UNDERSTANDING THE DAY OF THE LORD

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The phrase “Day of the Lord” usually identifies events that take place at the end of history (Isaiah 7:18-25) and is often closely associated with the phrase “that day.” One key to understanding these phrases is to note that they always identify a period during which God personally intervenes in history, directly or indirectly, to accomplish some specific aspect of His plan particularly Jesus second coming and a time when God will pour out His wrath upon the unrepentant as He did with Noah’s flood.

“But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth.“ Luke 21:34-35

“For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.“ Matthew 24:38-39

“But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Matthew 24:43-44

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!” 2 Peter 3:10-12

“For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. (“Behold, I am coming like a thief!” Revelation 16:14-15

The Old Testament passages dealing with the day of the Lord often convey a sense of imminence, nearness, and expectation: “Wail, for the day of the Lord is near!” (Isaiah 13:6); “For the day is near, even the day of the Lord is near” (Ezekiel 30:3); “Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming. It is close at hand” (Joel 2:1); “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision” (Joel 3:14); “Be silent before the Lord God! For the day of the Lord is near” (Zephaniah 1:7). This is because the Old Testament passages referring to the day of the Lord often speak of both a near and a far fulfillment, as does much of Old Testament prophecy. Some Old Testament passages that refer to the day of the Lord describe historical judgments that have already been fulfilled in some sense (Isaiah 13:6-22; Ezekiel 30:2-19; Joel 1:15, 3:14; Amos 5:18-20; Zephaniah 1:14-18), while others refer to divine judgments that will take place toward the end of the age (Joel 2:30-32; Zechariah 14:1; Malachi 4:1, 5).

The New Testament passages call it a day of “wrath,” a day of “visitation,” and the “great day of God Almighty” (Revelation 16:14) and refers to a still future fulfillment when God’s wrath is poured out on unbelieving Israel (Isaiah 22; Jeremiah 30:1-17; Joel 1-2; Amos 5; Zephaniah 1) and on the unbelieving world (Ezekiel 38–39; Zechariah 14). The Scriptures indicate that “the Day of the Lord” will come quickly, like a thief in the night (Zephaniah 1:14-15; 1 Thessalonians 5:2), and therefore Christians must be watchful and ready for the coming of Christ at any moment.

Besides being a time of judgment, it will also be a time of salvation as God will deliver the remnant of Israel, fulfilling His promise that “all of Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26), forgiving their sins and restoring His chosen people to the land He promised to Abraham (Isaiah 10:27; Jeremiah 30:19-31, 40; Micah 4; Zechariah 13). The final outcome of the day of the Lord will be that “the arrogance of man will be brought low and the pride of men humbled; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day” (Isaiah 2:17). The ultimate or final fulfillment of the prophecies concerning the day of the Lord will come at the end of history when God, with wondrous power, will punish evil and fulfill all His promises.

Much of the above comes from the website: http://www.gotquestions.org. It is a great place to go for answers to Biblical questions.

SATAN’S END TIMES STRATEGY

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This is the fifth and final post on knowing our enemy: the first was entitled SATAN – PRINCE OF THIS WORLD: WHO HE WAS AND NOW IS (26/05/2024). The second was WHEN DID SATAN REBEL AGAINST GOD? (27/05/2024) The third was ANCIENT SUMERIANS RECORDED THE DIVIDE OF HEAVEN AND EARTH IN ACCORD WITH THE BIBLE (03/06/2024). The fourth post was KNOWING HOW YOUR REAL ENEMY OPERATES (07/06/2024). If you have not read these I suggest you do. It is important we know our enemy.

God has revealed all we need to know in His Word, the Bible. Much is given about Satan’s last desperate efforts to maintain control of the Earth before Jesus returns to defeat him and his Antichrist in the battle of Armageddon. This post is about Satan’s end-times strategy. Doug Hamp’s latest book, Corrupting the Image, Vol. 3, Singularity, Superhumans and the Second Coming of Jesus brings our understanding of events in the days of the Beast leading up to the return of Jesus into focus. Doug carefully lays out a theological roadmap for understanding the heavenly and earthly battles yet to take place in the future.

 Mike Spaulding is pastor of Calvary Chapel of Lima and he hosts the Soaring Eagle Radio show. He sums up the end times scenario playing out in our time. “While the modern American church leads the way into global apostasy, Satan, the enemy of God, of His creation, and of His people, is gaining strength and assembling his forces for the coming great conflict. Satan is staging his assets for a blitzkrieg of shock and awe evil that will overwhelm the earth. UFO disclosure, Artificial Intelligence, genetic engineering, transhumanism, and the mad rush toward singularity are not disparate endeavours but are all part of the devil’s strategy of casting a dragnet to ensnare all of humanity in a great deception of faux hope and faux salvation“. This is part of Mike’s Foreword for Doug’s latest book.

Are you living your life knowing Jesus’ return is near and that God’s wrath is going to be poured out on an unrepentant world? God gives us a great deal of information about the Trumpet and Bowl judgements so we need to warn our unsaved family and friends of what is coming (Revelation 8-9 and 16).

WHY YOUNG AMERICANS DISSOCIATE FROM ORGANISED RELIGION

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Younger Americans are more likely to dissociate from organized religion, according to a recent Pew Research study on religious “nones.

Fully 69% of ‘nones’ say they believe in the God of the Bible or some other higher power, but only 3% “go to religious services at least monthly,” and a plurality (43%) says religion does more harm than good. These numbers don’t show “a rejection of God,” Perkins interpreted, but rather a rejection of “organized religion, that in many ways has become milquetoast and has abandoned truth. ‘So,’ [think the ‘nones’], ‘why bother?’”

An exploding number of young Americans are drifting through life without any theological mooring. Many of them were raised in the church, yet they remain largely ignorant of the Bible and its teachings

The real reason is that churches and Bible Schools have compromised God’s Word by accepting evolution and billions of years as fact. The Bible reveals that God made a perfect world about 6000 years ago. Adam was made in God’s image on the sixth day and given dominion over all the earth. He was there at the beginning. Death and suffering entered the world as a consequence of Adam and Eve disobeying God. The world rejects this true history as it does the Biblical account of the worldwide flood of Noah’s day when God judged the world and destroyed all but eight people and the animals that God had brought to the Ark. The entire topography of the Earth was changed due to the catastrophic flood “All the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened” Genesis 7:11. It is the reason we find billions of dead things buried all over the world including buried vegetation (fossil fuels). The world denies this event ever happened but has difficulty explaining the geological evidence.

Children are taught in schools that the universe started with the Big Bang. Life started in a primordial soup. Creatures evolved into more complex creatures as a result of natural selection and mutation. After much death and suffering men and women evolved from apelike ancestors. The survival of the fittest. God is not necessary and therefore does not exist. Does science support this theory?

The recent Encode project investigated DNA and its role in controlling the functions of all cells in the body. It revealed that DNA is a multi-dimensional assembly of information that controls the machines and transport devices in cells. Darwin did not have access to an electron microscope to see these complicated machines and transport devices inside all cells nor the DNA, the Information System that controls these machines. Information does not derive from matter or energy. There is only one source an Intelligent Designer who was outside of the universe (Time, Matter, and Space) He created. There is no way even the simplest cell could have evolved over time. The DNA, the information controlling the machines, and the complex machines had to be created perfectly at the same time to function – irreducible complexity.

God has raised up ministries such as Creation Ministries International, http://www.creation.com, and Answers in Genesis, http://www.answersingenesis.org to provide resources to present the case for creation so make sure you connect and support them.

PARENTS DEMONISING THEIR CHILDREN

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Children as young as 8 years old were dressed in drag and Teletubbies danced with a man wearing a skirt at a Los Angeles drag convention this past weekend.

Thousands of people were estimated to attend the DragCon LA event May 12-13 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, which featured over 180 drag performers, along with dance performances, wig and sewing workshops and, yes, even the popular children’s TV characters.

Sponsored by Teletubbies, Paramount+, Los Angeles Public Library, Postmates, Cash App and others, DragCon’s organizers described the convention as an “all ages event,” with children ages 8 and younger allowed in for free if accompanied by an adult with a paid ticket.

Videos posted on social media showed several underage drag performers on stage with adults, including one performer whose parent shared a video showing him wearing makeup and dressed in women’s clothing while he danced on stage.

The caption for the video reads in part: “To think ANYONE would say this child is FORCED to perform. ❤️ Your child wants to be an astronaut, mine wants to be an entertainer and she has said that from the moment she could formulate a sentence ❤️ PURE HAPPINESS ❤️ Thank you Drag Con for opening up the stage for a short time, so the kids could show the world their joy!”

Another video from the event included an interview with an independent journalist Right Now Views and a mother and her 8-year-old son dressed as a girl. When asked how he became interested in drag, the boy said “accidentally” before his mother explained, “I was watching drag and she kinda just got into it.”

We live in a world that is increasingly rejecting God and His values and they scoff at any suggestion that God has judged the world previously with the worldwide flood of Noah’s day and that God’s Word clearly spells out for us the judgement in store for the unrighteous.

“For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.” 2 Peter 2:4-10

“Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.” 2 Peter 3:3-6

IF ONLY OUR NATIONS LEADERS WOULD NOW READ AND HEED PSALM 110

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“The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” The LORD sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies! Your people (Resurrected Saints) will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments; (from the womb of the dawn, I have begotten you – LXX translation). The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” The Lord is at your right hand; He will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will lift up his head.” Psalm 110:1- 7

The first link from Psalm 110 to Psalm 2 is that in both psalms God promises the King dominion over rebellious enemy nations. A second link between Psalm 110 and Psalm 2 is that the King acts with righteous wrath. A third inner textual link between Psalm 110 and Psalm 2 is in the description of the King’s victorious battle. In Ps. 110:2 God promises to extend the King’s “mighty scepter [] from Zion” over all the nations. Similarly, in Ps. 2:9 the King is promised the nations as an inheritance noting that He “will break them with a rod of iron“. Both psalms depict the King’s victory in graphic terms: Ps 110:5–6 describe Him as crushing kings, piling corpses, and crushing leaders; similarly, Ps 2:9 portrays Him as shattering earthly kings and nations into pottery shards. Yet another link between the two psalms is that the King is to reign from Zion. In Ps 110:2, the LORD stretches forth the King’s scepter “from Zion.” Accordingly, Ps 2:6 presents the King as enthroned on “Zion,” God’s “holy mountain.” A final but significant inner textual link between the two psalms is derived from the variant reading for Ps 110:3.64. There, God declares to the King, “from the womb of the dawn, I have begotten You,” the same word used in God’s oracle to the King in 2:7: “You are my Son, today I have begotten you. Psalms 2 and 110 are clearly linked in the New Testament (Heb 1:3–5,13; 5:5–6) in this regard.

Scripture clearly tells us that all of the Saints (dead in Christ raised first and then all those that are alive) are taken up to meet Jesus in the clouds. Left on the earth to face God’s wrath are all those that rejected Jesus’ offer of salvation by submitting to His Lordship over their lives. It is only by recognizing our sinfulness against our holy God and repenting of our rebellion that we can be born again thereby receiving the Holy Spirit to be our counselor, teacher, and comforter enabling us to live the Christian life.

“For this, we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord, himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18

Where do you stand? Will you be left on earth to face the wrath of God poured out over twelve months with the trumpet and bowl judgments outlined in Revelation 8 (Trumpet) and Revelation 16 (Bowl)?

At the end of the Bowl judgments, Jesus and the Saints return to earth to defeat the Antichrist and his army at the Battle of Armageddon.

“The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty... And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. ” Revelation 16:12-14

Note how demonic spirits are controlling the actions of unsaved people on earth.

“Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness, he judges and makes war… He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.” Revelation 19:11, 13-16