Spiraling into Apocalypse
"And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars, see that you are not Troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these things are the beginning of sorrows." Mat 24:6-8
June 30, 2008: Here are a series of headlines from various internet websites this morning:
- Record: oil passes $143 per barrel…
- Oil prices rise for 3rd day in a row…
- Opec leader says $170 per barrel in next 6 months…
- Israel has 1 year to destroy Iran’s nuclear program…
- Iran ready to strike Israel’s atomic plant…Shahab 3B missiles moved within range…
- Iran to ready thousands of graves for enemy soldiers….
- Israeli authorities warn hospitals to prepare for earthquake…
- California firefighters battle more than 1,400 blazes….
- Mid-western floods to boost world food prices for years?….
- Presbyterians move to allow gay clergy…
- San Francisco: Homosexuals revel in marriage rights…
- Sex OK at 9, says Saudi cleric, ‘Muhammad is the model we follow. He took ‘Aisha to be his wife at 6’.
Do you get the feeling that we are on a runaway train? That history is moving toward a global meltdown? If so, you just may be right. There is a madness spreading throughout the world. And this madness is the consequence of society’s all out rebellion against the God of the Bible.
In the days of the prophet Jeremiah, God said to him (Jer 25:15-16), "Take this wine cup of fury from My hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it. And they will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them." God’s cup of fury is filling up again!
This present world has chosen to defy the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, the Lord Jesus Christ (Col 1:15-18). The resulting conflict will envelope the entire world. Again the prophet Jeremiah (Jer 25:30-32)…
"The Lord will roar from on high, and utter His voice from His holy habitation; He will roar mightily against His fold. He will give a shout, as those who tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise will come to the ends of the earth – for the Lord has a controversy with the nations; He will plead His case with all flesh. He will give those who are wicked to the sword, ‘says the Lord’… Behold, disaster shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the farthest parts of the earth."
The central focus of this great controversy is the tiny land of Israel. Surrounded by enemies, forsaken for the most part by the world, Israel will go through the refining fires of God’s discipline, yet she will turn to Him in the end, and be delivered. "For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, by his God, the Lord of hosts, though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel." (Jer 51:5) The "Holy One of Israel" is none other than Jesus Christ Himself. It is His birth, death, and resurrection alone that causes us to designate Israel as "the holy land". It is He who sanctified this earth and that land by choosing to walk among us as a man. Yet "In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Col 2:9), and it is He who wields the sword of judgment over this earth.
As we observe daily the world reeling and staggering in the drunkenness of self-abandonment and denial of our Lord, we do well to consider our own self-centered and self-indulgent lifestyles. This is a time for every soul to "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near…Let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." (Isa 55:6-7).
Those of us who know Christ personally, and who are "looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and savior Jesus Christ" (Tit 2:13), are all the more accountable to be warning those around us to turn to our Lord in faith. However, our message will carry little weight if our faith is not confirmed by our daily lives. This is not a time for fear, but a time for life-transforming faith as we "sanctify the Lord God in (our) hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear." (1Pe 3:15). One thing we can be sure of, no one will ask us to explain our hope if they cannot see it in our lifestyle!
As the fabric of this world continues to unravel, let us rest in Him who holds our destiny in His hands. Those who go into the growing darkness with the light of Christ will be a beacon to draw men out of the gloom of a world gone mad into the embrace of the love of God, "Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth…For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." (1Ti 2:4-6).
Stand Firm!