Has the Hope of the Second Coming Pacified the Church and Furthered End Times Prophesy?

Part 1: Who did it?

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As I reflect on our current situation, which by in large appears to be the world getting ready to plunge headlong into the various forms of collectivism, I cannot help but ask myself, a few critical questions.

1)    Who did it?

2)    What happened?

3)    Where did it happen?

4)    When did it happen?

5)    Why did it happen?

6)    How did it happen?

As I have heavily researched our situation and the answers to these questions over the years, from a variety of perspectives, I have found that there is no one right answer to these questions. At best the answer to each is “it’s extremely complicated and will take a while to unpack.” Therefore, I will use these questions as the framework for this publication and answer them within the confines of the title’s topic, with the goal of keeping it short. We will continue to peel back the onion and add to the complexity of the puzzle in other publications.

Who did it?

I would argue the answer to this question in a biblical context is three-fold. The first, most important, and often overlooked culprit is none other than Satan. We can easily argue that without Satan, Adam and Eve would have never fallen away from God and gotten us in this mess in the first place. Satan hates God and all things that God has created and ordained. Ever wonder why the world always seems to say “hold my beer” when we think “we can’t possibly beat the last blasphemy?” Since man was made in the image of God, Satan hates us as well. However, I know he has a soft spot for us because we are so damn willing to go to hell with him. His sole remaining purpose, that I can tell, is to wage the final battle with God, where he will lose, and to “steal, kill, and destroy” along the way to cause the most collateral damage. After the account of the fall in Genesis, the Bible then continues to provide numerous additional examples between the forces of good and evil, their effects on mankind, government, culture, etc., and the consequences of active and passive participation with said forces.

Now that I have established Satan as the driver of this doom train, the next culprit, and close second, I will identify is the national (and yes even global) disobedience towards and falling away from God. This disobedience and falling away is both from the seen and unseen governments, as well as from the people as both groups and individuals. Note that one does not have to be a Christian or “saved” to participate in this unfortunate action. I have always said that the greatest lie the collectivists ever told Americans was that “you must never talk about church and politics.” Once they created a culture where no one was willing to speak up and fight against actions that were fundamentally opposed to God (evil) and our founding documents / principles (anti-American), it was easy to begin to erode everything that was keeping the collectivists at bay.

1 Samuel 13:13-14 states, “And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”

Since God and His Word are unchanging, today’s nations are to submit to the same Authority as the nations of old. Nations that do not, will eventually succumb to the judgement of the Lord, as he blesses His people and revives the land. The cycle is as old as the creation of man itself. Romans 5:19 states, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”

So let me recap where we are before I name the third and final culprit. We have a doom train, headed towards hell, and Satan is driving. Then, we have the national and global disobedience and falling away from God acting as a non-stop heaping of the dirtiest coal into the engine of this doom train to constantly increase the acceleration towards its destination. How could this possibly get any worse you ask? Maybe you don’t ask that question any more after the last few years constantly showing you there is always an answer to that question? Well, in this analogy, the train passengers that fill the doom train, and the third and final culprit, are none other than the holy Church of God. Each of us being diamonds that were brought out of the coal. However, I will argue that we are by in large, at least 90% of the church in my opinion, the lukewarm church we were warned of in Revelation. Yes, that means that it is very likely that your evangelical leaders, pastors, church, friends, and even each of us. Yes, even if you sing songs about Jesus, talk about the Bible, pray about the missionaries, and help single moms on the weekend. All that stuff is good and some of it vital, don’t get me wrong, but checking it at the door before you leave and leaving to play with Satan for 6 days and 23 hours is how we made it here in the first place. If we are honest, we are all guilty to some degree.

Revelation 3:14-22 states, “And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write,

‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”’”

Remember, the world and its ways, the second culprit, is getting thrown into the engine as fuel to hurtle us towards hell at an ever-increasing velocity. That leaves the church as the only entity, empowered by God and His holy armies when we rely on Him, who can attempt to slow the train down. Wait, why would we want to slow the train down? Well, the path to hell gets hotter and more painful the closer we get. The Bible is clear that Satan, his armies, the unrepentant, and the Earth will be cast into the lake of fire. I must also say that reading the Bible doesn’t give me a warm and fuzzy for the quality of life of the believers in the last days. So why are we always so quick to want to be that group of believers? Do we really know what we are signing up for when we pray for that? Also, never forget that we still have a Great Commission given to us by God to find as many diamonds as possible in the dirty coal before they get shoveled into the engine of the doom train. When was the last time you got really dirty in the pile of coal looking for diamonds? When was the last time you worked hard to break down the coal and look for diamonds? When was the last time you found any diamonds? Honest answers to these questions will illustrate my point. True repentance is our only hope.

Now we know who did it. In the next publication I will discuss what happened.