The Last Days and Temptation

"And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows" (Mat. 24:1-8). The word 'sorrows' at the end of this passage comes from the Greek word 'odin,' is translated to mean "the pain of childbirth, or birth pangs." We should consider here that while Jesus did say that the advent of these end time events did not mean that THE end is immediate; for him to call these things in essence the pain of child birth does mean that the end is very near. It doesn't generally take a long time for a child to be born once a woman has gone into what we know as 'labor,' which is to say birth pains. Friend, you shouldn't really need me to tell you that we are there. So first of all let me say that we are on the very brink of the greatest 'revival' and outpouring of God's Spirit that the world has ever seen. But secondly, before we get overly excited about that, let me say that this massive demonstration of the glory of God on earth will not come cheap. There are going to be serious calamities of various kinds that will motivate and accompany this great revival that will finish the dispensation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus spoke in this passage of some of them, and there are others that he did not specifically identify, such as economical catastrophes.

All of this will come about so that everyone on earth will be squeezed into being wholeheartedly what they really want to be, as the following passage from the last chapter of the Bible clearly shows: "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still" (Rev. 22:11). God will no longer give space for anyone to be 'lukewarm' (Rev. 3:15,16). What is soon to come will most assuredly strengthen greatly those who love God's righteousness, or want to love it; and it will cause those who lean away from holiness to go all the way in that direction. It will be a worldwide repetition of what Jesus manifested in everyone he was around when he was here: "And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind" (Jn. 9:39). It will likewise be a repetition of what Isaiah prophesied of, regarding the first coming of Jesus to this world: "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it" (Isa. 40:4,5). Translation: "The humble will be lifted up, the proud shall be brought low, and the wrecked lives of those who want to be made right, will be made right; and the reality of the Lord Jesus Christ will be witnessed by all." In the midst of turmoil and catastrophe on earth, there will be an abundance of God's love, and power, and holiness, and truth, to take care of the greatest needs of those who are willing to subject themselves to the will of God that is in Jesus Christ. But as Jesus said, there will also be a grand deception about who he is that will also arise. Ultimately there will be a false 'Jesus' who appears on the scene, who by great miracles will deceive the whole world into following the "man of sin" who will come to the greatest of power in the earth (Mat. 24:24; II Thess. 2:3,9; Rev. 13:4-6,13,14; Rev. 16:13,14).

Everyone who rejects the last offering of God's love, and power, and holiness, and goodness, and truth to mankind; will surely be turned over to receive the false 'Jesus' and the "man of sin" who will claim to be 'Christ.' As it is clearly written: "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness" (II Thess. 2:11,12). The "false prophet" of the book of Revelation will claim to be 'Jesus,' and "the Beast" whom he supports will claim to be 'Christ.' The most integral aspect of the entire Gospel is that the Jesus of the Bible IS THE Christ; past, present and future, as the beloved apostle noted: "Who is a liar but he that denieth that JESUS IS THE CHRIST? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: [but] he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also... Whosoever believeth that JESUS IS THE CHRIST is born of God" (I Jn. 2:22; I Jn. 5:1). The other main ingredient that needs to be solidified in our faith is the nature of our Lord's second coming. Jesus alerted us about this in his sermon of the end time: "Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be... For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Mat. 24:26-30). My friend, if we do not love who and what Jesus [THE] Christ truly is, and we "fall away" from those two elements of the faith, we will be guilty of blaspheming the holy Ghost and be eternally lost without hope (II Thess. 2:3; Rev. 14:9,10). On the other hand, if we keep the Jesus Christ whom we believe in now, as the apple of our eye; then we will be empowered by God's grace to "endure unto the end, [and] be saved" (Mat. 24:13). The choice is ours, and we WILL make one. Amen.