I am taking this time
to do some rambling. I know there will
be those who disagree with me and that is alright. If my opinions are wrong, then there is
nothing to worry about. However, if I am
right there is much to worry about and what happens to you both physically and
spiritually will be devastating. Just give this some thought and prepare
yourself spiritually for the coming events.
As we have entered the season of remembering the birth of
Christ we look back to the past on that night in Bethlehem in a manger where
Christ was born. Yet, there is a more
significant event that we should be looking to celebrate, and that is the
coming of Jesus Christ KING of Kings and LORD of Lord.
Every Christmas season Laverna will watch several Christmas
movies. Some may be musicals, but most are stories with a touchy-feely
Christmas theme. They were warm, entertaining, and usually try to communicate a
moral or positive message about hope, giving, and loving one another. But
generally, they never come close to describing the true faith of Christmas as
it is found in the coming of Jesus Christ according to the facts of Scripture.
As stated by the Apostle, they were without real hope. The world was looking for hope when Jesus
came as the baby in the manger. Today
the world is watching again for someone to bring hope. Someone who can stop the evil that has
infected mankind. The days are filled
with evil and violence and getting worse every day.
Our church just completed a study in the book of
Revelation. One of the lessons I have
learned from this study is the realities in which we need to prepare for the
coming persecution of Christians. In the
day we are living where everyone is easily offended, I wonder how Christians
will be able to survive the coming persecution when the personal trials and
tribulation we face as the regular part of daily life are so devastating to
many so-called Christians?
I would like to preach and teach more about the coming events
of the end times, but Christians today can't even survive the regular daily
trials without falling apart. A
prolific biblical point is that followers of Christ will face trials and
tribulations on a regular basis. The fact of the Christian facing trials is not
a matter of “if,” but a matter of “when.” We see this repeatedly in passages
like 1 Peter 4:12:
Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you
are suffering, as though something strange was happening to you. – 1 Peter 4:12
Unfortunately, the health and wealth brands of Christianity
has deceived most American Christians into thinking following Christ is just a
bed of roses. There will be challenges to the faith, and as American
Christians, we don’t know this; and, American pastors aren’t telling us
anything different. So, we are sheep headed to the slaughter. Right now, 42
million professed Christians in America have given up on their faith, and most
of which did so when faced with a severe trial. American Christians must be
prepared to face real difficulties of faith.
The Christian persecution seen on the news in the Middle East
is a normal part of following Christ.
Christians should expect difficulty. Scripture even goes as
far as to teach that we should expect persecution. Listen to what Jesus said in
Matthew 10:22-23:
All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm
to the end will be saved. When you are persecuted… – Matthew 10:22–23
Did you catch it said “when” you are persecuted? America has
been an anomaly compared to Christian history and most of the world today.
Persecution is the default response from the world to Christians. So, as
stories of Christian persecution in the Middle East, Northern Africa, and North
Korea shock us in America, we must realize that is the norm. We also need to
know that we are called to remain faithful when faced with persecution.
American Christians need to know that God has called us to be martyrs and not
to deny our faith. And unfortunately, we must understand this because at some
point towards the end-times there will be universal persecution. If America is
around at that point, then one can guarantee Christians in America will be
persecuted.
The United States will not exist as a world superpower
forever. I know, you believe I am
wearing my tin-foil hat. Contrary to
what is often said, we are given many precise details of the end-of-this-age.
In those details, we can know the nations involved in the empire of the
Leopard, Bear, and Lion. Even within the aspects that are debated, it’s clear
that America is at best diminished in power before the empire of the Leopard,
Bear, and Lion rises to power. And if
we’re struggling to remain faithful now in America, we’ll fare even worse in
the face of national calamity. We need to prepare to stay faithful when life is
difficult.
Now, I don’t pretend to know a time-frame for this. However, the Bible is accurate in giving us
the signs of the end time. The American
Church as we know it will change. Right
now, there are over 300,000 Protestant churches in America. Just do the
division (300,000 divided by 50 states), and that's an average of 6,000
churches per state.
This reality that we need to prepare to face goes together
with the previous reality. If America faces tribulation and changes so will
churches in America. But I believe church as we know it can change far before
that point.
What will happen when there is no one willing to serve as
pastor?
• At any given time,
75% of pastors in America want to quit.
• More than 2000
pastors are leaving the ministry each month.
That is 24,000 each year.
What will happen when churches close because of a lack of
support? The support of the church is based on giving. There is a push to eliminate charitable
contribution as a tax deduction. When tax exemptions are removed, donors will
give far less than they are giving now. Churches will become liable to property
taxes. That means that many churches will have to forfeit their property to the
government because they won’t be able afford the taxes. Many of them wouldn’t
be able to pay them now. If donations went down, they would be that much
further from being able to pay them. As a result, churches that reside on
valuable properties in urban locations would be immediately vulnerable.
Eventually, so would everyone else.
What will happen when Christians are reporting other
Christians for "Hate Crimes"?
Hate Crime laws aim to impose on the nation a relativistic, amoral and
necessarily anti-Christian worldview, opposed not only to Biblical teachings
but also to natural law as perceived by human reason. This anti-Christian
worldview is ideological and provides the philosophical rationale for the
antichristian.
Hate Crimes include being prejudice. Defined “prejudice” to
include the “bigoted thoughts” of religious organizations. If a church teaches same-sex marriage is
wrong, it becomes bigotry! If you speak
against the sinful actions of a person, it becomes a “hate incident” as
“harmful words or actions” motivated by “prejudice,” which specifically
includes “religious beliefs.” In other
words, if you have moral principles based on your religious faith you are
prejudiced!
Again, if we are
struggling to remain faithful in such times of blessings how will we stay
faithful when times are difficult? Whether that is the way in which things for
the church will change who knows? And at that, the loss of giving is probably
the least of what could happen to the American church.
I know that there are those who do not care about what could
happen because they believe they will not be here when evil become rampant.
Mainly they think there will be a rapture before the seven years of
tribulation. A recent Newsweek poll
found that 55 percent of Americans believe the Rapture is real, and a Pew
Research Center survey revealed that 27 percent of U.S. Christians believe a
related event, Jesus' return to earth, will "definitely" happen by
2050.
Six in 10 evangelical leaders, or 61 percent, say they
believe in the Rapture of the Church compared to 32 percent who say the End
Times doesn't happen exactly this way, according to the Pew Forum on Religion
and Public Life survey.
But we need to
consider that the rapture might not happen at all before the so called 7 year tribulation.
• Christians
currently face persecution in 105 of the world’s 196 countries in a geographic
sweep which extends across northern and western Africa, across the Middle East,
throughout Asia and down into Indonesia.
• There were more
than 26 million documented cases of martyrdom in the 20th century alone.
Most Western Christians genuinely have NO IDEA what life has
been like for some Christians in other areas of the world. Islam has used
crucifixion as a form of punishment since medieval times. According to the
Quran, resisting Islam is met by death, crucifixion, or the cutting off hands
and feet (Surah 5:33). Today, the media is mostly silent and politically
correct on such barbaric activities, but it cannot hide the fact that it is
happening in the 21st century under political Islam.
I gave this information to show that there is great
persecution taking place right now. Yet,
this is not accepted as the Great Tribulation that is to take place in 3 ½
years after the Rapture takes place.
Could it be that the prophecy experts have it all wrong?
If you are found to be a Christian by the religious police in
Saudi Arabia, they behead you. In China, untold hundreds of thousands have died
for the sake of Jesus. In fact, worldwide, about 30,000 Christians are being
killed every week because they won’t deny Jesus as Lord. And you think because God has spared the
church in America that “the great tribulation” is in the future?
Don’t you realize that it’s just the mercy of God that
tribulation hasn’t come to America-yet? I am concerned about the American
church’s ignorance and arrogance. But of
course, none of the above is bad enough to be formally classed as “the great
tribulation.” Your view might change if
it is you, your wife or your child that had to give their life for the Lord,
but I doubt it. We’ll close our eyes and keep on singing, “Happy, happy, happy
when THE tribulation comes, we’ll all be raptured out.”
How many times have I heard the Great Tribulation is not
about Christians but about Jews. In just
about every discussion about the rapture, you will hear mention of the Great
Tribulation, the most significant persecution of Christians and Jews in world
history. Many people believe that the Great Tribulation is a time of trial
specifically and exclusively for the nation of Israel. Therefore, the Church
will be raptured before this time. The
Great Tribulation is the Time of Jacob’s Trouble.
There are those who believe that two out of every three Jews
will be killed during this time. That
means that out of the 14 million plus Jews living in the world today only about
4.6 million will survive this period of persecution before the LORD returns. By
the way, 5.5 million of them live in the United States.
Does this argument hold up?
I don’t think so.
The Great Tribulation is described in Matthew 24, Jesus'
famous Olivet Discourse, which gives us some of the details about the first
half of the 70th Week. Jesus described the Great Tribulation this way:
“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not
been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.
And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the
elect's sake, those days will be shortened. Then, if anyone says to you, `Look,
here is the `Christ!' or `There!' do not believe it. For false Christs and
false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if
possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. Therefore, if they
say to you, `Look, He is in the desert!' do not go out; or `Look, He is in the
inner rooms!' do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and
flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matt. 24:
21-27).
It is understandable, why many believers would want to keep
the Church out of the Great Tribulation.
The danger to America, however, lies in those who have embraced a
theology less than 200 years old. It gives them a free Rapture ticket. While
they are sure there will be a great Tribulation--of wars ending in a final
war--they are brainwashed to believe they won't suffer a moment of agony.
One of the most common arguments used for this purpose is
that when Jesus spoke about this terrible time, He was not talking to the
Church; He was talking to Old Testament Jews. When Jesus gave the Olivet
Discourse, the Church did not yet exist because He had not yet died, risen, and
ascended to heaven, and the Holy Spirit had not yet been poured out at
Pentecost. Therefore, proponents of this view conclude, the entire context of
this discussion should only be applied to Israel.
I disagree. While the disciples were unaware of the future
formation of the Body of Christ, Jesus certainly wasn't. He repeatedly referred
to mysteries such as the sending of the Holy Spirit, His crucifixion, and the
spiritual kingdom of God that were not to be understood by Jewish and Gentile
believers until sometime later.
Also keep in mind that, when Jesus described the Great
Tribulation, the disciples to whom Jesus spoke were the same disciples that
became the foundation of the Church at Pentecost. In fact, this chapter begins
with a question from His disciples: “Tell us, when will these things be? And
what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?” (Matt. 24:2).
These disciples were essentially asking, “What is the sign of Your coming for
us? When is the end of the age for us?” They weren't asking about when the end
of the age would come for another group of people. They were asking on behalf
of themselves.
Jesus answers the disciples by talking about the events that
lead up to and includes the Great Tribulation. If the Church will be raptured
before the Great Tribulation, as many believe, Jesus never answered their
question. In fact, He was downright misleading. This is not an acceptable conclusion.
But Jesus does answer their question. After describing the
Great Tribulation, He goes on to say: “Immediately after the tribulation of
those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the
stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then
the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of
the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of
heaven with power and great glory” (Matt. 24: 29-31).
There can be no more clear, direct response than that. The
disciples asked, "When are you coming back?" Jesus told them. We know
from the many, many scriptures in the New Testament (none clearer than Acts
1:9) that, when He comes back, He comes back only once.
And remember, too, that Jesus was talking to believers, not
unbelieving Jews. This means that the Church can expect to go through the
period He just described. We see the same pattern in 1 Peter. In 1 Peter 4:7,
Peter makes it clear that his frame of reference is the end times — “the end of
all things is at hand” — then he goes on to admonish his flock: “Beloved, do
not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though
some strange thing happened to you” (1 Peter 4:12). Peter then concludes, “but
partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also
be glad with exceeding joy” (v. 13). Here, we see the trial by fire immediately
preceding Christ's return and the warning not to be surprised or deceived — the
same pattern as in Matthew 24.
The fact that the Church will be present during the Great
Tribulation is reinforced by the fact that, throughout the Olivet Discourse,
Jesus kept saying, “you.” When you see the abomination of desolation when you
see these things beginning to occur. He was clearly referring to the disciples
in their future identities, as members of the New Testament Church, not their
identities as Old Testament Jews that they would leave behind.
The Bible teaches that the Church will endure the Great
Tribulation, the most significant time of persecution and martyrdom of
believers in world history. This is why Jesus tells us three times in this
passage not to be deceived (Matt. 24:23-26) and not to look for Him until the
appropriate time. When is the appropriate time? When the sign of the Son of Man
flashes from the east to the west (Matt. 24:29). At this time, every believer
will look up. Jesus will break through the clouds, with the blast of a heavenly
trumpet, to take believers to glory (Matt. 24:29-31). But make no mistake: this
glorious event will not occur until after the opening of the sixth seal — after
Great Tribulation is complete.
Here is a warning that was given by Paul, I do not want you
to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited:
Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has
come in. – Romans 11:25
In 1966, there were some heated discussions taking place in
some evangelical churches about the Second Coming of Christ. It was during that time I started reading the
history of the doctrines that were the prevalent view of the Church. What I found was many of the prevailing views
have extremely shaky biblical support—one of which is the restoration of
Israel. The predominant view of replacement theology flies in the face of the
bulk of biblical support. This phenomenon is also true when it comes to the
location of the empire of the Beast Nearly uncontested since the first century,
Christianity has held to the idea that the empire of the Antichrist would be a
revived Roman Empire in Rome. But the biblical support for this is very weak,
while all the while there is clear evidence in Scripture for a Middle Eastern
location of the empire of the Beast in Revelation. It is also clear that the
empire of the Beast will be a revised Ottoman Empire or in other words, an
Islamic Caliphate. With this being the case, the present rise of Islam and
especially Turkey means that the empire of the Beast is rising right now. By
2028 Islam will be the world largest religion.
We are in the end times now.
It is not some future event that will happen but is taking place today
right before our eyes. In the next few
years, you will see people giving up their humanity to be controlled by AI. The
age-old promise of becoming a god is about to become a reality in our own
time. As mankind turns away from God and
places his trust in his own devices, the door will be opened for Satan to
control the very thoughts and actions of man.
Those who do not go along with these advancements will be
eradicated.
According to SingularityHub an AI website here are eight
areas where we’ll see extraordinary transformation by 2025:
In 2025, $1,000 should buy you a computer able to calculate
at 10^16 cycles per second (10,000 trillion cycles per second), the equivalent
processing speed of the human brain.
November of this year a giant supercomputer built by the
University of Manchester is now ready to start running real-time simulations of
regions of the brain. Named SpiNNaker (Spiking Neural Network Architecture),
this machine operates via a “massively parallel” computing platform, meaning it
sends small bits of information to multiple destinations at the same time, just
like the brain. The machine took 12 years of construction and over $15 million
of investment to complete.
The Internet of things (IoT) is the network of devices,
vehicles, and home appliances that contain electronics, software, actuators,
and connectivity which allows these things to connect, interact and exchange
data. IoT involves extending Internet
connectivity beyond standard devices, such as desktops, laptops, smartphones,
and tablets, to any range of traditionally dumb or non-internet-enabled
physical devices and everyday objects. Embedded with technology, these devices
can communicate and interact over the Internet, and they can be remotely
monitored and controlled.
The Internet of Everything describes the networked
connections between devices, people, processes and data. By 2025, the IoE will
exceed 100 billion connected devices, each with a dozen or more sensors
collecting data. This will lead to a trillion-sensor economy driving a data
revolution beyond our imagination. Cisco’s recent report estimates the IoE will
generate $19 trillion of newly created value.
We’re heading towards a world of perfect knowledge. With a
trillion sensors gathering data everywhere (autonomous cars, satellite systems,
drones, wearables, cameras), you’ll be able to know anything you want, anytime,
anywhere, and query that data for answers and insights.
You will become as a god.
All-knowing.
8 Billion Hyper-Connected People is taking place right now.
Facebook (Internet.org), SpaceX, Google (Project Loon), Qualcomm and Virgin
(OneWeb) are planning to provide global connectivity to every human on Earth at
speeds exceeding one megabit per second.
We will grow from three to eight billion connected humans,
adding five billion new consumers into the global economy. They represent tens
of trillions of new dollars flowing into the global economy. And they are not coming
online as we did 20 years ago with a 9600 modem on AOL. They’re coming online
with a 1 Mbps connection and access to the world’s information on Google, cloud
3D printing, Amazon Web Services, artificial intelligence with Watson,
crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, and more.
The entire health industry will change. Existing healthcare
institutions will be crushed as new business models with better and more
efficient care emerge. Thousands of startups, as well as today’s data giants
(Google, Apple, Microsoft, SAP, IBM, etc.),
will all enter this lucrative $3.8 trillion healthcare industry with new
business models that dematerialize, demonetize and democratize today’s
bureaucratic and inefficient system.
Biometric sensing (wearables) and AI will make each of us the
CEOs of our own health. Large-scale genomic sequencing and machine learning
will allow us to understand the root cause of cancer, heart disease, and
neurodegenerative disease and what to do about it. Robotic surgeons can carry
out an autonomous surgical procedure perfectly (every time) for pennies on the
dollar. Each of us will be able to regrow a heart, liver, lung or kidney when
we need it, instead of waiting for the donor to die. This is happening now, not in the future.
Augmented and Virtual Reality has been used to play games,
but that is changing. Billions of
dollars invested by Facebook (Oculus), Google (Magic Leap), Microsoft
(Hololens), Sony, Qualcomm, HTC and others will lead to a new generation of
displays and user interfaces.
The screen as we know it — on your phone, your computer and
your TV — will disappear and be replaced by eyewear. Not the geeky Google
Glasses, but stylish eyewear. The result will be a massive disruption in
several industries ranging from consumer retail to real estate, education,
travel, entertainment, and the fundamental ways we operate as humans.
The movie Iron Man had an AI called JARVIS that controlled
the suit worn by Tony Stark. Artificial
intelligence research has made strides in the past few years. If you think Siri
is useful now, the next decade’s generation of Siri will be much more like
JARVIS from Iron Man, with expanded capabilities to understand and answer.
Companies like IBM Watson, DeepMind and Vicarious, continue to develop
next-generation AI systems. In a decade, it will be normal for you to give your
AI access to listen to all your conversations, read your emails and scan your
biometric data because the upside and convenience will be so immense. You may not realize it, but right now you
are being programmed for just such a time.
How many times have you been asked by your computer to allow you to
control your phone messages, your location, and your email accounts? What is happening in your life is being taken
over by AI.
You will find it to your advantage to surrender your will to
be controlled by a machine.
Another area of control that is taking place right now is
called Blockchain. If you haven’t heard
of the blockchain, I highly recommend you read up on it. You might have heard
of bitcoin, which is the decentralized (global), democratized, highly secure
cryptocurrency based on the blockchain. But the real innovation is the
blockchain itself, a protocol that allows for secure, direct (without a
middleman), digital transfers of value and assets (think money, contracts, stocks,
IP). Investors like Marc Andreesen have poured tens of millions into the
development and believe this is as important of an opportunity as the creation
of the Internet itself.
Two years ago, about 150 central bankers from 60 countries
around the world convened at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for the 40th
anniversary of its annual central banking seminar, a private event titled
“Policy Implications of Persistent Low Inflation and Rates.”
Economic and financial luminaries such as economist and
Harvard president emeritus Lawrence Summers, founder of the world’s largest
hedge fund Bridgewater Ray Dalio and the People’s Bank of China deputy governor
Yi Gang gave talks on the low-interest rate, low-growth environment and
monetary policy around the globe.
And then there was a presentation, “The Digital Asset
Economy,” by a different type of financial player: Adam Ludwin, chief executive
officer of Chain, a San Francisco-based startup helping enterprise clients such
as Visa, Citi, Nasdaq and other giants of finance capitalize on blockchains,
the technology behind Bitcoins.
Ludwin said, “A lot of times you hear, ‘10 years from now,
maybe one government will issue their money on a blockchain,’” he said. “I
don’t think it’s 10 years. I think it’s within five, for sure.” Part of it is
driven by the private sector enthusiasm, said Ludwin, whose company has
partnered with incumbents such as Visa, Citi, Nasdaq, Fiserv, Capital One,
Fidelity, State Street and others: “The private sector projects we are working
on anticipate and are eager to have a central bank currency as a feature in the
long run.”
A one world economy is just around the corner.
You many not believe as an American Christian that tribulation and persecution are coming your way. You may feel that you belong to an exceptional group of Christians that will not suffer for the cause of Christ. I hope you are right. I pray that you never are faced with the persecution Christians around the world are seeing today. Just keep this in mind. If you are not on board with the changes coming to the world,
you will be viewed as a problem of society.
These changes are happening in the next few years, some are here
already. The question is, are you ready
for the hour of tribulation that is coming to America? Are you willing to stand for what is right
and true? Jesus is coming back again
will you be ready? Will your faith
remain steadfast? As we celebrate this
season of remembering the birth of Christ, remember He is coming again will you
be ready?