Haggai 2:6 For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land;
7 And I will shake all nations.
The time is soon coming when there’ll be a terrible shaking among the professed people of God, and it will result in a mass exodus from the church and the truth. This is not a hypothesis nor an idle conjecture for it is the culmination of a plethora of factors that would converge as the end of earth’s history draws near.
Furthermore, it is predicted in the Bible, to result in the overwhelming majority of whom we now know as Christians to join ranks with the enemy of souls. Indeed, the shaking might have already begun, yet some may not be the wiser. It begins gradually and will pick up steam until it reaches a crescendo that topples all who have not built upon The Rock, Christ Jesus.
There isn’t any one single reason why this will take place, but it will take place, and God is now putting us on notice, so that deep soul-searching would be the result, and so that we can make our calling and election sure. To put it plainly, now is a bad time to play church, for we are heading for prime time, the period of earth’s history that will usher in the final conflict of the ages.
During this time, all the stops will be pulled out, and the bare bones, and foundations of our faith will be exposed, and therefore, if we have been superficial in our relationship and walk with God, the time will soon come when all that folks have ever learned in Sabbath or Sunday school, or in Pathfinders, would leak out of our souls, just as if it were a dream. Let’s read:
Matthew 10:32 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
36 And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
39 He that finds his life shall lose it and he that loses his life for my sake shall find it.
Question: How is it that we can be attending church for many years, praying, singing together, reasoning from the scriptures from week to week, and yet not be grounded in Christ? How is it, that some could be expositors of the scriptures, and yet, when crunch time comes around, so many persons would join the ranks of the enemy?
There are several answers to these questions, which we will address one by one, with the hope that the sincere-hearted, as well as the light and frivolous would be aware of what God desires in His people. This is not the time for the minds of the remnant people of God to be engrossed in movies, money-making or in fashion-mongering.
Instead, it is a time for deep soul-searching, where we examine ourselves closely in the light of God’s word; a time, when, like the Psalmist David, we are to ask God to search us and try us, to see if there be any wicked way in us, and if so, to lead us in those paths of righteousness outlined by God. Let’s read:
Psalms 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts.
24 And see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
Leviticus 23:27 Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord.
28 And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God.
29 For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people.
We are currently living in the closing scenes of the antitypical day of atonement, when the names of all those who have professed Christ are being put into one of two books, the book of life or the book of death. With all of the ongoing issues to distract our attention from this all-important truth, we should never forget that it is occurring even as we speak.
The following therefore, are some of the reasons why many will be shaken out from among God’s remnant people, and it is our hope and prayer that the needed reforms and changes in our habits and lifestyles would take place in co-partnership with God who stands ready to forgive us, to heal us and restore.
[1] Some will be shaken, because of not being grounded in Christ and the truth.
As the shaking intensifies, there are those who have indulged a sort of tag-along relationship with God, in which their names have been registered on church books, and they have gone through the formalities of religion for years. Yet, some have never brought the eternal truths and principles of the Bible to bear directly on their everyday experiences.
A superficial, intellectual knowledge of the scripture is all that some will allow but when the word of God conflicts with habits and practice, some folks recoil from the self-denial that is necessary in order to facilitate the working of God’s Holy Spirit upon our hearts.
Thus, instead of synthesizing the written word with our everyday experiences, some persons keep the word at bay, not allowing it to sink its roots deep into the conscience to uproot, known and unknown tendencies and propensities to evil. As a result, the syndrome known as “dormant evil” just awaits the right set of circumstances to converge so that it can break out into open sin.
Again, some of us have been content with a sort of parasitic relationship with Jesus Christ, by which our knowledge of Him is threaded through another. In other words, some persons come to church merely because their spouses do, and some children attend church because they are forced to, yet there might not be any real, or earnest desire to give their life over completely to Christ.
Now, while it is good for all husbands and wives to attend church, and while it is so cute to sit together while listening to the word, our relationships with Christ have to go much deeper than that, for when our names come up in the judgment, married folks are not judged in pairs, nor would the spirituality of one, offset the lack thereof in another.
It would be cute if we could be saved by families or married persons could be saved in pairs. However, in reality, this is not the case. Lot and his wife made it ever so far out of Sodom, but after that they both parted ways, and even though they had lived in a God-fearing, monogamous marriage for years, yet, when the dust settles on resurrection morning, one will be found on the other side of the fence.
This brings a very sobering truth to the forefront of our minds, of which we ought to be cognizant as we consider the shaking, that is scheduled to intensify: The righteousness of one never atones for another, and sons and daughters are not permitted to hitch a free ride to glory on the backs of their God-fearing parents. Every person who has reached the age of accountability must answer for themselves. Let’s read:
Ezekiel 14:12 The word of the Lord came again to me, saying,
13 Son of man, when the land sins against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it.
20 Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.
In the days of the antediluvians, God saved Noah and his immediate family from the deluge, and the reason given by God was: “For thee only have I seen righteous before me in this generation”. What folks must never forget in that episode is that all of his children, as well as Noah’s wife, obeyed, by going into the ark as God had commanded.
Thus, they partook of Noah’s salvation, because they partook of his obedience. In other words, if Noah had been married to Lot’s wife at that time, the narrative would have turned out differently. If Lot’s wife had partook of Lot’s obedience, she too would have been saved, just like Noah’s wife.
Even though parental faithfulness is always honored by God, and even though He desires that husbands and wives help each other, in their journey towards the kingdom let none be deceived into thinking that the righteousness of one will atone for the other for it is a solemn statement that is made, that everyone who enters the kingdom of God will enter in single file.
Thus, saith The Holy Ghost and thus, we reiterate again, husbands and wives are not saved in pairs, nor are families saved as complete units, and as the shaking intensifies, our individual relationship with God would be laid bare and severely shaken to the core. Let’s read:
2nd Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Revelation 22:12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
Jeremiah 3:14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
[2] Some will be shaken out of comfort zones.
Some of us will be shaken out of our comfort zones to the point where difficulties and trials will shake our confidence in God. As it stands currently, it does not take much to profess belief in Christ, and those peculiar doctrines and teachings we advocate as the remnant people of God, do not generally trigger a lot of intolerance.
That’s because we still have freedom of speech and freedom of religion as pillars of our democracy, and the laws of The United States still offer protection from those who differ in persuasion. But according to Revelation, all of that will come to an end, and a mandated form of religion will be forced upon the masses of people.
As the laws of the land will certainly change as the Bible says they would, difficulties will surface, and the comforts we have become accustomed to, will become a thing of the past. Serving God when it is comfortable to do so, is quite different from serving Him in the times of relentless hardship and thus, we reiterate again, we’ll be shaken out of our comfort zones which we have become accustomed to.
Lot and his wife were doing quite well, serving God when it was comfortable to do so. In fact, according to the record, they manifested great kindness when they invited the angel strangers to their home to protect and feed them, thus fulfilling the scriptural mandate to entertain strangers unawares.
But manifesting great kindness is only one of the Christian virtues, persons are to develop. Enduring hardness and trial as a good soldier of the cross and that with a cheerful spirit is quite another matter as many of us as believers will discover in the not too distant future.
As Covid began to spread its deadly tentacles across the globe, unforeseen difficulties began to arise and as the hard lock-downs went into effect, persons had to grapple with the new abnormal. But instead of us viewing the situation as an incentive to spread the gospel, some retreated into self-preservation mode, and church attendance literally fell off a cliff.
Even now, as things gradually begin to get back to some sort of normalcy, many are finding it difficult to return to church, because zoom and his brothers have gotten us accustomed to doing church from a distance, where we can lie in bed watching sermons or even catch a snack during Divine hour, things we never did previously, and as a result, some persons may never come back to church.
Back in the days of old, Elkanah and his wife Hannah did continue to attend church at a time when it was very difficult and questionable to do so. At that time it wasn’t an epidemic of diseases, it was a pandemic of sin that had shaken the confidence of the people, and as a result most of them had stopped attending church.
Eli’s two sons had made a mockery of religion, and stop and frisk was daily practiced at the door of the sanctuary as folks would come with their sacrifices and offerings. But finally, it reached a boiling point where even the sincere-hearted had become utterly discouraged. Yet, Elkanah and Hannah still went to church. Let’s read:
1st Samuel 2:15 Also before they burnt the fat, the priest's servant came, and said to the man that sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest; for he will not have sodden flesh of thee, but raw.
16 And if any man said unto him, Let them not fail to burn the fat presently, and then take as much as thy soul desires; then he would answer him, Nay; but thou shalt give it me now: and if not, I will take it by force.
1st Samuel 1: Now there was a certain man of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of an Ephrathite.
3 And this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli Hophni and Phinehas the priests of the Lord were there.
Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.
25 Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
To face trials, hardships, accusations, persecutions and heckling together with the loss of our economic freedom, while at the same time having to dispense with the comforts of life, is going to put an entirely different spin on life as we know it as Christians.
Thus, the shaking will develop two distinct classes of believers, those who serve God only when things are going smooth, and those who continue to serve Him when the going gets rough. When searching our souls, it is necessary for us to accurately assess if our attitudes and temperaments change and/or fluctuate when we do not have things our way.
There were times when Christ was on earth, when His disciples thought it an honor to be with Him and their striving for the highest place was often the result of high expectation that He would soon take the throne. But when Christ was disdained by the masses of people and proscribed by the authorities it was hard for them to be associated with Him.
Therefore, the difficulties and trials which thickened around them brought out the best in some, and also brought out the worst in others. Some who sang the praises of Jesus Christ, as He rode triumphantly into Jerusalem turned their backs and fled when the tide of popular sentiment turned against Him, and trials and imminent danger began to shake them out of their comfort zones.
If persons are truly grounded in Christ, difficulties or trials should only drive them closer to Him but if our relationship with God is superficial, then, when the going gets rough folks will recoil. Thus, persecutions and difficulties will either make or break persons.
Therefore, whenever true Christians are shaken out of their comfort zone, the result ought to be a much closer walk with God. In fact, true conversion would cause us to look at trials from the perspective which Christ outlines in the scriptures, for trials should energize, and incentivize, not discourage. Let’s read:
Matthew 5:11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
Acts 5:40 And when they had called the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.
41 And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.
42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
Acts 8:1 And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.
3 As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and hauling men and women committed them to prison.
4 Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.
5 Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.
[3] Some will be shaken because of such science that conflicts with God’s word.
True science and scriptural teachings are never in disagreement, for as we have stated on numerous occasions, the word “Omniscience” which has to do with God knowing everything, is made up of two words: Omni and Science. But in our day, science has in some instances taken a u-turn from the word and whenever it does, the true Christian must stick with the Bible.
Back in the days of yore, most men thought that the world was flat, and they planned, sailed, and taught their students in school along those lines. In various schools of thought, ranging from the Hellenistic and Egyptian, to the Mesopotamian and Gupta, people believed the world to be a flat disk, and some of the great philosophers taught this theory in universities of the day.
But right there in the book of Isaiah, the scriptures were saying something completely different, and it was only with the passing of the centuries that men came to understand their error. Thus, for very many centuries, what was considered acceptable science, later turned out to be fake news. Let’s read:
Isaiah 40:21 Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he that sits upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretches out the heavens as a curtain and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in.
In our day, modern science has been teaching folks that our world is billions of years old, and that man was slowly developed through evolutionary changes from lower lifeforms. The embrace of the Darwinian theories such as “Survival of the fittest” have also spawned a tsunami of self-centered ideologies, in which only the strongest and the richest, the best and the brightest should have a shot at survival.
It was the mentality of survival of the fittest which had prevented the crippled man in Christ’s day from accessing the pool when the waters were troubled. In the mad rush to survive, the biggest, the baddest and the strongest pushed their way up-front to be the first in line to receive healing, while the weakest and the neediest were left for last.
As Covid vaccines become available to the general public a similar rush for the door is unfolding in that the richest countries of the world have being buying up most of the available supplies, while the poorer, and less fortunate countries have been left behind. Thus the neediest and the greediest are sometimes scrambling to be first in line.
Some of the rich and famous who could’ve afforded to pay $1,000 a pop on the dark web, were in some instances able to get their shots first, while your everyday John Doe had to wait for hours standing in line, and in some instances was turned away. It all hearkens back to the same evolutionary concept of survival of the fittest.
Thus, man, in his efforts to “Survive” tramples the rights of the poor, others view the less fortunate as mere steppingstones to gain a vantage ground, and test-tube and designer babies are being engineered for the best possible chances of surviving in our day.
Evolution is also responsible for the concept of race superiority where some persons are viewed as sub-human and are considered as a threat or liability to others on account of the color of their skin. Those misconceptions are outgrowths from the theory of evolution which has survival of the fittest at its core.
And just as in the days of old, ivy league universities and colleges have hunkered down with evolutionary theory, and research and conclusions are done from that perspective. Thus, there are several questions we would have to confront in our generation, as the shaking comes to a head.
If science says something, and the Bible differs on that very point, which would we believe? Especially, if science purports to bring evidence that is contrary to God’s word, some would find themselves having to choose in principle between Christ and Darwin or between man’s science and the scriptures, as could be observed with evolution versus creation.
According to research done at Harvard university, several glasses of wine are recommended weekly because of the benefits of antioxidants contained in in. The scriptures declare that we can benefit from those antioxidants, but without the alcohol, if folks were to drink the un-fermented juice of the grapes. Let’s read:
Isaiah 65:8 Thus saith the Lord, As the new wine is found in the cluster, one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it.
In addition, the Bible teaches that fermented wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. So, who should folks believe, the researchers at Harvard, or the God of the Bible?
Again, there are well-known doctors who have touted the benefits of marijuana and have pointed to scientific research showing that a medicinal and recreational use of the drug produces great relief from pain and other disorders. That may be true to some extent, but it savors very much of the tree of good and evil.
As a result, we have many states legalizing the use of ganja, which has become a gateway drug, and in reality, would open up the floodgates to different hallucinations, addictions and delusions of all sorts.
The conflict of the ages, as it pertains to the human family basically consists of a battle for the mind and whatsoever will impede, interfere with, and damage the sensitive machinery in the brain, would be best left alone, according to the scriptures. And that will include everything that we might ingest via the five senses.
Therefore, folks are finding themselves in a tenuous situation where science is often being pitted against the word of God. Thus, as the shaking continues to intensify, we would have to make definite choices between that science which is not approved by the Bible, and that which is stated and commanded in God’s word, for our best good. Let’s read:
1st Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
1st Timothy 6:20 O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called.
21 Which some professing have erred concerning the faith.
1st Corinthians 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seems to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
When we are disposed to put man-made research above what the Bible teaches, that mentality begins to taint all of our perspectives and every other issue downstream of that mode of thought is inevitably affected.
There is no reason for any of us to be shaken to the point where we lose our faith in God, for everything that pertains to life, to godliness, prosperity, health and immortality is to be found in God’s revealed will and are to be accessed through faith in the Lord Jesus.
Thus, as we close off this first segment, we implore everyone to make certain that we know what, and whom we believe in, and we hope that knowledge will translate into a deep, abiding relationship with Christ, so that when the stormy winds blow and the rain descends, we will not be shaken out of Christ. We end with a passage of scripture which echoes the same sentiment. Let’s read:
Matthew 7:24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock.
25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
26 And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand.
27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine.
God Bless!