No! By no means
should we begin to panic just because of the Revelation account. By no means should we prepare ourselves for
war. As a dear brother of mine, Dan
Willis, has often stated, “Whether it is the last days of the Earth or not,
these are your last days.” With this in
mind, consider this, “What have we to fear of the last days of the Earth? If tomorrow is the last day of the Earth and
afterwards Christ returns…or if tomorrow you step out of your house and get hit
by a vehicle…either way, tomorrow could be your last day. Either way, right now could be your last
moment on Earth. You could have a sudden
heart attack and die while you are reading this. The result is the same. Eventually you will die. The only difference is how.
So why concern yourself so much with the end of the world or
the Anti-Christ? War could start in your
nation right now! Today someone could
get together a small army of individuals and start shooting in your area, your
schools, your job, etc. What is the
difference between that and the coming of the Anti-Christ to you? Both are outbreaks of violence. Both could target you as a victim.
No. Instead, you must
do with your life today what God has called you to do. Let Him worry about tomorrow, for you have no
control over whether today or tomorrow you live or die. Whether the world comes to an end for
everyone or just for you, it makes no difference. You could lock yourself in a basement for the
rest of your life to protect yourself from the outside world and yet die of
some sickness. Nothing you can do can
prevent you from death.
God had your end planned out even before you began, and if
you are His child He will bring you to be with Him forever regardless of
whether you die today or tomorrow or 100 years from now. Whether you die by the hand of the
Anti-Christ or asleep in your bed, what is the difference? God will bring you to be with Him either way
if you have accepted Him as your God. Therefore,
the only individuals who have to worry about the future are those who continue
to reject Christ, for regardless of whether you die today or tomorrow or 100
years from now, if you reject Him He will be forced to reject you and cast you
out of paradise and into eternal damnation.
That is the one sin a person can commit. Jesus came to take away the sins of the world
so that now only one sin remains. If you
reject Christ you are guilty of all sins.
If you accept Christ you have no sin at all. Therefore, if you reject Christ you force Him
to reject you and cast you out of paradise.
He is just and must punish evil-doers.
Those who commit the crime of rejecting Christ, who took away all other
sins, He must punish. They are rebels
who are usurping His Kingdom. Those who
accept Christ are thus not guilty of any crimes against Him. They are citizens of Christ’s Kingdom. They will escape punishment.
And this is the great mercy of God and the love of Jesus;
that He was willing to die for our sins so that He could wipe away all sin
except this one. He suffered and died a
punishment we deserved so that all sin would be erased. Now, only one decision makes a person guilty
of sin. Only one decision makes a person
a rebel and a criminal in God’s Kingdom.
Do you accept Jesus as King? Do
you accept His sacrifice of love? If
not, you choose rebellion against God and are therefore worthy, as a rebel
would be in a King’s land, of punishment and death. He is merciful and gives you a choice. He delays the end of the world and your own
end so that you have time to choose. Do
you choose citizenship or rebellion? All
the prophecies speak this one message.
All of the prophecies lead to Christ and His salvation. THIS,
then, is the whole point of Revelation. THIS message is the overall message the
readers were to receive.
Therefore, my dear Catachumen, please remember that Christ
would not have us live in fear nor cause others to live in fear. He would have us speak life and hope and love
and peace. Even as the prophetic books
provide insight to some dark things that will happen, they always end with life
and hope and love and peace. There is
always a happy ending at the conclusion.
God wants everyone to have hope.
There is hope to escape the darkness.
Jesus is that hope! He is the
champion who can save all within the city who desire salvation.
For what does it gain us to obsess over the future? What gain do we get for spending our life
trying to understand all the mysteries of the visions and symbols? There is, of course, gain in understanding
Godly things, but would it not be better for us to trust God with these things
and spend our time more valuably? Would
it not be better to set aside knowledge for the better practice of love? Would it not be better to spend time with our
children, our spouses, our friends and neighbors, our co-workers and virtually
everyone else we meet and know, showing them love and grace and peace and
kindness? Would it not be better to
speak to them about life and hope instead of fear, death and damnation?
What is this obsession with the future driven by anyway? It is driven by the desire to know and
control the future. This is God’s
realm. He is in control of our
destinies. Let us not obsess over knowing
the future but trust that He has our futures in His divinely wise and
infinitely capable hands. If we have accepted
Christ then nothing can harm us. Nothing
can destroy us. Even if our earthly
bodies are blasted away into nothingness God will resurrect us again to live
forever in eternity. Our bodies will
rise again, and until they do we shall live on in spirit with Him until that
great day.
And let us not attempt to drive others to the cross with
fear. Instead, we should see that even
when God inspired the prophetic scriptures it was to show that destruction
would come to the wicked eventually but eternal paradise would be given to the
righteous. In the same way, let us bring
others to Christ with the good news of the Gospel. Let us show God’s love and mercy and kindness
and grace. Telling people that a World
War 3 is coming and that it will decimate the lives our friends and neighbors are
trying to build is not preaching the Gospel.
It is scaring people and enhancing fear in our culture and our own lives. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear,
but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). He has given us a spirit to build up, not to
tear down.
So let us study prophecy to use it to edify and build up
others and ourselves as it was meant to do.
This is a good application of your studies. Let us not study prophecy to puff up ourselves
because we think we know the answers to the prophecies and no one else could
figure it out. Let us not study prophecy
to satisfy some desire to be prepared for the future or to prepare others for
it by scaring them into repentance. What
profit does this gain you? Christ never
came up to others and scared them into following Him. No!
Nor did his disciples. Christ
invited people to come to Him, and in return He offered them “life, and that
they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).
If you are reading this and have not accepted Christ, will
you not consider it now? Will you not
look in the mirror of your soul and reflect upon your life and how you have
been living it? If your last days are
now…if you knew that today was your last day…would you not reconsider your
actions? Would you not reconsider your
plans for your future? If right now was
the last moment of your life…would you not say, “Jesus, forgive me! I no longer want to reject you. I want to accept you as my Lord. I will begin to serve you right now. I don’t want to be counted among the
unrighteous. I don’t want to worry about
my future anymore. I want to place my
life in your hands so that you will take care of me from now on through
eternity. Please forgive me of all my
sins. Forgive me of all my
wrong-doings! I am yours. Teach me now to live for you.”
If you have just read this prayer, and these words are
burning inside you, read them again and say them audibly. Even if you think you have asked for
salvation before…if these words are burning in your heart now…it probably means
you need to say them again and mean them again.
Rededicate your life to Christ.
You don’t even have to say the prayer very loudly. Just confess with your mouth that you need
Jesus. Tell God that you want Him and
accept Him as your God.
If you have done this, salvation is yours. You have stopped rejecting Christ and have
now accepted Him. That’s all there is to
it. Now you may begin your life
anew. All your sins are forgiven and you
may begin to live a life that is right and good. Find yourself a good church who truly has the
Spirit of Christ, a church that is loving and whose heartbeat is to save the
lost just like you once were. Find a
church that you can get involved in so that you may start bringing others to
this wonderful new life with Christ.
Read the Bible for yourself and pray continually, as often as you can,
to God. Tell Him always how you feel and
ask Him for His help. He is always
faithful and loving and kind and will help you no matter how far you fall.
God Bless you!
Love,
Brother Korey, son of Robin
No comments:
Post a Comment