What will you hear?

Is this it? Are we looking at the fall of America, or maybe even all of free civilization as we know it? And what about us Christians? Are arrests and persecution to be expected in the near future?

The answer: I don’t know. And neither does anyone else limited within the confines of flesh and blood.

But please hear this; the answer could possibly be, yes!

No, I’m not a prophet and make no claims to be. But I do know what the Word of God says, and it’s very clear on the subject. Economic disaster, war, pestilence, famine, and persecution are coming. You can bank on it.

And just because scores of false prophets have repeatedly assigned days and times to these events, and been proven wrong, makes the facts no less true. In fact, such erroneous predictions are likely part of Satan’s great plan.

“Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”

Another prediction, this time made by the Apostle Peter. Here he foresees the very mood of complacency that surrounds us today. Much of this mood had arisen because so very many “prophets” have cried wolf. Sadly, such deception has only served to lull the populous to sleep before the actual event takes place.

What a score for the enemy of our souls.

Look around you. The economies of the entire world are balancing on a dangerous precipice with the American financial system arguably in the deepest peril.

Here’s why.

Most everyone knows that the American dollar is the world reserve currency. Oil and most other commodities are traded in dollars worldwide. Now, without becoming overly boring and technical, let me just say that if the dollar loses its lofty position, the economic impact on America would be devastating. Fuel prices would skyrocket. Food and commodities would quickly follow. Simply stated, considering the extremely vulnerable condition of the current American economy, it is very doubtful that the country could recover from such a devastating blow.

Yes, the whole of the world economies are in shambles, but in light of the big picture, none is in more direct and immediate peril than America. There is simply no way that we can recover from the insurmountable debt that has been piled upon us. In addition, a huge and growing number of our population (legal and illegal) have found refuge in handouts from the government, thereby offering nothing to the country or economy while living life as a vacuum cleaner sucking the life out of the land. We simply cannot sustain this as a nation.

Now to the point.

What will you hear in church Sunday? What will be the message of the day?

Will you be challenged to prepare your family for the coming time of trouble? Will your preacher urge the men to take charge of their families and teach, train, direct, and protect them? Will there be a call for women to get behind their man and support in order to make the most effective team to face the eminent challenges?

Will you even hear the word repent?

What about sin? Will it be mentioned? And if so, how? Maybe as an empty word with vague implications that really doesn’t point to anything in particular? Or, rather as the point of a sword made to pierce the dross of ungodliness from your life?

Will couples in the congregation who are shacking up feel the fire of conviction emanating from the Holy Spirit anointed, preached Word? What about those in adulterous relationships? Or thieves? Will hands unconsciously move to cover the worldliness of tattoos and piercings? Such body marrings that children of God should find revolting.

The list could go on and on but the question begs to be answered: will your preacher challenge you to live more holy, prepare for the coming persecution, and draw near to the true and living God? Will he preach against sin and stand for holiness? Will you leave that place anxious to prepare your family for the days ahead? Will he challenge you at all?

Will he?

Or will the message simply ease you into a deeper level of complacency? After all, what have you got to be concerned about? We’re all going to be raptured out of here before anything really bad happens anyway, right?

So thought our overseas brothers in the 1930s. Europe: a continent that overflowed with the Word of God and dynamic preachers. A land immersed in the power of the Living God. From her came men like: Charles Wesley and Charles Spurgeon. Mighty men of God who preached truth and moved nations.

But then the bombs fell. Next came the tanks. Religious and Christian people by the millions searched the sky for the “promise” of the pre-trib rapture. But alas, it didn’t come. Scores huddled behind the razor wire of concentration camps. But still the much sought after rapture eluded them.

Mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers died as a result of war, starvation, gas chambers, and flesh eating furnaces. Still, the eastern skies stayed intact.

Why?

Quite frankly; because it’s not biblical. Nowhere did Scripture say or even elude that prior to WWII the Lord would return and snatch His people away, and he didn’t.

Nowhere does Scripture state or elude that prior to the persecution of the last day, the Lord will return and snatch us away. Please hear me; it simply doesn’t say anything of the sort.

Look for yourself. Close all your books about the rapture, box up your well-worn copies of Left Behind, cleans your mind of all you’ve been taught and told, and study for yourself. You will be surprised at just now non-threatening is the subject and how clear is the teaching.

Soon I will post some simple and concise articles concerning the rapture but that is for another day.

My concern today is to encourage people to rise up and demand truth in their churches.

I ask again; what will you hear in church Sunday?

That God will bless you? How to live your best life now? How the Lord will save your family? Or how to get the most for your prayers?

If you’re Pentecostal you might hear about walking in the Spirit, moving in the Spiritual gifts, or taking authority over the devil. The Baptist preacher might urge his people to witness more and the Presbyterian will ease the minds of his congregation with the idea that it was all predestined anyway.

Understand this please; it is possible to preach truth but at the wrong time. In that event it isn’t relevant truth and therefore it is error.

Consider this. What do you thing was being preached just prior to the sacking of Jerusalem in 70 AD? Prosperity and peace? How God swept up Elijah in a whirlwind? Or maybe the story of the walls of Jericho? Do you think that classes were brimming with kids hearing the story of Noah and the Ark?

In some groups possibly but in those cases the coming devastation certainly caught them unaware. I assure you, anywhere that men and woman had been seeking the face of the Living God, there was a cry of warning and a call to preparation. There was something far more pressing on the hearts of the genuine preachers of the Gospel. God’s city was about to fall. Persecution would soon ravage the Christian community in a way beyond anything they’d ever seen before.

And just like those thousands of years ago, the Lord always raises up men-of-God through whom He warns his people.

In those days the true preachers proclaimed repentance, sacrifice, holiness, preparation, and trusting God. In fact, even decades before that, the message of John the Baptist, Jesus, the disciples, and the apostles was all the same: repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. Matt 4:17

Isn’t it amazing that repentance was the immutable message of that day but today, while the church wallows in the in the ravages of sin, repentance is seldom if ever mentioned?

I’m not talking about beating the sheep. Nothing could be further from my mind. Rather my heart is to challenge church-goers to become Children of the King.

Here’s the facts: economic collapse is coming, persecution will be hot on it’s heals. The end-of-the-age is upon us.

We must not fear but we must make preparation!

Here’s some questions for every Man of God to ask himself: How is my Spiritual condition? What about my family’s walk with the Lord? How will I feed my family when the food supply is disrupted? How will I protect my family when persecution arises? Where will we go?

Something more for you to ponder. God will work powerfully to lead and protect your family, mostly through you. The Lord will show things beyond your wildest dreams; the majority will come through you. The Spirit will teach, guide, and lead, your family in a closeness that we can only imagine, and you will be His primary instrument.

So men, while you’re sitting in church Sunday ponder this; what is this man preaching? Is it relevant to the day and time in which we live? Am I challenged to live holy, prepare for the coming day, and lead my family?

If not, then you need to shake off your misplaced feelings of loyalty and get your family to a church that is in tune with the Spirit of Truth.

And remember this one and all; There is nothing to fear! The Lord will be our help! Dan. 11:35

^{Eph. 1:}

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

⁴According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

⁵Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

⁶To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

⁷In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

⁸Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;

⁹Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:

¹⁰That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:

¹¹In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

¹²That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

¹³In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

¹⁴Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Lessons from Noah

“But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son
of man be.” Matt. 24:37.

Every Bible student understands the plain and simple message of that text. In it the Word of God opens to us insight into the coming condition of the  earth and mankind prior to His return. But I think there’s more that we can  glean from the story of Noah. 

Much like today, the world was facing a climactic culmination of world events. God’s judgment was about to be unleashed. Man was about to pay for his actions, the hammer was poised to fall so to speak. In the midst of all of the rampant evil there remained the righteous, few though they were. What would God do to preserve and protect His people? 

Thankfully, for the sake of the future of mankind, Noah didn’t think as many modern Christian who say; “I will just trust God and He will provide and protect.” Or worse yet; “I don’t have to worry about it because we will all be raptured out of here before any of the real bad stuff happens anyway.” 

Here’s the question: why didn’t God just pluck Noah and his family out of town and plant them into some supernaturally protected oasis until the flood had subsided? Or float them on a cloud and feed them manna from heaven until he could replant them on earth and allow them to resume their lives?

Instead Noah spent 150 years of HARD LABOR and INTENSE PREPARATION for a day he probably couldn’t even picture in his mind. All he had to go on was a warning.

 A flood? Over the whole earth? Right!

 He got up every day and roused his lazy good for nothing sons out of bed (okay, I’m ad-libbing a bit) and went to work. And keep in mind; he didn’t have a Stihl chain saw, a Dewalt cordless drill, or even a Coleman generator. He had very primitive tools and a century and a half of back-breaking labor in order to prepare his family. It almost seems cruel that God would put him through all of that when it would have taken barely a thought to have saved Noah the trouble.

Why did God choose to make it so hard? Why didn’t he just wave a hand and allow ole Noah and family to soak up sunshine on a gorgeous Caribbean beach while He erased evil off of the earth? I don’t know. That will be a great question to ask once we meet our Savior face to face. Of course, when I think of the glory of heaven, I don’t think we’ll care at that time. 

Now, back to us. What can we glean from the story of Noah? A few tidbits.

God came to Noah. He didn’t go to Sister Noah. He didn’t go to the sons, or even the in-laws. He came to the man. The patriarch. In fact, there is no indication from Scripture that Mrs. Noah had anything at all to go on other than her faith in HER HUSBAND. It seems she was not privy to the popular teaching that if God calls the husband he will also call the wife. Such was not the case with: Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, etc…

Here’s the thing guys; God’s not going to give the warning to your wife or kids. It won’t be the woman of the house that lays awake at night and ponders how to build a cabin from scratch, put together an emergency first aid kit, or how to make a diesel replacement fuel out of coal dust. She likely won’t care about how many guns are in the house, how to sharpen a knife to a hairsplitting edge, or how deep to dig a root cellar.

It’s the men who He blessed with the rugged survival instinct and it’s the man who will be the one to “build the ark” and save his family in the coming days of trial. Am I saying that the wife has no place in the whole scheme of things? Of course not. She is as vitally important as the man but designed for a different purpose. It’s quite simple and hasn’t changed since the days of Adam and Eve: the man LEADS the woman HELPS.

Imagine we are sending our US military into a combat situation. Every man is trained to the hilt, equipped with the best that technology has to offer, and in tip top physical shape. He’s ready for battle. Right beside him are all the supply personnel, construction workers, cooks, and communications experts. As battle begins, all of these support personnel take up arms and join in on the skirmish leaving the behind the scenes roles unmanned. How long do you think it would take for all of the training, technology, and physical conditioning to become useless? The answer is: in a real life war scenario it would likely be no more than hours, maybe even minutes.

So, are the front line soldiers more important or vital to the mission than the support personnel? The answer is obvious. They are no more or less important. What is vital though is that they stay on mission. Women support, help, aid. Men lead, protect, guide.

Now, back to Noah. We know that HE was called and instructed. We also know that Mrs. Noah followed and supported. But there is something else we can’t afford to miss. It was Noah’s obedience to God and reaction to the warning that saved, not only he and his wife, but his sons and his daughters-in-law. The weight of facing the coming calamity rested primarily on Noah’s shoulders and it was his effort to guide his family to safety that saved them all.

I am not a shipbuilder but I have read reports from experts that claim that the ark would have never been seaworthy. It was too long for such a wood structure and would have broken in half. They also claim that it would have leaked and sank because the pitch would not have made a sufficient sealant.

Now I have found over the years that the word of “experts” is often the one to be the most leery of but, for the sake of argument, let’s say that these claims are true. If so, I am even more encouraged. It tells me that if I do the best I can with what I have and obey God, He will make up the difference! What a great reality. I may forget something or not have enough time or money to fully prepare for what’s coming but even so, God is able and willing to bridge the gap.

One last point I want to bring out. In Genesis 6:21 the Word of God says: ^“And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.” The point? God told them to store up food, to prepare, to plan for survival in the face of the coming judgment. Just as he’s telling us and so many others.

What happens if you prepare and store up and, in the end, nothing significant happens?

On the other hand, what if you don’t prepare, and calamity falls?