It is difficult to even keep up with the enormous changes and dangers in the world right now. There is an election coming in France that could alter the entire geopolitical landscape. There are issues such as bitcoin that could change economies....and that outcome could go either way. Alliances are forming and readying for potential wars. One could try to make predictions on where nations will go based on things that are good....and things that are evil....but as we have seen so often in our own country....our pocketbooks can be the determining factor. Violence is a significant part of us today. I'm not just referring to statistics and news stories....but love has grown ice cold in us. Compassion is rare. Truth for truth sake....is obsolete.
This much should be certain to any discerning Christian....Jesus is at the very doorstep....but unfortunately one of the life-verses in evangelicalism today is that no one knows the day or the hour of the Lord's return. The same Bible consistently throughout tells us to keep vigilant.....and to heed the warnings.....and that we may not be able to discern the day....but we will be able to discern the season....and that season is here.
We should know that a great delusion is coming....if it is not already here....but we should know this also....a winnowing is coming.....where people who we might beforehand be sure are believers.....will turn on Christians.....for practical and political purposes. This is what makes our current blinding involvement in politics so important....that we should at the least be warned....as we are already starting to rebuke Christians who will not automatically follow a political leader or a political cause.
Redeemed Christians are a remnant today....within a greater evangelical element. There cannot be ten percent of the American population who are born again. Analysis of surveys and polls alone show this. A poll released just today reports that 'nearly two-thirds of Americans would be comfortable if their child was gay.' Scripture tells us that few are saved....and that there is a straight gate....and that many will say...."Lord did I not do this or that" but Jesus will say to them...."Depart from me. I never knew you."
There may very well be an awakening ahead....and that is our prayer....that many will be gathered in....but even if there is to be an awakening we will still be a remnant. Billy Graham's warnings over so many years were correct. He did not mince his words....but we ignored them. The warnings from God's Word are there. The evidence is there that we....as a nation....are so very similar to Israel and Judah.....Israel in those among us who set up our own altars to our own gods....not even pretending to be God-fearing.....and Judah as us....registering in the affirmative in every survey given as to being Christian....but having assimilated rather than separated from the love of money and power.
Jeremiah was known as the 'weeping prophet'....but Daniel wept also....Isaiah wept....,Micah wept....other prophets wept....but God told Ezekiel not to weep....because the destruction that was coming was foretold. So it is with us. Billy Graham....in his last sermon....told how he had so often wept for America. I wrote a post many years ago which I titled....Read....And Maybe Weep....where I included a petition wherein our congress pleaded to God for mercies on judgments that we clearly deserved...and President Lincoln signed that declaration...."weep'.....because it was so obvious that we today had no such humility.
This is a time for weeping....but then this is also a time rejoicing....rejoicing in that the King of Kings....and the Lord of Glory is returning. That some wish to cling to ignorance of this is their business. God's Word indeed tells us that the coming of Jesus will be like a thief in the night....when not expected....and that is surely what will happen.....but that is not told of us who look to His return.
Matthew 24:32: "From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates." (ESV)
Note: The post....Read....And Maybe Weep....and the proclamation of congress....can be read by going back to August 31, 2018.
