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It IS Judgement!
February 15, 2007
Romans Chapters One and Two, II Peter 3 and Revelations all speak of the judgment of the end times (not to mention the host of major and minor prophets). Jesus was asked in Matthew 24 what “shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?” His response was,
“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 rumors 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 diverse places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”
Fun stuff, eh? It is amazing to me how many Christians today are either ignorant passages of Scripture like this or they read and refuse to believe. Even some rather high profile Christians say some incredible stuff that gets quoted in the news. For instance, the son of a long-time, internationally known evangelist reportedly said that Hurricane Katrina wasn’t judgment! And another nationally known pastor was criticized by other nationally known Christians for referring to the “nine-eleven” terrorist attack as judgment.
Who do we think we are? After killing over 40 million of our own babies, and after looking the other way while the homosexual rights movement has gained foothold after foothold, do we think we are going to be exempt??? Both of these sins, abortion and homosexuality, hold the biblical distinction of being referred to as “abominations.” I believe that is because both of them deny God His right to the pinnacle of His own Creation: the next generation of mankind. Mrs. Rick Warren recently said on national TV, “The evangelical movement needs to apologize to the homosexual community for how they’ve treated them for the last 25 years.” Oh? Has the church transitioned from renouncing the sin of homosexuality to condoning it? Have we transitioned from the Christian concept of loving the sinner but hating the sin to the New Age concept of “accepting” the sinner just as they are? Is that what we mean when a pastor says from the pulpit that our church is a “safe” place to “explore Christianity?” Was church not safe before? What is it safe from now? Safe for non-Christians to continue in their sin? Safe for baby Christians to continue in their sin? Safe because no one has to hear that the wages of their sin is eternal damnation and separation from God? Safe from hearing “wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, but straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it?” [Matthew 7:13]
The history of the Israelites in the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, and the six historical books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles all record how the Israelites obeyed God, He blessed them, they forgot about Him and sinned, He JUDGED them, they cried out and He sent a godly man or woman to JUDGE them as they repented. Over and over again we see the Jews repeat this cycle: obedience, blessing, forgetting, sinning, judgment, repentance, rule by righteous judges. The Assemblies of God was formed out of a concern for obedience, God blessed our movement, and it appears we are right in the middle of forgetting Who got us to where we are. This phase always parallels the sinning phase which begets judgment. Current events!!!
To be sure, the events on September 11th, 2001 where no small matter to those in New York City and the Pentagon. However, compared to the judgments outlined in the book of Revelation, these were small judgments! Once upon a time, we’d hear of some wild weather somewhere in America and we’d all shake our heads in wonder. Now, horrible weather is occurring all around our county at nearly the same time! The billion dollar crop of citrus lost to frost in California! Ten feet of snow in New York in nine days. The worst ice storm in southwest Missouri on over forty years. Both a summer storm and a winter storm causing hundreds of thousands of St. Louis metro area residents to lose power for days—both in the same year! Tornados in Florida in January! Hurricanes on our Pacific coast. Early explorers named this the Pacific because the sea was always so calm! Not to mention the tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that have killed tens of thousands in Muslim countries around the globe recently. By the way, is it mere coincidence that these events always occur near Easter and Christmas every single year in these Muslim countries? Hmmmmmmm. God loves the Muslims too. He is trying to get their attention. Thank God for missionaries who are risking their very lives to evangelize and disciple the Muslim peoples.
And now, certainly in an effort to give God the proverbial last straw, we have Rick Warren inviting Senator Barack Hussein Obama, a strong pro-abortion advocate (is he not a Muslim with that name?), to his church for his second annual “Global Summit on AIDS.” Since when do Christians invite blatant non-believers to speak in their pulpit? God help us! And Rick Warren brags that he has somewhere near 250,000 pastors that subscribe to his e-newsletter. How many Assemblies of God pastors do so? Do they endorse anything Rick Warren? Even when Rev. Warren is giving his pulpit to those who endorse the killing of unborn babies?
Hear me shepherds! These natural disasters and terrorist disasters that have made the national news are most certainly judgments! But, God in His infinite mercy allowed them to be “little” judgments in the hopes that we, the American 21st century church, would wake up and repent. We have gone whoring after the world with their tattoos, earrings for males, versions of the Bible that are watered-down so they’ll be “cool,” endorsing (even ordaining) homosexuals, cavorting with the idolatrous Catholic church, worshipping at the altar of education, coveting positions of acceptance with church-related national associations of mixed beliefs (reference recent events with the president of the NAE), allowing “you songs” to creep into the church (from young artists hoping to have their crossover song make it big in the secular music world), alcohol served in church, or church being held in a bar (happens in an “emerging church” right here in St. Louis every week), sex between unmarried church attendees (some of whom are allowed to participate in church ministries!) and allowing New Age words such as “spiritual” to replace non-confusing, biblical terms such as “Christian.”
Worse judgment is coming dear ones!!! The question is, “Are we going to be the dam holding it back or are we going to be part of the reason God decides to execute His righteous judgment?” Without repentance, I submit the latter case is the answer. We need to pray Nehemiah’s prayer not Jabez’s prayer! Have you read Nehemiah’s prayer lately? Please preach repentance from the pulpit shepherds! We will not survive without it.
For Our Own Sake,
Brother Mike
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