Most people, however, seem unaware of just how chaotic and how violent is that storm which even now is beginning to break upon us, and from which there is no turning back. What makes it tragically worse, is that few evidently are willing to believe that is actually the case. For, the implications of confronting the reality that America (indeed, the whole world) is rapidly being turned into a burning hell, are unspeakable; though the Bible plainly declares it: "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God" (Psalm 9:17).
Because this is not yet a storm which can be immediately perceived by the eyes or the ears, few may even be capable~even if they might be interested~to discover, in order to understand, what are those factors and forces which have conspired to bring upon the world the horrors of the now imminent Tribulation so vividly described in the Bible. Jesus himself said that it shall be the absolute darkest time in all of human history, for ever. Although the Tribulation shall run its full course in a mere handful of years, yet, the Bible speaks more about that handful of years than it does about any other set of events or time period. But who really believes the Bible, these days?
Still, it is going to get worse, much worse, and quickly. Everyone, including unbelievers, feels it in their very bones. They know that something is coming, but they just aren't sure what that may be. Speculation runs the gamut from financial meltdown, to martial law, to alien invasion, to nuclear Armageddon; none (other than Bible-believers) supposing it shall actually include all of that, and more.
The Tribulation is not a phenomenon of Darkness which shall instantly appear when the Rapture of the Church occurs ~ as if someone flipped a switch and suddenly the lights went out (though there shall then occur a sea-change in the spiritual atmosphere on earth). But that epoch of gross darkness is even now overspreading the world, like the black waters of an immense tsunami swallowing up everything in its path. And the true Church is suffering the effects of that in many ways similarly as is the rest of the unsaved world.
The institutional Church is dead. While the believing Remnant is still very much scattered and unorganized; leaving (as it now stands) most Christian families largely to make it as best they can from day to day. And the failure~or, rather, the refusal of Christian fathers (and mothers) to do everything in their power, NOW, to find out, and to gather together with other like-minded believers, for their mutual spiritual and material support, shall doubtless prove to be one of the most unwise and costly decisions any Christian now living could make.
God is not silent, nor is he unconcerned with the well being of his people. In fact, he has already spoken in his Word, concerning what those are to do, who shall be alive in the days preceding the Tribulation. But the blindness and deception of the institutional Church has greatly hindered most Christians from perceiving where we really stand, on the prophetic timeline. That, together with the fact that, for the time being at least, there remains the semblance of normalcy, has been effectually used by Satan to prevent the true Body of Christ from daring to think, to plan, to speak, and to act in every way consistent with our professed belief, that is, that the Rapture really is about to happen, and that the awful Night of the Tribulation is already overshadowing us. Thus, the scattered Remnant has been reluctant even to consider any meaningful alternatives to the sort of "conventional" lifestyle which almost all of us have grown accustomed to.
Where does one then go to have spiritual communion with the Body of Christ? where does a father take his children, outside of his own home, to be nurtured in the true love of God and to be fed fresh bread of the Word from heaven? I am so blessed to have in my life a few who love Christ supremely and whose conversation and fellowship thus is not of this world. Yet, for reasons unknown to me, our families have not yet come together in the measure such as I have oftentimes urged that we should, to bind ourselves together so that we may withstand the howling storm which even now is sinking many in despair. Still I see, as if between swelling and falling mountains of waters, boats (families) here and there struggling against the gale and trying to stay afloat, but seemingly helpless to steer a course. Some already have been swept away beyond my view (though not out of my memory nor out of my heart); and by what? (It is not because that I have not fervently loved them and tried to hold on to them.) But that same dark power that compels many of its victims to seek relief at the point of a needle or at the point of a gun: somehow prevents Christian men and women from humbling themselves, and from giving themselves to deep-searching prayer, and from seeking to strengthen the life-giving bonds of spiritual communion within families, much less among faithful brothers and sisters in Christ....
The ritual of "church" has utterly failed to nurture spiritual life in any community that I know of. Where do we go now ~ now that we need, more than ever, what "church" was supposed to be? A.W. Tozer prophesied (I paraphrase), that some day (after Tozer's time), one by one every truly godly person would abandon the worldly Church and let that 'ship' go down in the storm; but, that the godly will then form what Tozer called "a new Ark to ride out the storm." Noah's Ark came from God; yet, it was built by Noah in this world, to keep his family safe in the midst of that great Storm. Where are the builders of that "new" Ark of which Tozer spoke, in his evidently true prophecy? Must I, like Noah, build alone, and for my family only? How, then, is that any different from sailing in our respective boats, apart, as we have been doing for far too long already? Must God bring us into a place where that we are forced to submit to his will ~ or else, perish?
"Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired; before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD come upon you, before the day of the LORD’S anger come upon you. Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD’S anger." (Zephaniah 2:1-3).
One of my heart-companions ~ who knew nothing yet about this essay, said to me, today: "We're in a time when whatever is not tied down and buckled down is going to be blown away." "Yes, and it's going to get a lot worse, fast," I replied, "because, the great shaking is already happening." "But we are unmovable, unshakable, in the Lord," he then answered.
We are, indeed; but only when we stand together.
No comments:
Post a Comment