Friday was market day in the rural town in Ghana where I grew up. After all these years, I still recall one particular vendor. Her fingers and toes eroded by Hansen’s disease (leprosy), she would crouch on her mat and scoop her produce with a hollowed-out gourd. Some avoided her. My mother made it a point to buy from her regularly. I saw her only on market days. Then she would disappear outside the town.
In the time of the ancient Israelites, diseases like leprosy meant living “outside the camp.” It was a forlorn existence. Israelite law said of such people, “They must live alone” (Leviticus 13:46). Outside the camp was also where the carcasses of the sacrificial bulls were burned (4:12). Outside the camp was not where you wanted to be.
This harsh reality breathes life into the statement about Jesus in Hebrews 13: “Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore” (v. 13). Jesus was crucified outside the gates of Jerusalem, a significant point when we study the Hebrew sacrificial system.
We want to be popular, to be honored, to live comfortable lives. But God calls us to go “outside the camp”—where the disgrace is. That’s where we’ll find the vendor with Hansen’s disease. That’s where we’ll find people the world has rejected. That’s where we’ll find Jesus.
By Tim Gustafson
REFLECT & PRAY
How do you initially react to outsiders and misfits? In what practical way might you go to Jesus “outside the camp”?
Thank You, Jesus, that You don’t show any favoritism. Thank You for going outside the camp for me.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
The audience for the New Testament letter to the Hebrews consisted of the Diaspora—Jewish Christ-followers who’d been scattered due to persecution. The nature of the audience perhaps explains the heavy emphasis on Israel’s history and the sacrificial system of Judaism, which forms a point of reference for the work of Jesus. The content of the letter is clearly Christ-centered, lifting Jesus up as superior to angels, priests, and Moses, and affirming Christ’s redemptive sacrifice as superior to the sacrificial system of Israel’s temple. Hebrews is also shrouded in mystery, due largely to the fact that this letter is anonymous. The human authorship of Hebrews has long been the subject of both scholarly and devotional examination, with much ink being spilled arguing for a particular author. The individuals named as potential authors range from Paul to Apollos to Barnabas to Luke to Priscilla and more.
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One of the great barometers of true Christian love, is the willingness to leave our comfort zone and reach those outside the camp. I am grateful that I serve in a church that is willing to do so. In Christ, Pastor Steve <><
Being a Christian is by far the greatest blessing one could receive. Who can reject the glory of God, and the awesome love and forgiveness that Jesus has to offer? Yet, sadly, there are many out there who have convinced themselves that they are Christians, when, unfortunately, they are not. Here is a shortlist of signs that you can use to examine yourself, or someone else, to test whether or not you are truly in the faith. This is by far not an exhaustive list, nor is it meant to discourage true believers.
Sign #1, Avoiding Persecution
There are many who claim to be believers and claim to know Christ as their Savior, and will even put on a good show of morality most of the time, but when proclaiming the name of Christ gets tough, they back down. This is not to say that a Christian will never have moments of weakness. We know from the Bible that even the great Apostle Peter denied Jesus three times (Matthew 26:34). But if you repeatedly find yourself retreating when you are being persecuted, or purposely deny or hide your Christianity in order to avoid persecution altogether, you probably have no reason to believe you are saved.
…A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.
In the above passage, the Parable of the sower, Jesus speaks of those seeds that did not fall on good ground—they have no roots or foundation. Since they don’t have this good soil where they have been able to establish healthy roots, the intense heat of the sun just dries them up, and they wither away. This is what happens to professing Christians when they have no foundation to stand on. When they aren’t grounded in true saving faith, they tend to wither away when they face opposition. They won’t stand up for what they believe in because they don’t really believe it. Matthew 10:32-33 says,
So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
If you don’t see yourself facing persecution, and standing your ground, or at least trying to stand your ground, you very well may be a false convert. If you find yourself resorting to acting like a carnal man when around other non-Christians in order to “fit in,” you may want to examine your heart to see if you are truly saved.
Sign #2, Constant Worry
This one seems to be one of the biggest problems among professing Christians. There are some who have a preoccupation with worry, especially about worldly things like food, clothing, and money.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. —Matthew 6:24-34
God promises us he will provide us with everything we need. If you find yourself constantly worrying about making ends meet, or you are not content with what you have been provided with, this is evidence that you are not putting your trust in God’s promises. Faith is the key requirement for salvation, for, without faith, one cannot be saved (Eph 2:8-9). Luke 8:13 says the false convert will receive the Word with joy, but the joy will be short-lived. You will eventually fall back into your state of worry and unfaithfulness. If you are perpetually worried about these things, then you are relying on yourself, rather than God, and you might be a false convert.
Sign #3, Unfruitful Relationships
Another sign that you or someone else may be a false convert is having little or no desire to develop friendships with other believers. When you are truly converted, and your desires are aligned with the will of God, you will long for friends that will lift you up in your walk with Christ, as well as hold you accountable (Ecc 4:9-12, Proverbs 27:9). Moreover, James 4:4 says,
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
A true Christian wants to develop relationships that honor God. This does not necessarily mean that we can’t know and befriend any non-Christians at all, in fact, we are required to do so for the sake of sharing the Gospel. But that’s the key, our priority with non-Christian friends should be sharing the Gospel with them. The Bible also says
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? —2 Corinthians 6:14
Taking any friendship with non-Christians to the level of partnership, or fellowship is forbidden in Scripture. Yes, it’s understood that you have obligations to family members, and you are required to be close to them, but again, your priority with them as a Christian should be showing them the love of Christ. So if you find yourself putting off invitations to hang out with people in your Sunday School class because they make you feel uncomfortable, or if you find yourself more content with hanging out with non-Christian buddies from work, yet no desire to develop deep relationships with Christians, you might be a false convert.
Sign #4, Self Indulgence
Many Christians struggle with sin after they are saved. Bad habits are hard to break, even for the most faithful of believers. Some people may have smoking addictions, some people might curse. Some people may have a certain affinity towards self-gratification, indulging in things like unhealthy amounts of television, sports, entertainment, etc. Whatever the sin is, the true Christian will struggle with this.
This is one of the tougher areas for the Christian to attack because it takes an ongoing, conscious effort to break habits. However, one sign that you are at true convert is if you are actually struggling with this activity. If you are a true Christian, your desire is to be obedient to Christ and to become more Christ-like (1 John 2:6). As a Christian, you now represent Christ, and it is no longer you who lives, but Christ who lives in you (Galatians 2:20). You now live by faith, fending off your sins and worldly desires.
This is not to say that you won’t sin, or fall, but if you find yourself never struggling with your sin, never feeling any Godly sorrow for your sin, perhaps you need to rethink your standing in Christ. Christ gives you a new heart when you are saved, and removes your heart of stone (Ezekiel 36:26). If you’re always too busy to spend time in the Word of God, you might not be saved. If you’re putting off your relationship with Christ, skipping church, not reading your Bible, and not ministering to your family, yet you are watching football, you curse at work around your buddies, you find yourself angry and unforgiving often, and you feel no Godly remorse, you very well may be a false convert.
Sign #5, Pride
Probably the biggest tell-tale sign of a false convert is pride. Pride is the root of all of the other signs of a false convert. Proverbs 16:5 says “Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished.” Arrogance is Satan’s number one tool to stop you from believing the Gospel, it stands in direct opposition to any form of repentance, and anyone who is proud cannot be saved.
However, there are many who are proud yet profess to be Christians. They run around naming the name of Christ, might have Christian bumper stickers on their cars, and they may even try to share the Gospel with others, but if you try to rebuke this person, or call this person out regarding their sin, they will reject you. They absolutely cannot stand to be told that they are wrong about something. They will mock you and argue with you, and never accept responsibility for their wrongdoings. Proverbs 9:8 says,
Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you.
The scoffer, or mocker, will not be corrected, but one of the marks of being saved is someone who is humble and open to reproof. James 4:6 says,
God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Those who are humble in spirit are repentant and receive God’s grace. If you always have an argumentative heart towards correction and reproof, and you are unable to hear when someone is confronting you about sin in your life, you very well may be a false convert. I’ll end with the following two passages addressing pride:
Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. —Luke 18:10-14
When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. —Luke 14:8-11
Conclusion
All Christians struggle with certain things, and some more than others. If you are a relatively new convert, expect to struggle more than the seasoned Christian who has been saved and serving God for 40 years. The fact is, you should be improving constantly in all of these areas. There may be ups and downs, but if you take a look at the last year of your life, and you see no improvement in any of these signs, I would suggest you start praying and ask God to open your eyes and reveal himself to you. I pray that this list is glorifying to God first and foremost, but also that it be edifying to those who take the time to read it.
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The World Economic Forum’s obsession with not only merely digitization, but digitalization as a means of tracking and control, is manifest in yet another document that has come out of the group.
This time, the WEF is joined by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in drafting their thoughts on what the future of trade, but also, when all’s said and done – humanity – should look like.
The joint report, The Promise of Trade Tech: Policy Approaches to Harness Trade Digitalization, came out in April, and addresses end-to-end trade digitization to include a digital ID certification framework that would, needless to say, be global – and apply to physical and digital objects, but also, people, i.e., natural persons.
Even now, when the pandemic, the supply chain mayhem, and many key geopolitical trends are showing that the heyday of globalization is over, this concept remains firmly embedded in the thinking of the Davos-based WEF, and, it turns out, of the WTO, also based in Switzerland.
The report explains the need to build “end-to-end trade digitization” – where natural and legal persons and objects are treated equally – with so-called identity silos, or identity domains, no longer viable. In other words, interoperable ID systems must become “global.”
WEF’s “spiritual leader” and its founder Klaus Schwab in 2017 wrote in his book, The Fourth Industrial Revolution, that people and movement would soon be treated the same as “any package, pallet or container” – with these physical objects at the time tracked only by radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, sensors, and transmitters.
That idea seems to have matured in the meanwhile with a number of digital ID and tracking initiatives that have come out of this year’s gathering in Davos, and the new WEF/WTO report notes that not only movement and location, but also performance and contribution to “a global circular economy” can be monitored thanks to traceability.
There’s also a name for what a future set on such foundations is likely to spawn: “digital dictatorships.” Control and monitoring has been at the heart of any dictatorship since the dawn of time, and the digital world is providing more tools than ever to achieve just that.
The topic of RFID tags emerged during this year’s WEF, held in May, a month after the publication of the report, and this time it was more concrete in the way the technology described as applied to humans.
Short of wearing tracking devices under one’s skin, the next best thing – from the point of view of monitoring and tracking enthusiasts – is to place them “onto” people’s skin, by way of the clothes they wear.
Active RFID tags send out a signal all the time, which is expensive but handy for real-time tracking, while passive tags are the less expensive variety often used in various packaging. What they had in common in the past is that they were clearly visible.
But there are companies now like Swicofil who produce RFID fibers and yarns that are “high performance” – and lasting a long time, since they can be integrated into clothing and are washable. In other words, not something you’re likely to notice and peel off.
There are also those who already specialize in putting together RFIDs and biometrics, like facial recognition data. While RFID technology automatically identifies tags that are placed on objects, biometrics come in to identify the actual person, and reports say that this is used to automate employee monitoring.
Yuval Noah Harari, popular with the likes of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, introduced on the WEF website as historian and philosopher who co-founded Sapienship – “a multidisciplinary organization advocating for global responsibility and clarifying public conversation” in terms of technological disruption, ecological collapse and the nuclear threat, spoke in Davos in 2020, to share insights such as that those who have enough data about a person can “hack” their “body, brain, life.”
Omnipresent tracking certainly provides a massive amount of data, including biometrics, while Harari seems to think that “reverse engineering” of human beings is what can easily happen next.
“By hacking organisms, elites may gain the power to re-engineer the future of life itself. Because once you can hack something, you can usually also engineer it,” he said.
Originally published at Activist Post – reposted with permission.
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Judges 7:20 King James Version (KJV) And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.
An Independent Christian Publication, Standing for the Verbal Inspiration of the Bible, the Deity of Christ, His Blood Atonement, Salvation by Faith, New Testament Soul Winning and the Premillennial Return of Christ; Opposing Modernism (Liberalism), Worldliness and Formalism.
The Amen Corner
I have felt like working three times as hard since I came to understand that my Lord is coming again. – D. L. Moody
Any government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have. – President Gerald Ford
We believe in truth that never alters and never can be altered, but stands immutable as God Himself. – C. H. Spurgeon
I’m standing on the promises, walking in His footsteps, leaning on His everlasting arms and drinking from the fountain that never runs dry. – Bud Robinson
I will not permit any man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him. – Booker T. Washington
I warn you that it will go hard with you when the Lord comes to reckon with you if He finds your wealth hoarded up in needless accumulation, instead of being carefully devoted to giving the Gospel to the lost. – A. J. Gordon
Strong drink, the curse of all curses, is a wicked wrecker. It turns gold into dross, mentality into derangement, health into misery, beauty into caricature, honor into shame. You can say nicer things about a rattlesnake than about booze. – Dr. Robert G. Lee
I believe the promises of God enough to venture an eternity on them. – Isaac Watts
Better shun the bait than struggle in the snare. – Dryden
A lie will travel around the world twice while truth is still getting his boots on. – Will Rogers
The Bible is the only Book by which you may know certainly the future; it is the only Book that satisfactorily answers the questions: Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going?
You don’t have to look like you just fell out of the back end of a hearse to be a Christian. – Billy Sunday
Dr. Oswald J. Smith asked me to come to Toronto for revival. When I got there, he said, “Dr. Rice, you’re not going to have the kind of results here that you had in Dallas and in Waterloo, Iowa and in Chicago. We’re Britishers. This is Canada. Up here we are conservative. We feel things, but we don’t express them. We are slow to act.”
I said, “We have that kind down South too. But we don’t call them conservatives; we call them backsliders.” – Dr. John R. Rice
Today marks a historic day in America as one of the longest-running blights on the face of this nation has finally been removed. Today, the Supreme Court—much of whom were hand-picked by former President Donald Trump—overturned the infamous Roe v. Wade decision.
Roe v. Wade was the flawed Supreme Court decision that has stood for over 50 years that guaranteed a woman the “constitutional” right to kill her unborn child if she did not want to carry him through to birth. That ruling has resulted in the deaths of millions upon millions of innocent unborn children in this nation alone. And while the ruling to overturn that decision today does not and will not end abortion, it is a certain and necessary step in that direction as the federal courts can no longer strike down state laws on abortion.
As this blight on America has finally been lifted, one would think this to be cause for celebration among the Church’s most vocal activists against abuse—namely Beth Moore, Russell Moore, and their ilk. After all, what’s more abusive than the cold-blooded murder of an innocent child who’s never taken his first breath?
But that isn’t the case. Those voices are silent. In fact, the moment that ruling was made public, those vocal voices went into complete silence. As of the time of this writing, Beth Moore has paused from her spastic, every-couple-minutes Twitter tirades, to give us this very important message: …nothing.
And, of course, there’s Andy Stanley. Stanley likes to blather constantly about the evil acts of white supremacy, racism, and white nationalism—but today, he paused to let us know what he thinks about the Supreme Court ruling: …nothing.
Those who are at least making an attempt to speak out on the ruling are using the opportunity to steer the Church toward embracing socialism. Here’s Thabiti Anyabwile telling us that we shouldn’t just work to “forbid abortion,” but embrace an ethic that promotes financial welfare for mothers.
For The Gospel Coalition author, Duke Kwon, his primary concern is how saving innocent lives will serve to intensify concerns about women’s health, equity, and “injustice”—whatever that is.
And like a broken record, the Big Eva types repeat the mantra: make abortion unnecessary and unthinkable—the motto of the upcoming ERLC conference which suggests that because the Church hasn’t been involved in enough social justice, abortion has been thinkable and necessary.
The fact is, for the Christian, abortion is already unthinkable and unnecessary. It is only conceivably necessary for those who have ulterior motives, self-interests, and social agendas. The entire Evangelical Twittersphere is filled with this mantra today. Those people, however, do not understand the God of life whom they are dishonoring with their words.
Let’s be blunt and not mince words and pussyfoot around. Beth Moore is a feminist and proponent of a woman’s right to butcher her unborn baby and toss it in the local dumpster behind the “clinic.” The men who promote such murders, are likewise endorsing the illicit adulterous acts that lead to the killing of the innocents. The altar of “my body” and my reproductive rights clearly omits the unborn baby and is totally selfish, self serving, ungodly, and against the Hippocratic Oath that doctors take.
Why am I not surprised? Of course, Bart Barber believes repentance is not necessary and that “grace” covers the abomination. Bart does not believe God’s Holy Writ: Jude 4 “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 6:1-2 “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”
What else is there to say except I am glad that our church voted unanimously to leave the Southern Baptist Convention Wednesday evening. Maranatha, Pastor Steve <><
In the words of James Merritt, “there is no leftward drift. None.” Obviously, that statement is absurd. The Southern Baptist Convention has now elected the third president in a row who has downplayed the sin of homosexuality.
In 2019, JD Greear—who was elected president in 2018—preached a sermon on Romans 1 and concluded that God believes other sins, such as boasting, are more egregious than homosexuality. In 2021, we revealed that his successor, Ed Litton, had been plagiarizing all of his sermons and taught this same, unbiblical teaching. For Greear and Litton, the Bible only “whispers” about homosexuality.
Now, some tweets from 2014 have surfaced and revealed that the newly-elected president, Bart Barber, believes that one can be saved and still practice unrepentant, serial homosexuality.
During a 2014 Twitter thread, Barber asserted that he believes that everyone at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, which was headed by Russell Moore at the time, believed this:
When pressed, he doubled down and compared homosexuality to boasting and said that practicing serial, unrepentant sin is not enough to send you to Hell if you are “saved by grace.”
But the Scriptures do not teach this. The Scriptures teach that those who have been saved by grace cease to practice serial unrepentant sin and it is not ambiguous on this point.
4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. —1 John 3:4-10
And:
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. —1 Corinthians 6:9-11
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I agree, and have a wellspring of joy for our church’s unanimous decision this past Wednesday night to leave the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Denominations are good, only insofar that they stand on the Word of God. Once ANY denomination leaves God’s truth, Bible believing and Christ exalting Christians should all say: “Bye bye.” I was always a 1)Born Again Christian number one, and 2)a Southern Baptist number two. Number 2 is always subject to change if/when they leave God’s truth. [Adding icing to the cake is watching a current news flash: the overturning of Roe Vs. Wade, as I write this.] The SBC just elected their third consecutive president who is soft on the sin of sodomy. The new president, Bart Barber, believes that unrepentant, serial homosexuals, will go to heaven. Furthermore, the SBC totally ignored their own by-laws, and sanctified Rick Warren and Saddleback Church’s ordination of three women into the Gospel ministry one year ago this past Mother’s Day. The SBC has been hijacked by proponents of egalitarianism, Critical Race Theory, Black Lives Matter, the WOKE movement, Social Justice, etc., etc. The Conservative Baptist Network (CBN), although noble in our Biblical stance, has made no difference in the denouement of the SBC. There are some causes that are greater than our lives, and Jesus Christ / truth is one of them. As a pastor, I now have the monkey off of my back, and if today was my “day of visitation,” I would be ready to go home with a clear conscience. Yes, I was burdened about His judgment upon me for remaining in a sinful camp – especially as an under shepherd of the Great Shepherd. One can make all the excuses they want to; nonetheless God will judge us for what we do, and who we serve with. We sacrificed working with good local associates in ministry, in order to not hold hands with apostates. In Christ, Pastor Steve <><
BY JONATHAN BRENTNER/JONATHANBRENTNER.COM JUNE 17, 2022
While there are many signs telling us that Jesus’ appearing is ever so close, I always come back to the four riders of Revelation 6 whenever I start to wonder if it will happen anytime soon.
Those of us eagerly awaiting Jesus’ appearing did not expect to see so many signs of the coming kingdom of the antichrist before going home to be with our Savior. We never anticipated seeing so much vile wickedness and demonic deception before the Rapture.
For that matter, I assumed that the Lord would severely judge America long before now.
“With such failed expectations,” one might ask, “why do I believe Jesus will soon appear to take us home? Why do I remain convinced that we live in the season of His return for His church?”
It’s because the world is so very close to the fulfillment of Revelation 6:1-8, and Scripture assures us that we will be with Jesus in heaven before these riders begin their deadly trek across planet earth.
Can you guess who wrote the following?
“I have heard the distant sound of hoofbeats. I have seen the evil riders on the horizons of our lives. I am still an evangelist whose one goal is to proclaim new life in Christ, but there is serious trouble ahead for our world, for all of us who live in it, and in the four horsemen of the Apocalypse there is both a warning and wisdom for those troubled days ahead.”
If these things were true back in 1983 when Billy Graham penned these words, how much more so today? How near must we be to Jesus’ appearing?
What sounds do we here today that point to the nearness of the Lord opening the seal judgments of Revelation 6?
THE CLAMOR OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER ON OUR DOORSTEP
Revelation 6:1-2 tells us about the first seal, the first rider:
Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, “Come and see.” And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.
Many, including me, believe these verses refer to the antichrist bringing the world together under his rule. The absence of an arrow in the bow points to that absence of force, although he will gather an impressive arsenal of weapons during his campaign.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-8 assures us that the Rapture will happen before this “man of lawlessness” makes his presence known on the world scene. However, we already see the formation this coming New World Order through the UN and the World Economic Forum (WEF). Without firing a shot, they have gained the allegiance of most world leaders for their Marxist plans to enslave the people of the world.
The globalists no longer hide their intentions. President Biden recently asserted his allegiance the New World Order. Klaus Schwab, the head of the WEF, recently asked the 2,600 delegates to his annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, to work aggressively to bring about the communistic, totalitarian agenda advocated by him as well as those in attendance.
He opened the meeting by saying that “the future is not just happening; the future is built by us, by a powerful community, as you here in this room.”
In other words, the globalists believe they have the means to reshape the world according to their agenda via the influence they have gained over the global leaders of our day. Can you hear the sound of the first horse getting ready to ride?
THE SABER RATTLING OF NUCLEAR WAR
The second rider is that of war as John describes in Revelation 6:4-5:
When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come and see.” Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword.
I’m old enough to remember the Cuban Missile Crisis in the early 1960’s. I did not fully understand what was happening at the time, but I sensed the fear. At school, we had drills in which we would hide under our desks (as if that would help in a nuclear conflict).
I believe the threat today is at least equal to that time if not far greater, but the mainstream media is diverting our attention away from the current and present danger to matters such as pride month and the January 6 hearings.
Those who are truly awake today clearly see these looming threats to world peace:
Russia repeatedly warns the west, and the U.S. of a nuclear attack if they keep supporting Ukraine. However, the Biden administration seems to be doing all it can to provoke Putin into just such an attack by increasing the flow of weapons to Ukraine.
Iran is on the brink of developing its first nuclear weapon with many believing that Israel will attack Iran before that happens.
China appears intent on attacking Taiwan and is threatening all-out war against anyone who interferes. President Biden says he will defend Taiwan, which would mean a war with China.
North Korea has stepped up its testing of missiles during the past year and a half demonstrating that it can hit North America with a nuclear bomb.
When we put these threats together with the words of Revelation 6:8 that tell us war will play a part in killing a fourth of the world’s population, it seems likely that perhaps one or more of these threats will happen.
Do these dangers not beg the question regarding the nearness of Rapture? Could the saber rattling of Russia, China, and North Korea be the sound of the second horse getting ready to ride?
THE VOICES PREDICTING ECONOMIC DEVASTATION BY THE END OF 2022
The words of Revelation 6:5-6 point to economic devastation:
When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.”
If you think that the world is not on the brink of the conditions described in these verses, you are not paying attention. We are frightfully close!
In the U.S., the reported inflation rate for May was 8.6%, which is the highest in forty years. For most people, however, the cost of living is accelerating much, much faster than that. President Biden recently assured us that this high rate of inflation in the U.S. will continue for the foreseeable future.
The voices warning of devastating world food shortages by the end of 2022 are far too many to ignore.
Goya Foods CEO Bob Unanue recently told Fox News that the world is on the brink of a food crisis. “We are on the precipice of a global food crisis,” he told Maria Bartiromo.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon recently warned about a coming “economic hurricane.” He also added this:
“It’s a hurricane. Right now, it’s kind of sunny, things are doing fine, everyone thinks the Fed can handle this . . . . That hurricane is right out there, down the road, coming our way. We just don’t know if it’s a minor one or Superstorm Sandy or Andrew or something like that. You better brace yourself.”
Rockefeller Foundation president Rajiv Shah described what is soon to unfold as a “massive, immediate food crisis that will strike the entire world, leaving no country untouched.”
I have lost count of the many food processing plants that have gone up in flames during the past twelve months.
Why are so many shepherds of our day ignoring the numerous warnings regarding the food catastrophe that’s rapidly approaching? Do they not hear the sound of approaching hoofbeats?
THE UNHEEDED WARNINGS OF A GLOBAL HOLOCAUST
The result of all these approaching horrors will be a death count higher than anything the world has seen since the Genesis 6 flood. Revelation 6:7-8 describes what the world will experience when Jesus opens the fourth seal:
When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.
Right now, one-fourth of the world’s population would be almost two billion people, and that’s just at the beginning of tribulation woes.
A nuclear conflict could possibly kill hundreds of millions and this threat looms as distinct possibility in the near future.
It’s also easy to see how the coming food crises could kill a vast number of people. Africa would likely suffer the most at first, but as the contrived food crisis expands, western nations will soon see the death toll skyrocket.
Those pushing the U.S. Green New Deal and the UN’s Agenda 2030 warn that we will feel pain as the world transitions away from fossil fuels. This most certainly will include mass starvation as green energy will not suffice to meet the needs of the world’s population. It cannot even come close.
As the number of worldwide abortions approaches 1.7 billion since 1980, it’s possible that the death toll during the seal judgments of Revelation 6 will equal the number of abortions in the modern era. When one adds the number of abortions before 1980 and subtracts those missing because of the Rapture, the number of seal judgment deaths may be remarkably close to the abortion toll.
GOD IS SOVEREIGN
While it may seem that human actors cause the devastation of the first four seals, we must remember that God is Sovereign over all the affairs of mankind. It’s the Lord who opens the seals and allows the destruction that follows.
Numerous Old Testament prophets warned of these coming judgments under the heading of “the Day of the Lord.” The book of Revelation adds details to what God has warned about down through the centuries. There will be a time when God’s patience ends and the words of Psalm 75:8 come to pass.
THE TRUMPET SOUND IS EVER SO CLOSE
While there are many other signs telling us that Jesus’ appearing is ever so close, I always come back to the four riders of Revelation 6 whenever I start to wonder if it will happen anytime soon. It’s only God’s amazing patience that has kept the horsemen of Revelation 6 in their stalls during the four decades since Billy Graham wrote Approaching Hoofbeats.
How much longer will the Lord wait before He catches us up in the air and later opens the seals?
Will the Rapture happen in my lifetime? I cannot say; but given the nearness of the coming time of tribulation, I certainly believe it’s a valid and reasonable hope even as I approach seventy years of age.
Even though my hearing has diminished some with age, I hear the sounds of approaching hoofbeats on the pavement. But what I anticipate next is the sound of the trumpet and my departure from earth to the place that Jesus is preparing for me and for all those who know Him as their Savior.
…aberrant doctrines and teachings. He also commands us to purge those who persist in unrepentant sin from the ranks of our churches. There are at least three issues brewing in the Southern Baptist Convention that, if dealt with biblically, should ultimately lead to a separation and purge.
Over the years, we have documented heavily the leftward drift of the Southern Baptist Convention and its desperate need for either top-to-bottom reform or for faithful churches to leave the denomination altogether. While there have been good arguments from some like Rod Martin for staying to fight rather than handing over control of all of the institutions to the leftists, it is becoming increasingly clear that there is no winning this fight for conservatives.
Three of the primary controversies brewing in the Southern Baptist Convention that are causing division include…
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The call for division in the Church is sometimes biblically necessary as the Bible calls for unity among the brethren, to be of one mind and of one accord. The Bible calls us to be united around the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ — which is the most important message in the world. We are to be salt and light in a world overwhelmed with darkness. However, there are certain things where a division in the Church actually becomes a defining of the Church.
Paul commands Churches and Christians to separate from false teachers — those who hold to and promote aberrant doctrines and teachings. He also commands us to purge those who persist in unrepentant sin from the ranks of our churches. There are at least three issues brewing in the Southern Baptist Convention that, if dealt with biblically, should ultimately lead to a separation and purge.
Over the years, we have documented heavily the leftward drift of the Southern Baptist Convention and its desperate need for either top-to-bottom reform or for faithful churches to leave the denomination altogether. While there have been good arguments from some like Rod Martin for staying to fight rather than handing over control of all of the institutions to the leftists, it is becoming increasingly clear that there is no winning this fight for conservatives.
Three of the primary controversies brewing in the Southern Baptist Convention that are causing division include various factions of feminism, which manifests as egalitarianism in the Church. Also the growing influence of the LGBTQ movement and, most of all, the social justice movement. And there is an ever-dwindling tolerance among the leftist elites for the rank-and-file conservative Southern Baptists. Just this past week, the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution denouncing any effort to seek criminal penalties for women who willingly choose to have an abortion and instead suggesting that abortion is currently necessary and it is our job to provide social services to bribe mothers into keeping their children.
A prominent false teacher, Rick Warren, who pastors(ed) the second largest church in the Southern Baptist Convention, ordained three women to the pastorate last year in contradiction to the denomination’s stated beliefs. He was then given unlimited mic time at the annual meeting to give himself grand accolades on all of his accomplishments which led to the convention’s refusal to disfellowship the apostate church.
Further, the Southern Baptist Convention just elected a radical Obama-supporting dunce to one of its highest offices as Tony Evans took the stage to deny the orthodox view of the Trinity—uncontested.
And not only did the Southern Baptist Convention’s sex abuse task force hire a pro-LGBTQ law firm to represent them during the sex abuse investigation, but they also hired a pro-LGBTQ firm to carry out the investigation and judge rather or not the SBC is acting in a righteous manner.
But at the forefront of the SBC’s slide to the left is its embrace of Critical Race Theory. In 2019, the SBC passed resolution 9 declaring that Critical Race Theory is a useful analytical tool for deciding whether or not white people are racist and how to deal with them effectively.
It should come as no surprise, then, that conservatives are growing increasingly fed up with the leftward drift and are ready to bail. And that’s exactly what Texas pastor, Tom Buck, predicts:
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A rare political occurrence whereby sin is spelled out for what it is. A breath of fresh air for Texans. The gay lifestyle is an abomination according to the Word of God. Blessings, Pastor Steve <><
Leviticus 20:13
If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
The Texas Republican party adopted a new platform on Saturday that refers to homosexuality as “abnormal” and “opposes all efforts to validate transgender identity.”
The Texas GOP party adopted the 40-page platform at its biennial convention in Houston after passing the party’s new guiding principles, which includes a section titled “Homosexuality and Gender Issues.”
The section includes a formal position declaring the state’s GOP party is against giving a special legal status to gay men or women and that they support people who oppose homosexuality based on faith, religion or a belief in “traditional values.”
“Homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice,” the platform document reads. “We believe there should be no granting of special legal entitlements or creation of special status for homosexual behavior, regardless of state of origin.”
The section also opposes the use of public funds for homosexuality, transgender or diversity and equity inclusion centers as well as for gender-affirming care — while supporting controversial counseling methods intended to “convert” members of the LGBTQ community. Texas does not have a law banning conversion therapy.
A wave of anti-LGBTQ bills have flooded red states this year, with Republican-leading majorities specifically targeting the transgender community.
Texas has passed laws banning the participation of transgender youth in sports and prohibiting the discussion of sexual orientation or transgender identity in public schools. The Movement Advancement Project gives Texas a low rating for LGBTQ rights.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) drew backlash earlier this year when he ordered state officials to investigate parents of transgender children who allow their child to undergo gender-affirming care, which the state’s attorney general Ken Paxton called “child abuse.”
At the Texas Republican Party convention on Saturday, Sen. Ted Cruz spoke in opposition to what he called the “woke” agenda from the left and discussed Disney’s new “Lightyear” movie — about the popular Buzz Lightyear character from the “Toy Story” franchise — because one scene includes a same-sex couple kissing.
“Like, just leave the kids alone,” Cruz said. “Consenting adults, you can do what you want to do, but this culture assault is driven by radical leftists who want to tear down America.”
The party’s new platform was adopted during Pride Month, a time when the LGBTQ community and the movement’s supporters rally and hold events in support.
President Biden last week signed an executive order designed to protect the LGBTQ community from conservative state laws preventing access to health care resources and from laws banning discussion of gender identity in schools.
“My message to all the young people: just be you. You are loved. You are heard. You are understood. You do belong,” Biden said at the signing ceremony. “All of us on this stage have your back.”
Even Steven 