Friday, September 13, 2019
All is being fulfilled according to the Bridegroom’s prophetic end-time Word. The love of most grows cold due to the increase of wickedness. His Word is increasingly ignored; violence and the perplexity of nations is multiplied; the days of Noah and Lot have returned; iniquity is justified; right is called wrong and wrong right. Our only salvation is marriage to heaven’s Bridegroom. Only He can save us from sin, unbelief, rebellion and eternal death; His name is Jesus Christ!
His invitation for marriage and eternal life oppose the traditions of men. Deceivers say it’s impossible to lose one’s marriage to heaven’s Bridegroom. Yet, it was God Himself, who, for reasons of “backsliding Israel…put her away [giving her] a certificate of divorce” (Jer. 3:8). He once said that Israel is “a special people to Me above all people” (Exo. 19:5), but her repeated backsliding, unbelief and adultery caused God to give her a “certificate of divorce”. And God has never remarried her! And God does not change, Mal. 3:6 and Heb. 13:8.
In the midst of many counterfeit lovers, He told His would-be bride that their marriage would be made on His terms, not hers, because “you are not your own. For you were bought at a price” (1 Cor. 6:19–20). But counterfeit lovers preach “another Jesus [by] another spirit” (2 Cor. 11:4) and can cause depression and suicidal anxiety, but not so with the true gospel and love of Jesus. This week yet another pastor in an ever-growing list helped popularize suicide, making self-murder appear as an option. But it’s not; is it not rather the fruit of unholy betrayal, i.e. Judas Iscariot?
Counterfeit lovers deceitfully woo her; dark spiritual watchers try to stop her holy union. The invitation was sent, however, signed in the Bridegroom’s own blood. Malevolent forces then calculatingly increase their deceit and attacks by changing His Word, luring her with traditions, serving her experiences, and tickling her ears with half-truths. As a result, many who once were married to the Bridegroom but later embrace deceiving spirits, are falling away.
As weddings go, the bride requires much preparation. Many griefs, tears, hardship, labor, and endurance attend her preparation. And her Bridegroom promised “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2–3). By true enduring faith we make His place our goal.
The great Day of the wedding is near! Forgotten, are all the hardships, turmoil, striving, tears and costly preparation. Lost to the promise of seeing Him face to face are unanswered questions! The anticipation is palpable! The wait has been prolonged by many tribulations. The bride awaits her Bridegroom! She longs to see Him, and her heart yearns! Then suddenly, dressed in resplendent beauty and glory, and with great power, He appears, descending on the clouds of heaven, for “His wife has made herself ready” (Rev. 19:7) and He receives her with triumphant joy!
Two thousand years ago the invitation was sent to “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Mark 8:34 KJV). He said that the gate is narrow and the road difficult (Matt. 7:13–14), but is well worth the sacrifice of self-denial to attain to that eternal wedding Day. “Whosoever will come” is a decision that each person must make individually. Have you accepted His invitation and have you prepared?
The Bridegroom promised that He will gather together His elect bride “Immediately after the tribulation of those days” (Matt. 24:29–31), but many false teachers have led her to disown His Words and replace them with disguised lies. Many of those professing the Bridegroom’s name love the promise of His return, but dismissively change His truth that He returns “Immediately after the tribulation”. In unbelief they attack His Words!
The bride preparing for her Bridegroom must love, honor and believe His testimony for His “glorious appearing” (Titus 2:13). The invitation is still open, but will be closed “at the last day” (John 6:40, 44), “at the last trumpet” (1 Cor. 15:51–52), at “the first resurrection” (Rev. 20:4–6), when “the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thess. 4:16), because the Bridegroom “must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets” (Acts 3:21 NIV).
But largely the professing bride has taken her own way and will. Desiring traditions of men she rejects many guardian truths of His commands for her governance, self-denial and command to take up one’s own cross to follow Christ, Luke 9:23. Most wage material war just as the world does in outright disobedience to Christ’s commands. But do not think the Bridegroom ignores such disobedience, idolatry and unbelief.
WARNING! “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them” (Rom. 1:18–19). Many church leaders today are societal lovers and experts at suppressing the truth, and many people love it that way.
WARNING! Great calamity comes! In the months and years leading up to the day of the Lord when the Bridegroom descends from heaven, the world, America, and the church enters a time of harsh tribulation. There are coming severe earthquakes, volcanoes, and raging wildfires that will consume vast amounts of grass and trees. Famines and pestilence kill, and the seas will rage; the streams of waters, rivers and oceans poisoned, and much more. What have you done to prepare?
Noah believed God and built the Ark to sustain himself and his family. Joseph in ancient Egypt believed God and stored up food for the famine that would otherwise destroy. You will not hear these truths in the counterfeit happy church, as leaders know it would destroy their empires. To preach whole truth would end their false tithe and play money. It would actually mean self-denial to take up the weight of the Word of the Lord in honor to Him, while they suffer loss.
The Bridegroom said “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son of daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (Matt. 10:34–38). The end of this present wicked age is upon us, and “His wife has made herself ready” (Rev. 19:7). Does that include you?
Marlin J. Yoder
