Why the Rush to Redefine the Family?

Posted on April 2, 2013 by prophecyinperspective

It is interesting to me that I have not noticed anywhere, where the Bible talks about the Great tribulation as related to the rule of the Antichrist, that there will be any affirmation of marriage during that time. The prophecies of Jesus clearly indicate that it will be a time of the breakdown of the family (Matt. 10:21-22). It seems, from the Scriptures relating to the rise of the Antichrist, that he will do everything in his power to destroy the family unit as we know it. The devil has a great deal to fear from strong families! Especially in families where the Word of God is believed and taught. There seems to be a growing support from preachers for reconsidering the evangelical church’s traditional stance on homosexuality. The spirit of our times, as the Bible predicts, is leading many into the direction of losing conviction for the uniqueness of traditional marriage. The devil has made so much progress over the last 30 to 40 years in weakening marriage and relationships in general through the proliferation of drugs, pornography, and false teaching through secular humanism, evolution, public education, New Age, liberal and Neo-Orthodox Christianity. Certainly, it cannot be denied in America, and in the American Church that, “Truth has fallen in the streets” (Is. 59:14).

When the Antichrist rises to power, there will be no tolerance for divided loyalties. His mark, 666, will be accompanied by a “strong delusion” (2 Thess. 2:3) through supernatural spiritual evil to attract people to himself. The popular term for this is “paranormal activity.” The supernatural “mind control” over many will be incredible, and I believe this is happening even today. The Antichrist will give amazing signs of his power in order to deceive “kindreds, and tongues, and nations, and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:6-8). With many couples living together these days, and many of these going from one partner to another, already we are seeing the activity of evil spirits who are said to teach in the latter-day that marriage is unnecessary. This attitude will so radically change people’s view of the marriage covenant that many will even forbid marriage. This will certainly come through the changing of laws that the Antichrist will instigate (see Daniel 7:25; Timothy 4:1-3). Many today, under the influence of evil spirits, are rushing to prepare the minds of people to accept the new laws and relationships that will be instituted by the Antichrist. New gods, and almost certainly, new marriage and family arrangements and loyalties will be required! But first Satan will have to break down the family structure. “And brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death” (Matt 10:21). Daniel predicts: “(Antichrist) shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god…neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women…” (see Daniel 11:36-37).

It is almost incredible to witness the rush to affirm homosexual marriage by President Obama and by Hillary Clinton. What is their hurry? Could it be that Satan is in a hurry to prepare for the presentation of the Antichrist? His method is to corrupt society and the Church with sin and error. Before the flood in Noah’s day, the “Sons of God,” fallen angels, married human woman in order to corrupt the earth (Genesis 6). This is why the world became so evil that God determined to send the flood. This plan to corrupt mankind through godless and immoral marriage relationships will happen again. Jesus said, that His coming will be in a time when things will be like it was in the days of Noah (Matt. 24:37-39). Again, now, we are seeing another Satanic push to quickly corrupt the earth through immoral forms of marriage and other kinds of relationships that are contrary to God’s design. Satan is doing this, “Because he knoweth that he hath but a short time!” (Rev. 13:12). As the devil will rush to carry out his plans in anticipation of the coming of the Lord to stop him during the last half of the tribulation; even so now, in anticipation of the any moment rapture of the church and the beginning of the 70th week prophesied by Daniel, Satan is not sitting idly by, he is very active! He is finding much energy and motivation from the rebellion against God that is being instigated by many in America today!

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The Signs that the Rapture of the Church is Near!

Posted on June 5, 2012 by prophecyinperspective

Here are some thoughts on 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12 which describe the rising of the Antichrist after the rapture of the church from the earth. I believe that here is a key indicator that we are living in the last days and that the rapture is near.

There will be a great apostacy of the church which must occur around the time of the rapture. The growing apostacy of the church today, which I address in most issues of Prophecy in Perspective, is a clear indicator that the rapture is likely very near. After the rapture of the church, then there will remain no believers on the earth until the Lord raises up His two witnesses sometime in the beginning of the Great Tribulation (Revelation 11:3-12) and the 144,000 Jewish witnesses which God will seal to preach the gospel probably during the entire Tribulation period. The church age will have ended with the rapture. There will remain only the false church which is already forming into the Emerging Harlot monstrosity that is called Mystery Babylon, or the global church. This reality is hard to miss today, but, for many churches, it is business and programs as usual without hardly a word about the second coming of Jesus Christ!

When the Man of Sin is revealed, there will be no church or believers to oppose him, nor to sound the warning to a lost world, out of which the true church will have suddenly been removed. Antichrist will appear during a time of great upheaval violence and confusion. But the promise of peace will seem to be very real through the deceptions of the rising Man of Sin, whose rise onto the world scene is described in 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12 and Revelation 6:1-8.

It is important to note, so as to be able to discern the times we are living in today, that the withholding power of the Holy Spirit will have been removed at the rapture, but, for now the Holy Spirit, through the presence and preaching of the faithful believers of the true church is restraining his diabolical and tragic appearing. But, even now, it appears that this restraining influence is waning as the apostacy grows. Paul writes in these verses that “the Mystery of Iniquity doth already work” (2 Thessalonians 2:7).

Apostacy, manifested through growing compromises with truth by some of the most popular teachers and preachers in our day is the fertile ground for the rise of the Prince of Darkness, the Antichrist. People are being led away from the Scriptures into beliefs that are New Age, Contemplative/Mystical, Chrislamic, and Emerging Church. As the departure from the faith grows, this is an indication of the coming of the Lord for His true church: “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming. Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders…”(2 Thessalonians 2:8-9).

While there are many wars and rumors of wars in the Middle East at this time signaling the soon coming of Jesus Christ, we must not forget the wars that are going on right around us in many of our own churches. It is time to get back into our personal study of God’s Word and for us to support, pray for, and sit under the faithful Bible teaching of sound and Scriptural teachers whose lives match up with their teachings.

God bless you as you watch for His coming with me in these exciting times!

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What do you think: What is keeping the church from preparing for the Lord’s return?

Posted on January 10, 2012 by prophecyinperspective

What are the main things in the life of believers and of churches in these early days of the twenty-first century that are keeping us from truly being prepared for the coming of the Lord? Can a study in the Bible of the seven churches in Revelation 2-3 give us any insight?

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The Challenge of Cults

Posted on October 21, 2011 by prophecyinperspective

The latter days will be marked with a distinct increase of cults and false religions.  This rise of the cults has seemed to coincide with a growing understanding of the Bible’s teachings on the End Times.

It was in the early to mid 1800s that saw the establishment of several ‘made up’ systems of doctrine such as the Mormons, the Russelites or Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Science, and in the broader spectrum of rising deception, there was the rise of Spiritism, Theosophy, and evolution through the writings of Charles Darwin.  It is important that the Christian not be deceived by the way that many cults might use familiar phrases and terms that we are familiar with.  While they may use the same vocabulary, we may be certain that they will also use a different dictionary!

Every Christian should take a strong stand for his or her faith in the Bible and in sound doctrine.  A strong stand for truth honors God, no matter what others may think of you.  We also need to focus on our understanding of the truths about the Cross, the Church, and the Coming again of Jesus Christ.  The world needs to hear the truth today as there are more deceptions out there than ever before. We will need to commit to fully heeding what Paul said to Timothy in view of the “perilous times that will come.” (2 Timothy 3:1f).  Paul wrote these words of exhortation to Timothy:  “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)

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Four Important Things for Students of Prophecy

Posted on August 28, 2011 by prophecyinperspective

I believe that it is paramount as believers that we do four vital things in these latter days:

1.  Pray – There is a great deal of spiritual warfare today as Satan is mounting great resistance to the truth of both the Cross and the Coming of the Lord.  We need to be in fervent prayer for the Lord to grant courage, patience and wisdom for ourselves and for fellow believers who are suffering trials in His name.

2. Study – We need to be daily in the Word, reading, meditating upon and learning the ways of the Lord, that we might grow in our relationship with Him and our trust in Him.

3. Witness – Many will be left behind at the coming of the Lord for His church.  We should share Christ and encourage the lost to think seriously about eternity, and present them with the truths of the gospel.

4. Watch – We need to live a watchful lifestyle by expressing our faith in the imminent return of the Lord by how we live and how we speak.

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The Spiritual Realities We Must Face In The Latter Days

Posted on August 1, 2011 by prophecyinperspective

There are growing numbers of preachers in the Church today who do not want to face the doctrinal realities of God’s Word and relate them to their people.  There is a growing fear to do so.  Many books have come out in recent years that practically ignore the essential doctrines of the Christian faith and they are being soaked up by many pastors who just do not want to tell the truth to their congregations.  They seem to want popularity with men more than approval with God. It is time to get back to the verse by verse preaching of the infallible Word to a lost and starving world as well as to an anemic church!  It is time for preachers, pastors, believers and the Church to get under the absolute authority of Jesus Christ!

Another reality that is not being faced honestly by the Church in general is the reality of the spiritual powers of darkness that are prophesied to flood the world in the last days.  We seem to want to find some psychological or economic or emotional solutions to what are actually spiritual problems.  Satan is real and he is busy through his demons setting up strongholds in people’s lives. 

The Holy Spirit warned believers of “seducing spirits” which will arise in the “latter
times.” These spirits will lie and affect people in such a way as to cause them to have their
“conscience seared with a hot iron.” (1 Timothy4:1-2)  Today, in a world that is going on without God, people are becoming more susceptible to these seducing spirits. These spirits use violence, shock and trauma, and sin to gain a foothold and then a stronghold.   Through the power of “the god of this world (Satan, they)…blind the minds of them which believe not.” (2 Corinthians 3:5)  The more depraved the mind, the more the enemy can control the mind.

A part of the demonic mind control and manipulation today is the constant attempt by the liberal news media to make Christianity and Christ seem to be evil.  An example of this is seen where some of the media have called Norways’ Andas Breivik a fundamentalist Christian.  This, of course, is meant to bash Christians.  Pulpits today should resound with sound Biblical teaching relating the Word of God to these important world events and the slander which many are unjustifyably bringing against Christians and the Church.

While, as I have said, it may appear at firstglance, that some of Breivik’s views vaguely resemble the conservative viewpoint, remember that we must “prove all things; hold fast to that which is good.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21)  The prophecies about the demonic teachers and philosophers of the latter days tell us that these people cannot be believed because they will be “speaking lies in hypocrisy.” (1 Timothy 4:2)  We should keep this in mind when evaluating candidates for public office as well as for Christian leaders and preachers. The Bible tells us that Satan even “transforms himself into an angel of light.” (1 Corinthians 11:14) He can give any kind of political speech which will promote either “left” or “right wing”  leanings. He can sound balanced, or he can sound extreme, depending on what he is trying to accomplish.   Remember, the devil is a deceiver!  His demons are deceiving spirits (1 Timothy 4:1). This is all the more reason for us to get to know our Mighty God, the Lord Jesus Christ through the Scriptures and to live daily for Him both in truth and in Spirit filled integrity!

What do you think?

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1948 – The Year of Two Beginnings

Posted on June 18, 2011 by prophecyinperspective

The year 1948 was significant in that it was the year of the re-birth of Israel.  Yet, 1948 was  also the year of the birth of the Ecumenical Movement and the World Council of Churches.  I believe this was the official start of the global church of the latter days predicted in Revelation 17.  It is interesting to me that these two happened the same year:  the re-birth of Israel, and the birth of the ecumenical global church.  There is no coincidence here, because the false church has been one of the biggest persecutors of the Jews for centuries.  And she is persecuting Israel today.  The ecumenical church, as represented by the WCC, today habitually sides with Israel’s enemies. They are generally, pro-choice, anti-traditional marriage and family, pro-Palestinian, pro-global government.  They reject the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture, the need for salvation through faith, and the existence of hell.

In Revelation 17:1 we read of a “great harlot” that “sits upon many waters.”  Here is the description of apostate Christendom. It looks churchly and sounds religious, but at heart it is full of corruption spiritually, morally and politically.  In verse 2 we see that this is a global church, because the harlot “sits upon many waters,” (verse 1), and “with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”  This speaks of the global influence and power of this latter day false church.  In verse 3 we read the description of the ecumenical and false church as that of a “woman (sitting) upon a scarlet colored beast full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.” This indicates that the Antichrist will help empower the global church, at least until he destroys the Harlot when he is through using her (Revelation 17:16).  I believe the spirit of Antichrist is already at work in “mystery” form behind the rise of the ecumenical church. This global false church, plainly pictured in the WCC is the religious Babylon of the latter days.  Therefore she is called descriptively: “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, and Abominations of the Earth.”(vs 4-5) 

We can recall how the original purpose of Nimrod, in attempting to establish Babylon, recorded in Genesis 11, was to gather all people under one great religious and political kingdom with the tower of Babel as the symbol.  Interestingly, the European Union’s symbol today is the unfinished tower of Babel with the slogan:  “Europe, many tongues, one voice.” The rebellious spirit of Babel has continued through the centuries!  It has always sought to compromise and confuse truth.

Here is what A.W. Tozer writes about this global church, also known as the Ecumenical Movement:  “The seventeenth chapter of Revelation tells about that great mystery the Babylonian, the great mother of harlots, the abomination of the earth.  This harlot has children. She not only is a harlot but she is the mother of other harlots, and these harlots are nothing else than apostate churches claiming the name of the Lord but not living the truth of the Lord. I am not a good enough prophet to know what direction things are going to take.  But I do know that I hear strange things in evangelical circles these days.  I hear people rethinking things.  We are rethinking inspiration; we are rethinking the deity of Christ; we are rethinking sin; we are rethinking morals and trying to equate it with what they call morays, or habits and customs, of certain cultures.  We have gone to anthropology and have learned that what is a sin in one country is not necessarily so in another and, therefore, we Christians have to accept whatever is there.  We are rethinking things.  We are even rethinking whether God created the heavens and the earth, and man after His own image. The
evangelicals are now rethinking things that evangelicals took for granted a generation ago.  So I do not know what direction we are going to go from here.  But I believe we ought to obey the Word of God and withdraw from all that deny it in any fashion.” (Reclaiming Christianity, A.W. Tozer, pp. 69-70)

We see through Scripture that God always keeps Israel and the Church distinct.  God has a purpose for Israel and a purpose for the Church.  The true Church will be raptured off the earth when Jesus comes in the clouds (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).  This can happen any day or any hour.  Israel will be left on the earth with the Gentiles to go through the Great  Tribulation.  After the rapture, the Devil will be in a better position to destroy Israel with no resistance from the Holy Spirit empowered true Church.   He is laying the ground work today through corrupted church organizations like the WCC.  I believe he is getting the false church that will be left after the rapture ready to use as a tool to persecute the Jews. Remember, Israel had their re-birth in 1948, and the false ecumenical church had, in a very real way, its birth in the start of the World Council of Churches, also in 1948.
Coincidence?  I do not think so.

So, as true believers and members of the one true, blood bought, Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, let’s stay vigilant, virtuous and victorious, through Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit, a Holy sanctification and separation from all that is false.  Let’s be about the business of leading people to salvation in Christ through preaching the gospel to every creature (Mark
16:15).  Finally, let’s surrender to the Lord and maintain a full commitment to witness for Jesus Christ through every area of our lives.  Setting forth the truth of His cross,  resurrection, and coming, may we do what He commanded when He said:  “Occupy until I come!” (Luke 19:13)

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Obama and Israel’s Borders

Posted on June 16, 2011 by prophecyinperspective

Our Times – Prophecy in current events

The Bible tells us of several wars that will take place in the future. Psalm 83 describes an attempted invasion by Arab and Islamic nations against Israel.  Isaiah 17 may
well describe Israel’s decisive response, perhaps with nuclear weapons.  This event may prepare the way for the battle  of Gog and Magog of Ezekiel 38-39.  And this, in turn will further prepare for the final battle at the end of the Tribulation, Armageddon. The battle of Armageddon is prophesied to tell us about a time when all the nations will gather to destroy Israel.  As we see today, many nations apparently view Israel as a problem to be solved rather than a nation to be defended.  Already, preparations are being made for
Israel’s complete annihilation.  Zechariah  14:1-3 gives us a quick glimpse of the situation at the battle of Armageddon.

“Behold, a day is coming for the LORD when the spoil
taken from you will be divided among you.
For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the
city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the  city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.  Then the LORD will go forth and fight against
those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle.”

Already today there are nations that want to destroy Israel.  They are making real preparations to do so.  The first stage of preparation is the
underlying mindset we will find quite disturbing as we read such statements as
the following:

“Hezbollah  says that Israel’s disappearance after the next war is an established fact.
Iran’s President has called Israel a dirty microbe and a savage animal that
will soon disappear in a flash. The commander in chief of Iran’s army predicts
that millions will soon receive the joyous news of Israel’s destruction.
Israel’s chief of staff warns of a ‘tough ordeal’ coming soon. ”  (“Psalm 83…A Preview of Coming  Attraction”, by Jack Kelly, gracethrufaith.com)

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