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Near the end of the one thousand two hundred and sixty days of prophesy by His two witnesses, God allows His holy angels led by Michael to attack and wage war against Satan and his angels in Heaven. They prevail and force Satan and his hosts down to the earth in ‘“great wrath’” whereupon he begins persecuting Jews then, Christians (Daniel 12:1; Revelation 12:7-17, NKJV). The devil also causes the prince to come to change his mind about the covenant with Israel and his standing in the world. He ends the covenant with Israel at its midpoint and kills God’s two witnesses which is impossible unless he had attained the status of immortality (Daniel 9:27b; Revelation 11:7)!6
Apparently, after suffering a mortal wound and dying, the prince immediately learns his eternal end. However, God permits the prince to be resurrected immortal from Hades which He has not done with any others to that hour except Christ (Acts 2:22-31; Revelation 13:3a). The prince’s impossible victory over God’s two witnesses emboldens him to rise up among and against the ten kings. He eliminates three of them to become their and the whole world’s ruler. He goes hard with Satan in the war against God through blasphemous words and evil deeds to include persecuting His saints to the death and receiving worship with Satan (Daniel 7:8, 15-25, 11:36-39; Revelation 13:3b-10).
“Another beast” resurrected with God’s consent will help in the worship of the prince when he forces the world to even worship his “image” or “be killed;” take “his mark,” “name or number” to “buy or sell,” (Revelation 13:11-18, NKJV). With his “kingdom” incentivized alliance of kings that all mutually hate her and God’s permission in judgment, the prince will destroy manmade Christianity “the great harlot,” (Revelation 17-18:8, NKJV). In similitude to a predecessor Hellenistic Syrian king, Antiochus Epiphanes, in 167 B.C. as foretold, the prince will also desecrate the Temple by presenting himself there to be worshipped “as God,” (Daniel 8, 9:27c, 11:29-35; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12, NKJV).
He will thereafter, set about to destroy everything on earth honoring the true God; the peoples and structures of all religions competing for his worship as he engages in wars of annihilation and desolations during the entire last half of God’s seven years (Daniel 11:40-45). According to the prophet Jeremiah and instruction of Messiah Jesus, the last half of God’s seven years is ‘“the time of Jacob’s trouble’” and ‘“great tribulation’” for the whole world through which God will protect His elect remnant for salvation at the end; His martyred saints comforted in Heaven while they await their glorious resurrection (Jeremiah 30:4-9; Matthew 24:15-28; Revelation 6:9-11, 7, 14:6-13, NKJV)!7
With great signs of divine power on display, Messiah Jesus will descend from Heaven to gather His elect to Him (Daniel 12:2-3; Matthew 24:29-31; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11).8 Then, in “wrath” and “righteousness He judges and makes war” defeating His enemies beginning with the desolating prince of God’s prophetic timeline vision and consummates the war of the ages (Daniel 7:9-12, 9:27d; Revelation 6:12-17, 16:12-21, 19:11-20:3, 7-10, NKJV)! As promised, His saints that faithfully persevered waiting for Him through suffering will see his vengeance on their persecutors and receive the Kingdom of God as their eternal heritage (Daniel 7:26-28; 2 Thessalonians 1:3-12).
At that time, the way forward to fulfilling all of God’s remaining purposes presented to Daniel by the angel, Gabriel, in Daniel 9:24 will be understood by the elect mortal Jewish remnant. Receiving Messiah as foretold in all repentance, they will be finished with willful transgression against God and reconcile to Him as they understand the sacrifice Messiah made for their sins and those of the whole world (Zechariah 12:10-13:1). Messiah also brings in eternal righteousness since not during His earthly reign or ever after will sin thrive before Him (Jeremiah 23:5-6; Malachi 3:1-5, 4:1-3; 1 Corinthians 15:24-28; Revelation 20:11-21:8). Visions like Daniel’s and prophecies will be no more (Zechariah 13:2-6; 1 Corinthians 13:8-12); the Lord will consecrate His House on earth (Ezekiel 43)!
After seeing the coming resurrections of the just and unjust in the final vision of his book, Daniel is instructed to ‘“shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end,’” Daniel 12:4, NKJV). If you have understood anything in our working together through Daniel 9, then, you understand we are nearing God’s appointed end since only He has opened His Word to us--glory be to Him! We also do well to accept the truth that persecution is the lot of devoted Jews and faithful Christians the world over up through the great tribulation as God tests, purifies, perfects and prepares us for the Second Coming of Messiah Jesus (Daniel 12:5-10).9 In that day near, you will be able to count the days until the time frame set for His appearing and Kingdom (Daniel 12:11-13)!
6 Read the August 7, 2016 post, Wicked Immortals And Their Bodies, under the categories Bible Prophecy and God’s Creatures.
7 See the February 23, 2014 post, Man Of Sin, under the category, Bible Prophecy for additional insights.
8 Daniel is told of both resurrections without the separation of the thousand year reign of Christ and the saints between the two as the New Testament teaches (John 5:24-30; 1 Corinthians 15:20-23; Revelation 20:4-6).
9 Testing to disclose what is in the heart is the answer to why God permits the evils of the great tribulation to come upon all (Deuteronomy 13:1-4; Revelation 3:10-11). He works the evils to the good ends of His faithful (Romans 8:28; 1 Peter 1:3-9). Purchase the timely six message series the Lord led me to proclaim, The Hour Of Testing, available in the Strong Man Store to learn more about God’s biblically taught purposes behind testing His people. Listen to the series sample.
If ‘“the people of the prince who is to come’” (Daniel 9:26b, NKJV) are those of the first century Roman Empire identified in a previous post as history also affirms,1 then, how can this future prince or ruler to emerge from them be the “he” of Daniel 9:27a, NKJV since the Empire ceased to exist after their capital city, Rome, was overrun and conquered by barbarians in the fifth century A. D.? In chapter two of Daniel, God explains how this is possible through a dream He gave Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, and provided a much younger Daniel the interpretation (Daniel 2:19-23). In chapters of his book that follow, God also reveals details to Daniel about this coming prince.
As Daniel’s dream interpretation asserts and history attests, the Roman Empire was “divided” West and East in 292 A.D. by Caesar Diocletian (Daniel 2:31-42, NKJV). It was the western half that was brought down by barbarians in 476 A.D. while the eastern half continued and thrived; eventually morphing into the Byzantine Empire that fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church in the West took it upon itself to preserve Western Civilization embedded in the heritage of the Roman Empire and played king maker among those European lands that came under its sway. The Orthodox Church of the eastern Empire did the same reaching as far north as Russia.
Thus, with the mingled “seed of men” West and East, much of the Roman Empire’s legacy of governance, knowledge and culture garnered especially from others they assimilated such as the Greeks for example, has been kept alive (Daniel 2:43, NKJV). Important among the intermingled peoples that have tangibly kept much of the heritage of the Roman Empire alive is our own United States of America. The colonial product primarily of the British Empire once itself in large part a conquest of Rome, it can be seen in our preservation and promulgation of Western Civilization, republic form of national government, its building architecture, democracy and eagle as an emblem.
Our nation’s Roman legacy is shared in common with other nations also spawned by the imperialism of the British Empire and major players of mainland Western Europe it continues ties to that Rome previously ruled or dominated. While our nation is as strong as iron on the battlefield normally, many acknowledge our political and social fragility as well as fragmentation which with all other democratic nations possessing Rome’s legacy, perfectly fits Daniel’s brittle, two feet profile of division. The brief history of democracy as even fine tuned by our nation and turbulent current events proves Daniel is correct that the strength of iron is not mixing well with weak, fragile clay.2
Ancient unified Rome’s assimilation of other kingdoms under the Caesars did not stop with adopting and/or adapting the aforementioned items of their civilizations, but also entailed the spiritual characteristics and methods that show up in their raw ambition for dominion and territorial expansion through conquest respectively. For this cause, despite what will have been a relative few centuries of democratic governments compared to human monarchies, this present world ends with “kings” and “kingdoms” again that are broken into “pieces” and consumed by God’s Kingdom from Heaven.3 His Kingdom will not be “destroyed” or “left to other people” and is “forever,” (Daniel 2:44-45, NKJV)!4
Indeed, a later vision given to Daniel and New Testament prophecy converge and complement each other as it is revealed that after the physical fall of predecessor kingdoms Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and unified Rome, a divided Rome’s two feet with their spiritual qualities and methods move forward in final form to ten toes as “ten horns” or kings that rule the world (Daniel 7:1-7, NKJV). It is very important to understand why the spiritual qualities and methods of these kingdoms do not change over time. It is because as Daniel learned in yet another vision they are from the same source: eternally living demons (Daniel 10:10-14, 20-21; Revelation 12:3, 13:1-2)!5
This latter time Roman Empire divided among ten kings exists in de facto form when the prince to come begins his rise to prominence. He does this by negotiating a seven year ‘“covenant’” with Israel that allows the Jews to conduct animal sacrifices on the grounds of their newly built third Temple in the face of an angry world (Daniel 9:27a; Revelation 11:1-2, NKJV). This starts the final seven years of God’s prophetic timeline vision! Due to the world’s violent hostility and for more ‘“prophesy’” to it, God brings out His ‘“two witnesses’” He gives ‘“power’” to protect Israel for ‘“one thousand two hundred and sixty days;’” the first half of the seven years (Revelation 11:3-6, NKJV).
1 See the January 30, 2022 post, The Right Side Of History, under the categories Bible Prophecy and Biblical Worldview.
2 America earned its leadership of the West on the battlefields of Europe in two World War victories being as strong as iron. However, the sedition of Southern States leading to the Civil War of history and on the brink of collapse now, with angrily intensifying political and social divisions in disunity shows how fragile our nation has been and is.
3 Our democracy may be the best system of government ever invented by noble men seeking to honor God by installing His great spiritual, moral and ethical teachings of the Bible in its founding documents. However, as they themselves acknowledged, the experiment would fail unless the people were biblically moral. And we see today they were right! For this reason, perhaps, the Lord did suffer the creation of our nation as a final, failed best effort of sinful men to govern themselves. What we need and only God can provide is His Kingdom of perfect righteousness! Even so, I am grateful to God and pleased to have been born a fallen sinner and citizen of America where in freedom, I heard His Gospel, repented, believed and now, live out my days in peace with Him; serving and waiting for His Kingdom to come!
4 The nearness of God’s coming Kingdom should stir every Christian man’s heart to prepare. Bench sitting in these times will not do! Get stirred up reading the series the Lord led me to write in the summer of 2017 beginning July 30th, Restoring Men In The Two Minute Drill, under the categories Bible Prophecy and The Cause that concludes September 3rd and also serves as a great supplement to this post. Too, get my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, available in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
5 Again, the control and manipulation of mortal men and their worldly kingdoms which belong to him is a vitally strategic part of Satan’s war against God (Luke 4:5-8).
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!
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.
As the Lord leads, I launch the New Year with a word of sober prophetic warning to the churches and individuals making them up that claim connection to Jesus Christ of the Bible (Ezekiel 33:1-9). The warning is rooted in the last book of the Bible declared to be His “Revelation” in which He participates in the delivery and oversees the composition of its prophetic content that pronounces the reader and obedient hearer “blessed” (Revelation 1:1-3, NKJV). The Lord’s participation includes His own recorded words in glorious appearance to His chosen vessel and prophet, the apostle John, who is to write down and deliver the prophecy to seven churches in Asia (Revelation 1:4-20).
Before going any further, let me give the first part of the Lord’s warning to all of the churches that have entered this third decade of the 21st century and at breakneck speed, approach the second millennia anniversary of His death, burial, resurrection and ascension: He has not changed (Hebrews 13:8)! What He said to the churches in Asia at the end of the 1st century A.D., He stands by and says to all that exist at this hour and until the end. Those who by deceitful corruption of the Bible insist otherwise are deluding themselves and deceiving you that believe them! The Lord’s prophecy to the seven churches in Asia was for them, all others of the time and all that would exist after them.
The latter statement is consistent with the commentary of many biblically conservative interpreters that understand the apostle John in obedience to the Lord’s command was to deliver the entire “Revelation” to the literal seven named churches of Asia (Revelation 1:9-11, 19).1 Again, very importantly in the process the Lord’s specific messages to each one of those seven churches was to also speak to their contemporary sister churches and those of similar circumstance in the future. Some believe each church of the seven represented a season of the long epoch of Church history on earth thus far. However, this conclusion is not borne out by actual history.
Absolutely consistent with actual history though, the Bible and Revelation’s use of the number seven to indicate completeness (Genesis 2:1-3; Joshua 6:1-5; Luke 8:1-2), each of the seven churches in their conduct represent the continuing state of churches existing then together and at all times after until they are no more at an end prophetically and repeatedly alluded to by the Lord in His messages to them. As the Lord has had me declare in many previous posts, the approaching global end of local churches as open, corporate displays of Christianity regardless of form or authenticity comes from the world’s persecutions and His judgment.2
The foregoing is the reason I break here with the popular teaching that churches are not mentioned from Revelation 4 onward because Christians have been removed from the earth by “the rapture.” Actually, “the churches” are again mentioned in Revelation 22:16. Individual believers as “His servants” and “saints” on earth and in Heaven are spoken of throughout the prophecy while “the angels (messengers) of the seven churches” are uniquely addressed (Revelation 1:1, 20, 5:8-10, NKJV). Indeed, among the many common characteristics of the Lord’s messages to the churches in Revelation 2-3 are His repeated words, “He who has an ear...” spoken to individuals within them!
I will return to individuals as the ultimate target audience of the Lord even as He initially speaks to them in local churches momentarily. First though, the Lord would have me briefly speak more to the common characteristics of His messages to the seven churches of Asia. In what should certainly be the most alarming common characteristic of the Lord’s messages to the seven churches is the reality that He walked among them. This is how He knew their works as another commonality and knows ours too! An additional common characteristic is the Lord held the messengers of these churches in His right hand which suggests not only honor and responsibility, but also control.3
The Lord commended the good, but voiced what He had against the messengers and the seven churches they led as still another commonality; calling the guilty to repentance to avoid temporal punishment and eternal loss. Yet, this did not seem to have long alarmed guilty leaders and congregants or deter them from brazen disobedience to His Word and committing all manner of evil to this hour!4 In spite of the Lord’s command for all to “hear what the Spirit says to the churches,” their history is replete with the corrupt conduct He condemned. The seven churches of Asia passed from the scene as have countless others since and all are shortly about to. Even so, a remnant of Christians from among the two churches Christ commended has stood and will stand to the end!
1 See for example, Revelation by George Ladd, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1972, p 36.
2 Read the August 23, 2015 post, Babylon Is Falling, under the category, Bible Prophecy and Praise For The Lord God Almighty!, posted September 13, 2015 under the
category, Glory To God as samples. So much for “thriving religious enterprises of human pride, achievement and enduring legacy” I wrote is all the rage during these
latter days in the introduction of my December 8, 2019 repost, Restoring Men, under the category, The Cause!
3 Messengers clearly refer to the men called by Christ to shepherd and feed His sheep with His messages (John 21:15-17; Acts 20:26-28; 1 Peter 5:1-4). Therefore, no
pastor/teacher is to understand himself as the sovereign head over a local church and free to teach whatever is right in his own eyes. The Lord Jesus is and remains
forever, Lord, under whom a pastor and any elders serve and are held accountable by Him. The Lord has mercifully chosen for His purposes and our testing to be
longsuffering in the main during this mortal Church era (Luke 13:6-9; 2 Peter 3:9). It is because of this that guilty pastors doing what is right in their own eyes as if
there is no King or Chief Shepherd (Judges 17:6; Acts 20:29-30) have enjoyed extended stays and on their account such resulting ungodly confusion exists among
the churches (2 Peter 2:18-19). But there is a King and Christ is He! Without repentance, His eventual judgment is assured (Matthew 18:6-9) as He made clear to the
guilty messengers and churches of Asia. See my February 9, 2014 post, Is There No King Among Us?, under the category, Call To Repent.
4 As a contemporary example, since the 1960s many male pastors have followed the lead of Thyatira’s messenger to “allow” the rise of guilty women as Jezebels to
teach and take authority over His "servants" in His house in defiance of plain apostolic doctrine (1 Timothy 2:11-14; Revelation 2:20, NKJV). Read my May 27 and
June 3, 2018 two-part post, Feminism’s Entry Into The Churches, under the categories Call To Repent and God’s Creatures. At this hour too, United Methodists are
splitting over the issue of whether same sex relationships biblically condemned are to be tolerated among its members and leaders.
Seeing the images from Bible prophecy of faithful born again Christians, the saints of God Almighty in Heaven at the end of last week’s post was deeply encouraging to me and I hope you also if you are a fellow believer.1 They are victorious over the treachery and violence of the most evil man to ever walk the earth and all other haters! How God loves us and cares for our encouragement to present these images to us in advance over nineteen hundred years ago. Indeed, the images convey the tender love God has for all who believe in and follow Christ very powerfully displayed to His eleven disciples as He prepared to make His departure back to Heaven in the Gospel of John.
Under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, this episode I am permitted to title, “The Lord’s Long Goodbye,” begins at John 13:1, the apostle writing: “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end,” (NKJV). From that launch point, the final Passover meal and evening together with what began as His twelve apostles proceeded with Him washing their feet and identifying Judas Iscariot as His betrayer he left to fulfill. Alone fully grasping the moment’s significance, the Lord began to declare His and the Father’s glory in it (John 13:2-32)!
Then, the Lord makes a shocking announcement saying, “‘“Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, “‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’” so now I say to you,”’” (John 13:33, NKJV.) From here there is His “new commandment” (John 13:34-35, NKJV), instruction, dialogue with the disciples and prayer to the Father that ends His long goodbye at John 17:26. All of what is said during this time hangs on and is tied to the announcement of His impending departure which is my focus in this post. As such, speaking from the heart “Simon Peter said to Him,” ‘“Lord, where are You going,’” (John 13:36a, NKJV)?
Peter’s question had all of the astonishment, emotion, disappointment, fear of loss, change and the future we all have when confronted with the sudden news someone we care deeply about is leaving for whatever reason. The Lord already knows every one of the other ten men feel the same way as Peter and answers him: ‘“Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward,’” (John 13:36b, NKJV).2 Not satisfied, Peter in all sincerity is insistent. He wants to know “why” he cannot “follow” Him “now” and asserts his willingness to die for the Lord which He rebukes; revealing Peter will in fact “deny” Him “three times” before sunrise (John 13:37-38, NKJV).
With great empathy the Lord Jesus begins to comfort the hearts of His eleven that have become deeply saddened by the announcement of His departure. First, He encourages their faith in Him to be on par with their faith in God the Father (John 14:1). Second, He assures, “In my Father’s house are many mansions” or rooms and He goes “to prepare a place for” them (John 14:2, NKJV). Preparing a place has to do with paving the way and readying the rooms where they will live with Him in the “heavenly Jerusalem” though, final fulfillment awaits the New Jerusalem constructed in Heaven and brought down on “a new earth” by God (Hebrews 12:18-24, 13:14; Revelation 21, NKJV).
Final future fulfillment in the New Jerusalem is made all the more sure by what the Lord says in John 14:3a. If He is going to go to the trouble to prepare a place for His disciples, He will “come again and receive” them to Himself (NKJV). What they did not grasp at the time was that the Lord’s departure and return had two parts. His departure from them initially would be by way of death near to being carried out by crucifixion, but He would return on the third day after through resurrection in God’s plan for their eternal redemption (John 14:15-18, 16:16-22)!3 After this initial brief, but all important departure and following instructions He gives making plain why they could not go with Him, the Lord would ascend to Heaven and the Father before their eyes then, come again (Acts 1:4-11).
Third and last, telling about the Lord’s love for His disciples in His long goodbye are the words, “that where I am, there you may be also,” (John 14:3b, NKJV). This is clearly very important to Him for He petitions His Father for the disciples’ union as and with Their Own plus reunion with Him (John 17:20-24). As He taught, His disciples knew where He was going and the way and were enabled to follow Him to the Father (John 14:4-6).4 Once more, this was so they could be with Him there and wherever He was to be thereafter; never to be separated again! This is why in His coming again to earth He brings with Him the spirits of His disciples to resurrect and gather them with the living to Himself as His first priority act (Matthew 24:29-31; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 19:9-16).5
1 Read the October 23, 2022 post, Revenge Of Those Without God’s Mark, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
2 With this statement, the Lord assures He was only leading out first. His eleven would follow after Him to where He was going at a later time as millions have done until now, through death!
3 The Lord’s resurrection after securing the eternal redemption of His followers made possible the reality of Him, the Father and Holy Spirit taking up residence in them so that even though physically He would return to Heaven, He could still be with them as He explained (John 14:19-24). Later, the apostle Paul celebrates being used of God to re- veal “the riches of the glory of this mystery…which is Christ in” us who believe, “the hope of glory,” (Colossians 1:24-27, NKJV).
4 This truth taught by the Lord is why no aspiring strong man or great woman of God in His image is found among the religious seeking to connect to the Father through any manmade religious means! As the Lord leads I write about essential relationship with Him in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. Get it along with the com- panion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study for the equipping of the saints in the home and churches in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
5 The Second Coming of Christ for the saints then, is not about rescue from tribulation as much as it is the union of Christ with His bride and their final reunion as eternally living, glorified immortals (1 Corinthians 15:20-23, 50-57)!
Having just spent time giving serious thanks to God for all of His blessings this Thanksgiving, the Lord again directs my attention to the persecution being suffered by my Christian brethren among many nations. Though I do not write a lot about the ongoing persecution of Christians, I stay regularly informed and prayerful for all. The aforementioned “all” includes not just the suffering faces of those in faraway lands such as North Korea and Nigeria, but increasingly, those enduring persecution in this Western hemisphere and our own nation. Truly, growing hostility toward and persecution of Bible believing Christians in America is a reality that can no longer be dismissed as only isolated.
As a supporter of similarly named, but organizationally unrelated Open Doors USA, our Ministry regularly receives their reports on what is happening among our persecuted Christian brethren around the world.1 Not only are our brethren suffering from family and community exclusion within the nations they live, but government harassment, arrests, unfair trials, incarceration, legally sanctioned mob violence and martyrdom. When the Christian men are targeted for incarceration or murder, it leaves their families to suffer. While Communist and Islamic run nations fill the list of persecutors, nations such as Christian Eritrea, Hindu India and Buddhist Bhutan are also prominent.2
It is about to get really real for those of us that profess to be Christians in America too. Intensifying opposition to the biblical faith once on the fringe of American society is going mainstream. Moral tenets of the faith once taken for granted as absolute and bedrock to American society are not only being challenged, but cast down as no longer acceptable. These are not just tenets governing marriage and family for example, but definitions of objective truth, right and wrong, good and evil as well as justice and injustice. In the wake of this swiftly moving river of moral upheaval, Christians that would dare stand firm for the moral tenets of our faith are suffering varying degrees of persecution.
Besides the “in-your-face” government policies and litigations to remove crosses and nativity scenes as public displays of Christianity to implement falsely believed constitutionally mandated church and state separation, some Christians have suffered being demoted or fired from employment because they had Bibles at their work stations or read them on breaks. And because many secular entities have a “corporate culture” now, that does not tolerate religious expression (though, they publicly trumpet “inclusion” and “diversity” as values), being hired a Christian with a social media presence may be very difficult and once hired, witnessing Christ to co-workers is out.3
American secular colleges and universities that have historically celebrated tolerating various viewpoints as a means in the process of vigorous, but polite debate to sharpen the thinking of young minds have in too many instances today, hung out the “not welcome” sign to a biblical worldview. Biblically conservative Christian students are routinely singled out and held up to ridicule for their faith. Christian professors do not escape either.4 The secular media regularly ignores and mocks Christians that hold to a biblical worldview being quick only to report on high profile “Televangelists” and “Megachurch Pastors” whose sins come to light, while social media giants resist them.5
As I have also commented in other posts, a number of American Christians have been purposely targeted and martyred in mass shootings such as the one at Columbine High School in 1999 along with churches as occurred in Charleston, SC in 2015 and Sutherland Springs, TX in 2017.6 In agreement with all other observers here, none of what American Christians have suffered to date compares with the daily egregious and violent persecution our overseas brethren endure--yet! Praying for “the persecuted church” like it is some disconnected entity that exists only in non-exceptional, often impoverished nations of the world is about to change as persecutors intensify their efforts in America.7 And why? It is their “hour and the power of darkness,” (Luke 22:52-53, NKJV).
For this reason, beyond seeking to sensitize us to the ongoing suffering of our brethren wherever they are as a primary reason for this post, exhorting faithful American Christians to spiritually, mentally and emotionally prepare for the kind of hatred fed persecution our overseas brethren experience is an important secondary reason since our Lord has warned it is to occur in “all nations,” (Matthew 10:16-39, 24:9, NKJV).8 Now, is the time to awake from arrogance and apathy to get ready for what our Lord foretells and assures will take place. Among the equipping resources available is my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics and related group studies.9 The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 The organizational parent of Strong Man Ministries is Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. I was led by the Lord to found August 12, 1985. Read some of the
stories of persecuted Christians among the many countries on the 2020 World Watch List of Open Doors USA.
2 What many of our brethren overseas “normally” suffer from their persecutors has been intensified during the Lord’s Coronavirus judgment. As we are banding together
with other Christians to help and encourage one another here at home, the Lord would have us remember our suffering persecuted brethren in those faraway lands
with tangible support as well (1 John 3:16-18).
3 Sadly, our military as a work place is no exception. Read about the case of Chaplain Curt Cizek.
4 To learn more about the experience of Christians on American campuses read the following ACLJ, Beliefnet and IsChristianityTrue articles.
5 I can attest to the heavy-handed resistance of Facebook to biblically conservative ministries such as this one among the social media giants. “Likes” to our pages by
Christians mysteriously dwindle after I write blogs or make posts on their platform that are not politically correct, tolerant etc. which the Lord has had me call them on.
They want me to believe that just making better posts and spending more money to “boost” them will remedy the situation though, such has not been the case since
they also limit the reach of the same. For the record, I do understand a to be expected number of professed Christians that formerly liked our Facebook pages are sub-
ject to “unlike” them at any time as a show of disagreement with me. I get that, but not what Facebook is doing which lately has even taken away page likes whenever
someone has liked a post! I urge Christians that have liked our pages and those of other ministries to check back periodically especially if you have not received a post
in your newsfeeds for a time and re-like the pages if necessary. Also, enlist other Christians on Facebook to like our pages after you have done so.
6 Read for example, the June 8, 2014 post, And Then There Is The War, under the category, instruction. Revisit the cited respective church shootings at the following
links Charleston, SC and Sutherland Springs, TX.
7 See the November 12, 2017 post, God’s Throwaways?, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
8 Read the two-part post beginning May 17, 2020, Persecution, Hatred And Betrayal, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
9 A print copy or digital download of the book published by the Publishing Division of Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. with fresh editing in 2019 for greater clari-
ty and updated web addresses in the footnotes is available at major internet booksellers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBooks.com and Apple (digital only).
You can also purchase a print copy in the Strong Man Store. Too, leaders can teach, disciple and equip through The Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and The
Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study also in the Strong Man Store.
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