There are profound implications that we are
living on the edge of eternity.
If one
alert must be flighted far and wide, as a matter of the greatest urgency, it is
that the signs of the times are swiftly closing in on this generation.
Jesus Christ is about to appear in
awe-inspiring power and glory to execute judgment on the living and the dead,
the righteous and the wicked, the bond and the free, the young and the old,
each and all, according to their works.
The time is no longer remote when Jesus
Christ will return this time not as a toddler in a manger but as an
uncompromising judge on the great white throne.
Count
this for a sure word worthy of consideration: it’s not a factor which creed,
delusion or heresy you embrace. Everyone will stand before the judgment seat of
Christ to be qualified to heaven or consigned to the lake of fire and
brimstone.
The appearing of Christ will be either the
climax of joy or the culmination of judgment, His judgment seat will be either
the throne of grace or the tribunal of wrath and His double-edged sword will be
either the triumph of mercy or requital for the wages of sin, all depending on
which side you will be standing.
Let’s establish from the cases below just how
nigh the time is.
God’s
Signature on Prophecy
The inerrancy of God’s Word is the basis of
my conviction that Lord Jesus is coming soon.
While doubt and complacency are rife among
Christians and infidels alike in regard to the Second Coming, the divine
authorship of the Bible, which embodies the wonderful apocalyptic truth, is one
reason why I am emboldened to testify this promise as a statement of fact.
The Bible points to God as its Author and
denotes that men are not more than secretaries. Apostle Peter bears witness to
God as the inspiration behind the breadth and entirety of the Bible when he
says: “Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently,
who prophesied of the grace that should come upon you. Searching what, or what
manner of time the Spirit of Christ did signify, when it testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow,”(1 Peter 1:10,11.)
Apostle Paul concurs: “All scripture is given
by the inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be
perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works,” (2 Timothy 3:16.)
Come to think of it, no book has been written
over a period of 1 500 years by different authors from varied geographies and
ethnicities, and, nevertheless, maintained the test of consistency. Except the
Bible, that is.
No joint seminar was held by the contributors
to guarantee consistency but secretaries of 66 books converge from different
settings in time and place to discuss the destiny of man in light of the
mission of Christ with one voice.
The same unction moved them to document a
God-breathed compendium of “precept upon precept; line upon line; here a
little, and there a little,” (Isaiah 28:10) each note, as in symphony,
complementing the other into a perfect whole. “For the prophecy came not in
ancient time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved
by the Holy Ghost,” (2 Peter 1:21).
Shady institutions, at various stages of
history, have tried to make the Bible extinct, inaccessible, irrelevant or
secondary to human doctrine, with instances including the murder of William
Tyndale and John Hus, but such is the eternity and infinitude of the Book that
it will outlast human civilization. “For all flesh is as grass, and all the
glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower thereof
falleth away: But the Word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word
which by the gospel is preached unto you,” (1 Peter 1:24, 25.)
After delivering the Olivet Prophecy, Christ
enters a stamp of authenticity on the Bible’s end-time predictions: “Heaven and
earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away,” (Mark 13:31). In John
6:63, the Lord Jesus reinforces the transcental supremacy of God’s Word:” It is
the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the Words that I speak
to you, they are spirit and they are life.”
I believe that Jesus is coming soon because
the Source of that prediction is not a carnal record but the Holy Bible. God
whose nature is averse to falsehood promised it. It is Christ who has declared:
“Behold, I come quickly: Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy
of this book,” (Revelation 22:7.)
What is man that we should shun the confirmed
Word of God in favour of human incredulity?
Spare a reflection here.
Timeline
of Christ’s Ministry
The dynamic body of achievements accomplished
in Christ’s redeeming work were prefigured and recorded beforehand. The fulfillment
of those feats centuries after vindicates God’s faithfulness to His promises.
Every prediction came to pass in due course while others are still for the
appointed time, chiefly the Second Coming of Jesus. He is the Author and the
Finisher and will complete the work of salvation as He begun.
Unto the church was entrusted the blessed
assurance: “Which said also, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing into
heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come
in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven,” (Acts 1:11).
Christ, as noted in the foregoing, is the
prime and consistent theme of the Holy Writ: “Search the scriptures; for in
them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me,”
(John 5:39).
In one place He censures His students for
their deficient grasp of Bible prophecy: “Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the
prophecy, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning
Himself,” (Luke 24:26, 27).
In this regard, we can look at prophecy in
two parts. The part fulfilled in the life, death, resurrection, ascension and
current ministry of Christ and the part to be fulfilled by His Second Coming
for the establishment of God’s eternal kingdom on earth.
That the first part has already been
fulfilled attests, in hindsight, to the accuracy of Bible prophecy and God’s
faithfulness in performing His promises. Apostle Paul epitomises the former
section when He sums: “And, without controversy, great is the mystery of
godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of
angels, preached unto Gentiles, believed on in the world and received up into
glory,” (1 Timothy 3:16).
All this had been prefigured at least a 1000
years before it came to pass, yet today every last aspect is a matter of
unimpeachable historical reality.
Paul underscores “without controversy”
because up to this day even the worst detractors of our most holy faith cannot
deny that Jesus Christ is a historical character and no forensic expert can
locate Him in a memorial tomb.
That’s how Christianity is incomparable with
other religions no matter how much pluralists and ecumenists would want to
whimper against that. Haters can growl or squeal for all I care but Jesus alone
is the way to go. There is no other is a credible channel to salvation.
Whereas every other contemporary religion was
framed into existence from a dead man’s library, Christianity proceeds from the
mouth of a living, prevailing and enthroned Messiah.
Halleluiah!
The poet behind the viral Why I Hate Religion but Love Jesus notes
that while religion is man searching for God, Christianity is God searching for
man. Nothing counts against that.
Go to Medina in Saudi Arabia today. They will show you Muhammad’s grave. Lenin who issued profane
edicts against Christianity and set the stage for the Iron Curtain is dead and
lies cold in the Muscovite Red Square.
Pillar figures behind all contrary doctrines
were overcome by sin and death and cannot save their devotees from a similar
fate. Most likely the best they can do is rub shoulders with their deceived
adherents in the pit of hell.
Mark this for a memorial: Confucius, Darwin,
Marx, Muhammad and all their fellow imposters can never be in the same league
with Christ because very soon they too will be standing before His judgment
seat to give Him an account of their lives and to receive from Him a binding
verdict.
Jesus is the final arbiter!
The Bible embodies the flagship revelation of
God’s truth in the life of Christ. He is the Word personified (John 1:1-14)
because He came according to the “volume of the book” where it is written of
Him to do the will of the Father (Psalm 40:7,8). God set His divinity up for
test by outlining events that were centuries to come beforehand, chief of which
was Christ’s ministry.
Before Jesus of Nazareth “went about doing
good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil” (Acts 10:38), He had
declared beforehand through the prophet Isaiah that: “the Lord hath anointed Me
to preach good tidings…and the opening of the prison to them that are bound,”
(Isaiah 61:1).
That is because God affirms Himself to be God
by “declaring the end from the beginning, and from the ancient times the things
that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand and I will do all My
pleasure…yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed
it, I will also do it,” (Isaiah 46:10, 11).
Major highlights of Christ’s redeeming work
have been fulfilled as foretold, thereby confirming the inerrancy and
infallibility of God and His Word. The Lord will do nothing unless He reveals
His secret counsel to His servants the prophets, and when His testimony is
bound among His disciples He watches over His Word to perform it and it does
not return to Him in void but accomplishes that which He purposes,” (Amos 3:7;
Isaiah 8:16;44:26;55:11).
The hourglass is revolving at a dizzy pace.
Bible prophecy concerning Christ has been
fulfilled in notable measure. The same God who has spoken is active to
establish His Word up until the climax and essence of all this, which is to
bring the work of redemption to consummation. He is not one to backtrack for He
cannot disown Himself.
I believe that “now it is high time to awake
out of sleep because our salvation is nearer than when we first believed,”
(Romans 13:11).
Startling
Predictions on World Affairs
Thus far I have these convictions pertaining
to the imminent return of Christ on the basis of the Bible’s internal evidence.
It is nevertheless true that the veracity of the promise can be established in
light of external evidence, that is, documented events which ratify Bible
prophecy.
Some of the startling predictions on the
course of universal power games were by Daniel. The second and seventh chapters
of his book prefigure four successive world-ruling empires whose tenure will
ultimately lead to the supplanting of human civilization, the coronation of
Christ and the establishment of God’s kingdom on the earth.
The global powerhouses of Babylon (incepted
by Nebuchadnezzar), the Medo-Persian empire (Darius), the Greco-Macedonian
empire (Alexander the Great) and Rome (Caesar) commenced with the precision and
attributes foretold by Daniel.
Consider another pertinent prophecy that has
been fulfilled with unmistakable accuracy more than a thousand years after its
recording. In the vision pertaining to the fourth and longest spanning empire
Daniel was shown a little horn surfacing on the ten-horned beast “before whom there
were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots,” (Daniel 7:8).
The interpretation to the mystery as given by
the angel was that: “And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that
shall arise, and another shall arise after them; and he shall be different from
the first, and he shall subdue three kings” (Daniel 7:24).
The Roman Empire supplanted the
Greco-Macedonian Empire and outsoared its predecessors as the most
blood-spilling and far-flung empire. It was a joint kingdom consisting ten key
states, with Romans at the apex and others, including the Franks (modern-day
French), and Anglo-Saxons (English).
The Imperial Restoration which facilitated
the marriage of religion and politics was preceded by the wiping out of three
of the pre-existing nations, the Heruli, the Vandals and the Ostrogoths by Pope
Justinian. To date there remains no trace of these nations who exited history
as victims of complete genocide.
This serves a classic example of how the Word
of God holds true even after centuries. We are not to renege into doubt because
though Bible prophecy tarries it definitely comes to pass at the appointed
time.
In the ensuing controversy the prophet is
shown the conquest of false religion, conflict among nations, and persecution
of the saints. This too has been fulfilled for the most part and hallmark of
persecution was the Papal Inquisition where more than 30 million people,
chiefly Christians, suffered gruesome murders for refusing to submit to papist
doctrine.
Then there will be the ultimate showdown in
which Jesus Christ will destroy all forces of wickedness and establish His
everlasting kingdom on the earth.
“I saw in the night visions, and behold, one
like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of
days, and they brought Him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion,
and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve
Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and
His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed,” (Daniel 7:14).
Notice that Daniel depicts the scene of the
Second Coming with striking detail notwithstanding the fact that he was writing
even more than 500 years before Jesus’ advent, proving that the glorious
experience was ordained by God not made up by early Christians as detractors of
the Gospel erroneously allege.
A
Perishing World; A Coming Redeemer!
The world has run out of solutions and the
coming of Jesus alone can guarantee a credible reason for optimism. Many, even
in the church, are still enfolded in worldliness and materialism to see the
real picture. But human civilization is certainly gravitating into an
unmitigated abyss.
Evangelist Billy Graham highlighted a fistful
of trouble spots in a 1944 crusade and what he said carries even more urgency
today than it did back then:
“The
scientific world is crying out, ‘Help us!’ Life
magazine said not long ago that there is a crisis in science. The faster
the universe expands, the greater are the areas of ignorance it seems to open.
Science has created Frankenstein monsters and doubts its moral ability to
control them. We have hydrogen bombs that are ready to be unleashed upon the
world.
“How long it will only be in the talking
phase we do not know, but we do know that our scientists and military leaders
are warning that we could be in a nuclear war at any time that could wipe out
60 million Americans in the first few hours.
“The political world is crying for help.
Communism and democracy, the East and the West, are at each other’s throats
with two diametrically opposed political ideologies. And the whole political
world is saying, ‘Help us.’”
Decades have since passed but the problems
have only regrouped and updated to further the dismay of clueless leaders and
masses.
The world is on the brink of a cataclysmic
tragedy without a credible solution in sight.
Reflect on this rundown of these topical
conditions in the context of end-time Bible prophecy: an undercover resource
war among the depleted superpowers, America’s shocking fiscal cliff and the
ripple implications it threatens on the dollarized global market, revolutionary
power dynamics being spurred by the Eurozone crisis, fresh upsurge of Anti-Semitism and Iran’s
utilization of the Arab Spring to corner Israel, recurrent natural disasters,
an onslaught of disease epidemics, counterfeit religion and perverted versions
of Christianity, moral decadence, terrorism, institutionalized anarchy, the
proliferation of satan’s agencies though secular hip-hop, freemasonry in high
places and several other signs.
Consider the degeneration of humanity into
base features which were summed up by the 2 Timothy 3:1-5, 13 around than 2 000
years ago: “…the final age of this world is to be a time of troubles. Men will
love nothing but money and self; they will be arrogant, boastful, and abusive;
with no respect for parents, no gratitude, no piety, no natural affection; they
will be implacable in their hatreds, scandal mongers, intemperate and fierce,
strangers to all goodness, traitors, adventurers, swollen with self importance.
They will be men who put pleasure in the place of God, men who preserve the
outward form of religion, but are a standing denial of its reality…wicked men
and charlatans will make progress from bad to worse, deceiving and deceived.”
What an incriminating account of the present
generation!
Consider where all this is leading. We are
living in an age where many have the audacity to glorify wickedness in the
language of freedom. Do we really think that the same God who destroyed Sodom
has changed His mind about immorality and can finally condone gay marriages
like flawed judiciaries, media outlets, parliaments and churches?
All is not with the world. God will surely
visit destruction on this generation.
Monitors of international affairs and
scientists concur that the greatest question of the moment is human survival.
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, a joint venture of Nobel laureates, has
confirmed that the nuclear weapons in arsenals across the world will erase
every form of life from this planet once a war of universal proportions is
triggered.
The International Atomic Energy Agency is
jittery.
The geopolitical standoff between the East
and the West is a debilitating prospect for the world as forecast in Daniel 8.
Climate change is a point of no return.
The Newsweek
of 14 August 2012 screamed that the world is on fire: “It is ‘virtually
certain,’ the U.N’s body studying climate change announced in a recent report
that intense weather is the new normal; droughts will be longer and more
severe, storms more devastating, fires larger, and floods higher.”
These are not conditions that can be tamed by
the lapse of years. Rather they are soaring out of control and soliciting
clear-cut admissions of defeat from our principal institutions.
The time just ahead summons us to be at one
with God so as to be spared the impending calamities. Jesus notes that earlier
signs are only the beginning of sorrows. Then He addresses an ebbed generation
this way: “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since
the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless
those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake
those days will be shortened,” (Matthew 24:21, 22).
Man’s ingenuity has urged earth to the brink
of annihilation and the worst of times is imminent for the inhabitants of the
world. It will take direct intervention for God to end conflict and this high
point of history will be the glorious return of the Lord Jesus.
“Watch therefore and pray always that you may
be accounted worthy to escape all things that will come to pass, and to stand
before Son of Man,” (Luke 21:36.)
Provoking
Laodicea
Ironically, the greater part of the
contemporary church, along with the secular world, hangs by a wafer-thin margin
over the pit hell, clueless of its debilitating spiritual condition and out of
touch with the glorious prospects of heaven.
Indeed, the single greatest tragedy in the
ensuing apocalyptic drama is that the church, which is God’s exclusive
organisation in the world, is still far unprepared for the Second Coming of
Jesus Christ and is unaware of the urgent need to be prepared.
This bleak state of affairs has been
consolidated by the fact that the church is self-satisfied with its grossly
deficient condition.
However, Jesus Christ has an unsettling
appraisal of his church at the close of the age: “Nevertheless when the Son of
man comes will He find faith?”
Equally challenging is the fact that Christ
addresses his genuine followers in the last days as a relative minority: “Fear
not, little flock for it is your father’s good pleasure to give you the
kingdom,” (Luke 12:32).
The most unsparing indictment, though, is
found in Revelation 3: 14-22 where Christ reproves His terminally ailing
church.
It takes a jolting gong to awaken a
complacent church and this is precisely what Christ does in a prophetic letter
addressed to the Laodicean church age; the worldwide body of Christians in the
last days. Because of the enormity and urgency of the message we will run
through the whole reading:
“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold
nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm and
neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest I
am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not
that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I
counsel thee to buy from me gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich;
and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy
nakedness do not appear; and anoint your eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest
see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear my voice, and open the
door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.”
Can you even begin to fathom the magnitude of
this reproof, leveled against a contented church?
W.E Elwell notes: “Laodicea was known for its
fine products and medicines, but Christ counsels the church to purchase
articles of true worth from him…Verse 19 contains hard words, perhaps, but such
discipline is a blessing from God, coming as it does from His love…Verse 20 is
a tragic picture – Christ must humbly seek entrance into the church He
purchased with His own blood,” (Evangelical
Commentary on the Bible).
Striking parallels!
Like the geographical Laodicea cited by
Elwell, the spiritual Laodicea is laden with apparent markers of prosperity and
fitness. But there is lack corresponding connection to the source.
When Gospel ministers direct pre-eminence to
their personalities at the expense of pointing people to Christ, when the
attention of the church revolves around men not Christ, the vessel not the
Source, the healing shadow not the Light; when sin is sugar-coated and
accommodated in the church in the name of keeping pace with the times, when
pastors officiate gay marriages, when celibate priests visit their perverted
propensities on young boys, when people seek breakthroughs before salvation,
who needs an expert to the church that it is languishing in the intensive care
unit. Only pride has blinded us to the gravity of our condition.
Yes, Christ is outside His church! At least,
the greater part of it.
This is admittedly a huge claim but after the
tenor of God’s Word there is no other way of looking at it.
Otherwise, how does one seek admission,
“stand at the door and knock” where they are already entertained?
Christ is seeking admission into His
blood-bought church because it has veered off-rail and needs to be ushered back
to what counts. Congregants are obsessed with gathering the perks of
Christianity but are worlds apart from Christ himself. Like one observer noted:
Churchianity is fast substituting Christianity.
In Christ’s time, shady characters had the
audacity of turning the temple into a bargain centre. Terrible as it sounds,
the situation is even worse today.
The church has been transmuted into a
business seminar, cocktail party, social gathering, lobby forum and burial
society over the lapse of the recent years!
No Other Gospel!
The gates of heaven are sin-proof.
It takes the Jesus Christ the Lamb of God who
takes away the sins of the world to open the door into the Holy of Holies for a
heart-to-heart reunion with the Creator.
No one but the Sacrificial Lamb of God can
unloose the seals into heaven’s portals of glory;
This is where the mainstream Christianity has
missed it: replacing Christ with religious relics and effigies.
Multitudes have been conned into accepting
counterfeit versions of Christianity by systems bent to manipulate the true
gospel for their sectarian interests.
I am poised to tread into controversial
ground here but I prefer to be a devotee of God’s not a mercenary of majority
opinion.
Bible history shows God overlooking majority
opinion hundred cases out of hundred because the Eternal God is neither subject
to change nor is He governed by mankind’s nomadic dispositions. You can only
assign the hollow-ringing theory of evolution to God at your own expense:
“If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful,
He cannot disown Himself. Of these things put them in remembrance charging them
before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit,” (2 Timothy 2:
13, 14).
During Noah’s flood, the entirety of the
antediluvian world was erased from the face of the earth, except for 8 people
who obeyed God.
In Lot’s time, two whole cities were razed to
the foundation except for 3 people who obeyed God.
Contemporary religion has sadly failed to
learn from history and is on the brink of paying dearly for this indiscretion.
Winston S. Churchill remarked that all we
ever learn from history is that we never learn from history. That’s the
unfortunate case with today’s church. It follows, though, that those who fail
to learn from the tragedies of history will learn by experiencing a tragic replay
of that history.
Often, it will be too late to unwind the
mess.
The Word of God, which is our only legitimate
guide for divinely condoned life and worship, is clear and emphatic on the fact
that Christ is the only way to God:
“For there is one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” (1 Timothy 2:5).
Yet over a billion professed Christians have
resorted to go-betweens of their choices such as Mary, litanies of saints,
angels, their dead relatives and their fellow congregants.
Nothing can be further from Christianity.
Christianity, as instituted by God not by
errant human authorities, whatever their assumed ranks, is based on two facts:
Man’s universal guilt and redemption through Jesus Christ alone.
To fail here is to fail everywhere because
man’s only problem with God is sin and the only solution to sin is a Saviour.
Christ is that Saviour.
Not legacies, saints, ancestors, dignitaries,
pilgrimages. Not even angels.
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory
of God,” (Romans 3:23). God’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor
his ear dull that it cannot hear. There is one problem between God and man.
That is sin.
Christ paid the penalty by hanging on the
cross of Calvary. That is why there is no other name given in the entire world
by which men can be saved except Jesus.
Christianity is all about Jesus every step of
the way.
There is no salvation apart from Christ. No
remission of sins without the blood of Jesus. No audience with God except
through the Name of Jesus. No entrance to heaven outside Jesus who alone is the
Way, the Truth and the Life.
Dictionary is the only place where
breakthrough comes before salvation. In the heavenly scheme of things, only the
converted and broken can have a real date with God. The rest is ecclesiastical
mumbo-jumbo, empty sophism or charismatic witchcraft in the words of Evangelist
Donnie Swaggart.
Jonathan Edwards, the great herald of the
cross who graced 18th century America emphasises this truth: “If we seek ever so
diligently, we shall never find out an easier way to heaven than that which
Christ has revealed to us. We cannot find a broader way, but if we go to
heaven, the way is so narrow that we must rub hard to get along and press
forward. The kingdom of heaven must suffer violence; it must be taken by force,
or else it never will be taken at all. If we don't go by the footsteps of the
flock, we shall never find the place where Christ feeds, and where he makes his
flock to rest at noon.”
In the words of
Christ Himself: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.
All that ever came before Me are thieves and robbers but the sheep did not hear
them. I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved and go in and
out and find pasture. The thief comes only toThere are laudable efforts by some
anointed ministers today to continue in the true Gospel. But the generic
condition of the church today is deplorable.
In so far as we
must not throw away the baby with the bathwater, we must also not seat the baby
in stale water. The church, like the Galatians in Paul’s time, needs to be
ushered to the unimpeachable standard:
“I marvel that ye
are soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another
gospel: which is not another; but there be some who trouble you, and would
pervert the Gospel of Christ. But though we, or any angel from heaven, preach
any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached let him be
accursed,” (Galatians 1: 6-9).
This is plain
reproof for those who assign lofty titles to themselves and presume the power
to doctor the Word of God and make to conform to their personal taste thereby
leading their adherents astray.
Peter notes that
these are “unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures,
unto their own destruction,” 2 Peter 3:16.
For
this Cause
The principal sign
of the church’s lukewarmth and unpreparedness for the imminent Second Coming of
Christ is its lax attitude to the Great Commission of winning souls, building
souls and sending them.
This is partly
because many in the church still need to be saved themselves before they can be
compelled to reach others.
However, there are
many who have been handed the light only to conceal it with their personal
commitments, pride, idleness and self-will.
Contemporary
Christians have become malfunctioning devices in the hand of their Master,
owing to terminal inactivivity as regards the preaching of the Gospel.
God foreordained
and positioned the church to be His operating centre for the propagation of the
Lordship of Jesus Christ and the imminence of his coming.
According
Prophetess E.G White: “The church is God's appointed agency for the salvation
of men. It was organized for service, and its mission is to carry the gospel to
the world. From the beginning it has been God's plan that through His church
shall be reflected to the world His fullness and His sufficiency. The members
of the church, those whom He has called out of darkness into His marvelous
light, are to show forth His glory. The church is the repository of the riches
of the grace of Christ; and through the church will eventually be made
manifest, even to "the principalities and powers in heavenly places,"
the final and full display of the love of God,” (Acts of the Apostles).
However, the church
today is dormant to the charge and needs urgent awakening to step up to this
mission.
Let’s have the
biblical scheme of affairs duty:
“I charge thee
therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and
the dead at his appearing and his kingdom, Preach the word,” (2 Timothy 4:1,2).
Pastor James White
notes: “A more solemn charge cannot be found in the Book of God.”
Contemporary
proponent of Christ’s imminent kingdom Ray Comfort says in Militant Evangelism:
“We have been called to active service, but in
the past we have been more concerned about the order of service, than
our orders for service. We have been given battle orders from
Headquarters to seek out those who are enemies of God in their minds through
wicked works.
“We are to persuade and compel them to desert
their futile and godless cause. They must defect before the Great Day of
Battle, when the ultimate weapon of Eternal Justice will be unleashed against
sinful mankind.
“On that Day there will be no neutral ground
... they will suffer the vengeance of eternal fire. Our message is ‘Surrender
or be slain! Become a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven or forever be banished
from its gates by the King of Kings, into everlasting fire!’
“We have been sent as an emissary of peace to
diplomatically plead with the ungodly to lay down their weapons, but in a world
that hates its Creator, we are forced to precede the offer of peace with the
threat of war. We must therefore mobilize as a mighty, militant, aggressive
army, spearheading attacks, and through the power of prayer, ransack the
barracks of Hell. We must penetrate the territories of the devil with the flag
of righteousness.”
Our marching orders have been spelt with
unequivocal clarity. Let’s lift the banner and run headlong into the heart of
conflict where the real battle is righteousness leading to like and sin leading
to death.
Kirk Cameron observes that friends don’t let
friends go to hell. There is no better exhibit of our love to those in our
spheres of contact than to acquaint them of God’s wonderful purpose for their
lives which far exceeds the delusions of sin.
Examine
Yourself!
That Jesus is on the way is unquestionable.
The only question is whether you are prepared to meet Him. Are you qualified
for heaven?
It is wonderful to have your name in your
congregation’s register but your obligation exceeds that. Is your name written
in the Book of Life?
Will you make heaven?
Are you going to be in that victorious number
when the saints go marching in? Don’t bother about being optimistic or
pessimistic. Be realistic! That’s where the buck drops with God. Truth is what
matters for such a time as this not feeling or conviction.
Where will you spend eternity? Your diary is
lined with events and bookings but have you considered your ultimate
destination when all is said and done.
If you want to so sure, and have not
personally experienced salvation, then the route is open just for you even in
this last hour. Why not believe and confess Jesus as your Lord and Saviour
today? The righteousness that leads to eternal life has absolutely no cost
attached to it. It’s all paid for at the cross of Christ. All God needs from
you today is the answer of a believing heart.
“The word is near you, in your mouth and in
your heart (that is the word of faith which we preach): That if you confess
with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised from
the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto
righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation,” (Romans
10:8-10).
If you were already born again but found
yourself backsliding you need not to wait for tomorrow before you repent; God
has no part in a sinful life. You need to stop living in sin and continue in
the love of God. Remember: “He who covers his sins will not prosper but he who
confesses and forsakes them will find mercy.”
Although God has overlooked the times of
ignorance, He now commands us to repent because judgement is imminent. I have
heeded His call. Will you? Do not frustrate the grace He has extended to you
because today might be your best opportunity to turn your life around. Felix
promised Paul: “I will hear you again on this matter” but he was held by
worldly affairs and never had another chance. There is no better time than now
to find peace with God.
Before you know it, the scene captured here
might be your next moment: “And I saw the dead small and great, standing before
God, and books were opened. And another book was opened which is the Book of
Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things that
were written in the books…And anyone not found in the Book of Life was thrown
into the lake of fire,” (Revelation 20:12, 15).
All signs lead to eternity.
All roads lead to the Last Judgement.
The fire of regeneration is about to fall and
usher the world to ultimate destiny.
But before it does, and soon it will, you
would rather take not where you stand. Everything depends on it.
Pastor E.A Adeboye, that anointed revivalist
for our time has this to say in a great message entitled Let the Fire Fall:
“When the fire falls, what it does depends on
whom it falls. When the fire falls it either turns what it fell upon to fire or
turn it to ashes. You put a piece of wood in fire; the good part of the wood,
will also become fire, the bad part of the wood will become ashes. When the
fire of God falls, if you are not a child of God, if you are not on the side of
God, if you are leaving a life of sin, it is a dangerous thing to ask the fire
of God to fall. Because if it falls on you and you are not one of his children,
it will only destroy you.
“Let God arise and his enemies be scattered
and Jesus Christ says those who are not for me are against me, if you are not
born again, if all your sins have not been washed away by the blood of the Lamb
and you say let the fire fall, how are you going to handle it?”
The decision is solely yours; be wise and
settle for life.
You have nothing to lose and a glorious
destiny to secure by inviting Christ into your life by faith today.
Even so, come LORD JESUS!
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