Jesus chastised the Pharisees and Sadducees when they asked Him for a sign from Heaven. He pointed out that they knew how to read the signs from the sky regarding weather but they (who knew and taught scriptures), couldn’t discern the signs of the times, meaning that He was the predicted Messiah.(Mt 16:1-4) Luke says it as “…How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?” In Matthew, He called them a wicked and perverse generation; Luke refers to them as Hypocrites.
The point being that discerning the signs of the times is of paramount importance. We are warned over and over again in the New Testament that there are specific signs pointing to the end of times. Burying our heads in the sand will do nothing other than trap us in a living Hell on Earth.
Look at Ukraine. For weeks they saw Russia bring more and more soldiers and equipment to the borders of their country. Yet, what did the vast majority do? They went to work, went shopping, scrolled through social media, went to weddings, right up until the time the first shots were fired. They had been given plenty of warning that it was time to get out of there or, at the very least, time to make sure they had food and cash. How many did that? When residents were interviewed prior to the invasion they basically said they were just going on with their lives; they doubted Russia would attack. Really!? And just how did they convince themselves that nothing bad would happen to them while watching the evening news and seeing 150,000+ Russian troops and equipment amassed on their borders? The answer is probably because they didn’t want it to be true, therefore they convinced themselves that it’s not true.
Every other country pretty much knew it was true. Israel knew it was coming and sent airplanes to rescue Jews caught in Ukraine. Very few people took advantage of the escape offer. This is completely unfathomable. Knowing what happened in Germany and Poland in the 1930s and 40s to the Jews, you’d think they’d be the first to jump at the opportunity. But nope, they didn’t think it could happen again; certainly not to them. And given Russia’s long history of violent Jewish persecution it would have been really smart to get out.
Things are likely to get worse. On Friday, February 18, while waiting for my lunch to be served, I was scrolling through the four news feeds I rely on for up-to-date information – Reuters, Associated Press, BBC and Al Jazeera –when I came across an article saying that the next day Russia would be testing ICBMs and Putin would be watching from the situation room because he wanted to see firsthand how well prepared the missiles and the troops were for the “coming nuclear war”. When I got home about an hour later, that article had been taken down. I looked and looked in vain. ABC News had something rather close but lacking the certainty of a Putin’s planning nuclear war. Today (February 27, 2022) he is verbally threatening the world that he’ll go nuclear in response to the sanctions placed on him and on his cash-generating friends.
How many people reading this blog are saying to themselves, “Well, that’s Europe; nothing like that can happen to me. I’m an American and we never have war on our land.” Actually, we have had war on our land, just not in the time of living memory. The argument that because a certain thing has never happened before, means it can’t ever happen is what’s known as a Black Swan Event which holds that just because no one had ever seen a black swan didn’t prove there wasn’t one.
Church, WAKE UP. God is giving us sign after sign that The Tribulation is VERY near. And if the Rapture doesn’t swoop us out of here, we, too, are likely to be caught up in the giant, unstoppable whirlwind of God’s judgement. Please don’t bet your family’s spiritual and physical future on what you hope won’t happen, just because you don’t want the times to be as ominous as they are. If you and your family have not accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior it’s time to do everything possible to make that happen.
The Church is charged with watching, discerning, being prepared (Matthew, Mark, Luke). We have been given many fore tastes of what judgement will look like. Under the cover excuse of keeping us safe during the Wuhan virus, many of the freedoms we take for granted simply got crushed. Freedom of Speech. Gone. Freedom of the Press. Gone. Freedom of Assembly. Gone. Freedom to Protest. Pretty much gone. Freedom of Religion. Almost gone. Freedom to Bear Arms. Going soon. Please take a few minutes to read the amendments to our constitution (you can easily google them) and then ask yourself if they are still guaranteed in this country.
BTW, I hope you paid attention to what recently happened in Canada. Trudeau almost got away with granting himself virtually unlimited power. What stopped him? A few courageous members of Parliament stood up to him and then there was a run on the banks. People thought, “If he can lock down the banks accounts of the protesting truckers, he could just as easily lock down my accounts. Guess I’ll take my money out of the bank”. Trudeau reversed his seizure of emergency powers within 24 hours.
Please, neither offhandedly accept nor reject what is said in this blog. Check it out. Look it up for yourself in the Bible. If you are a child of God, you are in good hands and there is the most wonderful eternity waiting for you. If you are not a Christ follower, now is a really good time to honestly explore the truth claims of the Bible.
Ringing the Bell 