| (Copyright 2012) by John Jewell (London, England) |
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| That is a question that has been asked countless times since the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his subsequent resurrection. Over the centuries many have publicly preached that the return of Jesus Christ to this world is imminent and, naturally, many have been disappointed as he did not return when people thought he would. Some have tried to rationalise it and say that Christ would return to men’s hearts! However, man’s society has remained steadfastly corrupt down through the years. When I was a young boy, I well remember men walking through our towns and cities, with notice boards slung over their shoulders and carrying the message that we should prepare for the wrath to come. By wrath they meant God’s wrath and how He would destroy the world because of its corruption. In fact, God makes it clear in the book of Genesis that He wouldn’t again destroy all living creatures, human and animal as he did before. And to remind mankind of that fact established the rainbow, so that every time we see it, we are reminded of God and how He would not destroy all life. It now becomes selective, Jesus Christ is to return and establish a new world system. The new world system will be composed of those who came to know God and received His Holy Spirit and will accordingly receive eternal life. They will work with Christ to train and educate those people throughout the world who, although not having the holy spirit, had lived on over and through the events of the last days of Man’s society on earth and who then live in the new world to be taught, perhaps for the first time, the truth. And to then have the opportunity of being converted, to receive the holy spirit and to also be given eternal life. Some will not accept this and will die a physical death from which there is no resurrection. Eventually the planet will be populated by only those with God’s spirit. The real work then lies ahead. This, in a nutshell, is a brief, very brief, rundown of what is actually happening on this planet. We are all at the beginning of something amazing and incredible. The beginning of something for which this present physical life is a preparation. What we fail to understand is that the bible also tells us of powerful spirit forces which are antagonistic to God and determined to destroy all of us and thereby any possibility of that new age ever coming into being. They are not going to succeed but they certainly are going to create as much havoc as possible before Jesus Christ steps in. Today we live in a very violent world. Our newspapers and the rest of the media are constantly filled with reports of dreadful things happening to the world God created and to the people who populate it. There are forces, forces which really DO exist which are determined to snatch away any understanding of God from us and to bring the world to the point of total destruction. These things were prophesied in the bible, you may no doubt have a copy! I will just point you to some quotes from the bible describing events in today’s world with which you will be familiar. In the New Testament, in 2nd Peter chapter 3, verse 3 it says “… there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, (or died), all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” You will be familiar with some people who use the media, radio, television and the newspapers to publicly mock God. To point the finger and say He said this, or that, and it hasn’t happened! Or that a lightning flash from the sky struck a muddy pool of water and caused life to appear on earth. Evolution becomes a god to those who have these views. At the present time there are, in Britain, some men who use the media to make fun of the Eternal. They are, the bible says, typical of the last days! The very existence of people such as these actually proves the existence of God. The bible is quite scathing in its comments about them. Another comment in the first chapter of Romans says this: “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man…” It continues “…Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator. … “ It goes on: “… for this cause God gave them up unto vile affections; for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet …. “Describing the time just before the return of Jesus Christ the bible speaks of adulterers filling the land. Romans goes on in chapter 1 to speak of people who are filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful; the book goes on to say that people at the time of the last days profess themselves to be wise but show themselves to be fools! The book of Isaiah explains how the dreadful attitudes of mankind have succeeded only in separating him from God. It speaks of lies, how no one seeks truth or true justice, but only embraces lies. Continuing it says that “The way of peace they know not” The 2nd epistle of Timothy in the New Testament has an excellent description of the last days. It says this in chapter 3, verse 1 onwards “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; it continues with a warning to those who believe and trust in God. A warning to not be taken in by those who have a form of godliness – and that’s quite a description of certain big religious organisations! – the passage continues to say that these people deny the power of God, and then comes the warning “from such turn away.” Isaiah chapter 8, verse 20 gives us the reason. It says “… if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them.” If you did nothing else in a search to understand the times we now live in you should read the 24th chapter of the gospel of Matthew. In just one verse it warns of constant wars, famines, diseases, earthquakes and says that this is just the beginning of sorrows. It gives a warning that unless the time of these things was shortened no one on this planet would survive. But for the sake of those who do believe and trust in God these events will be cut short. From the time of Jesus Christ and the disciples all of these things have been recorded, preserved and now published in one book in every known language on earth, so there can be no excuse. As we read our newspapers, we should maintain an awareness of what is actually going on in the world and keep in mind the six signs that Jesus Christ gave us so we would know roughly the time in which to expect his return and the end of this present age of Man. These are (1) False prophets – we are aware of these more and more through television. (2) Wars – these are more numerous than probably any other time in history. (3) Famines – shortage of food for multiple millions of people is now a reality. Especially in vast areas of Africa. (4) Earthquakes – It is stated that the number and intensity of earthquakes in the last 100 years is at a level higher than any other time in history. (5) Tribulation – here one can cite the constant attack on the reality of God and those who believe in Him and accept His word. (6) The gospel would be preached throughout the world. Until recent years this was not possible, but now through the power of the Internet the truth is preached without fear or favour and can be freely heard by multiple thousands in almost every nation on earth. What could trigger the events that would bring the world to the edge of destruction? The Earl of Stirling recently wrote a paper with the title “The Iran War – How It Will Begin.” He has served as a consultant to three very high tech aerospace companies. His specialty was to ascertain the direction of weapons development. To extrapolate these to see where it would all lead. He says that at some time in the weeks to months ahead there will be war launched on Iran. He continues to say “What I see unfolding with a war on Iran is the most frightening set of circumstances I have ever seen; and I have been involved in advanced theoretical weaponry strategy and design for over 20 years. Regardless of how it starts he says “the probabilities of the war becoming a major regional war within 48 hours are 90% or higher.” He goes on to outline the most likely order of events. Throughout the middle east there are very large stocks of some of the most lethal weapons in existence, much of which has been supplied by the Soviet Union. He says that war against Iran could be instigated by Israel, the USA or by a NATO-EU-US alliance. The response would undoubtedly quickly become massive given the huge number of weaponry, missiles, etc held by the middle east nations and especially by Lebanon, and their hatred of Israel. Israel would have to quickly use neutron bombs the response to which would be all-out nuclear. Radiation would spread around the world from the nuclear bombs. The Saudis have a small number of nuclear weapons having funded the Pakistan nuclear weapon program. The death toll is estimated to be in the multiple millions of people. This would result in total global war. We cannot say this is all unlikely! It is all too likely given the hatred the Middle East nations have for Israel and their religious beliefs whereby death by what is viewed as being a martyrdom will result in immediate transition to paradise. More and more we need to understand what is happening in the world today, the power moves etc and we need to stay closer to Jesus Christ and to our Heavenly Father and pray even more earnestly “Thy kingdom come thy will be done”? —————————————————————————————————– See John Jewell’s other articles at: Jewell, John – Church of God, Bismarck (church-of-god-bismarck.org) —————————————————————————————————– |
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