The Scourge Of Racism
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Shortly after the greatest of all revivals commences, while earth’s inhabitants are going about their noisy routines, Heaven briefly goes quiet from its normally thunderous worshipful activities. As reported by the apostle John, the solemn silence in Heaven is a prelude to the divine warning judgments about to be unleashed on earth that lead finally to wrath. This time has come urged by the prayers of all the saints in both locales that are fragrant to God. In dramatic fashion, seven trumpets are given to seven angels that blown in Heaven, signal God’s actions to take place and countdown His coming Day of the Lord on the earth (Psalm 34:15, 119:126, 141:1-2; Revelation 6:9-11, 8:1-4).
The angel that had ministered the prayers of His saints before God, now, fills his censer with fire and throws it to the earth. Suddenly, there is a global wonder in the sky of loud noises, booming thunder, fierce lightning and a quake that rattles the entire planet at once! In an instant, God’s response to the prayers of His saints who have waited millennia for Him to act occurs and creates the fitting fear and alarm among humanity very clear “acts of God” should elicit (Revelation 8:5). Quickly recovering from the suddenness of this terrifying event and emboldened all the more, the faithful ratchet up their Kingdom work and warfare and stiffen their resolve to stand on the Lord’s side!
The seven angels prepare to blow (Revelation 8:6). The question of whether there is a God for all but the most cynical in denial is answered after the first four angels sound their trumpets of judgment (Revelation 8:7-12)! These “third” judgments fully demonstrate God’s control over nature and the cosmos as well as His ability to destroy all when and should He desire.9 Thus, as with the plagues upon Egypt, God’s first four judgments are meant to awaken unsaved mankind and their rulers to His superior reality. After graciously giving the unsaved an opportunity to repent and believe the Gospel to be saved (Ezekiel 33:11; 2 Peter 3:9), timeout on the field ends.
With the atmosphere still filled with smoke and the stench of death from decaying sea life, many will be those including non-remnant Jews and professed Christian religionists that willfully harden their hearts against the Gospel like Pharaoh who was not impressed with God’s display of power and resisted Him (Exodus 5:1-2).10 So, in support of His two-fold elect God will repeat another thing He did in Egypt: make a distinction between His people with the mark of the Holy Spirit and those without Him in the first of three woes an angel has warned about (Revelation 8:13). The game resumes with the first and goal attempt by Satan’s team to run its favorite persecution play against God’s faithful and Jews when immediately the fifth trumpet sounds.
Confusion ensues and the play is stopped dead in the backfield as God’s judgment summons Satan to release demonically controlled creatures that painfully sting only those without the mark of the Holy Spirit for five months; members of his own team of deceived mortals (Exodus 8:20-24; Revelation 9:1-12)!11 The pain is so great the unsaved want to die, but cannot do so. The temporary nature of this judgment and woe once more shows God’s grace and willingness to save. Though the faithful continue laboring to restore men, the results are negligible because instead of being humbled by their pain, the unsaved persist in their sins. The sixth trumpet sounds (Revelation 9:13-15).
Knowing plainly who God’s faithful are, Satan’s team is about to blast up the middle on its second and goal murderous play to steam roll into the end zone when reinforcements foretold from ancient times suddenly take the field (Joel 2:1-11; Revelation 9:16-19). The play is turned back by God’s army with a major loss of yards as one third of unsaved mankind then on earth is killed and eternally condemned! Humiliated, nevertheless, the now fully heart hardened remainder of unsaved mankind defiantly refuse to repent from their sins (Revelation 9:20-21). However, they are weary of God’s judgments and are reluctantly ready to concede to another of His demands through the Jews.
In echo of His demand of Pharaoh by way of Moses, God declares to the world rulers of the day as spoken to me and through the passionate insistence of Jews, “Let My people go worship Me at the Temple built on Zion’s hill for that purpose,” (Exodus 8:25-32)! God then calls His second timeout to allow the necessary details of His demand to unfold. Those details include the successful negotiation efforts of the still mortal Antichrist that result in Daniel’s seventieth week and the Temple worship covenant (Daniel 9:24-27). John is told by an angel there will be no more delays in the days just before the seventh trumpet sounds (Revelation 10-11:2). The game resumes with Satan carrying out a third and goal persecution screen pass play intended to harm the Jews in particular.
However, two men suddenly appear in the defense; God’s foretold two witnesses His faithful and worldwide Jewry recognize in the familiar plagues they freely bring on the earth to validate their prophetic utterances, glorify God and take out enemy blockers coming against them and Israel. They serve the first half of the seven year Temple worship covenant (Malachi 4:4-6; Revelation 11:3-6). During this period, Satan has trouble in Heaven too since the holy angels have made war against and defeat him and the heavenly hosts of his team; casting them to the earth. In “great wrath,” he presses the screen pass play that is stopped short of the original line of scrimmage by another divine miracle reprise from the days of Moses (Numbers 16:23-33; Revelation 12:1-16, NKJV).
9 I have referenced the judgment of Revelation 8:12 in a number of blogs over the years mostly noting the chaos it will cause when for His two-fold elect’s sake as foretold, God shortens the end time days (Matthew 24:22; Mark 13:20) by making a day sixteen instead of the twenty-four hours humanity has known from creation. Read the July 27, 2014 blog, God Of Order under the category, Instruction, to learn that while this judgment is a blessing to God’s two-fold elect and all mankind because mortal life will be preserved, in the immediate face of its jarring suddenness, the world is thrown into debilitating fear, stress-filled be- wilderment and disorder (Luke 21:25-26).
10 God’s 144,000 elect Jewish remnant will not accept the Gospel either because their repentance and complete conversion by His will awaits Christ’s Second Com- ing (Zechariah 12:10-13:1) lest they lose their mortality required for their promised experience of David’s kingdom restored (Jeremiah 23:5-6). However, they will not be hostile to the Gospel or its messengers who they understand like them, enjoy the Holy Spirit! By the way, this all being true, the teaching that the 144,000 are Gospel evangelists cannot be equally true.
11 The world’s love of fictional horror and hideous monsters to scare themselves is surely behind this judgment too which in perfect and real divine justice, painfully terrifies the unsaved!
Faithfully proclaiming the Gospel and witnessing Christ as written in the Bible (Luke 24:44-47; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4), all faithful Christian men boldly labor to restore other men beginning in their own families and wherever the Holy Spirit leads (Acts 8:1-5).3 Anxiety about this is reduced by remembering the mission is simply to proclaim what we know from the Word and our own experience with Christ if given the opportunity, not to convert folk! Our work is finished upon rejection and we move on (Luke 10:1-16). When a man does come to Jesus, while local churches still exist he should be taken or directed to one for baptism and sound instruction in the faith and biblical manhood.
Woe to any pastor that does anything other than encourage and begin to teach and personally mentor newly restored men in the faith and biblical manhood or delegate this to another faithful man right away! Given the deteriorating times, if a newly restored man has no pastor or biblically sound church that can be found from one in a house to a larger, brick and mortar building, then the man who led him to Christ should take responsibility to give some instruction and at least baptize him if possible (Acts 8:26-40). Otherwise, the newly restored man should be told to earnestly seek the Lord for a maturing Christian man to teach and mentor him in the faith and biblical manhood (Acts 9:1-19).
Satan’s intense offensive drive in these final two minutes of the game will eventually become widely violent in America, the West and globally well before his Antichrist arrives on the scene (Matthew 24:9). His objective is to hatefully eliminate Christians from the earth as impediments and destroy as many Jews with much of the rest of humanity as possible before certain defeat by Christ at His return! In the meantime, laboring faithfully in the Lord’s Kingdom cause, work and warfare to restore men and standing firm in the faith will require all that God has designed and equipped restored men as aspiring strong men of God in the image of Jesus Christ to be!
Truly, in the thick of our two minute drill, all restored men in Christ must seriously honor His instruction as I write in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics and follow His example (Matthew 16:24-25).4 For as a Son, He made pleasing the Father in Selfless devotion and doing His will the core ambition of His earthly life (Psalm 40:7-8). As a Disciple of His Father, the Lord Jesus absorbed and gave Himself over fully in obedience to His instruction as well as trusted Him for help (Isaiah 50:4-9). With a Servant’s heart, Christ endured the scorn of those who rejected and gave Him over to violence and death in order to pay for our sins (Isaiah 52:13-53:12).
In my book, I also point out how the result of Christ’s uniquely Personal work and warfare in God’s Kingdom cause brought salvation and restoration to the world! Commissioned by Him, our work and warfare in the Kingdom cause is to ensure fellow humanity beginning with men as a first priority hears the Good News of Christ’s triumph on our behalf (Romans 10:14-15)! Then, only after this do we baptize and teach those that repent and believe. So, as faithful sons of the Father, disciples of Christ and servants to God and humanity we press with selfless ambition to carry out our mission; willing even to suffer and die in it because with Christ’s heart, humanity is precious to us.
From the earliest times, men have fought and died in wars for all manner of purposes. It is in the hearts of men to face death for even ignoble causes they believe in. How can we not believe in the noblest of causes; that of God’s Kingdom cause, work and warfare in this present age to save and restore, since we who are saved and restored are grateful beneficiaries? There is also the not so small matter of seeking the greatness of God’s promised rewards for laboring to the point of physical death in His Kingdom cause, work and warfare beginning with the resurrection to immortal glory Christ already has (Matthew 5:10-12, 16:25-27; Romans 8:12-18; 1 Timothy 6:11-16; 2 Timothy 4:6-8; James 1:12)! Of course, in all of this I speak biblically and not as a passive religionist.
As a result, in biblical Christianity character matters! Through much adversity, God builds Christ’s character in restored men aspiring to be strong men of God in His image as eternal identity and in order to work, war and make our defensive stand for the Kingdom to His glory on this mortal side of endless life. Again, I go into more detail in my book. However, in this space, know, for example, Christ’s holy character including zeal, courage, strength, humility, obedience and tested faith of which He is “the Author and Finisher,” is fully demonstrated in His life and ministry (John 2:13-22, 18:1-11; Philippians 2:5-8; Hebrews 5:5-9; 12:1-2, NKJV). God also equips us with the Holy Spirit’s strength and power along with the battle proven armor of Christ (Ephesians 6:10-20)!5
3 Our faithful sisters work cooperatively with their Christian husbands to reach their children. Then, their priority is female family members and other women. Obviously, having been led to Christ by a woman, I am not teaching a woman can never share the Gospel with or witness to a man (John 4:27-30, 39). I give only God’s general rule of priority. However, as it concerns mixed gender group instruction in the faith and one on one mentoring of biblical man or womanhood, the Bible gives God’s ancient, unmistakable instruction (1 Timothy 2:11-14; Titus 2:1-5). The fact I am compelled to make any clarifying statements at all shows the devastating negative impact the rebellious feminist worldview has had on the psyche of many professing Christians (who are made to feel in a biblical worldview such as I teach, women are overlooked in God’s program--what a lie from Satan!) and how far from God’s Word they are. O, my faithful sisters, you have your full part in all that pertains to the bib- lical faith, service, tribulations and glories to come in Christ!
4 You can learn details about my book on its dedicated page at the strong man of God Web site.
5 Learn more about men and causes in the five message CD Series, I AM A Man as well as the war strategy and armor of God by way of my four message Series, We Are At War! available in the Strong Man Store.
The repentance and revival of guilty professed Christian men (includes leaders) in and out of the churches is urgently needed to get them off the bench and into the King’s game during these final two minutes! From revival will come the fresh fire, zeal and power through the Holy Spirit to engage in the Kingdom cause, work and warfare to restore men on an increasingly hostile field of play and referees that unashamedly cheat as agents of the other team! All of what biblical manhood entails and the whole armor of God will be required. As in days of old, our God will also soon do more to support us in foretold, undeniable wonders only He can do in the sky and on the earth!
As the Lord has led, in other recent blogs I have already written in summary form the primary reasons guilty professed Christian men are in sin before Him.1 The bottom line is they want to do their will and not His. The consequences are many; not the least of which is men as God’s chosen leaders are being destroyed taking families, churches and communities out with them! Too, the catastrophic swirl of the foretold, latter day global rebellion as an unstoppable offense is pushing the spiritually weak and constantly compromising defense of professing Christianity backward. Our team bench is spiritually dehydrated and distracted in many ways including by religion.
Repentance and revival among professed Christian men is God’s righteous and only remedy for those seated on the bench and sinfully not in the game! In their present sinful state, they are as the “old wine skins” in the Lord’s famous parable (Matthew 9:14-17; Mark 2:18-22, NKJV). He teaches that new wine cannot be put into an old wine skin lest in the fermentation process, it bursts, is ruined and the wine spilled out. But new wine is put into a new wineskin so that both are “preserved.” Moreover, He adds in Luke’s version, having tasted the old wine, one does not want any new wine right away because it is felt, ‘“the old is better,’” (Luke 5:33-39, NKJV).
Like Israel--the Lord’s first audience of application for old wine skins, professed Christian men active in and spiritually deadened by unbelief, disobedience and sinful distractions cannot without repentance receive the new wine of Jesus as Lord and the Holy Spirit’s fresh fire. They must first become new wine skins through repentance and all brokenness before God as He has plainly and graciously taught in His Word (Psalm 51:1-17, Isaiah 57:15; Hebrews 4:14-16; 1 John 1:5-2:2)! By the way, as with individuals, so, churches! No professed Christian or church can get right with God and become new wine skins ready for new wine without heartfelt repentance (Revelation 3:1-3)!
Remaining in sin is not an option. For unless professed Christian men on the bench do repent, hardness of heart sets in. They are finally destroyed in God’s judgment because their sinful way is better to them; living in the deceit God’s love will sweep them on into Heaven anyhow (Ezekiel 18:24-32; Luke 6:46-49, 12:42-48; Romans 2:1-11; Galatians 5:16-21, 6:7-8; Hebrews 3:7-19, 10:26-31). However, after heartfelt repentance and God’s forgiveness, the repentant gladly welcome Christ to reassert His Lordship in and the Holy Spirit to freshly fill their hearts as new wine in all personal spiritual revival (Psalm 32; 2 Corinthians 7:9-11; Revelation 3:19-20)!
Hungry for God, revived Christian men immediately return to such disciplines of the faith as daily Bible study and prayer. They also leap up off the bench ready to get in the game and testify about their revival! As the Lord leads, they tell what great things God has done for them and witness Him in all grateful joy to saved family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and anyone else including fellow men the Holy Spirit brings near (Mark 5:18-20). In such encounters, they find themselves not only testifying to what the Lord has freshly done for them in repentance and revival, but about Jesus, the Savior and Gospel of Him whose sacrifice has made it all possible! Finally, with the Spirit’s fire burning freshly in their bellies, they yearn to serve the Lord as when they were newborn in Him.
Surely, revived pastors are eager to once again stand to lead by example in testifying of and proclaiming the grace and mercies of God to His flock; urging all to follow in their footsteps. They fast; they pray, enlisting other leaders and whoever will to join them in calling on the Holy Spirit to fall fresh on that local assembly of believers as repentance is urged of all. New vision comes to them from the Lord and they are ready to abandon the dead works of selfish ambition and the traditions of religion. In their new Kingdom vision, revived pastors see the value and the Lord’s priority of restoring men; men that after proper instruction in biblical manhood will restore their families and lead the way in restoring other men that will shore up a faltering defense on the field of play.
1 Read all the July 2017 blogs, but especially Pastors In The Two Minute Drill and Churchmen In The Two Minute Drill under the category, The Cause.
The earth is the field of play in a game that started millennia ago in Eden and as a result, has been the longest ever in existence! In that first quarter of four, Satan scored first by enticing Eve to sin, then, through her fatally for all, Adam; bringing on them and their progeny God’s promised penalty of spiritual and physical death. But God promised a Deliverer to come that would crush Satan. The quarter ended with a cataclysmic flood as judgment, though, a godly line was preserved through Noah. In the second quarter, God called a man of faith He named Abraham into the game and through him brought forth a special people from whom His Anointed would come in a future day.
The children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were enslaved 400 years by Satan in another stunning score and what appeared to be a knockout blow to any divine redemptive plans. But God came down and with mighty wonders and judgments brought His people, Israel, out of bondage. He gave them His Law and brought them into the land He had promised Abraham. However, they were not faithful and the second quarter ends with their being sent into captivity as judgment. While dispersed from the land in the opening of the third quarter, God reiterates His promises of salvation and good toward the people and their land even giving them a timeline through the prophet, Daniel.
God the Son and Word took Human form in the seed of a Jewish virgin named Mary and was born in the time, manner and place His prophets had foretold. As a Man, Jesus Christ preached the Gospel of the Kingdom and offered Himself to the people as God’s promised Deliverer. He was rejected and put to death by crucifixion in what appeared to be another satanic score impossible to overcome. But God raised His Son from the dead after three days! Before returning to Heaven, the Lord commissioned His immediate disciples and all to come after them to preach Him and restoration through the forgiveness of sins in all the earth beginning at Jerusalem first, Israel’s eternal capital.
As He had promised, the King sent the Holy Spirit down to His chosen apostles and disciples and they immediately commenced the Kingdom cause, work and warfare in the Gospel at Jerusalem as He commanded. Many in Israel were restored. However, as foretold by the Lord, within forty years Jerusalem and its second Temple were destroyed and the people scattered to the nations because the majority that included religious leaders, rejected the Gospel. This ended the third quarter. From His throne in glory, the King continued to oversee, direct and give revelation to the work and warfare of His cause through His apostles as the fourth and final quarter opened.
In spite of great opposition, persecution and adversity from Satan and the world system he rules especially in the first three hundred years, many were restored among the Gentiles. Indeed, the spread of biblical Christianity on offense along side of Satan’s strategically initiated corrupted religious forms of it was in dominating fashion throughout the whole earth as the centuries rolled by. In fact, at this very hour generically speaking, Christianity is the largest religious group on earth! Even so, after nearly two millennia and now, clear biblical prophetic signs given by Israel’s prophets, the Lord and His 1st century apostles, we are in the final two minutes of the game.
The greatest of these signs has been the return of the Jews to their ancient land and the re-establishment of the sovereign nation of Israel in 1948. On cue, Satan’s team of demons and deceived mortals went on offense and launched another hateful uptick in violent hostility toward Jews and the Jewish nation (Hitler’s Holocaust had only ended three years before its rebirth). Also, violent persecution of Christians and destruction of church property was intensified until now, it has reached unprecedented proportions especially in non-Western lands. But from all societal sectors in the West too, enmity toward biblical Christianity and all the religious forms retaining its morality is increasing; riding on the foretold rising tide of rebellion that mushroomed in the 1960s (Psalm 2:1-3).
Truly, while here in America the 2016 national election swept an administration into power friendly toward Christianity, this will prove to only be a temporary interruption to what has been the openly aggressive trend to squash its historic influence on the nation. Governments at all levels across the land as supposedly non-partial referees defiantly side with those in education, business, the culture, media and all rebels against the divine order and biblical morality. Siding with them too are many professed Christians who name their faithful, ostensible brethren as being among society’s “deplorables.” In the face of this massive, evil offensive drive, the freshly revived are to join already faithful Christian men laboring to restore men; persevering and standing firm on defense against it!2
2 Our defense is not about attempting to preserve Christianity’s historic dominant influence, values or morality in our nation or world. We are to focus on calling men to re- pentance and faith in the biblical Gospel for salvation as the King’s charge while ourselves holding to all He commands in His Word to the death! Read the September 11 and 18, 2016 two part post, American Culture’s Religion, followed by the December 4 and 11, 2016 blogs, Now Is The Day Of Salvation and Professing Christian Ra- cism Is Sin Too all under the category, Call To Repent.
Repeatedly warned in Scripture and having had our faith regularly tested by “various trials,” faithful Christian men should not be surprised by “the fiery trial” of persecution that comes because of the Gospel and standing firm in defense of God’s Word (2 Timothy 3:10-12; 1 Peter 1:3-9, 4:12-14, NKJV). Besides adding to the joy of sharing in Christ’s sufferings and anticipated glory, we understand our suffering in these latter days is the beginning of God’s just judgment and testing of ultimately all mortal flesh through which His faithful persevere (Mark 13:13; 1 Peter 3:13-17, 4:15-19; Revelation 3:7-13). No one will accuse God of letting the disobedient in His own house slide, while condemning others.
As has happened historically and is now taking place among our brethren in nations with violent persecution against Christians, husbands and fathers are making tough choices impacting their families. Faithful Christian men love our families! However, as Christ has righteously demanded, our love for Him to the point of death is above all (Luke 14:25-27). Half-hearted religionists blow past this teaching of Christ as if He does not mean it. Yet, He does mean it and before the game is over, many faithful Christian men globally will have faced the choice of being loyal to and doing what is best for their families or Christ and His Kingdom (Revelation 13:11-17, 14:9-13).6
God is plain in His prophetic Word: “the cowardly” will be among those that are found outside of His eternal Kingdom and in the lake of fire (Revelation 21:7-8, NKJV)! Thus, the Lord Jesus warns all up front that would be His disciple to “count the cost” and consider the outcome of the man who makes himself worthless through quitting on his commitment (Luke 14:28-35, NKJV). Having counted the cost and rejected unthinkable cowardice, faithful Christian men as aspiring strong men of God in Christ’s image resolutely continue their walk, work and warfare in His Kingdom cause knowing by faith the good end that God has planned (Hebrews 10:32-39; James 5:1-12)!
They are also praying for their needs during the course of the game and its end with the arrival of Christ and God’s Kingdom to earth (Matthew 6:9-13; Acts 4:23-30)! Such prayers will become more fervent as the world intensifies its hatred and violently presses its offensive drive down to first and goal on our two yard line. Exhausted and globally worn out on the field; our bench depleted to the lowest levels in history due to injuries, the apostasy (Matthew 24:10; 2 Thessalonians 2:3a) and game ejections to captivity and death, prayer will be all that our team has left before an imminent score and irrecoverable defeat by Satan’s team. But God true to His promises answers their prayers!
The prayers of His faithful are more than enough to have left when it concerns God! For the Lord Jesus taught us how our heavenly Father values persistent prayer (Luke 11:5-13). So, on the heels of those desperate, impassioned and persistent prayers offered by His faithful at the very end of credible hope, our God answers and intervenes as He did when Israel in oppressive, Egyptian bondage could bear it no more (Exodus 2:23-3:12). He will use the first of three timeouts to stop play; dispatching four mighty angels to cause the earth’s four winds to temporarily cease blowing on that historically unprecedented day as I wrote in a previous blog (Revelation 7:1).7
Rising from the east, another angel bearing the Holy Spirit--who is the invisible, living “seal (mark) of the living God”--cries out to others designated to harm the earth and sea not to do so until ‘“the servants of our God’” are sealed (marked) on their foreheads (2 Corinthians 1:21-22; Revelation 7:2-3, NKJV). Prophetically reminiscent of the event in Ezekiel Nine, 144,000 Jews as the foretold elect remnant of God are marked for protection from harm by His judgments or otherwise up to Christ’s Second Coming (Isaiah 1:9, 10:20-23; Zechariah 13:7-9; Revelation 7:4-8). For among the Jews in much travail as well, prayers will have been going up asking God to deliver (Psalms 10, 44, 144; Isaiah 51:9-11)!
Acting for the sake of His great Name, the Jewish patriarchs, Gospel cause and prayers of His faithful (Ezekiel 36:16-32; Romans 11:11-15, 25-36), God marks the elect Jewish remnant outwardly with the Holy Spirit and launches a second, final and complete fulfillment of Joel 2:28-32! His faithful will be set ablaze again and their strength renewed whether gasping for air on the field, injured on the bench or languishing in captivity (Isaiah 40:27-31; Acts 4:31). Under heavy conviction of the Holy Spirit, many vacillating believers will repent, be revived and take their place with the faithful. Too, the unsaved not yet hardened into sin will repent and be restored in vast numbers through the Kingdom work and warfare of the faithful along with God’s initial plainly seen works of power to follow.
Truly, with mighty wonders greater than the August 21st solar eclipse as warning judgments, God will exalt Himself a second time before the rulers of this world as He did when He brought Israel out oppressed by Pharaoh at first (Exodus 6:2-8; Isaiah 11:11-12; Jeremiah 16:14-15, 23:5-8; Ezekiel 20:33-38)! Meanwhile, as I write in my book, the global revival will be the greatest ever in history in terms of scale and souls coming to Christ! However, I also soberly warn it will not return the world back to some idyllic past. This brief moment is only the beginning of the end and preparation for the faithful to endure the darkest days ever; days that will see Satan’s team finally score with their invincible player, Antichrist, who martyr’s more faithful than anyone before him (Revelation 7:9-17).8
6 A very inspiring film to watch highlighting this point is The Robe with Richard Burton from the 1950s.
7 Read the March 16-23, 2014 two part blog, The Prayers Of The Saints, under the category, Bible Prophecy, for an understanding of why rapture does not come during the event I am discussing here and more detail about it along with others I describe which immediately follow.
8 Read the October 23, 2016 blog, Revival For Seeking Saints, under the category, Bible Prophecy to again appreciate why repentance and revival are absolutely essential among professed Christians even now! Also, learn more about the “night” referenced by that blog in a teaching on CD entitled, The Night Is Almost Here! available in the Strong Man Store.
Now, totally “enraged,” Satan readies his fourth and goal play against God’s faithful who overcome him in spite of death (Romans 8:18, 31-39; Revelation 12:11, 17, NKJV). Calling forth a global government made up of and blending together a greatest hits traits list of human kingdoms from the past, Satan takes advantage of mortal Antichrist’s assassination as a ruler from among them when he with God’s permission resurrects immortal (Revelation 13:1-3). “The beast” proves his immortality to the world by killing God’s two, heretofore, unstoppable witnesses (Revelation 11:7-8, NKJV).12 God immediately calls His final timeout for the magnitude of the moment and what is to follow.
Out of total contempt for God’s two witnesses the unsaved world will not even allow them to have a proper burial; letting their dead bodies lay in the Jerusalem street where they were slain for three and one half days. As it turns out prophetically, those hours shortened days symbolically show the time in years the world has left! A world-wide celebration like festive Mardi Gras and secular gift giving Christmas fills the days (Revelation 11:9-10). To the absolute terror of all the celebrants when the days end, God resurrects His two witnesses immortal and they ascend to Heaven “in a cloud” at the command of a “loud voice” from there as their enemies watch (Revelation 11:11-12, NKJV).
While the terrified unsaved world is briefly muted, God’s faithful rejoice in and glorify Him for His display of the power that fulfills in micro with the two witnesses--and later, the 144,000 celibates after the false prophet, what He has promised to do widely for all His saints (John 11:21-27, 38-44; 1 Corinthians 6:14, 15:20-23; Revelation 13:11-12, 14:1-5)! Truly, this preview of their future renews and energizes their faith and hope in Christ since they also know with the foretold immortal Antichrist on scene, their lives are in certain peril. Within the hour God’s two witnesses ascend to Heaven a “great earthquake” occurs in Jerusalem. “A tenth” of the city collapses and seven thousand people are killed. Awestruck survivors give glory to Heaven’s God (Revelation 11:13, NKJV)!
The judgments of the sixth trumpet and second woe are now concluded as is timeout on the field. The third and final woe is “coming quickly” with the sounding of the seventh trumpet (Revelation 11:14, NKJV). Before the Antichrist can move to consolidate his grip on world power, in a classic divine act of “declaring the end from the beginning” so His faithful are encouraged from Scripture, the seventh angel sounds his trumpet (Isaiah 46:8-11; Revelation 11:15-19, NKJV)! This seventh trumpet and third woe announce in advance the eternal triumph of God and Christ’s Kingdom over this world’s kingdoms through all that is about to unfold in the dawning Day of the Lord!
All that is written in the Bible concerning the Antichrist--his supernatural support from Satan, breaking of the covenant with the Jews that allowed their Temple sacrifice to God, his self-exaltation to deity, blasphemy against the true God of Heaven in His Temple, military and destructive exploits--come to pass over the foretold three and a half year period called “Jacob’s trouble” and the “great tribulation” (Jeremiah 30:7; Matthew 24:15-25, NKJV).13 This includes his persecution sweep across the earth in Satan’s fourth and goal play warring against the saints martyring millions standing faithful and that scores giving his team the lead (Daniel 7:19-25, 8:23-25, 11:36-39; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-8; Revelation 13:4-10). The world is now very dark spiritually and teems with angry demons.
The demons openly display their supernatural power as delusion toward the end of upholding Antichrist’s lie of being God (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12). While the Kingdom cause labor of the faithful to restore men openly has ended, God out of His amazing grace sends an angel to deliver the Gospel globally one more time (John 9:4; Revelation 14:6-7). Of joyful note during this time is God’s judgment of Christianity the religion of men; that great harlot of confusion formerly inspired of Satan and destroyed by Antichrist seeking to obliterate all things Christian and any other rivals to his worship (Revelation 14:8, 17:1-19:4).14 Near the end of his reign of desolation, Heaven readies to catch up the saints and God to express His millennia long held wrath (Revelation 14:14-15:8).
Suddenly, in rapid succession four of seven angels pour out their bowls of God’s wrath at the end of Antichrist’s reign directly on those with his mark and the earth he controls. They stubbornly refuse to repent here or after; blaspheming when the fifth bowl brings universal darkness (Exodus 9:8-10, 10:21-23; Revelation 16:1-11). The sixth angel pours out his bowl on the Euphrates river to dry it up for armies from the east to cross as God assembles all the nation’s armies to Israel’s Armageddon (Psalm 2:4-12; Joel 3:1-17; Revelation 16:12-14). To this point, His scattered faithful remnant has been impacted only by a temporary lack of food, fresh water and the sun’s heat. With only seconds left in the game, the tiny team on the field waits on Christ to come praying (Psalm 143).
They are encouraged by Him to keep faithfully watching lest they give up and be put to shame by their unbelief as the armies of the world finish gathering at Armageddon (Revelation 16:15-16). Then suddenly, as the Lord foretold, His sign appears in the darkened sky and He gloriously descends with an audible shout, voice of an archangel and trumpet of God calling for all His saints to join Him in the clouds by resurrection, translation and ascension (Matthew 24:29-31; 1 Corinthians 15:50-52; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17, 5:9-10)! His elect Jews safe (Isaiah 26:20-21), the seventh angel pours out the final bowl of God’s wrath (Exodus 9:18-26; Isaiah 13:6-13, 30:30, 42:14-15; Revelation 16:17-21). The game ends in Kingdom victory when the feet of Jesus touchdown on the Mount of Olives (Ezekiel 38:1-39:8; Zechariah 9:11-17, 14:1-7, 12-15; Revelation 19:11-20:3).
(This Labor Day I salute God’s faithful men that understand our Kingdom cause labor in the Gospel to restore men is not in vain-1 Corinthians 15:57-58!)
12 See the August 7, 2016, blog, Wicked Immortals And Their Bodies, under the categories, God’s Creatures and Bible Prophecy for informative background instruction about the Antichrist’s immortal body.
13 Read the February 23, 2014 blog, The Man Of Sin, under the category, Bible Prophecy for additional details about the Antichrist.
14 Destruction of the outward forms of Christianity the religion of men is foretold in Bible prophecy as the Lord leads me to write about in an August 23, 2015 blog entitled, Babylon Is Falling! under the category, Bible Prophecy.
Relative to the time of mankind on earth (interestingly, whoever’s clock is used), this era of rebellion in all of its manifestations including feminism that launched full throttle in the middle of the last century will be very short-lived in accord with God’s prophetic Word in the Bible. The apostle John called his epoch “the last hour,” (1 John 2:18, NKJV). If this great eyewitness apostle of Christ was moved of the Holy Spirit to speak in this way of his time nearly two millennia ago, we must now be in the last two minutes! Fans of sports such as football played by the clock, know the last two minutes in a game are critical especially if the defending team is ahead, but the other team is driving.
John hung the appraisal of his time on the fact many antichrists as apostates were leaving the church and deceitful deniers of Jesus as the Christ active. We too have many antichrists from within and without the local churches that have apostatized from the faith and deny Christ in foretold heretical teachings (1 Timothy 4:1-5; 2 Peter 2:1-3, 12-22; 1 John 2:19-23). Wars combined with unusual weather and foretold calamities of human and natural origin in ever intensifying severity characterize our time. Anxiety and fear are also leading to foretold rising civil unrest, anarchy, violent conflicts, lawlessness and the increase of cold hearts (Matthew 24:6-8, 12; Revelation 6:1-8).
Foretold, pre-great tribulation persecution of faithful Christians by unbelievers, professed Christian religionists, heretics and apostates is reaching global proportions (Matthew 24:9-11; Mark 13:9-13; Luke 21:12-17; John 16:1-4). All of these signs pointing to the nearness of Christ’s return have created the greatest two minutes to go in the game scenario ever in the history of the world and most of our best players--men as aspiring strong men of God in the image of Jesus Christ--are sitting on the bench!1 They have been benched by political correctness, tolerance and a feminist worldview of egalitarianism that devalues men by marginalizing and re-defining them as I wrote in a blog series.2
No team on earth in its right mind would have its best and most capable players sitting on the bench with the game on the line in the last two minutes! Yet, the world is doing this because it is completely deceived by its ruler, Satan (1 John 5:19; Revelation 12:9). Working as boldly deceitful as in Eden with Eve, only Satan could deceive and stir up women and gladly obliging men to rebel against God’s design, order and purposes of mankind to marginalize and re-define men in purposely taking them out of the game at this critical time. As was his evil strategy in the Garden, so now, he neutralizes men as leaders that the remaining body of mankind may be destroyed (Romans 5:12)!
Knowing these truths contained in God’s Word, it would be baffling beyond measure that many professed Christians are also deceived and take the side of the world if it were not for the fact we are told about them in advance. Hence, passive men are figuratively sitting on the bench by marginalization and re-definition as well as literally by way of the pew in many churches. But this is not what Christ came to restore men to do. We are saved and enlisted in His Kingdom cause in the Gospel to liberate other men and their families from captivity to Satan through the Holy Spirit’s power for their restoration too; even snatching some out of Hell's fire (Mark 8:34-38, 16:15; Jude 20-23)!
Or have we Christians forgotten the world’s rebellion ends in the wrath of God that accompanies the events of Christ’s Second Coming (Revelation 6:12-17)? Though we cannot know the exact day or hour of His coming, He has commanded us to “watch” for such signs that are now clear and multiplying in these last two minutes (Matthew 24:32-51, NKJV). The foretold two minute drill of the faithful requires aspiring strong men of God in the image of Christ to get off of the bench and into the game; zealously cooperating with God to continue restoring men until the world driving against us, scores what appears to be the winning point with the Antichrist. But he will be crushed by the touchdown of Christ on the final play of the game (Daniel 7:19-25, 8:23-25; Revelation 19:11-21)!
When you think soberly about it, spiritual warfare is the only right way for warriors at heart to go out (Philippians 1:27-30). God has presented this opportunity to those of us aspiring to be strong men of God in Christ’s image and as He did Samson, benched prospects who now resemble him in condition (Judges 16:15-31). Our families and fellow saints are today and will soon even more be looking to us for courageous and decisive leadership in witnessing Christ and standing against the deep darkness taking hold on our nation and world. Repent from listening to the world rather than God about who and what you are as a man and be revived by the Holy Spirit (Romans 13:11-14)!3 The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, “Who is on the Lord's side?”
1 To learn more about what the strong man of God is, get the Print or E-Book Editions of The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics available at all major internet book selling outlets and our Strong Man Store.
2 See all of the June 2017 posts in the series, The Value Of Men, under the Category, The Cause.
3 As a great help in understanding yourself as the man--though fallen--God designed, purchase my newly released audio series, “I AM A MAN” available exclusively in the Strong Man Store. Proceeds from all purchases go to help fund the work of Strong Man Ministries and our passionate cause to restore men! We also welcome your tax-deductible gift you can supply securely via our Web Site or by regular mail: Strong Man Ministries, P.O. BOX 56704, Portland, OR 97238.
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