Why Should I Worry About Any of This?
I had shared Cardinal Vigano’s new and rather remarkable essay on the encroachment of the New World Order, The Fourth Industrial Revolution, Klaus Schwab, et al. with a family member. I did this because sending links to podcasts by prophecy-minded preachers was met with a cold shoulder, so I tried a different approach. It didn’t get me too far. I got this response:
QUESTION
There is a prevailing theme in the Bible. It is said a few different ways, but essentially the point is… if you are a believer in God, fear God, follow his Commandments, believe in the resurrection etc… God will protect you. He has your back, will take care of you. “Be still and know I am God.” So… therefore, why would I or should I worry about any of this? (This is a real question if you want to take a stab at it.)
Frustrating to read on some level, surely a lack of interest in the things of God, yet there it was — a challenge to respond.
Frustrating also because the respondent didn’t refer to “Jesus Christ.” All faiths refer to God, but Christians believe only faith in God’s son Jesus Christ saves.
I had months earlier asked my correspondent (who is presently reading through the Bible and listens to Emergent Church podcasts) if she was saved. After a long pause, she said, “I think so.” She left it at that. There was no urgency to assuage the ambiguity with the phrase familiar to believers, “What must I do to be saved?” This illustrated to me that one does not gain salvation from (a) merely reading the Bible or (b) merely listening to church services. One must put one’s faith in Jesus Christ. I came away thinking she hadn’t and really didn’t plan to.
As believers know, this must be faith in Jesus Christ, not just a generic term ‘God,’ used by many religions. We know this from Acts 4:10-12: “Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
As well as, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
Belief, faith, is the operative element and the one that moved and moves God. All through the gospels, it was faith that astonished Christ. “Your faith has made you well.” “I have not found so great faith in all of Israel.” And on the contrary too. In Mark 6:6, Jesus was amazed at their lack of faith and could do no miracles there. You or I might have made salvation about any number of things; God made it about faith. Abraham believed God, and he counted it to him for righteousness (Gen 15:6).
Power in the name Jesus Christ
Besides employing the term “God” vis-à-vis “Jesus Christ,” the other word in the question posed to me that caught my attention, and not in a good way, was “worry.” The person asked, “Why should I worry about this?” This had the connotation of ‘Why should I be bothered with this?’ But let’s put this aside and just leave it as plain vanilla “worry,” i.e., anxiety. Why?
An answer that occurred to me: the encroachment of the New World Order, as a prelude to the revealing of Antichrist and the tribulation to follow, can indeed evoke a degree of anxiety (i.e., worry) in even the most stalwart Christian. Or fatigue, in the sense that the foe is approaching, but that there are no effective direct countermeasures to be taken vis-à-vis these cosmic forces in the here in now, with the exception of prayer and study and meditation. There is nothing like helplessness to increase anxiety.
However, and more importantly, the encroachment and multiplication of the signs of the end times should be equally producing, in the believer, a spirit of joyous anticipation — the One who saved us is about to appear before the Antichrist is revealed. We may seem to be down several touchdowns at halftime, but we can be assured we are still going to win this game despite the current score.
And so – as dire as the present times, as obvious the signs of the end – I find it hard to comprehend how it is that so few Christians-in-name have any interest in the (a) signs of the times and (b) reappearance and descent back to earth, as promised by Jesus Christ.
“…When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8).
When conversing on the subject of Bible prophecy some years ago, a (different) family member said to me, “Why would anyone want Jesus Christ to be King of the earth?” (Somewhere on the spectrum between unbelief and blasphemy, that unforgettable comment stuck in my mind ever since. But that is, it seems to me, the position of, not Bible-believing Christians, but nominal Christians.)
The answer for that audacious question: we would all want Jesus as King because that is the theme of the entire Bible, from the start of Genesis (3:15, the heel bruised, the head crushed) to the very last words of Revelation.
Despite the fact that, for so many, Christianity is a sentimentality, a cultural “niceness,” this is the Realpolitik, the practical reality that is about to be brought to earth with power, authority, and yes, even that rod of iron: There will be a new world order, just not the one that the globalists want to achieve. Jesus once was a baby, in a manger, yes, but he is now the all-powerful and mighty God who will fulfill his promises, all of them. And he is standing in the wings, about to appear on the world stage.
A remarkable moment in time, never quite to be repeated. One might ask: If you had a long-lost relation, a very special one, who you loved, who sent word he was coming to visit, what would be your level of expectation and anticipation? Of preparation? Of excitement? Why do so many Christians compartmentalize and dismiss the signs of the end that are all around us and that herald the return and kingdom of Christ?
Christians are expected to be enthusiastic about the return of the King. There is a special crown for those who love his appearing. “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing” (2 Tim 4:8).
Christians are to be aware and informed. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim 2.15).
In the Old Testament, the tribe of Issachar, 87,000 mighty men of valor, were heralded as those who “had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.” There was also praise for the noble Bereans. “These [Bereans] were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11).
Christians are to purify themselves. One of the things that knowledge of Bible prophecy engenders is purification, holiness. “He who has this hope purifieth himself. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (John 3:1-3).
Christians are to be zealous, repent; lukewarmness is rebuked by Jesus himself:
“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches” (Revelation 3:14-22).
Christians are instructed to ferret out the truth. “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honor of kings is to search out a matter” (Proverbs 25:2). There is no better example of this in Scripture than the birth of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Anna and Simeon were among a tiny handful who were expecting him, though his birth was predicted almost to the day by the prophecy in Daniel 9:
“Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself.”
The Hebrew word here for seven is shabua. This can mean seventy days, or weeks, or years. Which one it is must be gleaned from the context. In this case, it clearly means years. Seven weeks (7) and threescore and two weeks (62) would be 69 weeks. And 69 weeks would be exactly 483 days (69 x 7). In this prophetic denotation, then, this would be 483 years.
The commandment to restore and build Jerusalem was given by Asteiages, “Artexerxes,” “Darius the Median,” the “Ahasuerus” or ‘great king’ of the book of Esther, in 454 B.C.
Many scholars agree that the Lord Jesus Christ was born during the fall feast of tabernacles in 4 B.C. This was exactly 4,000 years after the creation of Adam, a completion of 80 Jubilee (50-year) cycles. According to this calculation, he would have begun his ministry at the age of 30, in the fall of the year 25 A.D. The Jews regarded the age of 30 as the fullness of manhood. His ministry lasted 3 and 1/2 years. He was crucified – “cut off” – at the age of 33 and 1/2 in spring, 29 A.D., exactly 483 years after the edict to rebuild Jerusalem! Just as the prophecy predicted.
Though they were inspired directly by the Holy Spirit to recognize Jesus as Messiah, it seems likely that Daniel’s prophecy was known as well to Anna and Simeon and helped create their foreknowing and spirit of expectation and anticipation for the time of his birth.
Christians, in the latter days, are to be “watchmen on the wall,” i.e., to warn others of impending events:
Ezekiel 3:17 “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.”
Ezekiel 33:2 “Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman….”
Ezekiel 33:6 “But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take [any] person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.”
Ezekiel 33:7 “So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.”
Perhaps the most important reason: Christians, and everyone else for that matter, are commanded sternly not to take the Mark of the Beast. To take it ensures eternal damnation, no salvation. Perhaps with so much at stake, this single stricture is all that is needed, by the alert, to be “watching” and “not be deceived,” as Jesus said (four times!) on the Mount of Olives (Matt. 24).
What happens to those who “take the Mark”? Sadly, eternal damnation:
Rev. 14.9-11 “And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.”
Some have said taking the Mark can and will be forgiven by God (e.g., pastor and teacher, John MacArthur), but the plain fact is that this teaching contradicts the explicit, plain, actual Word of God. There is only a short step or two from today’s Covid vax to tomorrow’s Mark of the Beast. Health risks and VAERS database aside, many believe the vax to be a good thing. It is imperative that they do not think the same of the Mark!
To be continued in Part II
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Find other writings and publications by John A. Sarkett, including After Armageddon at sarkett.com, and real-time prophecy-oriented news at http://sarkett.com/news/