Friday, June 1, 2018
“What will you do in the end” is an important question from God. What preparations of heart, mind, body and soul have you made to endure the end of this age, for “there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows…and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake” (Matt. 24:7–9); and “distress of nations…the sea and the waves roaring…men’s hearts failing them from fear” (Luke 21:25–26).
Famines ravage food supplies; pestilences bring diseases; earthquakes destroy nearly everything in their paths. Volcanoes now erupt all over the world. Unexplainable ground fissures are ripping open swallowing homes. Sink holes now swallow buildings and vehicles. Is this the return of the days of Numbers 16 when God ripped open the earth and took down alive rebellious Korah, Dathan, Abiram and their families, and incinerated 250 disobedient priests with fire?
Some rivers in the world are running blood red. Vast lakes have dried up. Lightening, hail and flash floods are sudden killers. Deadly lava now erupts in Hawaii destroying homes, highways and vegetation, as poison gasses belch from the Kilauea volcano. The Pacific Ring of Fire and especially the West Coast’s Cascadia Subduction Zone increasingly show signs of imminent massive earthquakes. These signs are a witness to unbelievers, even those in the church!
“For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now” (Rom. 8:19–22). Are you warning unbelievers to repent?
Christ’s invitation to believe Him is still open. He stands at the door of your heart saying, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Rev. 3:20). He will not force Himself on you, for it’s your choice to respond to His invitation. Have you? Are you born again as Jesus taught at John 3:3, 7? Have you repented and confessed your sins and unbelief, trusting in His shed blood sacrifice to save you? Is He your first love, and does your life bear fruit to that?
These are critically important questions that will determine you enduring the times of the end just ahead…or not. Believing and acting upon the testimony of Jesus is the only thing that will save your soul and lead you safely through the seven years of tribulation. Unbelievers do not believe God and perish accordingly; remember Noah’s day and the days of Lot; and ancient Israel at the edge of Canaan; and most of national Israel at Christ’s first advent.
Have you learned to walk by faith in Christ; to deny yourself and take up your own cross daily and follow Him, Luke 9:23? Have you learned to identify and guard against false prophets and false teachers, and lies and deceptions of this world? Do you love Jesus more than any human relationships? Do you love your country more than Christ and His commands? Again, is Christ your first love, because if He is second to anything, yes, anything, you are not worthy of Him as Jesus taught at Matthew 10:34–39. Here, true faith separates believers from unbelievers.
Have you learned to identify deceptions in the church, the one place where you should be able to believe everything that’s taught, but unfortunately cannot? Do you lead your spouse and children in God’s truths of the coming tribulation and how to endure to the end according to Jesus’ Olivet Discourse at Matthew 24? All these are important questions because the time of the end of this age is now upon us. As Jesus promised, even nature is increasingly in travail and upheaval.
An unmistakable prophetic marker of the end-times has overspread America and the world. “An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land: 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. 5:30–31). Today unbelief of the truth is popular, but what will people do in the end? God said “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hos. 4:6). And today there is much “lack of knowledge” among God’s people, and the institutional church is largely responsible.
To whom will they go – the false prophets who led them to disbelieve the testimony of Jesus? The false teachers who led them to put their faith in the traditions of men rather than Christ? To whom will they go? Their “live your best life now” theology will scorn them. Their wealth and prosperity gospel will mock them. Their pre-trib rapture lie will offend them. Their greater love for country than Christ’s commands will haunt them. Truly, to whom will they go for the truth?
Jesus further said of the end-times that “because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold” (Matt. 24:12). This is now a chilling reality all across the world. We see lawlessness in children killing parents; mass school shootings; gang killings in cities; infanticide, otherwise called abortion; corrupt politicians loathe each other, spurring on hatred; corrupt media create fake news; corrupt corporations and banks defraud the people; even Christian televangelists scam their followers for $40 million jets with seed money, and false doctrines in the church.
Global fiscal collapse of nations is also now on the brink. National currencies will soon become worthless as the U.N. seeks the global redistribution of wealth in the implementation of its “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. A global One World “mark” must and will be developed. All this, while Christians are increasingly discriminated against for job opportunities. The world is now uniting against Christians, the “true Jew” (Rom. 2:28–29) and they “will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake” (Matt. 24:9) just as Jesus promised. Are you prepared for that?
Famines will virtually destroy food supplies during the first 3 1/2 years of the tribulation, not to mention the inability of Christians to buy or sell anything in the last 3 1/2 years of the tribulation. But Christians who believed God and prepared accordingly will find their safety and provision by God for those last 3 1/2 years, when “the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days” (Rev. 12:6). What is your source of knowledge, and what is your source of preparation?
Marlin J. Yoder
