I tell you Paul, we really need to prepare for battle, there are thousands of our brothers and sisters being persecuted and killed throughout the world and I don't think it will be too long before we in the west will be called to be counted. And I believe it may even cause the church to split. We really need to revisit scriptures, such as Jesus's encounter with Satan in the desert and his encounters with spiritual forces throughout the gospels to learn from him how to overcome. We are in exiting times my friend.
Greetings Trevor
I will start by saying, the battle is not ours brother, the battle is won, well at least we know there is a finish line. That said we are 'called out' of this world, we are soldiers for Christ, we are His, we are to do His will, we are to share the Good News, we are to point out, shout out, and make clear the evil and wickedness in the world.
Bringing people to Christ is what is expected of us. When Jesus was on earth He reached as many as He could at that time, He returned to the Father, but gave us the Great Commission, we have our instructions, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves, share the Love of Christ with all we can, whilst God is accessable.
The end times are often misunderstood, they are the last 2000 years, it is the time of the Gentiles. The latter days some don't take enough notice of, these are the coming of the end, 'limited period' times. I believe the latter days were conceived on 14 May 1948, as every woman knows, a pregnancy in a human lasts 9 months, the time element is not the important factor in what Jesus tells us in scripture, the period is of prime importance. A pregnancy has three phases, I don't know the medical term but again that is not important, there is the initial 1/3, the intermediate 1/3 and the final 1/3 periods.
Matthew 24:4-8 (NIV2011)
4 Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you.
5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.
6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.
7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.
We are in the last 1/3 period on pregnancy, we have been for some time. Time is getting shorter by the day.
I believe the latter days were conceived on 14 May 1948, although some may say there has always been wars and earthquakes, and it is true there has been, nothing could come together until the Jews returned to Israel. Although governments tried to do this in the 1920's, they did not succeed, it had to be done in God's time, not man's time. So the Balfour Treaty didn't succeed. God also knew there would be a world war 2, that had to happen first. But soon after that terrible war, the Jews started to return to the promised land, and Israel was declared a state, 14 May 1948. The latter days were conceived, but as in any pregnancy there are 3 stages, the first 1/3 little shows, the second 1/3 things really do start to show, the latter period continues as the second, advancing, quickening, until the birth pangs start, at that point the woman in labour know the end of the pregnancy is due, any day.
Initially from 1948 we saw little happen, as in the first 1/3 of pregnancy. Then we saw the explosion of Free love, Free sex, Free spirit, anything goes. A lot of us loved through this, we were drawn into it. But many other things started to happen, the Berlin wall was knocked down, thus making it easier for Rosh to come down from the north in the final battle. China, one of the poorest countries in the world started to grow, we know the final battle will come out of the north, Rosh Russia and the east, China! These things and more started to happen in the early stage of the pregnancy, as we know China is the second largest economy in the world! Russia has got into bed with Syria, has been flirting with Turkey and more, they are fletching their military muscle worldwide.
As time moved on into the second stage of the pregnancy, statistically it is confirmed wars and rumours of wars increased, increase in pestilences increased, hard began hardened, children became disobedient to their parents, young and old became more opinionated, man goes with man, woman with woman, divorces increased, marriage was no longer considered necessary, the Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments were banned from many public places, famines though being a problem in the past get worse, all these prophesied events continued to worsen between the 2nd and last phases of the pregnancy Jesus gave us as a picture of these latter days, and what a picture he gave us, graphic in detail, easy to follow and the event stated are seen so clearly. Let us all sit up and take note, time is running out fast...
Matthew 24:4-8 (NIV2011)
4 Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you.
5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.
6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.
7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.
KJV & NKJV use the words 'time of sorrows' for birth pains. Both portray what the period will be like '
at the end' of the latter days
Scripture also goes on to tells us many more things about this time, latter days, birth pang period, the period is close to the end.
Luke 21:25-26 (NKJV)
25 "And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring;
26 men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken.
We must be ready, tomorrow could be to late, time is short, our Lord WILL Return for the ekklesia at the twinkling of an eye. There will be no time to say one word, not even 'Lord', we must accept Him before He returns, we must be ready. The parable of the ten virgins sums up our situation well.
Matthew 25:1-13
Blessings
