The focus of this blog has always been the last days. Even the name suggests the topics will address events of the latter days. We are witnessing those events, both the good and the bad. With all the bad in the news lately, it’s sometimes hard to focus on the good. With this post, I hope to bring some good things to our attention.
In the news and especially through the online and social media, we have become armchair witnesses to the great destructions of the last days. We see terrible loss of life through natural disasters such as hurricanes, flooding, tornados, earthquakes, tsunamis and fires of epic proportions. At the same time we have seen, or at least it has been my observation that evil has increased lately through world-wide events of terror, mass murder and the threat of nuclear holocaust.
The Pace of the Signs are Quickening
It’s easy to get caught up in the doom and gloom prophecies that are rampant with each new sign from heaven. We are inundated every time some catastrophic calamity cascades through our news feeds or on the walls of the social media pages of our friends. Such incidents have become a swelling tide that can overwhelm even the most positive and faithful among us.
One doesn’t have to look far to find a myriad of voices proclaiming they have some special insight to what all these things mean. They want us to know they can help us prepare by following some sage piece of advice that has been revealed to them. Their interpretations of solar eclipses and stellar configurations are especially fascinating. They fill us with wonder and amazement. We ask ourselves why we didn’t see all these clues earlier in our own observations.
The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares
I’m confident most who are reading this post are familiar with the parable of the wheat and the tares. The master of the harvest forbade his servants from gathering the tares to be burned until the wheat was fully ripe and had brought forth fruit. He made it clear an enemy had placed the tares among the wheat. He then focused the attention of his servants, and us, upon the upcoming harvest.
“…the world shall be burned with fire. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father.” Perhaps that is how it will be easy for the angels to determine the wheat from the tares. The angels will gather the righteous because they shine forth as brightly as the sun. At our core, we are beings of light and must be connected to the source of all light. Otherwise, our imagination and thoughts of our heart, or desires, will only be evil continually.
The Destruction of the Wicked
The prophecies of great destruction at the end of the world are perhaps some of the best known among all peoples of the earth. It is in our collective consciousness and immortalized in our myths. Armageddon may be the most overused name in our day to describe the overwhelming nature of impeding disaster feared by so many.
And rightly so, for great and terrible are the descriptions used by the Lord in Mathew 24. “The sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” Christ foretold his return and gave us clear direction all the world will see it together: “…then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn. And they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.”
He Shall Send His Angels Before Him
“For the Son of Man shall come, and he shall send his angels before him with the great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together the remainder of his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” I’ve often thought about this passage in reference to the identity of the angels. An angel is a messenger sent from God, with a message from God. Thus they can be mortal or immortal.
And that’s the good news upon which I’d like to focus in this post. We live in the days similar to the days of Noah with all the terrible wickedness and imminent destruction. The wickedness is reaching unimaginable horror with mass murders that defy all logic and reasoning. In my view, what happened in Las Vegas last week is a clear example of an enemy sowing tares among the wheat. The wheat is still young and tender. As it matures, the insensible attacks of the wicked will increase to shock and terrorize.
500th Anniversary of The Christian Reformation
2017 marks 500 years since the beginning of the Christian Reformation when Martin Luther nailed a copy of his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle church. If you aren’t familiar with the story, I recommend you click on the above image, which links to a site containing highly instructive videos and essays describing this and many other important events of the Christian Reformation.
The good news of living in the days of tribulation is that, as in the days of Noah, there will be another Noah, a servant sent to warn the people of the need to turn from the ever-increasing wickedness of the world. He will also teach us how to be ready for when the Lord sends his angels to gather the wheat before the burning of the field, where the tares remain in bundles. In fact, there are many who are being visited by angels in our generation, which shall not pass before the Lord returns.
Link to the full talk from which the excerpts were taken: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq5PTIkvYds
Dear brother Tim,
Thanks for your contribution to the Lord’s agenda. You always add valuable perspective. Keep writing, my brother.
I know you find some fascination by re-framing events that have been ongoing since the dawn of time. Its almost as if by pretending today’s events are bigger and badder than ever before, you give yourself some validity.
Ecclesiastes says there is nothing new under the sun:
California burns down every summer.
Earthquakes have been occurring since the formation of the earth almost 5 billion years ago. But because of remarkable improvements in engineering and construction technology the death toll from them has plummeted.
Since records have been kept (almost 200 years) there are an average of 2 hurricanes per year that make land fall in the US. So far in 2017 we have had three, but in the previous four years had no hurricanes making landfall. Statistics require that on some years the numbers go up.
One final observation, as horrific as the Las Vegas murders were, the number of people killed was less than half the number shot and clubbed to death by Mormons at Mountain Meadows 160 years ago.
The world really is getting better.
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