I don’t intend this article to be a rant or a finger-pointing but instead a reminder that we believers have a job to do until our Bridegroom comes in the clouds and calls us up to His Father’s Home to be with Him forevermore. So, to avoid being accused of that, I will address this article as more of a ‘note to self,’ and because I need a reminder also to focus on our blessed hope and those who don’t have that hope yet, and not to focus on the things that are going on in this world.
So, I will say that I wish believers were as focused on the unsaved as we seem to be focused on the unvax’d. And frankly, as focused as we are on the virus in general. I’m not saying we should ignore it. Absolutely not. I realize that the virus is real and dangerous. However, we are bombarded day and night, practically on the hour, every hour, with the “latest” statistics for everything to do with this virus, so that it is instilling so much fear in people that we seem not to be able to focus on anything else. Else. According to the Word, we are not to be focused on the things of this world. And, we are not to be afraid of the things in this world. He that is IN us is greater than he that is in the world. Think about that for a minute: we believers have the power of The One who created the universe.
I am told that there will be tribulations (small ‘t’) in this world but that I will be delivered from the Tribulation (capital T) to come. And if we think there are small-t tribulations in this world right now, we ain’t seen nuttin’ yet. The capital-T tribulations to come are horrific beyond imagining. And, in the meantime, between now and when believers are snatched up out of this world, the small-t tribulations will not get easier to watch or experience.
So, things will never go “back to normal.” In fact, we will see a new normal that we will be asked to accept almost daily. New rules, new mandates, new persecutions. I am reminded of what I heard a pastor say recently: “What did you think the last days were going to look like?” Everything we see happening around us and to us is leading up to the one-world system foretold in Revelation and readying the world to smoothly move into the Antichrist system of complete control of the whole world.
If we think back, we realize that none of the enemy’s (Satan) plans and agendas have happened overnight. They have all been laid out and accomplished very gradually so that people grow to ‘accept’ whatever the new normal is – that will take us one step closer to his final goal, which is to control the whole world and be worshipped as God. The same is happening now; only it seems to me that things have speeded up quite a bit in this final lap to the end of this age.
I am going to die of something if I am not Raptured first. I will die of a heart attack, cancer, car accident, smoke inhalation, murder, stroke, virus, flu, tuberculosis, drowning, MS, Alzheimer’s, pneumonia, tornado… or something else that will overcome this body I’m living in down here on earth. But, if my focus is on all those “what ifs” every day, guess what will happen? I will be focused on myself and forget to be concerned about the immeasurable number of people who will spend eternity in hell.
I am told to “encourage one another” until we are taken out of here, but how can I encourage someone else when I am living in fear instead of being encouraged myself? And, I am also told to be a watchman on the wall, meaning to warn others about the impending danger of hell if they do not believe on Jesus Christ before they die, regardless of what they die of. I am even told that if I don’t warn people, and they therefore don’t believe, their blood will be on my hands. (They will still go to hell, but I will be relieved of responsibility for not warning them.)
If I were to listen to or watch news or opinion shows on TV, which I don’t do these days, I would be bombarded day and night with updates on statistics regarding the virus. I try to avoid all those shows, but even some Gunsmoke commercials and weather report channels are full of ‘virus-speak.’
The enemy (Satan) has managed to once again divide people into 2 sides. He has divided blacks vs whites, liberals vs conservatives, men vs women, gay vs straight, for just a few. This time it’s the vax’d vs the un-vax’d. He is an expert at causing division. He knows that “divided we fall.” And frankly, this one takes the prize for the most divided I’ve ever seen people in my lifetime. And some seem downright vicious and full of hate towards the other side.
According to the CDC website, the following is a list of statistics for causes of death in the USA (other than the virus, which is listed 3rd on their website list) annually.
Heart disease: 696,962
Cancer: 602,350
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 200,955
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 160,264
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 152,657
Alzheimer’s disease: 134,242
Diabetes: 102,188
Influenza and pneumonia: 53,544
Nephritis (kidney disease): 52,547
In light of this, I find it odd that we are not bombarded day and night with statistics of how many babies were aborted today, or how many people died in a car accident while texting today, or how many people died of heart attacks today, or how many people died of cancer today, or how many people died of kidney failure, stroke, diabetes or flu today, etc etc etc. You get the idea, right? Are these deaths not important or worthy of note? I imagine, to the deceased’s loved ones, they are very important.
It seems like, to me, that this bombardment of this one disease is an agenda to scare people into being willing to give up basic rights (given by God, by the way — not gov, not schools, not employers, not politicians, not CDC, and not the president) and submit to control. See, God does not trick anybody. So, during the Tribulation to come, people will willingly and knowingly accept the mark of the beast. They won’t be tricked into it. They will go along peacefully with the agenda.
In the case of this latest division, on the one side, people believe that the shots are safe and effective, and all we need to do is take the 1st shot, 2nd shot, booster shot or shots, and we will be protected from death or at least protected from a more severe case of the virus. On the other side, people believe that the shots are unsafe, untested, and causing deaths due to spike proteins and compromising or destroying the immune system. Seems to me both sides are focusing on the wrong thing.
I’m going to go with the only One proven safe & effective for thousands of years. He who offers hope, not fear. He who offers life, not death. He who offers safety, not danger. His name is Jesus Christ. He paid for our salvation in full. So, if you want the guarantee of safety & effectiveness for all eternity, please, if you haven’t already, believe that Christ is the Son of God, that He died on the cross to pay for your sins, and that He rose from the dead and is now sitting at the right hand of The Father, waiting on His go-ahead to come and rescue those who have believed.
He is coming soon! One way or the other, in my case, I will be seeing the Face of my Savior soon, either via the Rapture, or at my age, my death.
Maranatha! Come quickly, Lord Jesus!
Scripture references (KJV):
1 John 2:15
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
John 16:33
“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
1 John 5:4
“For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”
Mark 4:19
“And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.”
1 John 4:4
“Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”
John 3:16-17
“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. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”
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.”
Revelation 13:7-10 & 16-17
“And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints….”
“… And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”