FEARFUL AND GLORIOUS TIMES

 A FEARFUL AND GLORIOUS TIME

                There are many prophetic conferences going on around the USA and around the world right now. There is a new sense of awe among all people who understand the times and see the signs of our Lord’s return. It is not so much any one sign, but a convergence of signs that has everyone sitting on the edge of our seats.

In His parable of the fig tree, Jesus let it be known that the generation that saw Israel bloom again, being drawn back from all of the nations wherein they had been scattered; would be the generation that would see all things fulfilled.

                Ezekiel 38 describes these days saying: “After many days you will be summoned; in the later years you will come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel which had been a continual waste; but its people were brought out from the nations and they are living securely, all of them.: Ez. 38:8

                It is at that exact time that God says that Gog and his troops will come like a storm. God goes on to describe the nations that will join Gog in this invasion               and these are the very nations that are currently confederated against Israel and ready to drive her into the sea.

                Jesus; in describing the days just before His return, pointed out that a temple would be in Jerusalem, for the antichrist will commit the ABOMINATIN OF DESOLATION there. And of course, we see that the temple is ready to be built and could be put up in a matter of weeks. So Bible prophecies once thought to be allegories are now unfolding before us literally.

                Among the prophecy groups today, there are two major opinions or groups. One group believes that we will have a grand and glorious harvest and then be raptured out of here before the Tribulation. The other group teaches that there will be a great harvest that will be accompanied by great persecution and tribulation and that in this multiple process the church will be purged and purified and be made ready as a Bride adorned for her husband.

                Ezekiel, chapters 9 and 10 talk about a time in Israel when the glory of the Lord departed from Israel and judgment came. At that time the Lord instructed a certain unnamed man dressed in linen with a writing case at his loins telling him to put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst.

                Then the executioners were to destroy everyone who did not have a mark on their forehead and they were to start with the elders who were before the temple. And thus they went out and struck down all the people in the city. Then chapter 10 goes on to describe the departing of the glory of the Lord from the temple.

                Throughout the Bible we are warned about the day of the Lord. It is described as a day like no other, when the Lord will purge His threshing floor. His wheat will be gathered into His barns and the tares and chaff will be thrown into the fire.

                IN Jesus’ day, they wanted a King who would judge the nations and specifically to overthrow Rome and restore the Kingdom to Israel. Jesus never refuted this concept. He will indeed do this, but that was not His role at His first coming. HE came the first time as a suffering servant gentle and meek and mild, to heal and bless His people and then to die for their sins.

                However, when He returns He is coming as King, to judge the earth… to separate wheat from tares and grain from chaff.

                Mal. 4:1-3 says: “for behold the day is coming, burning like a furnace and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff and the day that is coming will set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear My name the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in his wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. And you will tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under your feet on the day which I am preparing, says the Lord of Hosts.”

                Jeremiah tells us about a momentous time just before the Babylonian captivity when there were many prophets in Israel. The majority of them were false prophets and Jeremiah, a young man had to stand up to them and tell the truth. He said:

                “Thus says the Lord of hosts, Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into futility; they speak a vision of their own imagination not from the mouth of the Lord. They say, ‘Calamity will not come upon you. But who has stood in the council of the Lord that he should see and hear His word? Behold, the storm of the Lord has gone forth in wrath, even the whirling tempest; It will swirl down on the head of the wicked. The anger of the Lord will not turn back until HE has performed and carried out the purposes of His heart; IN THE LAST DAYS YOU WILL CLEARLY UNDERSTAND IT.”

                “I did not send these prophets, but they ran. I did not speak to them, but they prophesied. But if they had stood in My council, then they would have announced My words to My people, and would have turned them back from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds.” Jer. 23:16-22

                IN these chapters we see a perfect replica of our day. They teach a false grace in which we don’t need to overcome sin and cast the chaff out of our lives by the power of Christ. They picture for us a great harvest during times of ease and then a great sweep as Jesus gathers up everyone who has ever been called by His name and ushers them into the kingdom whether they have on a wedding garment or not… whether they have been faithful to their betrothal or not… whether they have been sanctified and set apart from God or not… whether they have come out of Babylon or not… whether they have made themselves ready as a Bride adorned for her Husband or not.

                Practically the entire Bible is devoted to teaching us how to prepare for the marriage supper of the Lamb. What about Esther spending an entire year soaking in spices and perfumes before her night with the King? What about all of the saint of God listed in the faith hall of fame? (Heb. 11.) What about the five- fold ministry of the church whose job it is to build up the Body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ?” What about our challenge in Romans 8 of living by the Spirit rather than by the flesh? What about the remnant saints who are identified as those who keep the commandments of God, and hold to the testimony of Jesus which is the Spirit of prophecy? What about the redeemed saints on the Sea of Glass who are said to have come off victorious from the beast and from his image and from the number of his name?  What about the huge crowd which no man can number, who have come out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb?

                What about the faith and the perseverance of the saints in Revelation 13:8. It says: “And all who DWELL ON THE EARTH will worship him, EVERY ONE whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.” What about the Beast that comes out of the abyss? It says: ”And those who DWELL ON THE EARTH will wonder, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast? Who are these?

                What about God’s people in Revelation 18 when it says: “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her My people…” Who are these people? This cannot be Jews, because these are the people referred to in Revelation 17 who belong to the woman (the church) that rides on the scarlet beast. Many believe this to be the Vatican.

                I have given you these examples as just a few out of many.  Should it not give us pause that nearly every group mentioned in the book of Revelation is still on the earth except for the 144,000 in Rev. 19? Should it not give us pause when Jesus gives a parable in which only half of the virgins made it into the wedding feast?

                My purpose is not to create fear or discouragement. My purpose is to get us to think and to questions our traditions. We presume that many things are right in spite of the fact that there are some 30,000 denominations, each one with its own interpretation. And now, to add to the confusion, we have an abundance of prophets these days and we have to sort out which ones speak from God and which ones are speaking from their own imaginations saying the words that the people want to hear.

                Should we not be on our knees before God, working out our own salvation with fear and trembling?

                We can be saved even if we have the wrong interpretation of prophecy… but it may not go so well for us if we don’t think that we must prepare as a bride adorned for her Husband without spot or wrinkle, or that we don’t need the oil of the Holy Spirit in our lives, or that we don’t need to overcome even as He overcame, by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony.

                We have entered into an era in which cotton candy preaching will no longer do. We must either speak from God or shut up and go home. It profits very little to argue  as to when the rapture might be, but we surely must know that our lives need to be purged and purified, and that we must come fully out of Babylon through the cross of Christ, to be born again into His kingdom where we now live by His Spirit and not by our flesh. That much you can take to the bank.

                We have entered into a fearful and glorious time. It is a time to get right with God. Selah