The current and deteriorating state of affairs in the world and here at home should appeal to the intelligence of every living person, that something cataclysmic is about to take place, for the world as we know it just cannot continue the way it is. The incessant bloodshed taking place daily, together with the unrest in many nations are omens of things to come, and therefore it behooves every rational thinking person to wake up and discern the times in which we live, so that the appropriate choices which will determine our eternal destiny can be made without delay.
In order for us to understand where we are in the stream of time, it is necessary for us to first observe what is written in the Bible, as it pertains to our day, for God has not left us in darkness as to what will transpire across the globe during the last days of this earth’s history. These prophecies were written in several places in the Bible so that the honest
seeker for truth may study them closely, and thus find shelter in Christ, before probation closes on this world. Let’s read:
Jeremiah 4:31 For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, [and] the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, [that] bewaileth herself, [that] spreadeth her hands, [saying], Woe [is] me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.
Even though the prophet is here writing in the context of what was to befall ancient Jerusalem, yet we are assured in the scriptures that there will certainly be a repetition of what took place, only it will me much worse than it was back then, for there is nothing new under the sun, and history repeats itself. So says the word. Let’s read:
Ecclesiastes 1:9 The thing that hath been, it [is that] which shall be; and that which is done [is] that which shall be done: and [there is] no new [thing] under the sun.
1:10 Is there [any] thing whereof it may be said, See, this [is] new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.
And so the prophet continues the saga of our final history in words of solemn pathos. Let’s read:
Jeremiah 6:22 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, a people cometh from the north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth.
6:23 They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they [are] cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion.
6:24 We have heard the fame thereof: our hands wax feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, [and] pain, as of a woman in travail.
6:25 Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy [and] fear [is] on every side.
The same words and predictions are echoed in the New Testament, where Paul describes the rapid increase of earth’s perplexities as a woman in
travail, yearning to be delivered of her child. Let’s read:
Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
8:23 And not only [they], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, [to wit], the redemption of our body.
These prophecies and solemn statements should be understood in the context of the way in which a woman gives birth. Before a woman goes into labor at the end of her pregnancy, she begins to experience painful contractions that occur few and far between, but as the time for her delivery draws near, her labor pains are greatly increased, both in frequency and severity, until she can no longer retain her child, and thus her baby is born.
The very same pattern of occurrences is true of the many woes that are coming upon the earth, and increasing in frequency and severity, a fact that cannot be disputed, even by the casual observer,
or the unbelieving atheist. In order for us to have a better sense of what is taking place, it is necessary for us to observe the timeline of a series of dire and disturbing events which have occurred over the last few months of the year 2014.
It was March 8th 2014 when the Malaysian jet liner, flight 370 disappeared from radar without a trace, with 239 people on board, triggering a massive multinational search for the missing plane, but five months later, no one has a clue as to where it may or may not be. That same month saw the beginning of the social unrest in Ukraine, resulting in the annexation of Crimea, which has then led to a deepening stand-off between Russia and the West.
A little over a month later, the terrorist group, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 school girls at midnight, triggering a global outcry against the brutal tactics used by the group. The following month there was another mass shooting in California where several people were gunned down in indiscriminate carnage. The next month saw the downing of a Malaysian jet filled with almost three hundred innocent persons, by pro-Russian activists, which then led to numerous sanctions against the Communist state.
But as if that weren’t enough, Israel and Hamas went to war the in following month of July, in which over 1800 people have been killed so far, and before any resolution could be forged, Isis, the terror group has invaded Iraq, and is currently slaughtering thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians and Christians, who will not subscribe to their philosophies. In addition to all of these woes, here comes the deadly Ebola virus, for which there is no proven cure, and the threat of a world-wide epidemic looms on the horizon.
It sounds as if those labor pains which the Bible refers to are increasing in frequency and intensity, and the rapidity with which each deadly occurrence is taking place has caused the issue of the missing Malaysian jet to fade into obscurity, so that the incident is not even mentioned anymore. As a result, individuals and nations are gradually being desensitized to the increasing violence and bloodshed, to the point where the tragic loss of human life is now looked upon with increasing indifference.
Many people are making the mistake of blaming politicians and world leaders for the ever-increasing problems, but they themselves do not have the answers to our perplexities. Very many American presidents, political leaders and ambassadors have tried on several occasions to resolve the disputes between the Palestinians and Israel, but with no success, and the same result will be made manifest after efforts made to resolve the other global disturbances have failed miserably.
The reason for these failures is because, although we may have good intentions of peace and security, we do not have the remedies or the cure for the world’s problems, for the real disturbance is located within the human heart, and as such it constitutes a spiritual problem, which only a spiritual God can ultimately solve. It’s important then for us to turn to the Bible for both the diagnosis and the remedy to all of life’s difficulties. Let’s start with the cause.
Question: What is the root cause of all the problems we are now saddled with? The answer is given in clear, unmistakable lines from the pen of inspiration. Let’s read:
Isaiah 24:3 The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word.
24:4 The earth mourneth [and] fadeth away, the world languisheth [and] fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
24:5 The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
24:6 Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
Question: What laws are being referred to by the prophet Isaiah?
Answer: The Ten Commandments which have been given to us by God as the rule and guide of life. For instance the Bible tells us that sin is the
transgression of the law, and the wages of sin is death, so then, the multitudinous dangers that are coming upon the world must be as a direct result of sin.
Lance Armstrong had a brilliant career in the world of cycling, and was well respected in high and low circles for his achievements. But after many illustrious years, it was suspected that he was using performance enhancing drugs and blood doping to win the many titles and victories he had accrued.
These charges and questions were vehemently denied by him on several different occasions, until just recently it was proven beyond the shadow of a doubt, that he was indeed using the forbidden products and methods, and as a result, the fame and fortune that attended him throughout his career, started to disintegrate at an alarming pace, for the many sponsors and corporations that had sponsored him, began pulling their public and financial support. His demise can be directly attributed to a violation of the ninth commandment which reads as follows:
Exodus 20:16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Tiger Woods was well respected by everyone, and was looked up to by many as a father figure worth emulating, since to all appearances he had the perfect family. That was until it was discovered that he had several illicit lovers, and since that time he has never been able to regain control of the golfing world. His retrogression can be directly linked to the violation of the seventh commandment which reads as follows:
Exodus 20:14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Yesterday, August the 15th, Boko Haram kidnapped several dozen boys and men from a remote village in northeast Nigeria, in addition to the two hundred plus girls who were taken in April, and who still remain missing. Their misdeeds are directly linked to a blatant violation of the law of God which reads as follows:
Exodus 20:15 Thou shalt not steal.
And Isis has slaughtered, and continues to behead thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians and Christians, which constitutes a flagrant violation of the sixth commandment which reads as follows:
Exodus 20:13 Thou shalt not kill.
But on the wider stage, there are the morbid results which inevitably follow the violation of the fourth commandment, which reads as follows:
Exodus 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
20:9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
20:10 But the seventh day [is] the sabbath of the LORD thy God: [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates:
20:11 For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Some may be wondering how the violation of the sacred day of rest is related in any way to the turmoil that is transpiring across the earth. For answers we do not have to look far, for the sacred history recounts in detail what was the result of continual, deliberate Sabbath-breaking. Let’s read:
2nd Chronicles 36:19 And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.
36:20 And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:
36:21 To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: [for] as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.
Leviticus 26:34 Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye [be] in your enemies' land; [even] then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.
26:35 As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.
It is because of the constant violation of God’s law why the current problems of this earth, and those pestilences and disturbances that are already on the way, cannot be averted, resolved or prevented, unless this core issue of the validity of God’s law is addressed both individually and globally, for the law of sowing and reaping will continue as long as time will last. Let’s read:
Galations 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
6:8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
It is of critical importance for us to know what the remedy to all of these issues really is, for we have tried in vain to find solutions outside of God, only to come up empty-handed, and worst off than where we started. Man’s way of dealing with the problem
of sin is to apply external remedies to an internal and spiritual problem. For instance, if a person is arrested for stealing, and is convicted, we send him or her to jail for a period of time, with the hope that they will learn honesty.
But incarceration only prevents them from actually stealing, but it does not address the internal problem of thinking like a thief, and so, when they are released, the sinful thoughts which drove the actions in the first place are reignited again, once opportunity presents itself, and they usually relapse into their former activities, only to be jailed again and again, and so the futile cycle continues without end.
Similarly with the national and global problem of terrorism, which has come as a plague upon the earth. Drones and missiles cannot shoot down sin, and as much as we may bomb and kill the terrorists, we are incapable of bombing their mindset, which, as history has proven, only resurfaces in a more deadly form.
The problem is an internal one, and therefore the solution must of necessity be internal also, and that’s why God presents us with the only remedy that works, even Christ, who brings us a permanent change of heart, so that the destructive behaviors we indulge in are brought to a halt as The Holy Spirit takes up residence in our minds, thus changing us from the inside out.
As David pondered the evil he had done in killing one of his most faithful soldiers to have his wife, he was alarmed and startled to know just how far a human being will go in order to materialize, the evil thoughts which otherwise lie dormant within the precincts of the human heart, and as he beheld his own wretchedness and utter inability do change himself, he then cried out to God, not to send drones or troops with hell-fire missiles, but to change his heart from the inside, and it was in this frame of mind that he penned the following sacred words. Let’s read:
Psalms 51:1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude
of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
51:2 Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
51:6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden [part] thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
51:11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
As we see the fulfillment of prophecy before our eyes, God cautions us not to try to remedy the situation by using any external measures. He cautions us not to purchase any doomsday bunkers, and He does not say to stop work or school in order to move into the Everglades, where there are many uninvited “Guests”! What He does say to all is to look up, for our redemption draws nigh, and as many as desire to escape all these things that are coming upon the earth in fast and furious fashion, He says, take refuge in Christ while we have opportunity to do so, for Jesus died to save us, not in our sins but from our sins.
We therefore end with two passages of scripture which point us to Christ as the only solution to all of life’s problems, and it is the will of God that His internal remedy be applied across the entire spectrum of the human experience. Let’s read:
Isaiah 55:6 Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
55:12 For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap [their] hands.
55:13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign [that] shall not be cut off.
Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
May the Grace of God and the fellowship of The Holy Spirit, rest and abide in our hearts until Christ returns to make all things new. God bless!