Coming Soon - the Exodus of Believers From "Church-Ism".

First things first!

Ezekiel 33:11 "...I have No pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his wicked way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways;..." This is from a God, who is intimately aware of every fallen sparrow (Matthew 10:29). Does anyone really think that God is either unaware, He doesn't care or that He will not hold man's crimes against creation as sins to be accounted for when all stand before Him in judgment: Christians included? Conversely, He finds the death of His saints "precious" (Psalms 116:15); for all of humanity has this curse of physical death to bear. It is the spiritual death that terrorizes mankind and it is the Devil, consumed with the work of hardening men's hearts that his brand of evil may flourish in the seared consciences of those who run swiftly to evil.

Before we continue, I need to lay down some rules of engagement; for what follows is difficult for me to fully comprehend, let alone to put what I believe into words that will 1) honor the Word of God, 2) edify and encourage the true believers and 3) convince the lost and those struggling that our LORD is fully in control.

These are my rules of engagement and are the basis for my current analysis of how God is actively engaged in current events and the direction this world, as a whole, is now going.

• God is absolutely sovereign in the affairs of man; He is omniscient, nothing can take Him by surprise or occur without His prior knowledge; He is omnipresent, nothing is hidden from His sight or sphere of divine influence and He is omnipotent, He has the power to protect, to heal, to judge without remedy or to pardon according to His good pleasure.
• His thoughts and ways are not our thoughts and ways when dealing with the affairs of mankind.
• His Word will accomplish all that which pleases Him; not you or I. Per Daniel 4:35, there is no one who can "stay" His hand or have the right to question His workings among the inhabitants of earth.
• All men have sinned and are appointed unto death and judgment, but some by God's sovereign choice, receive mercy which leads to salvation and the freedom from the final appointment due the "many" of mankind.
• Every person mature enough to be convicted by God's creation as to His existence, by a conscience which either accuses or excuses one in their daily life or the Word of Truth is without excuse and knows that there will be an accounting for their deeds and words on the other side of death. This is not all there is, for we are born to live eternally: either in God's presence or in eternal torment, separated from His presence.

There is so much more I could write, but for what follows, this is ample for the topic of the day.

Years ago a pastor and good friend of mine made the statement that "Satan is running amok within the Church" but that has no basis in Truth. The book of Job made it clear that Satan and his minion's activities are restrained by God Almighty: he has no authority to do as he pleases. As I stated earlier, the Devil is consumed with his work of hardening men's hearts but in reality, only because God allows it to be so. He allowed Pharaoh's heart to be hardened that He might display His supreme power among men with great results. It encouraged Israel to boldly follow their God, convicted many non-Israelites that chose the God of Israel over the gods of Egypt and bankrupted and destroyed an evil regime.

The American church has become fat, wealthy and lazy as we have taken our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ for granted and counted our condition as a 'blessing??'. Subsequently, the light of the Gospel in our country has been diminished by our apathy and we are easily shaken by the ever growing evils in our midst. There have always been those who publicized their hatred of Christians and were for the most part, ignored. Not so any more! Any one that is not considered Islamic, Jewish, Hindu, etc. is by default, deemed a Christian into today's school rooms, within the mainstream media and in our political arena. Christians are now known as the perpetrator's of countless heinous crimes against humanity over the centuries of which all is a devil concieved lie. Some of the most godless people on earth have perpetrated massive evils by purloining the name of Jesus Christ as a cover for their wicked acts.

The amazing thing about all of this is that God has purposefully allowed all these events to occur; yes that even includes all the acts of terrorism that the media so delights in broadcasting, the corruption in high places within our government and the violent rogue nations that cause world tensions to remain unstable. Another thing I am seeing more of these days comes from those I once counted as fellow believers: using the social media to further worldly causes and in so doing blame the Church for many ills. This too is a big part of God's plan as I believe that God has two main objectives: 1) to separate the wheat from the chaff which is only fit for the fire to present to Himself a Bride (Church), undefiled and pure and 2) to harden the hearts of the wicked as He drives them towards the Judgment Day.

Separating the wheat from the chaff requires a lot of energy and messing with what appears to be the gains from a harvest. I used to live in wheat country and during harvest time we could watch the dust devils (small whirlwinds) that followed the tractors as they harvested the crop. It is a dirty job but absolutely necessary to ensure a marketable product. Jesus is constantly having to winnow His Church, whether it is here in America, in Asia or wherever. I have seen this done a couple of times in my 47+ years as a Christian within local congregations but we are beginning to see is a wholesale winnowing on the entire American Church. Hebrews 12:27 "...that those things which cannot be shaken may remain." We are being violently shaken, the world's hatred for us is growing and we need to awaken from our stupor and realize that we truly need each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. God's Math = the more His Church is hated by the world, the stronger our Gospel message becomes and greater the glory He receives.

2 Peter 3:10 "But the Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." But first: 2 Thessalonians 2"10-12 "...and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the Truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the Truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."

Did you hear that? God Himself is going to send the unbelievers of this world a strong delusion which will cause them to believe a lie! They all are without excuse for they wanted nothing to do with the Truth and He is going to give them their wish. We know that God would never lie to any man but He is going to loosen the reins upon Satan (I did not say give him free-rein) and he is going to go about plying his trade among those whom God has not set aside their judgment.

Current events are truly appear as the wicked getting their way, though restrained in part, and reaping the fruits of their wickedness. Romans 2:32 "Who, knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them."

Probably much of our country has forgotten about the terrible incident that happened in San Bernardino a couple of years back; such a senseless and sickening event so close to home. It is now out of sight and out of mind; we so quickly forget but those who were directly affected will never forget. The media has moved on to bigger and worse events, because we are a fickled lot that requires the latest disaster to get our attention. But, there are events coming that will not only grab the whole world's attention, but will draw a line in the sand between the believer and the world.

An event like San Bernardino will make people angry with God, others will seek a kind of peace in various forms, but fewer and fewer will turn to God as the hatred and anger towards God will increase greatly.

For the outsiders: many took this opportunity to promote their own political agendas, others will use the media to further their anti-god rhetoric, the fearful will now be more fearful but to the majority it will mean nothing but a few days of exciting TV reporting because it was not close enough to affect them.

The long and the short of it all: God saw this event, did not prevent it; why? I don't have the foggiest idea but this I do know. Every event in the course of human history has been closely watched over by the Trinity: no one has ever died before their appointed time nor has God's perfect will ever been thwarted by human intervention. God is beyond understanding and when the end does come - "...every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father."

Sadly, we have not seen anything that comes close to what is coming as God drives this world towards judgment and purifies His Church.