Friends, as I write this
today, we are less than three months away from a Presidential election that
seems to be the most important election in the modern history of the United
States and will not only effect our nation but also the entire world.
No matter the outcome, I believe that the upheaval that all of us have felt since March of this year because of the Coronavirus and all the lawlessness that is happening in our cities all across our nation will only grow and increase.
We look with expectancy for an end of all this chaos and a return to “normal” but I hold out little hope for it.
My conviction is that there is something that will happen or maybe a series of things that will happen that will render the United States powerless and anemic to have any influence in the affairs of the world.
Russia, Iran and Turkey as well as other nations are poised to fulfill prophecy found In Ezekiel 38 and 39 and the only thing stopping them is the United States strong support for the nation of Israel. I remind you friends, that the United States is not in any prophetic verses of the Bible. This is strange given that this nation is at this time the strongest in the world. This is the basis for my belief that something will happen to our nation that takes us out of the game, so to speak.
Ezekiel 38 and 39 name these nations specifically, (using their Old Testament names) that will rise up to invade Israel to take its prosperity away from them. They are already waiting at Israel’s borders.
If you have studied these chapters, you know that God Himself will intervene and will protect Israel and that will open up the door, as the world looks on, for a man to come forward with seemingly all the answers to the chaos and calamity that will ensue after these nations are divinely destroyed. The whole world will look to this man.
This man, the Scriptures tell us will appear to the world looking like a savior for the world, but in reality is a man of deceit and destruction. The world will follow him. He is the Antichrist! (instead of Christ)
But friends, brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, I do not believe that is our future.
Before this man can be revealed, the Word of God tells us that the one who is restraining will be removed. That restrainer is the Holy Spirit who lives inside every born-again believer across the world today. The church will be removed before this man is revealed. Please read carefully what the Apostle Paul under the direction of the Holy Spirit wrote to us in 2 Thessalonians 2.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-8(1) Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you,(2) not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.(3) Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,(4) who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.(5) Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?(6) And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.(7) For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.(8) And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
My friends if this is so? How close are we to the rapture of the church? How close are we to meeting Jesus in the air as described in 1 Thessalonians 4?
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17(16) For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.(17) Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
Are you ready? Are you watching? Are you looking up?
It is my calling to keep you focused on one thing in the midst of all this chaos. That one thing is the return of the King and the setting up of His Kingdom!
As much as we care about this nation, (and we should) we as Christians must realize that our citizenship is not really a worldly one. Jesus told Pilate that He was a king but His kingdom was not of this world.
The Lord has blessed this country and we are very comfortable here, But we must keep our eyes focused upon the reality of our king’s return and the subsequent setting up of a kingdom that will go on for all eternity.
My friends, look up for your redemption draws near and the King is returning!
Thank you Pastor Dan for always reminding us of the time we are living in and to be ready for our Lord and Savior.
ReplyDelete