EXTENDED GRACE

EXTENDED GRACE

                As we look at the history of our world from a biblical point of view, we see the fall of Adam and Eve that changed everything in our world and in our universe. We see Abel as the first type of God’s Remnant and Cain as the archetypical antichrist.  We then see Seth as the first in a long line of seed bearers who will carry the seed line of faith from Adam to Noah.

                After the flood we see a new archetype of the Antichrist in Nimrod, who developed the basics of all pagan religion. This he did while trying to restore the powers of the Nephilim and the fallen angels that produced them. The tower of Babel represented his attempt to make contact with the gods that ruled the pre-flood world. But in conjunction with that we see God calling a remnant man Abram out of that pagan culture to carry the seed line of faith through which the Messiah of promise would be born.

                But God divided their languages and scattered them across the face of the earth because Nimrod was trying to form a global government. Throughout time we see Satan’s repeated attempts at global government. We see it in Babylon, in Medo-Persia, in Greece and Rome.

                God gave Nebuchadnezzar a dream which only Daniel could interpret and in its interpretation God lays out in advance Satan’s attempts at global government. But running parallel to the pagan kingdoms, we see the Remnant, the called out ones, the seed of Abraham struggling with their calling, sometimes winning and sometimes losing.

                In a sense then one could almost say that there has always been an antichrist and a Remnant people, being called out of the pagan system to serve God. The seed line of faith came through King David and on down through history to the arrival of the Messiah.

                Like I said in a previous article, God gave Satan and the children of fallen Adam 6000 years in which to make their case. But why would god allow such a thing? We ask this question in a thousand different ways, but they all boil down to “Why does God allow suffering?”

                The truth is we chose this course when we made Satan the god of this world. But God in His grace put a limit on Satan’s time. He gave Satan and us, 6000 years to fully demonstrate both the principles and the consequences of our rebellion. Does Satan’s kingdom work? Is it sustainable? Why do all of His attempts at global dominance fail? Why do his kingdoms collapse upon themselves after a certain period of time? Has Satan’s way of governing produced peace and freedom and happiness? Has it produced health and wholeness? Has it made the world a better place to live in?

                Well, apparently the human race is pretty thick skulled, because many of its citizens are now clamoring for yet another  global  government, and having forgotten all that went before, they are thinking that this world unity will produce a global Utopia. Only Jesus, God’s Son can ever do that.

                Jesus came to earth in the middle of human history to demonstrate eternal principles. In every way they are opposite of the way Satan operates. In Satan’s kingdom we grab what we can get. In Christ’s kingdom we receive by giving. In Satan’s kingdom we fight our way to the top of the heap. In Christ’s kingdom we love and serve one another. In Satan’s kingdom we kill so that we can survive. In Christ’s kingdom we lay down our lives, in order that Christ may live in us. In Satan’s kingdom, pride rules the day. In Christ’s kingdom it is the meek that will inherit the earth.

                In every way known to humanity Satan’s kingdom appears to have the upper hand, the most power, the greatest control…but the ways of greed and hatred are self-defeating and unsustainable in the long run.  Love, on eth other hand, is eternal in principle. When greed has destroyed everything around it, love still stands. God’s principles of love, and holiness and righteousness are eternal principles, that even though we suffer at the hands of the greedy and the hateful, we, like Jesus, have life beyond the grave, victory beyond the defeat and eternity beyond the 6000 year boundaries.

                There are some truths that can’t be told… they have to be demonstrated. Christ’s kingdom has to be demonstrated against a backdrop of Satan’s kingdom if questions about God are to be answered for eternity. And God could not step outside of His own principles to win the contest. He must win by loving, by meekness, by giving, by dying at the hands of those that lived by hatred and greed.

                God gave man dominion over the works of His hands. Man gave that dominion to Satan. Jesus came to buy it back and He had to do it as a man, since it was man that gave it away. But Jesus was not just a man. He was a sinless Man and He was also the Son of God. There was no one else that could have bought the world back and rescued humanity. It had to be someone bigger than all of it and the only One bigger than all of it was the One who created it all in the first place.

                So here we stand on the brink of the most crucial time in all of history. We are at the end of the 6000 years. As promised, God brought His chosen people the Jews back into their homeland Israel. God partially blinded them until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in and then He will turn back to the Jews to deal with them in what we know as the “Time of Jacob’s Trouble.”

                As promised in Zechariah 12, Jerusalem is indeed a cup of reeling and we can see the nations preparing to converge upon them in final battle. And this is not a prophecy for some previous time because it says that they will look upon Him whom they have pierced and they will mourn for Him. Furthermore in chapter 14 it speaks of a time when the Lord will fight for Israel and then He will set foot on the Mount of Olives from whence He left. And this is at the time when the Lord God will come and all the holy ones with Him. These are end time events leading into the millennial reign of Christ.

                Revelation 1:7 alludes to this same event saying: “Behold He is coming with the clouds and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. Even so, Amen.”

                So we are staring right down the throat of these final events. God announced this final period of time with blood moons and eclipses and signs in the stars. He is announcing it in the flurry of volcanoes and earthquakes and wild fluctuations in the sun. He is announcing it in the building distress among the nations as they prepare for war.  He is warning us in the planned building of the third temple in Jerusalem. He is making us aware through unprecedented storms and droughts and heat waves, in famines and pestilence and distress. He is announcing it in the formation of the last global government of the antichrist… He is announcing it in the great falling away that will soon give way to the revealing of the son of perdition. He is announcing it in the rise of the technologies that will enable the antichrist to control all buying and selling on the entire planet.

                So then where does Donald Trump fit into all of this? Well, God has placed him in office, not because he is a model Christian, but because he is a tough negotiator.  God did not put him into office so that we would suddenly place our faith in politics. We need to place our faith in God for in effect what God has done is to give us a short period of extended grace, during which America as a nation must repent of its sin, turn back to God, and call for revival and reformation and prepare for the harvest that will come in troublesome times.

                The question is; are we doing that which God gave us this short period of grace to do? Do we understand the time we are presently in, or are we just going along as if this is not a critical time?

                The Fig Tree (Israel) bloomed 70 years ago this year and Jesus said that the generation that saw all of these things take place would also see His return. Is it possible that even this year we could see a major shift in events that will catapult us into the tribulation, or the rapture, or whatever happens next?

                Everything in the world is poised for the final conflagration. God has given us a short breather, but what we do with it will determine whether we keep it or lose it. I like to think that maybe we are in Revelation 7 where the angels are holding back the winds of strife until the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads. These are not Jews as some would say, but rather they are from all 12 tribes of Israel.

                I don’t even pretend to understand this group or what they are for, other than to minister during the tribulation. At any rate, the very next thing we see in that chapter is a huge crowd that no one can number standing before the throne of God having come out of great tribulation.

                In truth I don’t think anyone fully understands some of these events and how they will play out. There are many traditional views about these things and they spit them out without questioning them, but I sense that in reality everything will look drastically different than it looks on paper.

                Look at how our ideas about the Mark of the Beast have changed with the evolution of the technologies that have finally caught up with the prophecies.

                The bottom line is that we need to place our entire faith in the Lord and stand whatever comes next for it seems to me that the time is at hand and we need oil in our lamps and we need to be willing to live or to die for what we believe and whom we believe. Jesus did say to be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. Rev. 2:10 He also told us to hold fast until He comes and he who overcomes and keeps His deeds, He will give authority over the nations and we shall rule them with a rod of Iron and that is millennium talk. See Revelation 2:25-29

                Any way you look at it my friends; we can lift up our heads, for our redemption is drawing nigh.