Friday, November 26, 2021
God calls it “wars and rumors of wars”, but man calls it Middle East conflicts of unending wars. God calls it “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom”, but man calls it the quest for nuclear, military and economic supremacy: the United States over China, over Russia, over North Korea; China over Taiwan, over Japan, over Australia; Russia over Ukraine and over NATO. God calls it “famines”, man calls it crop failures, droughts, lack of workers, and broken supply chains. God calls it “pestilences”, man calls it COVID-19, DELTA and BOTSWANA variants and Small Pox. God calls it “an abomination”, man calls it LGBTQ+ PRIDE. God calls it “earthquakes in various places”, man calls it evolutionary shifting of tectonic plates. God calls it “the beginning of sorrows”, man calls it the 2030 Agenda, the New World Order and the Great Reset of 2021, and most recently the “Great Narrative”, authored by Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum. God calls it “the time of the end”, man calls it the time to remake the earth with a one world leader, who will himself claim to be God, but will be the Antichrist.
Elite globalist leaders would have us believe the world is in desperate need of a renewal, that earth’s evolutionary cycle must undergo critical changes of reset in order to achieve a utopian society where all is peace, balance and equal, where all people get a livable income, poverty is eliminated, and hunger is eradicated. But God promised “you have the poor with you always” (Matt. 26:11; John 12:8). World leaders can strive to eradicate world hunger and the poor with all their might, but to no avail, for God’s Word will never return to Him void. Nor will it return void for the end-time testimony of Christ, regardless of dispensational lies forced on the Church by so-called wise theologians; alas, God said “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone” (1 Peter 2:7). Indeed, the Church, like the world, is about to experience the turmoil and chaos of a horrific and rude awakening that the end of this age is upon humanity, but that truth will elude most, leaving them deceived, unprepared and eager for a global leader with answers to heal the many woes befalling the world. Many will ignorantly follow “the beast”.
God called it “lawlessness will abound”, (and we’re there!) but man calls it “defund the police”, and calls rioting, burning, looting and destruction of buildings and business peaceful protests. In fact, if police don’t allow rioting and destructive behavior by criminals and thugs, both they and the justice system are labelled by the liberal Left media as racists promoting White privilege and supremacy. The rule of law is openly spurned. National borders are insanely wide open. Illegal immigration, rioting, violence and destruction of personal and business properties by people intent on evil is praised by the ungodly liberal Left and used to increase their own political gain. We’re now in the days when black is white and white is black; when right is wrong and wrong is right. The world is engulfed in lawlessness, and the liberal Left promotes it every day. But God said “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isa. 5:20).
This end-time violence should not surprise any believer, for Jesus warned that “as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matt. 24:37). And when we look at the biblical record of Noah’s days, we see that God assessed the earth saying, “The earth also was corrupt…and was filled with violence” (Gen. 6:11). That condition now afflicts earth, and corruption, lawlessness and violence will grow much worse before the end comes. Enemies of the cross of Christ, both spiritual and physical, now plot their kill-shots against humanity with fervor just because humanity is created in the image of God and is therefore eligible for grace by faith unto eternal salvation in Christ. From this point onward the rule of law will not return until Christ returns and establishes His eternal Kingdom on earth. Even so, come Lord Jesus!
So, in the interim, what do we, the blood-bought saints of the Lord Jesus Christ do as we await that glorious Day “when the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God” (1 Thess. 4:16)? What’s our role in these perilous and ungodly end-times? First, God does not change. And what’s His first and greatest command? “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deut. 6:5 and Matt. 22:37); and His second command is like it, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18, Matt. 22:39 and James 2:8). With that armor tucked into our belt of truth we go into this violent, lawless and God-hating world knowing “we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us” (2 Cor. 5:20), and we therefore make it our goal to represent Christ while simultaneously protecting and providing for our own families and household, (1 Tim. 5:8). However, “we do not war according to the flesh” (2 Cor. 10:3), seeking the violent and lawless, but are called to protect our families and households if lawless criminals and thugs attempt to pillage, burn, loot and destroy. And in this God will hold us accountable.
Neither America nor the rest of the world will return to what was normal before COVID-19 changed the face of earth for the worse. That false man-made pandemic, I believe, started the beginning of the end in a manner of speaking, not that the 7-year tribulation has begun which is marked by the prophetic 1,260-days ministry of the “two witnesses” of (Rev. 11:3), but that the road has now been firmly laid for the arrival of Antichrist, a road that will be filled with more lawlessness, violence and bloodshed. Chaos, dismay, fear and dread is the condition into which “the son of perdition” comes, and the unbelieving deceived world will welcome him. However, it’s every Christian’s duty to live in the light of Christ, discerning the days in which we live, to be prepared to endure the ever-violent days ahead. God will do His part, and we must do ours.
God called it the end-time “tribulation”, as believers are hated and killed for the name of Jesus, but man calls it evolving to the New Age of Enlightenment. God calls him the “abomination of desolation” and “the man of sin…the son of perdition” and “the beast” and “Antichrist”, but the unbelieving will call him savior of the world as “all the world marveled and followed the beast”, making it his mission to kill all followers of God and His Christ. If he can find them he will kill them. Here we see God’s provision: “if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29). When Antichrist’s mark, 666 is issued, and he seeks to kill Christians who knew of and prepared for the small window of time to escape to God’s safety and provision for 1,260 days during the great tribulation, they won’t be found, because they are “the freewoman” of Gal. 4:21–31 who “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).
As we reflect on the fact that God in Christ gave us every reason to be thankful because He said “See, I have told you beforehand” (Matt. 24:25) regarding things of the times of the end, and has equipped believers who actually believe Him with the ability to know and understand the signs of the times, and to endure to the end, may our thanksgiving be filled with love, joy and peace.
Marlin J. Yoder
