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It is impossible to
look at the recent events occurring around the world and not
know that the “beginning of sorrows” has begun. The preachers
loved or at least tolerated on television are actually walking
over truth and denying any connection between present events and
the Bible. They could not be more wrong or more foolish in their
drive to be politically correct. How could any man of this
Blessed Book not connect such apparent Divine reckoning as
evidence of Bible prophecy? Jesus wrote about this period just
before the Seven Years of the Great Tribulation. He said, “For
many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall
deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see
that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass,
but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation,
and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and
pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are
the beginning of sorrows.” (Matthew 24:5-8)
The word “accidents”
or the phrases “bad luck” or “good luck” are not acceptable to
the Word of God. The Creator of this universe is a “present
Landlord.” “The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof;
the world, and they that dwell therein.” (Psalm 24:1) The
Apostle Paul could not have said it better when he spoke by the
Holy Ghost about this issue. He said, “And we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them who
are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did
foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom
he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them
he also glorified.” (Romans 8:28) A saint of God can absolutely
trust God in every detail of his life and trust in His perfect
performance of mercy and grace.
The exact same, but
on an opposite side, will be true in the life of the wicked.
When I say “wicked”, I mean any individual that is not living a
converted life in full obedience to the Word or will of God. The
unbelieving will be just as fearful as the wicked themselves
when great evil comes. There is no protection for that person
that claims Christ but lives in willful disobedience. “For if we
sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the
truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.” (Hebrews
10:26) It is the sacrifice of Christ and the blood that is a
barrier to the destruction of your life by the forces of sin and
judgment. The Blood, applied and daily sprinkled by the Holy
Spirit upon every expression of your lifestyle, will keep you
within the protection of your Father’s perfect will.
Outside of that
barrier of the Blood of Jesus is nothing but sorrow and
destruction. Sometimes it seems that destruction tarries for
years and suddenly falls upon the unprotected like a relentless
storm. But, destruction will eventually come every time as God’s
Word has declared. Look at the words of the Spirit on this
subject. “What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make
his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of
wrath fitted to destruction.” (Romans 9:22) There are many
examples of this in individual lives as well as cities and
countries. New Orleans is a prime example of mercy that has
finally come to the fruit of destruction. This past week one
hundred thousand plus homosexuals were expected to descend on
that city spending a suggested one hundred million dollars for
the sheer joy of blasphemy. Any man is a fool that denies the
connection between these ultimate blasphemies of God with the
storm that has descended. Compare other natural disasters and
the unity of all the populists in overcoming and rebuilding with
the total chaos of human depravity that has shocked this city
and you can see nothing but the wilderness of sin.
Nothing that occurs
is an accident. It is always either a combination of mercy and
judgment, just mercy, or just judgment. Nothing in our God’s
universe just happens. “That ye may be the children of your
Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the
evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the
unjust.” (Matthew 5:45) The difference is most often what we do
with the results. With God’s divine help and intervention the
righteous rise and shine when sorrows come, but the opposite
occurs with the wicked.
The Beginning of
Sorrows
The destruction of Hurricane Katrina and the sorrows and pains
we are all feeling is a wake-up call to America. This universe
is on a dead end street to God’s judgment. We are only
increasing our sorrows to ignore this fact. Every act of sin
committed by every living soul is feeding the frenzy of
blasphemy against God. There is no sin that does not have
consequences. Your little sins may take longer to come to
fruition, but they are piling up. The blasphemy against the
Bible, the Son of God that sacrifices His blood, and the
blasphemy against the very sacredness of human morality and
beauty is creating a storm of coming reckoning. Nothing of sin
and wickedness can escape the All-Seeing, All-Knowing Creator,
our God of the Holy Bible.
Look at the
wickedness of this week. In Charlotte there were twenty plus
reports of fights and disturbances at gas stations and it is not
even bad yet. The sheer chaos in New Orleans is but a small
picture of coming sorrows. We have watched a brief picture on a
very little scale of the coming Seven Years of the Great
Tribulation. Can you imagine living in a world where two to
three billion men, women, and children have died, been murdered,
or brutally destroyed in the short period of a few years? If you
can multiply the sorrow in New Orleans by a few million, then
you will begin to understand. Millions of corpses will lie in
the open and be devoured by the starving animal kingdom. Much of
human population will blaspheme God for the judgment just like
the multitudes in New Orleans have attacked the very expression
of human compassion that has tried to help them. Human nature is
on the verge of descending into such vileness that animals of
destruction will seem tame in comparison.
Conclusion
The prophecy of Holy Scripture has set before us a clear and
precise picture. Most of the church world has accepted the lie
that they are going to set up a kingdom of righteousness. This
false idea has many names: Post-Millennialism, Kingdom Dominion,
A-Millennialism, etc. It is all a lie, and we are going to see
very quickly what falsehood it really represents.
The beginning of the
end is very evident and clear to see. Read Revelation chapter
six, verses fifteen to seventeen. “And the kings of the earth,
and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and
the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid
themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and
said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from
the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath
of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who
shall be able to stand?” (Revelation 6:15-17) The “beginning of
sorrows” has begun!
Joseph R. Chambers |