Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and
worse, deceiving, and being deceived. 2 Tim. 3:12-13
I grew up in a church that
believed that the LORD would Rapture the Church before the Great
Tribulation. Over the years, I examined
this teaching and have come to this conclusion that the LORD has never removed
His people out of tribulation. The Early
Church went through a period of persecution where it is estimated that 7 million
Christians die in the Arena of Rome. In the 20th Century more than 45 million
Christians died for being a Christian.
Today every 5 minutes a Christian is killed.
The number of Christians killed
every year for their faith is about 105,000. And these are only those who were
put to death because they were Christians. It does not include those killed as
victims of the war going on in the Middle-East.
So, what makes the American Christian think that the LORD will spare us? And who is to say we are not already in the
Great Tribulation and have been for years?
This got me to thinking, are we
prepared for a major persecution of our faith?
Are we prepared if our country becomes a war zone like most of the world? How will you handle all the people that will
show up at your door when a major crisis strikes because they haven’t been
making any preparations of their own?
I am reminded the story Jesus
told about God’s kingdom. He said it
will be like ten girls who were waiting for the bridegroom. They took their
lamps with them. Five of the girls were foolish, and five were wise. The foolish girls took their lamps with them,
but they did not take extra oil for the lamps.
The wise girls took their lamps and more oil in jars. When the bridegroom was very late, the girls
could not keep their eyes open, and they all fell asleep. At midnight someone
announced, ‘The bridegroom is coming! Come and meet him!’ All the girls woke up and made their lamps
ready, but the foolish girls said to the wise girls, ‘Give us some of your oil,
the oil in our lamps is all gone.’ The wise girls answered, ‘No! The oil we
have might not be enough for all of us. But go to those who sell oil and buy
some for yourselves. So, the foolish girls went to buy oil. While they were
gone, the bridegroom came. The girls who were ready went in with the bridegroom
to the wedding feast. Then the door was closed and locked. Later, the other
girls came and said, ‘Sir, sir! Open the door to let us in, but the bridegroom
answered, ‘Certainly not! I don’t even know you.’ So always be ready. You don’t
know the day or the time when the Son of Man will come.
So, let me ask again, when
disaster comes to America how will we react?
Will you be like the five wise girls who would not share what they
had? Jesus was telling them to prepare
for the time when the Bridegroom delays his coming. This story could be taken just as a
spiritual warning to have the Holy Spirit in our lives or it could be a warning
to prepare for the time when material needs are hard to come by. Is he saying, we need to work extra hard to
prepare because there will be people that need to depend on us when times get
hard. And turning away those that are in
desperate need would go against everything that we stand for as,
Christians. Is a Christian turning
people away the true meaning of love? It would be quite hypocritical of us to
turn away those that we care about when they need us the most.
I was in a Sunday School class
where they were discussing witnessing to people about their spiritual condition
and what should we do if they refused and how often should we continue to be
concerned for them? One response was
they were told now it is their problem.
I certainly understand the frustrations of those that have been trying
to warn family and friends about what is coming for years and they never seem
to listen.
Unfortunately, we need to realize
that there is a tremendous amount of deception going on out there these days
about how the LORD is going to spare us and take us out of a time of
tribulation. Some of the deceptions that
are currently circulating are very strong, and it can be very easy to be sucked
into them. So, we need to have
compassion for those that have been led into confusion.
There are thousands of watchmen
standing on the wall all across this country never wavering from warning
America about what is coming even for a moment.
That is because they are standing on the truth and not on wishful
thinking that is the product of overactive imaginations.
The ingredients for the “perfect
storm” that so many watchmen have been warning about for ages are starting to
come together right before our eyes. We
are closer to the end than we have been in decades, our politicians are openly
admitting that our relations with the Middle-East are at “an all-time low”, the
federal government is 20 trillion dollars in debt, our nation is on the verge
of being torn apart by strife and civil unrest, the financial markets are
primed for a crash of epic proportions, and natural disasters are happening
with frightening regularity as the crust of our planet rattles and shakes.
But we are somehow supposed to
believe that “everything is going to be wonderful” even though we continue to
murder babies, just about every form of sexual immorality that were in the Days
of Noah, and Sodom and Gomorrah that you can possibly imagine is exploding all
around us, our “entertainment” industry is an open sewer, and we lead the world
in both legal and illegal drug use.
America is headed for a date with disaster,
and those that are suggesting that you will be Raptured out of the coming
troubles are not being honest with you. If I am wrong then you have nothing to worry
about, if I am right you have much to be concerned about.
