12-27-19 Evil Pressure vs. Heavenly Restraint

Nearing Midnight: Evil Pressure vs. Heavenly Restraint- Terry James - https://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/

 

I've written elsewhere that I once heard an evangelist back in the mid-'70s preach during a city crusade that he believed the unthinkable would happen in America. It would take place just before the Rapture of the Church.

 

The evangelist believed that, just as the debauched society and, by then, totally anti-God governmental agencies would be about to grab Christians around their throats, the Rapture would occur.

 

A significant puzzlement to me is that so many who are truly born again (John 3:3) don't seem to concern themselves with the tremendous evil that is building. They don't seem to even notice that in the freest nation on the planet, the powers and principalities of Ephesians 6:12 are grasping to clutch and strangle believers.

 

Those who faithfully read articles such as those on Rapture Ready and other such forums exhibit concern for the evil pressures that are building. But God's people in general-and I'm talking about those who are born again (and only God knows those who are in His family)- show little concern, it seems to me, while the anti-God forces do their nefarious work.

 

This is attributable in large part to neglect in the pulpits of America. Pastors and Bible teachers would rather not touch prophetic topics-particularly not prophecy yet future. We've noted before that they find those biblical areas too frightening to their flocks, too difficult to understand, or just of no importance for these modern times. Besides, such troubling messages might drive down attendance, thus dry up offerings.

 

And the evil pressures build...

 

Again, all we have to do is to look at the political scene in the nation. One party has all but publicly committed to abandoning anything to do with the God of the Bible. As a matter of fact, that party is seeking to totally debauch our society and culture. This is obvious, yet the pulpits for the most part remain silent on the fact that this very condition for the end of the Church Age was prophesied. God's Word, through the Apostle Paul, forewarned and instructed those responsible for overseeing God's people in the last days:

 

I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (2 Timothy 4:1-4)

 

Evil pressure builds within the church itself. Just a cursory glance at what's going on in some areas of a growing number of religious bodies that claim to be Christian lays bare the truth of Satan's assault.

 

One such organization claiming Christianity as its belief system shows the lateness of this Laodicean hour:

 

The Vision Church of Atlanta, Georgia, a progressive congregation, has added a psychic medium who claims to commune with the dead to their staff.

 

Lakara Foster, who holds a doctorate of ministry from the Interdenominational Theological Center, is now a licensed minister at the Vision Church of Atlanta, Rolling Out reported. She is also the creator and star of the YouTube series "The Gift," which she argues God told her to do. It follows her life as a medium, minister, and spiritual teacher.

 

"God told me to do the show. Honestly, I was reluctant at first because I felt very vulnerable and thought I would get a lot of pushback and negative feedback being a minister and a medium. I thought people wouldn't understand but I knew I still had to do it. I knew I had been called to do it. When I asked God, 'Why this gift? Why not singing?' God said, 'I promised my people eternal life. How will my people know that I've kept promise if you don't demonstrate your gift?'" she told Rolling Out. ("Vision Church of Atlanta adds psychic medium to ministerial staff," By Leonardo Blair, Christian Post reporter , Friday, May 24, 2019)

 

That the church medium is surprised she has received little to no pushback is itself surprising. The changes taking place within various denominations are becoming a ho-hum part of the quickly evolving reality. It would be a good bet, if a gambler, to wager that most Christians in the pews today would see little to nothing wrong with what this "psychic" said.

 

Pastors in the pews of Bible-believing churches are silent for the most part, for example. They just don't want to get involved in these extrabiblical machinations-only they're not extrabiblical. Read 2 Timothy 4:1-4 above once again. It is the minister's God-ordained commission to fight against such heresy, especially as the last days of the Church Age manifest.

 

After considering the evil pressures and actions assaulting this generation, it is true that there is opposite and equal reaction. This comes from God, Himself, it is obvious and provable through watching things going on, particularly within the American political war being waged. To my way of thinking, the fact that this president remains alive-that is, not assassinated because of the hatred cast his way-much less that he continues to work hard for the American people-is nothing short of miraculous. Every evil influence has been brought to bear in trying to destroy Mr. Trump and his family. The mainstream media, the entire entertainment industry, the increasingly reprobate opposition party, America's top intelligence agency heads, nearly half of the American populace, and even members of his own party who hate him spend 24/7 feverishly trying to remove him from office in whatsoever way possible.

 

The spiritual war going on is made obvious, too, by the fact that Christian leaders like Franklin Graham, Robert Jeffress, and many others have called for prayer for the president and for the nation. This call is as desperately needed as at any time in human history.

 

God, alone, is holding back the evil that is assaulting. This is undeniable to the Christian who believes in God's Word and applies himself or herself to study of the Word.

 

Why more Christians are comporting themselves as if in a stupor is extremely troubling. Don't be one of those who refuse to look up from your life's routine in order to see that Christ's promised redemption is drawing near (Luke 21: 28). Take part in the Lord's heavenly restraint through prayer and study, in order to discern the signs that Christ is about to return.