Friday, May 27, 2016
“Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 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” (2 Thess. 2:1–2).
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, 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” (2 Thess. 2:3–4).
God warned of two events that occur before the rapture, “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him” (2 Thess. 2:1) at “the first resurrection” (Rev. 20:4–6), “at the last day” (John 6:40, 44, 54), “at the last trumpet” (1 Cor. 15:51–52). Those two events are, 1) the falling away, and 2) Antichrist will be revealed. Has your pastor taught you these truths?
Have you been trained for the fight? Do you even know you’re in a fight?
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). Fellow Christians, that’s our fight, and it’s for your soul!
We don’t win the fight armed with guns and knives to kill our enemies, but with the knowledge of God and His Christ and the Holy Spirit on our knees in prayer, for God said, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:3–4).
Have you been trained to fight, “principalities…the rulers of darkness [and] spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places”? Christians cannot escape dealing with these entities because, “the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1 John 5:19). However, “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). Bless the name of Jesus!
Yes, Christ has already won the battle at Calvary, but it’s up to us to wage spiritual warfare based on the knowledge of God and His Christ. Heed this warning from God, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hos. 4:6). But in the church Satan’s pre-trib rapture tradition has kept hidden God’s disclosed knowledge of the end-times and as a result many will fall away.
Jesus warned, “as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man” (Luke 17:26). Has your pastor described, taught and equipped you in this end-time truth of what is soon to come? Can you fathom what the days of Noah were like? Well, the best action movies of heroes, giants, myths and legends cannot come close to revealing the dread of Noah’s day!
Transhumanism is one of the signs of the end-times, and identifies, “the days of Noah”. Its rise will be one of the causes of offense leading “the falling away” as western Christians are largely disbelieving of, unprepared for, and even disinterested in, “the days of Noah”, because church leaders largely disallow Jesus’ difficult but guardian end-time truths from being taught.
Many world leaders have subtly disarmed their people so they are unable to make an armed resistance. Leaders do this because they know the New World Order will bring wars, famine, rebellion and violence. That scenario is already occurring in numerous nations and people are left defenseless against the tyrannical dictates of evil governments. This will become global.
Similarly, John Darby’s pre-trib rapture has subtly disarmed the church as many church leaders say that, “Nowhere does God’s Word tell us to watch for Antichrist”, which is an outright lie, for Jesus warned, “when you see the abomination of desolation [Antichrist] spoken of by Daniel the prophet” (Matt. 24:15), it’s time to flee and find God’s safety and provision for the last 3 1/2 years of great tribulation. But saints will not flee to find what they do not know!
Someone recently asked a seasoned evangelical adult Bible teacher if he was, “a student of the Word”, to which he responded, “Yes”. When asked if he was, “a student of the end-times”, he said, “No”. How can a seasoned Bible teacher be the former but not the latter as 150 chapters in the Bible deal exclusively with the end-times, while hundreds more deal in-part with the same! That’s the disarming I’m talking about, and it’s not unique to that teacher, it’s widespread!
Because they’ve been spiritually disarmed, most Christians have no tolerance to hear about the end-times. A false hope has stripped many of the knowledge required to endure to the end and will propel the falling away. Of course, that’s exactly what Satan wants and it will fulfill Jesus’ prophecy of the great falling away. But by teaching Jesus’ truths I’m trying to minimize that.
This is why it’s so very important to believe and know God’s safety and provision for the final 1,260 days of great tribulation when the Gal. 4:21–31 “freewoman”, the believing church, “was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent” (Rev. 12:14).
Satan’s end-time powers will be displayed in many lying signs and wonders to deceive, and if the church continues holding to the pre-trib rapture lie, many will not discern that Antichrist is Antichrist and will accept his signs and wonders that life is better under his rule. Remember, Antichrist will not ascend as an evil, malevolent being, but as one of love, unity and peace.
After Antichrist has set the hook of deceit in the first 3 1/2 years of the tribulation, many in the church will with offense realize they’ve been deceived when Antichrist’s mark of the beast is enforced at the mid-point of the tribulation and they can no longer buy or sell without his mark. Then “many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another” (Matt. 24:10).
Transhumanism: desired by militaries wanting a super-human class of warrior; industry, business and entertainment want intelligent human-like robots; while intellectuals pursue god-knowledge, and transhumanism provides it all. Jesus warned the end-times would be like the days of Noah; days of transhumanism when fallen corrupting angels had relations with human women, who, changing man’s DNA, birthed non-redeemable beings called the Nephilim, see Gen. 6:1–12.
Those beings were a product of transhumanism. They were a non-redeemable people who God commanded ancient Israel to destroy, saying, “Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey” (1 Sam. 15:3). However, God never commanded the destruction of “redeemable” nations of people, for that was not then, nor is it now God’s nature or His will.
Yet, many non-discerning Christians under the tutelage of culture-accommodating pastors look to ancient Israel’s slaughter of many non-redeemable nations as their own license to join their nations’ ungodly military for the destruction of today’s “redeemable” enemies. God forbid!
In Noah’s day the DNA of humans was changed by the corruption of Gen. 3:15’s satanic seed, which produced a super-human class of heroes. Once their DNA was changed, however, there was no reversal to the original redeemable state. And thus it will be in the end. God’s Word is true, and I believe Antichrist’s mark of the beast will change man’s DNA to transcend created human experience, in which state man will no longer be a redeemable being, see Rev. 14:11.
In the days of Noah the Gen. 3:15 seed of Satan which came through fallen angels created giants who “were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown” (Gen. 6:4); a super-human class of beings. And because they corrupted the DNA of man and beast, God destroyed the earth with a flood that killed everything with the breath of life, but saved DNA-pure Noah and his family.
Transhumanism includes human/animal crossbreeding. “Talk of the giants and individuals will assume one is “off their rocker” but talk of scientists creating animal and human hybrids, and everyone is in belief. It’s called Chimera, and it is the latest project regarding human and animal hybrids. The very boundaries of morality prohibit the interbreeding of mankind and animals. However, science has done just that.” (Source: Nate Brown, Christian Investigative Journalist)
Because this occurred also after the flood, Nate Brown further states, “The Nephilim still exist, and it is believed that these creatures still walk among us, look like us, talk like us, and act like us; when in reality under their skin is the world’s worst nightmare. The things that should not be are making their return, and it all begins with the very limits of our physical structure DNA.”
Transhumanism is the proverbial line in the sand that God has drawn separating redeemable man from non-redeemable. God said of ancient Nimrod, “he began to be a mighty one on the earth” (Gen. 11:8). The phrase “began to be” in the original Hebrew means the process, “to profane, defile, pollute, ritually, sexually”; his DNA, his genetic code, was irreversibly altered.
At the mid-point of the tribulation Antichrist will mandate his mark in the hand or forehead in order to buy or sell, and that mark could be an implant chip that will release DNA-modifying organisms that transform one from being created in the image of God, to being “a mighty one”, like Nimrod, transcending human experience, to be free from sickness and disease, to become like God. Hence, once the mark of the beast is accepted, that soul is eternally damned.
“Transhumanists view human nature as a work-in-progress, a half-baked beginning that we can learn to remold in desirable ways. Current humanity need not be the endpoint of evolution. Transhumanists hope that by responsible use of science, technology, and other rational means we shall eventually manage to become posthuman, beings with vastly greater capacities than present human beings have.” (Source: Nick Bostrom, Oxford University, Faculty of Philosophy)
Evolutionists like Bostrom view the creation of man as “half-baked” something to be improved. They deny God’s involvement. You can hear the serpent hiss, “You will not surely die…you will be like God” (Gen. 3:4–5). Manipulating and changing man’s DNA is satanic-oriented thinking. Yet the world of science and technology is largely ecstatic over the prospects of Satan’s seed.
And from the Washington Post 5/16/2016, “Will technology allow us to transcend the human condition? Today there is an entire movement, called transhumanism, dedicated to promoting the use of technological advancements to enhance our physical, intellectual and psychological capabilities, ultimately transcending the limitations of the human condition.”
But more importantly in the near-term, are you equipped and prepared for the chaotic destruction of the second, third and fourth seals of Rev. 6:3–8? Are you equally prepared for the unthinkable destruction and chaos of the first, second, third and fourth trumpet judgments? Men, husbands and fathers, ours is the Christian duty to care for our families, and ignorance will be no excuse.
“But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Tim.5:8). When your pre-trib rapture tradition falls apart before your very eyes, what will you then tell your family and loved ones for whom you are responsible? More importantly, how will you answer God when He calls you to account?
Since your salvation, you’ve had time to read, learn, study and know God’s Word. You’ve had time to be a student of the Word and a student of the end-times. Do you know more about your employment manual than God’s life Manual? Do you know more sports scores than end-time promises? The decision is yours. “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; and My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?” (Jer. 5:31).
If you are a pre-trib rapture believer, how is it that you by faith accept Jesus’ birth, life, death, resurrection, His Holy Spirit, His miracles, His Sermon on the Mount and most of His parables, but then you choose to single out His end-time teachings that promise to gather His elect, (are you His elect?) “Immediately after the tribulation” (Matt. 24:29–31) as not being applicable to you? That’s contempt for Christ who suffered Calvary and taught us all things for our good.
I’m not called to make you feel good about yourself, God called me to spur you to desiring the Word of God in Christ and to call you to prepare now for the seven years of tribulation. True love for God and fellowman includes boldly teaching and defending Jesus’ end-time truths.
Marlin J. Yoder
