Written by David DiCrescenzo on 31 May 2015.
Is the "End" near?
Posted in FAITH I’ll bet a lot of people mocked and laughed at Noah during the entire 120 years it took him to build the Ark; and at Moses when he kept visiting Pharaoh and warning of plagues…until those plagues happened and took their toll. No doubt Lot’s wife scoffed a bit before being “seasoned” as they were ushered out of Sodom. I’ll bet that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were fodder for afternoon jokes right up to the moment that they walked out of Nebuchadnezzar’s blazing fire unharmed.
There are a lot more stories I could list of men and women who dared to answer the call of God and speak out against the culture of their days, many of whom wound up martyred. For any that recall history, Christians and others who refused to acquiesce to and spoke out against the pagan culture of Rome were massacred in wholesale lots via the most gruesome methods.
The point is that then and now, such men and women have been ostracized by those in their localized communities and in a broader sense by entire cultures, and we are seeing a resurgence of this in a big way today. Not just here in the US, but globally.
Since the beginning of time, the entire human race, believers and non-believers alike, are subject to the laws of our Creator. However because of our free will, mankind has allowed itself to be deceived by the lie that we can ignore those laws and do as we please. Time after time, it has been proven that we cannot!
The simple truth is that while men think God and those that believe in Him should adapt to their (not so much changing as recurring) desires, He has consistently shown that we must follow His unwavering laws or suffer the consequences. Those laws are not mean spirited; He put them in place for good reason…He created us and He knows what is best for us.
Mankind is at a critical time in history, when all of our past iniquities, all of the past judgements from above, all of the prophecies, and our current state of increasing depravity are coming to a head. Look around; compare what is happening to what was foretold long ago; have a look at Matthew 24. Even if you are a hard core atheist, recognize that what the Prophets of Old said would happen is unfolding exactly as it was revealed to them.
In a matter of days, the Supreme Court of the United States is going to rule on the issue of so-called “homo-sexual marriage,” which, while it is huge and one of the most egregious sins mentioned in God’s Word, it is only one of many issues that are combining to topple our culture. More than forty years ago that same SCOTUS ruled in favor of the destruction of over 55 million of our unborn babies. Of course we won’t know for absolute certain until the SCOTUS ruling is made public, however it is a safe bet given the radical make-up of the court that they have already decided and the recent voting in Ireland will be used as some sort of “universal precedent,” and the talk is that Australia will cave in very soon as well. This added to so many other issues leaves His children with eyes to see that His Day is at hand.
I expect I will be mocked once again for these words, as will the many of those who see this as I do. What I have to say will be intentionally misconstrued by my detractors and others who simply don’t agree with me. They’ll label me with all the usual stuff; “hater,” “homophobe,” etc., because that’s the easy way out.
Several people have already suggested that I am on the “wrong side of history” in my thinking. Regardless of that, my job and ministry as always is to sound the alarm; the culture may mock me and the others, however God and His Word will not be mocked. Rest assured that this is spiritual warfare and while those of us who proclaim faith in Jesus may be harassed, falsely labelled, imprisoned, and maybe even eventually killed for voicing our views, we will not be silenced. Additionally, it is a matter of time before all “truth speech” is stifled regardless of the subject matter or the deliverer.
A lot of people are saying things like our best days are ahead of us, and that we in America can restore our nation. However while I certainly think we should never give up, speaking strictly as a Bible believing American, I don’t know if it is really possible at this point; I do know that if it is possible, the only way our nation can correct itself is to repent. Repentance does not simply mean to apologize for wrongdoing…repentance means to stop and turn away from our sins. The time to repent is not tomorrow or any other time except right now. While I’m not about to attempt to predict any specific day, date, or time because only He knows that, I join many in the belief that we are on the very cusp of climatic prophetic times. Put another way, there is a spiritual ticking time bomb getting ready to go off, and I believe it is down to “hours,” not “days.”
** ** Our time is not the same as “time” in the spiritual realm.
What concerns me the most is how this message, and many similar messages that go against the culture will be twisted and called “hate speech,” especially in the aftermath of specific climatic events. There will continue to be many “minor” events such as more and more natural disasters of increasing devastation, increased military build ups and skirmishes centered around Israel and the mid-east and elsewhere, increased sexual depravity, interest in the occult, the collapse of many currencies/economies, and all the rest.
As far as a “major” event is concerned…there are many who expect a supernatural event referred to as “The Rapture” to happen relatively soon. For those who don’t believe, that event sounds impossibly insane; for those who do believe, it is very plausible and likely. I wrote about it last fall in an article I called “The Rapture…What If.”
My friends, as all of these things unfold, you can assure your place in Eternity. Just over 2000 years ago, the greatest “major event” took place which fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah found throughout the Book of Isaiah and specifically in Chapter 53, and many other places in Scripture:
Another of many sources to support that Jesus was and is Messiah is this list of over 300 specific prophecies and their corresponding fulfillments.
The bottom line is that in His infinite wisdom, God created and extended a bridge of redemption between us and Him to span the gap created way back in the Garden of Eden when we all came under the curse of sin and were separated from Him. It works simply enough. All one needs to do is to have and express faith in Jesus and accept the free gift of undeserved Grace offered by His atoning sacrifice.
Of course, we have free will and the ability to choose the gift of Salvation or not. How will you respond?
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