Are We Living the End Time?

In the synoptic gospels, one of the signs of the Messiah's coming is the degenerate state of the world. That state is likened to the days of Noah.¹ The gospels emphasize a complete disregard of warnings of God's coming judgment.² Just like in days of Noah, judgment was promised to end the unending evil of human society. At the beginning of Matthew chapter 24, Jesus gives a list of things that will precede the end of days:

• Wars and rumors of wars
• Nation rising against nation
• Famines and earthquakes
• Religious persecution
• Increasing lawlessness
• Little love much narcissism
• Many rejecting the faith

Those birth pangs of the coming Messiah point to global violence, which was the divine indictment of humanity in the days of Noah. Violence filled the earth³ because humanity had corrupted its way.⁴ The intent of every thought was continually evil; therefore, human wickedness became extreme and unrelenting.

Is this not the state of American society today? Violence in America is approaching a level of precedence unparalleled in history. America is among the ten most violent nations according to international crime statistics.⁵ Abortion law gives legal sanction to an extremely violent act against human life and life’s Creator. Millions lives have been aborted not because of a genuine threat to maternal lives but because of psychological pain and inconvenience. Euthanasia is also serious issue. Besides the high profile case of Terri Schiavo, how many others have been euthanatized against their wills? The repeal of many laws regulating sexual behavior including marriage and divorce resulted in millions of incidents of rape, incest, pedophilia, homosexual abuse, and related sexual violence. Government policies maintain poverty, which is another form of violence. It is a more subtle form of violence but violence nonetheless. Because more Americans live under increasing stress, domestic violence is a major problem. As a result, nearly half of all marriages end in divorce because of problem with money, narcissism, and infidelity. Millions of children experience the conflict, stress and lack as a result, which often reciprocates in future crime and violence. Slavery is another form of violence. Before the 20th century, America enslaved the black race against their wills. Since the 20th century, all Americans are on the verge of being enslaved to government. The mechanism used is entitlements, which make citizens dependent pawns rather than independent players in life and popular government. From birth to death, government officials by hook-and-crook ceaselessly work to control every aspect of human life. They call it freedom, but it is simply enslavement.⁶ The increase of domestic and foreign terrorism is just another sign. It is a sign of discontent with government sanctioned moral corruption as well as economic and social injustice. It is natural backlash against the inhumanity of oppression in the name of liberty, equality, and prosperity.

The telltale sign of the coming judgment of God is the global spread of the above.

Then there is the sign of Lot mentioned in the synoptic gospel of Luke. As a subtopic to the universality of the similitude to Noah’s days, society will also resemble the societies of Sodom and Gomorrah.⁷ The theological depiction of Sodom is a completely gay society. The destruction of the two ancient cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, was a divine response to the evils of unrepented lifestyle. That view is supported by several verses in Genesis. After two holy angels had come to Sodom and were taken in by Lot,

“Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter; and they called to Lot and said to him, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them.’”⁸ After Lot and his family had left the city, “the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire (possibly a meteor shower) out of heaven, and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities…”.⁹

The fact that Lot had prospective son-in-laws in the city¹⁰ proves that Sodom was not a city populated only with gays.

What the story of Sodom reveals is the problem of tolerance. Sodom was a place were tolerance ruled. They tolerated behavior inherently unnatural and therefore evil. When holy men arrived, they sought to make them like themselves---corrupt and violent. However, tolerant Sodom may have been, it was tolerance rooted in lawlessness, corruption, and violence. The human body was not made for gay sex. As medical studies show, it damages body tissue, causes various types of disease, and often results in cancer. ¹¹ Therefore, it is another form of violence.

It is a form of violence now sanctioned by American government. Just as in the days of Noah, so it was in the days of Lot. The 21st century is now like the days of Lot not just in America but also around the world.

The answer to the problem is exemplified in an account similar to the story of Lot. It is found in the nineteenth and twentieth chapter of the book of Judges. An unnamed Levite was traveling to Ephraim with his concubine. Because the sun was setting, he stopped in a village in Gibeah, which was part of the tribe of Benjamin. One of the local residents offers him a place to sleep. While dining, a group of homosexuals came to the house demanding that the priest be given to them. Instead, the priest sent his concubine out to them. They raped and abused her all night. In the morning, the priest found her dead at the doorway of his host’s house. The priest cut her up into 12 pieces and sent them to all the tribes of Israel. Enraged by this heinous act, all of Israel’s leaders and warriors came to execute justice. When they had discovered the real reason, they demanded the Benjaminites to turn over the gay criminals. The tolerant society of Benjaminites refused. Therefore, all of Israel attacked and killed nearly all of the men of Benjamin.¹² This story demonstrates four principles necessary for social justice. First, the self-evident law of nature as well as the revealed law of God declares homosexual behavior is a moral as well as a violent crime. Second, it will lead to further violence and lawlessness without appropriate regulation. Third, violent acts and tolerance of violent behavior requires measured but certain justice. Fourth, justice must fit the crime, which the people of Israel performed upon both the murderers and the Benjaminite people that harbored them.

America’s rejection of its historical basis of law opened a Pandora’s Box of escalating evil. It started with tolerance and equality toward morality and religion and then to the national compact and laws. If John Locke’s writings represent American views of government and law, then tolerance of atheists was never intended. Locke wrote his treatise “On Tolerance’ that they were not to be tolerated. Yet, modern Americans have done just that. They replaced republicanism with secularism. Secularism does not tolerate religion in the public arena, especially biblical religion. That is the intended affect of Separation of Church and State doctrine. In fact, the values of modern secularism reflect humanism, which replaced the Creator with evolution science.¹³ That is why creationism and intelligent design is so vehemently opposed. Both threaten the myth of secularist propaganda about evolution being proven beyond refutation. Evolution of species has never been proven and is not even possible to prove or disprove it.¹⁴ More importantly, creationism and intelligent design threaten the new definitions of tolerance and equality making secularism possible. The secular credo now predominates American institutions and their ruling elites. So does violence. The prevalence of violence throughout American culture can be traced back directly to the implementation of the secular credo that undermined moral values and eventually annulled previous established moral law. The end product is spurious Constitutional law by which a vaunted reign of violence and corruption has been imposed upon all Americans and the world. It is being imposed on all nations through agencies of the United Nations and by activist non-government organizations or special interest groups supported by the UN.

As in the days of Noah and Lot, so it will be at the coming of the Messiah is the 21st Century.

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Notes

1. Mt. 24:37; Lk.17:26.

2. Mt. 24:38-39; Lk.17:27.

3. Gen. 6:11,13.

4. Gen. 6:11,12.

5. The Fourth United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice System, 2000-2002; < href=" http://bjsdata.ojp.usdoj.gov/dataonline/Search/Crime/State/statebystaterun.cfm?stateid=" target="_new">Bureau of Justice Statistics, Crime & Justice Electronic Data Abstracts, State Crime Estimates, 1960-2005, U.S. Totals.

6. Charlotte A. Twight , Dependent on D.C. :The Rise of Federal Control over the Lives of Ordinary Americans (New York: Palgrave, 2002), pp. 1-53. This book should be read by all Americans because gives intellectual tools by which to understand how and why and if issues and proposed legislation are a bunch of bologna meant to steal more power and wealth from us all.

7. Lk. 17:28-30.

8. Gen.19:4-5.

9. Gen. 19:24-25.

10. Gen. 19:12-14.

11. James W. Holsinger Jr., Pathology of Male Homosexuality, Prepared for the
Committee to Study Homosexuality of The United Methodist Church, January 14, 1991, available at http://americansfortruth.com/news/surgeon-general-nominee-dr-james-holsingers-1991-paper-pathophysiology-of-male-homosexuality.html.

12. Jgs.19-20.

13. An online version of Humanist Manifesto I and Humanist Manifesto II are available at and http://www.americanhumanist.org.

14. Michael Denton, “The Priority of a Paradigm” in Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (Bethesda, MD: Adler & Adler, 1986), pp. 344-358.

Israel in a New World

When colonists settled the east coast, they sought to create a new world. In the new world, Puritan ideals were put forth. Puritans believed in the God of Genesis. Because God created the earth, they believed the new land across the Atlantic was given to them to build a new world. They patterned their new society partly on inherent forms of church polity and partly on the Mosaic model of society. It was a biblically dominated new world. Our Puritan ancestors identified their new world as a new Israel. It was a city on a hill from which the light of Hanukkah would shine across the vast sea of humanity. Like the ancient festival, the Puritan Hanukkah celebrated the miracle of deliverance from the oppressive corruption of false religion and the restoration of Christian purity and freedom. Unlike the ancient Jewish celebration, the Puritan’s light of the world was to shine every day of the year. It was a celebration of a new way of life in a new world.

To put some critics at ease, this is not an effort of replacement theology. Although later in Massachusetts Bay history, Puritans did adopt the view of Massachusetts as literal New Jerusalem where the Messiah could return to establish the divine kingdom on earth. Many others did not cross the allegorical line. Instead, they envisioned a parallel world—a new civilization founded on Torah principles. We might describe it as a daughter of Zion. Those were the reasons why Puritans were known as Hebraists. Yet, most Hebraic Puritans believed God would resurrect the dry bones of the Jewish people in the land of the eternal covenant.

What this rather odd introduction is meant to do is point to a necessary reality of the Jewish people. It is the wonderful heritage of Jews wrapped in the mantel of Exodus. It is beginning and end of the meaning of Jew and Israel. Its alpha and omega is the divine intention of a future restoration of the Jews in a new world--a world of genuine peace, prosperity, and the complete realization of the kingdom of God. The ancients did create a new world as God led them. The tragedy is they failed to remain completely faithful to God.

So has the descendents of the Puritans.

Though a vast fertile land filled with potential and abundant life, fear of big problems blinded their faith in a much more powerful deliverer. Nevertheless, the Jewish people did enter the Promised Land. The promises of the King of universe were established upon agreement. The Jews began to live a new life in a new world where God was their King. All they had to do was obey His laws, and He would provide a rich satisfying life. As straying sheep, they strayed into the snare of the ravenous enemy.

This too is the story of Americans.

God is still a good shepherd. He always sought them and brought them back into the boundaries of his gracious kingdom rule. At least until they refused to return … until they went too far in their evildoing.

And, America is heading in that direction.

What about Jews in the 21st century? The world has witnessed the return of the Jews to the land God promised to them. This is a fulfillment of prophecy. Israel once again exists as separate government among a many nations. This too is fulfillment of ancient prophecy. They have fought three major battles with surrounding nations and have won each and every time. This is fulfillment of prophecy as well. From news reports and commentary originating from Israel, the impression given is that around 80% of the people observe the Torah. If true, here is a bona fide supernatural miracle. In spite of the good news, Israel has three current problems hindering its progress to the new world of yet unfulfilled prophecy. One is their liberal leaders who are loyal not to the eternal covenant but to covenants with the United Nations and with the American-Arab coalition. The second is the apparent fear of the enemies. From a covenantal perspective, the enemies of Israel are both internal and external. They are pro-globalist Jews, Islamist fascists, and Western globalists, and their goal is legitimating the global power of the UN governance. It is certainly is not establishing real peace. The third problem Israel faces is the fact that the Messiah has not yet come. Therefore, the first two problems have not decisively been resolved. When the Messiah comes, he will not apologize to Muslim, Christians, or Jews. He will establish the kingdom rule of God. All those who did not like the divine rule prior to his appearing will not have to worry about it. They will no longer exist in kingdoms of this world that the Messiah will inherit. It is not very likely that they will inhabit heaven either.

The challenge of Joshua is as valid today as it was when he spoke it at Schechem. Joshua said,

“[The Lord] has given you the land…. Now, therefore, revere the Lord and serve Him with undivided loyalty…. Or, if you are loath to serve the Lord, choose this day which you are going to serve—the gods of the [globalists] or the [secularists]; but I and my house will serve the Lord.” (24:14, 15)

The Jews of Israel are not the only ones who must make this choice, so must Americans. Because the earth is the Lord’s and all of its fullness, He can give it to whom ever he wills. The Lord created the earth, not evolution scientists, not liberal politicians, not the Arabs, and not the UN. The Lord has already revealed who is to have the Promised Land. In fact, God has already determined who will inherit the earth.

The question then is when … when is the day that God restores the fortunes of Israel? When will Israel be one people? When will it be that God is Israel’s God and David is king again? When will Israel leaders make God king? When will Israel and all people realize the promise of a new world?