I have been thinking a lot lately about our modern times in juxtaposition to the Bible’s foretelling of the Last Days. Sometimes just trying to keep up with the lightning-speed propagation of technology around the globe is enough to make your head spin. And if you can step back and take a look at the really big picture, as regards the history of mankind, you can see the enabling factors of end times prophetic fulfillment crawling out of nearly every technology news release that crosses our desks these days. Imagine an electronic implant, smaller than a grain of rice, capable of being injected under your skin and carrying all the information needed to buy and sell goods virtually anywhere in the world… It’s already been done.

As a Christian, I relish the thought of seeing the actual fulfillment of the Revelation in my lifetime. I mentioned before that I don’t know with any absolute certainty whether the Lord plans to take His people, the true Church, out of this world before or after the tribulation described in Revelation. But, because I do have absolute assurance that He plans to bring me home to be with Him eternally after my time here is done, I also have to say – in all honesty – that I am one of those relatively few weird folks who would love to stay here and live through it all just to watch Him complete the earthly work in exactly the way He has told us He will do it. But all of that is a topic for another day, because today I am not much inclined to try adding anything to the massive body of “prophetic teaching” already so abundantly available everywhere. There is something else that has been weighing on my mind for some time now…

In the days since I sobered up and found my way back to the foot of the cross, I’ve found that things “in the world” are still just the same as they’ve ever been with regard to “the way people are”. That’s no surprise, of course, but I don’t mind saying that it amazes me just how much some people are the way they are.

Awhile back I read the book Jesus Freaks, which tells the stories of numerous Christians who have given their lives for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I read of the beheading of the apostle Paul, the stoning of James – the half brother of Jesus Christ – after he was thrown down (well over a hundred feet) from the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem into the valley below, and of numerous men and women through the ages who have been put to death in various places and in various ways; all for the sake of their unyielding testimony of faith in Jesus the Messiah.

And now, with those stories still lingering in my mind, I think about the so-called “Christian faith” of so many people today, especially in Western society, where what often passes as acceptable faith bears strikingly little or no resemblance to the Christian faith represented in the Bible and lived out by the martyrs I read about before. It seems like everywhere I turn I have someone telling me, “well I’ve read the Bible, and I think…” followed by some odd statements of the need for those who call themselves Christian to just adhere to simple lifestyle guidelines from the Bible and also let others simply adhere to some equally simple guidelines from whatever book of faith they find particularly soothing for their own “pursuit of happiness”.

It sounds to me like too many people have come to believe that the Declaration of Independence is somehow “the Word of God”, and they have substituted the words “all faiths” or “all ideas” or even “all desires” in the place of “all men” in the “have been created equal” clause. That has led us to the place where, today, in the United States of America, you have to be careful not to say anything too negative about anyone else’s non-Christian faith. And you have to be even more careful not to be too “exclusivist” when you preach Jesus as the Only Way whereby a person can be saved, lest you offend someone’s sense of constitutional religious freedom. To my knowledge, nobody who has ever read the Bible and truly understood its meaning has ever said that Satan is a dummy. And the strategy he has used to bring us to this place in history is really quite brilliant.

I just imagine that if you had told the founding fathers of the United States of America that the people living in the country they established in the late 1700’s would soon come to a place in history where “freedom of religion” was interpreted as a requirement that everyone “fully accept and acknowledge all faiths as equal”, they would have most likely laughed you out of the room. And yet, using the very essence of the documents written by those founders, the old devil has tuned up the hearts of men, women and children in this country, and generally throughout western civilization, to look for “their rights” as supreme in any and every circumstance of modern life. And that will be the downfall of each and every one of them, just as it has always been.

Looking around at this old world these days, and seeing the pages of Bible Scripture literally coming to life before our very eyes, it would behoove us who truly are Christian to be diligent about the business of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with as many as possible while it is not too late. And equally important is the need for those of us who truly are Christian to once and for all lay aside any and all doubts we may have about Jesus as “the absolute one and only way possible” for anyone to escape the wrath of God that is to come upon all ungodliness. He said it Himself, so who is worthy to tell us otherwise?

If you are a true believer, go and tell someone about Jesus today! And if you are not... what are you waiting for?!? God is adopting little brothers and sisters for Jesus Christ RIGHT NOW, and there's an inheritance waiting for you in His House! THAT is the only "right" or "freedom" you should be concerned with just about now. How much longer do you think He is going to wait for you?

Wishing You Grace & Peace,
Rod


Romans 10:14
Matthew 28:19-20