown up with and been indoctrinated through public education and the media in the rebellion against God’s moral instruction, want nothing to do with Him if it means reversing what they have been taught and come to believe is the more equitable politically correct and tolerant standards of the world.³  Statistics bear out the decline of interest in God, biblical Christianity and church attendance.⁴

          The danger of the unsaved willfully hardening their hearts against the sovereign God and the Gospel in unbelief is Him in perfect righteousness ending His merciful forbearance toward and permanently giving them over to the foolish choice of their darkened hearts so, if they would choose to believe thereafter, they cannot.  This is as He did with Pharaoh when he would not let Israel go; has done with the guilty of Israel and among the Gentiles since the first century who have steadfastly refused in hardness of heart to believe the Gospel (Exodus 4:21, 7:8-13, 9:8-16; Matthew 13:10-17; John 12:37-41; Romans 9:14-29, 10:14-16, 11:8).  Sinning professed Christians face peril too.

          Contrary to popular theological opinion, God’s Word as it is written is clear that professed Christians with “an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God” can “be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”  The writer of Hebrews raises this issue as he exhorts Christians in the image of Christ to be faithful and warns of the divine imposed fatal consequence of their unbelief fed disobedience (Hebrews 3:5-19, NKJV).  Whoever worships and takes the mark of the Antichrist whose time draws near will be instantly hardened for eternal destruction (Revelation 14:9-13)!  Thus, let unhardened hearts hear and receive the Gospel and witness of Christ’s faithful now; let the faithful with resolute urgency proclaim the Gospel and witness Christ (2 Corinthians 6:1-2; Jude 20-25)!⁵

(I will be taking Sunday, September 4^th off as my Labor Day rest with thanksgiving to God.  He willing, my next post will appear on September 11^th.  Enjoy your Labor Day.)

1 Read the December 4, 2016 post, Now Is The Day Of Salvation, under the category, Call To Repent.

2 See the February 6, 2022 post, The Divine Delay, under the category, Bible Prophecy.

3 Despite this formidable obstacle, the Lord has led this Ministry to reach 13-29 year-olds with the Gospel through our most recent Strong Man Of God Online Rally themed,
   Reconciled  To  God.  Invite someone you care about from this age range to view the thirty minute rally at https://youtu.be/pP3X4gtpaq8 where besides worship and music
   geared to their appreciation, they will receive a witness of the faith by one of their peers and proclamation of the biblical Gospel!

4 Read  the  2019 Pew Research Center article, In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace.  Also, see how lack of a biblical worldview is widespread in profes-
   sing American Christianity and among its leaders in a recent study by the Cultural Research Center directed by Dr. George Barna at Arizona Christian University.

5 As I write in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, the faithful include all aspiring to be strong men and great women of God in the image of 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 inter-
   net bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.

          Reflecting further on last week’s post,¹ the Lord leads me to follow up today among the unsaved leaders at all levels of government and those professed Christians who have corrupted themselves through compromise with the world’s philosophies and attempts to bring peace to its lawless communities.  There is only one Source in all existence for the light of life and peace: Jesus Christ, “the Word” and “Son” of the living God who has come and is coming again (John 1:1-18, NKJV)!  This is what He said about Himself when He came to first century Israel: ‘“I am the light of the world, He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life,’” (John 8:12, NKJV).

          Before He was born into the world, it was foretold by the prophet Isaiah of Him that among the titles of the “Son” of God would be “Prince of Peace,” (Isaiah 9:6-7, NKJV).  This is because in His multi-faceted assignment from His Father, Jesus Christ causes peace to break forth in all realms of existence beginning between God and man “through the blood of His cross,” (Colossians 1:19-20, NKJV).  After this (having risen from the dead and ascended to the right hand of His Father in Heaven) in a day very near now, He comes again to fulfill all that is written concerning His reign of peace on earth (Isaiah 2:1-4, 11:6-9, 65:24-25; Luke 2:8-14, 24:44-53; Hebrews 1:1-4, 13).

          As we all painfully know, the world has had no peace since the first century though, it has tried and tries in futility apart from the means God has appointed.  Faithful Christians have enjoyed inner peace from Christ which is beyond any kind of peace the world can offer because it is supernatural; flowing from Him in nature who is the eternal God (John 14:27, 16:33; Romans 8:1-6; Galatians 5:22-23; Ephesians 2:11-18; Philippians 4:6-7; Colossians 3:15)!  Until He returns to reign on the earth, Heaven’s decree is no peace on earth as He taught while still here and later prophecy after His departure affirms (Matthew 10:32-39, 24:6-14; Revelation 6:1-11).  This is part of the cost of rejecting Christ as God’s appointed means for peace with Him as most important (Isaiah 57:19-21)!

          Therefore, the days since Christ’s return to glory have been and are days of decision for all mankind; whether one upon hearing the Gospel that Christ died on the cross for our sins, was buried and rose again will repent and believe to receive God’s forgiveness and eternal life through the agency of the indwelling Holy Spirit or not (Acts 2:36-40, 10:34-48).  Those who do repent, believe the Gospel and remain faithful to the end enjoy the light of life and peace in Christ (Colossians 1:21-23)!  Those who do not are condemned in their sins and suffer separation from God eternally after being judged by Christ according to their works (Revelation 20:11-15).  Let all who have never or need to then, answer God’s call to repent now, before it is too late!

1 Read the August 14, 2022 post, Laborers For The Harvest, under the category, The Cause.