THE THREE SCARIEST BIBLE TEXTS

THE 3 SCARIEST TEXTS IN THE BIBLE

                This Saturday at the food distribution I was momentarily discussing some points of prophecy with fellow church members that read my blog and one of them piped up and said “Fear Monger” and she was joking of course, because she watches the same prophecy programs that Bonnie and I watch. But she also knows the beating that prophecy teachers get from so called fellow Christians. The truth is that among Christians there are those who are very resistant to any discussion about end time prophecy. I am amazed at some people’s lack of curiosity

                I want you to understand that I explore and discuss many things and sometimes I go where angels fear to tread and sometimes I may appear to be tipping over sacred cows. So when I question certain doctrines say for instance the pre-trib rapture, I am not trying to be dogmatic or argumentative. I am only suggesting that we firm up our foundations with the Word of God.

                There are many presumptions connected to certain doctrines. We presume that Daniel’s 70^th week will play out as the final 7 years of the tribulation. I believe this myself because Jesus warned of the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION spoken of by Daniel the prophet and Jesus places that event in the days preceding His second coming. (Not in AD 70) as some think. However there are many good God fearing scholars that don’t believe that the 70 weeks prophecy has anything to do with end time events, but rather took place in Jesus’ day. such subjects do not determine our salvation one way or the other, but they make a difference in how we look at Bible prophecy.

                There are also very many good God fearing students of the Bible who believe in the pre-trib rapture and I respect that, but again there are presumptions made and traditions held that may need refining as we near the end. Is it safe, for instance, to presume that we will not be here for any of the prophetic events listed in the Book of Revelation or in Jesus dissertation in Mt. 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21? Why would He give us such detained warnings if we are not going to be here? Last, but not least; when is the line crossed between the beginning of sorrows and the tribulation and the wrath of God? Can we know exactly what we will be here to experience and when we will be taken away?  Many Christians around the world are in tribulation today and giving up their lives for their faith in Jesus even as we speak. Are Americans somehow exempt?

                As we see prophetic events happening in our world today, we recognize them and we see that Bible Prophecy is being fulfilled to the letter… and yet it is being fulfilled in ways that we could not have imagined say 30 years ago. Biometric scanning and human/computer interfaces along with transhumanism and quantum computers and AI technology and 5G networks were not even dreamed of back then and yet we can see clearly today that these technologies will play a huge part in enforcing the Mark of the Beast regardless of the issues involved.

                Some people are adamant that none of these technologies have anything to do with the Mark of the Beast… that it is strictly spiritual or doctrinal and who knows? They may be right, but I am still not going to take an implanted chip in my right hand such as 800 people in Sweden have already done. These technologies are starting to look a whole lot like Bible Prophecy and so every one of us should study and pray about these things and to make a firm personal stand by establishing in our own lives a line that we will not cross over even at the cost of our lives.

                We do know for certain that the Mark of the Beast will involve the controlling of all buying and selling and that to take it will represent our denial of Christ and our embracing of the global system of the Beast. We also know from Rev.14:9-11 that those who take the Mark of the Beast will go into the lake of fire. It is the final test of our faith and our fidelity to Jesus. We must decide between Christ and antichrist … between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of this world. And those who choose Satan and his kingdom will be lost just as surely as Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden when they chose to follow Satan rather than God. The issues have always been the same.

                Strangely enough there are some preachers who claim that God will forgive us if we take the Mark of the Beast. On whose authority do they say that since Rev. 14 says that all who take the Mark will be assigned to the lake of fire?

                But as far as fear mongering is concerned, Bible prophecy is not the scariest thing and even the epic events that are shaping up in our world today are not nearly as scary as three scenarios that Jesus Himself gave to us.

1.       Jesus pictures for us 10 virgins and five of them were not let into the marriage feast because they had no oil in their lamps. Mt. 25:1-12

2.       For those who had neither love, nor compassion for those in need, Jesus said: “Depart from Me, accursed ones into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels, for I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat: I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink…” Mt. 25:41-46

3.       Again in Rev. 3:14-22 Jesus spoke to the last day church saying that because they were neither hot nor cold but lukewarm, He would spit them out of His mouth.

                Certainly if we are complacent about our relationship with Jesus and our mission to become His disciples and to carry on His work in the world, we will have to answer for our casual Christianity.

                Another scary text would be Hebrews 10:26-29 where it says that if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of fire which will consume the adversaries.

                This one hits right at the heart of today’s false grace where it is taught that it doesn’t matter what we do. God loves us anyway. No… God says that He will be no means clear the guilty. (Ex. 34:7) God is loving and merciful and long suffering, but He cannot overlook our sin. He forgives us, but that forgiveness came at the cost of His own life.  He died for us and we, by faith must receive that death as our own and then walk in newness of life. We must confess our sins and repent of them (which is to turn away from them) and we must walk in righteousness and holiness, living by the Spirit and not by the flesh. See Romans chapter 8.

                Christianity is not a game we play. It is not an organization, but a personal relationship with Jesus Christ through His Word and through His Holy Spirit.

                So for us who are living in the last days, we need to study the Word diligently. We need to seek to understand the prophecies and to recognize them as they unfold. The Body of Christ would do well to put away our doctrinal guns and to seek for an ever growing understanding of God’s plans and purposes for these last days. Bible prophecy is not given to scare us, but to prepare us. If we shy away from that which Jesus has given us for our understanding and readiness, we will have no one to blame but ourselves… and yet at this critical juncture large portions of the body of Christ are abandoning the fundamentals of the Gospel and of prophecy and they are actually falling away from the faith and joining in with the kingdom of the antichrist.

                The church has been infiltrated by false doctrines and false teachers and false prophets and it has been going on for a very long time and so we dare not sit back and presume that we have all the answers. We need to study the Word and pray for understanding so that as these things come to pass we will recognize them and we will understand the issues and we will know to take our stand with the Lord at every turn.

                So if I tip over a few sacred cows from time to time, don’t think that I am purposely being argumentative. I am not even telling you what you must believe. Rather I am encouraging us to dig deeper and to know what we believe and why we believe it. We must not be satisfied with doctrines that are not backed by scripture, or with doctrines that are made by collecting some scriptures while ignoring others. You can make the Bible say whatever you want it to say, if you form your doctrines in that way. So, take everything the Bible says on a subject rather than choosing a few texts that support your view.

                We are in this together. We can help and encourage each other and we can diligently seek understanding about what is happening in our world. And by all means we must understand that maturity in the Body of Christ has a lot to do with our being transformed by the renewing of our minds in Christ Jesus. We are being transformed into His image, by His power and not our own.  This life also has a lot to do with living by the Spirit and the Word rather than by the flesh. We belong to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and not to the kingdom of this world. The things we believe and live for, the world cannot even comprehend. They think we are nuts and worthy only of death… and the more we are like Jesus, the more they will want to kill us. This is true because, like it or not, we are either animated by the Holy Spirit or we are animated by the spirit of this world and it was the spirit of this world that put Jesus to death in the first place.

                However, Jesus rose from the dead and He now reigns as our High Priest and soon coming King. So take courage my friends. We are not alone in this battle. In fact Hebrews 12:1-2 assures us saying:

                “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

                All of heaven is cheering us on to the finish line. We can be a part of the revealing of the sons of God as spoken of in Romans 8: 19-23 if we will trust in Jesus with all of our hearts.