"In the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!"
2 Timothy 3:1-5
The past few years have been unlike anything that I have seen in my lifetime. Only those who have put their heads in the sand like the proverbial ostrich would describe our current events as normal. Never would I have imagined, and I have a large imagination, seeing what is taking place politically, morally, philosophically, culturally, and scientifically on both a national and a global scale. You may not agree with my assessments, but please read this article with an open mind. Why? Because I thoroughly believe that we are living in the last days leading up to the rapture of the church and the subsequent return of our Lord.
COVID...
The China Virus (COVID-19 for the politically correct) swept upon us in early 2020 and created international panic, chaos, and fear. Some have declared that it actually began spreading in the latter months of 2019, but remained undetected by those agencies that monitor, track, and warn about potentially deadly diseases. An unlikely source was first blamed: infected bats from a wet market in Wuhan, China. Whispers then began to rise up about a research lab in that same city that conducts what is known as gain of function experiments. This research involves taking known pathogens, "super-charging" them to discover how deadly they can become, and then what must be done to eradicate and destroy them should they ever naturally mutate to such a dangerous level. Experts initially tried to stop any and all information concerning a potential lab leak, then laughed at the prospect of the lab being the source of COVID as the ridiculous ramblings of small minded individuals who are possessed with innumerable conspiracy theories.
In some earlier writings, I confessed that the entire scenario, to me personally, had the smell of a dead rat. It is no secret that the Chinese Communist Party had a severe hatred for then President Donald Trump. His America first agenda did not help them in their quest for greater financial and global power. In fact, his America first agenda was not very popular with our professional politicians, Washington bureaucrats, and everyone else in the DC swamp who enjoyed lavish lifestyles at the expense of American taxpayers and massive money moved internationally and put in secret bank accounts. (By the way, wouldn't it be interesting to know how much money the Washington elites and powerful investors made from their insider trading into pharmaceutical companies as all of this COVID drama unfolded?)
So, what could be done by the CCP, in conjunction with those in Washington who hated our President, to insure the removal of Mr. Trump in the midst of the greatest and strongest economic renewal that our country has ever experienced? Why not create a situation that would shut down our country and communities, kill our record setting economy, spread panic through the liberal bias of the mainstream media, and escalate a incalculable measure of fear and confusion by allowing the inept CDC to flip flop their guidelines on a continual basis. And to make sure a transition in power was complete, let's ILLEGALLY VIOLATE election laws by allowing state governors to change how ballots would be cast (in the name of public safety of course) when only the legislative bodies of those state governments have the constitutional authority to adjust election procedures! Well, it worked. Am I saying this dangerous and deadly virus was intentionally released as an orchestrated plan to alter the direction of our nation? Yes. And as someone who does not swim deeply in the waters of political activism told me, they believe that the Chinese government exposed select citizens to the virus and then flew them to places around the world to insure sickness, death, and panic would occur on a global scale, solidifying the effectiveness of their sinister plan.
Now we have an administration in power that's killing our economy, despises our Christian heritage of biblical morality, illegally opens our southern border, demands strict adherence to worthless vaccines and mask mandates, gives weapons of war to the Taliban, and funnels billions of dollars into a Ukrainian government, that just happens to have multiple business dealings with the Biden family, in their struggle against a Russian invasion.
Culture...
"This is not a riot," says the CNN reporter standing in an area of a city with multiple minority owned businesses on fire, "it's a mostly peaceful protest against white supremacy."
"These are not looters!" says an observer watching hundreds of masked individuals breaking into jewelry, electronic, and high-end clothing stores on Rodeo Drive outside of Los Angeles. "This is the result of systemic racism that causes people of color to be unable to put bread on the table," says an activist as she watches someone put multiple boxes of merchandise in the trunk of an expensive Lexus sedan and then drive away toward the darkness of Beverly Hills.
Statues and monuments have been defaced and destroyed. Private property and municipal buildings have been attacked, looted, and burned. Business owners and police officers have been assaulted. Busy highways and even multiple blocks of downtown cities have been occupied by groups of deranged individuals. In the name of equity, diversity, and inclusion, the land of the free and the home of the brave now promotes drag queen story time at the library. We allow sexual perverts and predators to teach in our schools. We place morally defiled and depraved individuals into powerful political offices. And now we have world renowned hospitals leading the way in providing dangerous drugs and life altering surgery to little children who are having a difficult time understanding the difference in being a boy or a girl! As a country boy might say, "What in tarnation is going on?"
Gone are the innocent days of my childhood, which remind me more and more of Mayberry, North Carolina than our current cultural reality. I do not remember any episode of the Andy Griffith Show where Miss Crump was asking the children about their preferred pronouns while promoting transgenderism. They had Earnest T. Bass come to school in one episode, but they never had a Corporal Klinger type character show up to indoctrinate the classroom in perversion. And if you are not familiar with the television show, MASH, Klinger was a man that wore women's clothing in hopes of getting a Section Eight discharge, which meant that he would go home based upon his incurable INSANITY. Yes, only a few short years ago when a man claimed to be women, he was not applauded, promoted, and lifted to a celebrity status, he was quietly placed into a mental institution.
The Bible says, "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" (Isaiah 5:20) And the scriptures also teach: "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!" (Matthew 18:6-7)
The Church...
As COVID and culture continue to infect and influence us, where is the body of Christ? Well, for quite a while we were nonexistent. Believing that we should walk according to Romans 13:1-3, we suspended services in 2020 for the good of our communities and to set a biblical example. I briefly supported this action until I began to notice that abortion clinics, liquor stores, gas stations, along with other "essential" businesses remained open. I also noticed that many family owned stores were not allowed to reopen because of safety concerns, while the large and powerful box stores served customers on a daily basis. Like John MacArthur of Grace Community Church in southern California, I believed enough was enough, and that it was time for the church to obey God rather than man. "Forsake not the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching." (Hebrews 10:25)
Sadly, however, this was not the mindset of many church leaders, and congregations that were struggling before COVID, never reopened. It is truly a sad day when a spiritual light, no matter how dim it might have been, is forever extinguished. Other churches reopened, but it was simply a return to religious expressions of traditional habits. Rather than taking the opportunity to cry out to God for a mighty moving of His Spirit to usher in powerful revival and personal renewal, multiple congregations settled comfortably back into their padded pews of boring Christianity. Today, I know of some fundamental churches that are seeking to become bright lights shining in and beyond their communities. Yet the sad reality is that they are being met by powerful forces of demonic resistance that do not want revived men and women of faith to rise up against their kingdom of darkness. Beloved, the Devil has been working hard behind the scenes of both the advancement of COVID and our cultural decline, and he desires nothing more than to see weak and lethargic churches meeting together without the power and presence of God. A famous preacher once said, "The Devil is not fighting our churches, he's joining them." Well, to be honest, in some congregations he's neither fighting nor joining, he's running them!
As I said in the opening paragraph, I believe that we are getting so very close to the rapture of the true church and the eventual return of the Lord. Beloved, time is running out! That is why I often insert the phrase, WAKE UP CHURCH, in my devotional thoughts and online posts. Now is not the time to be sleepy eyed and unconcerned members of Christ's church. It's time to come alive in His word, be filled with His Spirit, and implement His purpose for you as an individual. And this should be the desire, as well, of the entire fellowship of believers, the church, in every community across this land and around the world. Let's "seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; And to our God, for He will abundantly pardon!" (Isaiah 55:6-7) Hallelujah; Amen!
