A national radio call-in show spent two hours of a recent broadcast focusing on the book of Revelation. The host posed the following questions to his listeners: “Do you believe that all the recent calamities are God’s judgment for our nation’s sins? Do you think the book of Revelation is being fulfilled? Do you believe we’re living in the end times?”
Isaiah 25 describes an incredible vision. In it, the prophet Isaiah is transported into the future, to the very last days. Bible commentators agree, this is one of the clearest pictures in Scripture concerning the end times. It’s no mystical, foggy prediction. Isaiah shows us precisely what God intends for the nations and for his church, just prior to the end. And right now, we’re living in the very hour Isaiah describes.
I've always wondered at a question Jesus asks in Luke 18:8: "Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" What could the Lord mean by this? As I look around at the church of Jesus Christ today, I think no other generation has been so focused on faith as ours.
Everyone seems to be talking about faith. Sermons on the topic abound. Seminars and conferences on faith are held across the country. Books on the subject line the shelves of Christian bookstores. Multitudes of Christians flock to meetings to be propped up and encouraged by a message on faith.
I want to show you what happens to a nation when its leaders - as well as God's people in that land - reject the Bible as the Lord's divine voice. Wherever the authority of scripture is removed, chaos soon follows - and judgment appears at the door.
I know of no nation on earth today that is governed by God's holy word. In many Muslim lands, the people submit themselves to the authority of the Koran, and Mohammed's word is law. But in supposedly Christian nations, no such subjection to holy scripture exists.
The Christian life is not a life of clear sailing. Every believer is going to have bad days, no matter how holy he may be. In fact, I believe the more godly a person is, the more trying and excruciating his bad days will be.
I once heard a preacher say, "The Bible never says anything about backsliding." That man doesn't know his Bible! The Scriptures speak much about backsliding, because it is a very serious matter — with very severe consequences!
In reading the history of Israel and Judah, we see one generation after another backsliding against the Lord. God told Hosea, "My people are bent to backsliding from me..." (Hosea 11:7). In Hebrew, the meaning is, "My people are in the habit of turning their backs and withdrawing from me. They've always had this tendency!"
The church of Jesus Christ has developed a distorted view of what corruption is. Not many Christians understand God's definition of corruption — and few would admit they are guilty of it!
When we think of corrupt people, we think mostly of wicked sinners. According to our theology, corruption involves alcohol or drug abuse, adultery or fornication, cheating, gambling, homosexuality, murder, rape, incest and other such wicked deeds. We narrow down corruption to mean wild passions and life-controlling lusts.
I know of one Bible scholar who has discovered more than a hundred ways in which Joseph was a type of Jesus Christ. Yet, as much as I believe Joseph was a type of Christ, I also believe He was a type of last-day remnant — a people whom God is raising up right now to show His church how to break out of its spiritual famine!
After seventy years of captivity, the Jewish people heard the prophet's cry: "Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye" (Isaiah 48:20).
Jeremiah came forth preaching, "In those days, and in that time...the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward...remove out of the midst of Babylon" (Jeremiah 50:4-5,8). "Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity" (Jeremiah 51:6).
Is it possible for a Christian to stay clean and pure in a world filled with violence, immorality, and corruption? Or is it inevitable that the spirit of this age will wear down the saints of God and vex their souls? It happened to Lot and his family in Sodom, and it is happening to multitudes of Christians all around the world. The overwhelming temptations of this evil generation have already caused numbers of Christians to compromise and indulge in ungodly practices.
