50 Reasons Why We Are Living In The End Times: Part 1

The Bible says we cannot know the time of the Lord's return (Matthew 25:13). But the Scriptures make it equally clear that we can know the season of the Lord's return (1 Thessalonians 5:2-6):

This passage asserts that Jesus is coming like "a thief in the night." But then it proceeds to make it clear that this will be true only for the pagan world and not for believers. His return should be no surprise to those who know Him and His Word, for they have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to give them understanding of the nature of the times.

Furthermore, the Scriptures give us signs to watch for — signs that will signal that Jesus is ready to return. The writer of the Hebrew letter referred to these signs when he proclaimed that believers should encourage one another when they see the day of judgment drawing near (Hebrews 10:25-27). Jesus also referred to the end time signs in His Olivet Discourse, given during the last week of His life (Matthew 24 and Luke 21). Speaking of a whole series of signs which He had given to His disciples, He said, "When you see all these things, recognize that He [the Son of Man — that is, Jesus] is near, right at the door" (Matthew 24:33).

Every time I think of "Signs of the Times," I am reminded of a great man of God named Elbert Peak. I had the privilege of participating with him in a Bible prophecy conference held in Orlando, Florida in the early 1990's. Mr. Peak was about 80 years old at the time.

He had been assigned the topic, "The Signs of the Times." He began his presentation by observing, "Sixty years ago when I first started preaching, you had to scratch around like a chicken to find one sign of the Lord's soon return."

He paused for a moment, and then added, "But today there are so many signs I'm no longer looking for them. Instead, I'm listening for a sound — the sound of a trumpet!"

One hundred years ago in 1907 there was not one single, tangible, measurable sign that indicated we were living in the season of the Lord's return. The first to appear was the Balfour Declaration which was issued by the British government on November 2, 1917.

This Declaration was prompted by the fact that during World War I the Turks sided with the Germans. Thus, when Germany lost the war, so did the Turks, and the victorious Allies decided to divide up both the German and Turkish empires.

The Turkish territories, called the Ottoman Empire, contained the ancient homeland of the Jewish people — an area the Romans had named Palestine after the last Jewish revolt in 132-135 AD.

In 1917 Palestine included all of modern day Israel and Jordan. In the scheme the Allies concocted for dividing up the German and Turkish territories, Britain was allotted Palestine, and this is what prompted the Balfour Declaration. In that document, Lord Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, declared that it was the intention of the British government to establish in Palestine "a national home for the Jewish people."

The leading Evangelical in England at the time was F. B. Meyer. He immediately recognized the prophetic significance of the Declaration, for he was well aware that the Scriptures prophesy that the Jewish people will be regathered to their homeland in unbelief right before the return of the Messiah (Isaiah 11:11-12).

Meyer sent out a letter to the Evangelical leaders of England asking them to gather in London in December to discuss the prophetic implications of the Balfour Declaration. In that letter, he stated, "The signs of the times point toward the close of the time of the Gentiles... and the return of Jesus can be expected any moment."

Before Meyer's meeting could be convened, another momentous event occurred. On December 11, 1917 General Edmund Allenby liberated the city of Jerusalem from 400 years of Turkish rule.

There is no doubt that these events in 1917 marked the beginning of the end times because they led to the worldwide regathering of the Jewish people to their homeland and the reestablishment of their state.

Since the time of the Balfour Declaration, we have witnessed throughout the 20th Century the appearance of sign after sign pointing to the Lord's soon return. There are so many of these signs today, in fact, that one would have to be either biblically illiterate or spiritually blind not to realize that we are living on borrowed time.

I have personally been searching the Bible for years in an effort to identify all the signs, and it has not been an easy task to get a hold on them. That's because there are so many of them, both in the Old and New Testaments.

I have found that the best way to deal with them is to put them in categories, and in doing that, I have come up with six categories of end time signs. We will explore these catetories beginning in Part 2 of this series.

Kehrli

The civil war cannons that lined up against the walls that protected the people of God were always a mystery to me. At one time I suspected that these Civil War cannons might indicate a literal civil war that our country would need to experience once again. I knew that they were an important part of the vision. One of the reasons was that in 1987, when we were on a trip back east, and visiting the battlefields of Gettysburg, I felt a strong anointing of God come on me that brought me to tears. This feeling stayed with me for some time and it made me think of the vision of the civil war cannons lining up against the walls that protected God’s people.

I wondered if it meant that someday we might have another civil war in our country, but I dismissed it as being extremely unlikely. I thought perhaps it might even refer to in-fighting in the Church, but thought that unlikely. I never considered that the attack that came from the LEFT of my vision had any political implications.

However over the last few years, the left wing of the American political system has become progressively more aggressive and progressively less principled. The Democrat Party has been taken over by men and women who are sympathetic to Marxist ideology that wants a society without Jesus Christ or Biblical laws and principles. The ultimate goal of ANY Marxist organization is anarchy (lawlessness). It is no wonder that they mock the Lord, the Bible, the Ten Commandments and God’s people. They have become increasingly violent and cruel in their attacks on all that is good.

The leaders and many of their followers have become completely blind to God and His purposes, and the political left, if given the opportunity could certainly cripple or destroy the Church of Jesus Christ in America. Michael Moore’s so-called Documentary “Fahrenheit 911” was embraced by the media and received no criticism from liberal politicians. I believe we are seeing political events that are dangerously similar to the same political events that occurred in Nazi Germany in the 1920’s and 1930’s and in Russia in the early 20th century.

These leaders of the left will say or do anything to accomplish their goal of gaining more power in the American political system. If they were able to do so, they would use that power against all that is good and anyone who interferes with them. The same horrible demonic force that controlled both the Nazi Party and International Communism has inhabited them. They may well be the ones that will attack the sleeping Church with the civil war cannons in the vision of the Second Storm.

Since Bill Clinton’s presidency we have seen no one in the Democrat Party subtle enough or skilled enough to successfully attack their enemies. Michael Moore for example could convince no one who is not already with him of the rightness of his cause. Both Al Gore and John Kerry were inept. With the labor unions, the entertainment industry, the legal profession, academia, the newspaper media and most of television on their side, they still could not fool the majority of Americans.

Only God’s grace has kept us from the devastation of God’s people that happens when the walls will crash down, but if the Church in America does not wake up EVEN GOD will not spare us from this attack.

This attack will be a judgment against the people of God because of our lethargy regarding the truth of His Word and the power of His Holy Spirit, and our love of the world, the things of the world and more importantly, our love of the ways of the world. We have embraced doctrines of demons. We have become convinced of our need to balance the Scripture with secular psychology and devious ways of getting money to build the kingdom. ...

We have softened the commandments of God and cheapened the grace of God. We have been more concerned about unity than we have about truth. We truly are rich and in need of nothing in our own eyes. But God has judged us poor, blind and naked. We MUST take the lion’s share of the responsibility concerning the judgment that is about to come to America. We have not fought the war with the Word, the whole Word and nothing but the Word. We have grown blind to the enemy that has weakened us in our own midst and caused us to be oblivious to our own failures and shortcomings. The Nazi’s easily conquered a people that had been blinded by the false doctrines of Higher Criticism (a liberal theology of the 19th century that discounted the spiritual authority of the Scriptures).

... If we don’t wake up, and it seems almost inevitable that we will not, we will most certainly be vigorously attacked and the Church will suffer GREAT loss! Because the Church of Jesus Christ in America has become tolerant of evil, tolerant of evil doctrine and unable and unwilling to judge what is of God and what is not of God, it is no wonder that God has not sent a country changing revival even though we have prayed for decades and asked God a million times for that revival. The revival will come but not until our hearts have been purified by judgment and persecution.

We will be judged by God because we have failed to recognize that WE, not the unsaved liberals in our country, not the whores of Hollywood or the abortionists, murderers, and other sinners; WE are the ones that need to repent so that the Church can have the strength and be the leaven of righteousness to change this country and this world for Jesus Christ.

My greatest concern is that when judgment comes to God’s people, many will self-righteously proclaim that they are being persecuted for righteousness sake. We MUST realize that we have been asleep to God’s will, asleep to God’s battle, and asleep to God’s call to speak out the truth of His Word. ... We have been systematically dismantling the Protestant Reformation of 1517.

We no longer recognize the necessity of Sola Fida (Only Faith), Sola Scriptura (Only Scripture) and Sola Gratia (Only Grace). ... We have made ourselves ripe for the judgment of both Christian and heathen alike in our country. We are more concerned about creating a unity that is not of God than in believing and obeying the truth of God in the Scriptures.

Referring back to the vision of the Second Storm, the storm that awakens some of God’s people WILL precede the terrible attack from the left. These events have already begun to happen. We have heard the thunder claps of God’s warning and been stirred to be aroused from our sleep for a few minutes. We are even seeing the Muslims fill the spiritual void we have left because of our disobedience to God’s Word.

Throughout the world and even in our own country they are gaining sympathy. The left wing media hates any person or party that keeps the “liberal progressives” from achieving their ends, but has become sympathetic to the terrorists. Some day we may well see an alliance between the Left and the Muslims hell bent to destroy all that is good in America.

Generally speaking, our own personal protection and that of our families, even if all of these events occur, comes from stirring ourselves to be fully awake and running to the walls that surround God’s people and cry out warning of the attacks that are about to happen. This major attack from the left could occur in forty weeks, forty months or forty years. I don’t know when, but I DO KNOW God is warning us to wake up and get ready NOW!

All of God’s people will not become more spiritual. Great trials generally serve the purpose of exposing a man’s true heart not creating a good heart. What a man truly loves he will try to preserve. The Word to us today is to get our hearts ready by letting God purge us of idols, seek Him diligently in the Scriptures, in the prayer closet, and in our loving obedience to Him as He directs us very specifically to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him. We must desire to be like David, we must be a people that are after God’s own heart and committed to speak and do all His will.

The years that come will either give us more time to repent and embrace God or it will be the beginning of a great and terrible judgment.

The issue is not political. It is not important that all evangelicals vote conservative so we can have a conservative Supreme Court; the issue is NOT fundamentally political. The issue is spiritual and we must recognize that the Church is in dire need of another Reformation. We must pray that God would raise up men with prophetic insight concerning the Word of God and His will.

We must pray that God would raise up our own Martin Luthers, John Calvins, George Whitfields and John and Charles Wesleys. We must pray that God would send us not merely a renewal or even a good revival, but that He would send us the Reformation that we so desperately need so we can turn from the world to the Word and establish His kingdom in our hearts and in our churches and have the power to effectively fight against the enemy of our souls.

But most importantly, we must pray that WHATEVER IT TAKES, He raise up a people that have hearts like David and are willing to do ALL that He desires!

http://www.cryfromthewall.com/chapter17SecondStormWarning.html

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