World News Through the Third Lens: Upside Down or Rightside Up?

"The world is pretty much upside down," stated Bill Wilson, senior analyst with KIN in the October 21, 2011 edition of Koenig's Eye View. He proves his point with these remarks:


"We have presidential candidates in the United States who profess to be Christians but are unwilling to call a cult a cult. Heaven forbid that a Christian offend anyone with the truth. We have a president who says of communists, Islamists, anti-American protesters, 'We understand their struggles, and we are on their side.'"


"We have politicians who believe the bizarre idea that they could spend trillions of taxpayer dollars that they don't have and somehow create enough debt that the nation would prosper. And through it all, we have people who say they are followers of Christ who get angry when these truths are pointed out."


Wilson goes on to point out how the Arabs/Islamists of the middle east have millions of acres of land, their own closed societies, and significant amounts of money and wealth. Yet they continue to contend for a small area of land in the Jerusalem area whose value, truth be told, is that it contains Jews and is the center of God's promises to them. They are intent upon exterminating the Jews once and for all and in taking over the land promised to them. Satan, in his age-old attempt to defy and usurp God is behind it all, but politicians are so duped in their group-think that they believe that if they give the terrorists what they want, there will be peace.


Through the third lens of Scripture: "Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter." (Isaiah 5:20) Our American society and most other cultures of the world suffer woe because evil is being called good and good is being called evil. Just try and convince a politician or a corporate CEO that the economic woes of our country are really the result of serious moral failure as a nation. We have taken the practices of homosexuality and called them good, normal, alternative, genetic, and a dozen other things rather than what God calls them: "abominations." We have taken the practice of infanticide and called it a choice, a woman's right, a necessary medical procedure, et al rather than call it what God calls it: "murder."


"Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against His people." (Isaiah 5:25) Since people are so caught up in not only doing those things which anger the Lord, but societies and nations have gotten on board and legitimized those very things, should it surprise us that God is bringing judgment born out of His righteous anger? Yet He is a merciful God and as Jeremiah says: "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:22-23) So rather than bring judgment in one swift stroke, He does it in increments. These increments are compared to the pains of a pregnant woman in labor (Matthew 24:8).


Ironically, the Bible makes it very clear that a peace treaty (which proves to be false) between Israel and her neighbors will usher in a seven-year period in which calamity will increase world-wide on an exponential scale (Matthew 24:4-14; Revelation 6:1-17). Yet the world still clamors for this peace treaty, in spite of the overwhelming evidence from the natural perspective, that it's a sham. The Bible goes on to tell us that even when the treaty is broken Daniel 9:27; Matthew 24:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4) and the lawless one (Antichrist) is revealed, many will worship him (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12; Revelation 13:8) and will thus perish, their names not being found in the Lamb's Book of Life.


Many professing Christians will be caught up in the worship of the beast and the taking of his mark. That day will come upon them like a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:2-3) and they will fall for the deception. The deceptive work of the devil is aided, often inadvertently, by the false teaching that Christians will be raptured from the planet before the Antichrist begins his work. Consequently, they will be ill-prepared to face the great distress (tribulation) in those days (Matthew 24:21) and will succumb to the great deception. The deceptive work of the devil is also aided by the wide-spread teaching of "Once-saved-always-saved). Without getting into the details of this, suffice it to say that eternal security is dependent upon remaining in Christ. God's merciful keeping power has a lot to do with our remaining in Christ, but in the end, if faced with a choice of denying Christ of die physically; God will sufficiently aid those who choose to remain true, but He will not override the choices made to deny Him. Read the parable of the sower and you will find that there are those who once received the Word with gladness, but when persecution and affliction arise because of the Word, he quickly falls away (Matthew 13:21).


While there is yet time, all those who proclaim Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior (beginning with me) need to embrace a movement of God in their own hearts. This is not so much about jumping and shouting and claiming it as it is about a sober, solemn and humble reflection of the times in which we live vis-a-vis the Word of God. After all, Jesus was asked "...and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" (Matthew 24:3) Jesus gave a number of progressive signs and then concluded with the most prominent one of all, which immediately follows the distress of those days (referring to the period of time from the revealing of Antichrist until Jesus' return). "'..the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.' At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all nations of the earth will mourn [note how this matches with Revelation 6:12-17). They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather the elect from the four winds [note how this matches with 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18], from one end of the heavens to the others." (Matthew 24:29-31)


This is biblical; this is part of the doctrine of Christ, about which John wrote: "Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son." Paul give this admonition to the professing Christians in Corinth (and through them to us): "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless of course you fail the test." (2 Corinthians 13:5) It is better to test oneself now while there is time, and thus be prepared to meet the real test (Jeremiah 12:5). To help turn your part of the world upside-down and make it right-side up, continue to speak the truth in love. That is the spirit in which this is meant to be written.