Why Would You Make Such a Thing?

For hundreds of years, nations have been seeking out ways that will advance their ability to wage warfare. A great deal of research and development has been in the areas of conventional, chemical, nuclear, and biological weaponry.

It was all fine when mankind was working on making a cannonball fly faster and farther. When we reached the point where we had bombs that could destroy an entire city, we needed to ask ourselves why are we going down this path.

The Cold War arms race was pointless because no side could win in a nuclear war. If the USSR had managed to knock out 90% of the US nuclear bombs in a surprise attack, our military would still have had enough nukes to devastate the USSR.

For decades, each side continued to add more and more nuclear weapons to their stockpile. By 1991, the US and the USSR had 65,000 nuclear bombs. The power of the bombs has increased over the years. The atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima had the explosive power of 15,000 tons of TNT. The first hydrogen bomb had the power of 10 million tons of TNT. In 1961, the USSR tested a bomb that had a yield equal to 60 million tons of TNT.

Luckily, President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev managed to negotiate a massive drawdown with the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Both sides now have around 10,000 nuclear bombs. We’ve gone from being able to destroy the world 100 times over to just 20 times over.

The world has spent $5.5 trillion on nukes. Vast areas of the world are contaminated by nuclear tests and the development of bombs. The US government has spent over $40 billion so far just trying to clean up the decommissioned Hanford nuclear production complex in Washington state.

We may have fewer nuclear bombs, but the development of nuclear technology goes on. The Russians are constantly upgrading their ability to strike targets. They have just developed a missile that is known as “Satan II.” It can carry up to 15 warheads and has several countermeasures against anti-ballistic missile systems.

The biggest concern in nuclear technology is hypersonic weapons. These are missiles and projectiles which travel at between 5 and 25 times the speed of sound – about 1 to 5 miles per second. Russia and China claim to have a hypersonic system in the development stage. If deployed, they would be very hard to shoot down, and the reaction time would be greatly reduced because they would avoid radar by flying much lower than a conventional missile.

Scientists at Boston University recently came under fire for an experiment in which they tinkered with the Covid virus. Breathless headlines claimed they had created a deadly new strain, and the National Institutes of Health rebuked the university for not seeking the government’s permission.

Several liberal media news outlets say the 80% death rate in mice was just clickbait headlines for social media sites and the manipulated virus strain was actually less lethal than the original.

The key word in all news stories about the Boston University virus is “created.” I don’t see why we would want to make a new strain of any virus that causes death. I can see that knowledge can be gained by seeing how a virus might spread, but research like this carries great risks, foremost among them the chance that an accidental lab leak could create a new pandemic, killing millions of people.

It is possible that COVID-19 was leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. It would be the crime of the century if it turns out Wuhan was the source of the virus. Over 7 million people died during the pandemic, and the world spent $10 trillion on COVID-19 relief.

There are government labs that could have developed a virus that is many times more deadly than COVID-19. The Nazis and the Japanese tested all types of viruses on inmates during World War II. Our ability to redesign the workings of the virus ensures that someone will eventually build a bio-weapon.

I was shocked at how quickly COVID-19 swept around the world, and it did this three times. President Biden has declared the pandemic to be over, but we could easily see round four. China is still fighting the virus. Lockdowns in key port cities have greatly hampered supply chains. President Xi’s zero-Covid policy is putting a massive strain on the Chinese economy.

Until Jesus returns to rule with a rod of iron, mankind’s evil nature will compel him to seek to develop weapons of warfare. Once our Lord takes over, no nation will need weapons. The Prince of Peace will make conflict a distant memory for a thousand years.

“And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4).

–Todd

These Lot-like Days

It seems I just can’t turn loose of the prophecy I believe to be perhaps the most immediately pertinent to Christ calling His Church to be with Him. And, at any rate, I wouldn’t want to turn loose of it if I could bring myself about to do so.

The words are from the very mouth of God, and they speak directly to the most desired prophecy for our day from the standpoint of what we, as pre-Trib believers, look to be imminently fulfilled. I believe He is talking about the Rapture.

Jesus, while teaching about the same time frame He spoke of during the Matthew 24:36-42 Olivet Discourse prophecy, said the following.

“Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” (Luke 17:28-30).

He was foretelling the characteristics that would be starkly observable before and during His next intervention into this earthly wickedness. That time will, as I study things surrounding the Rapture in context, look much like the very times we’re enduring now.

We have, of course, considered this many times before. However, there is one specific angle that might pull into a little sharper focus just how much our darkening moments of history might be likened to Lot’s time in Sodom.

To begin, we must first consider God’s words to Lot’s uncle, Abraham.

The Lord said He would tell Abraham things to come because He knew Abraham would do righteously. God wanted him to know His plan to deal with Sodom’s wickedness once He determined that it was necessary. The Lord, Himself, stood with Lot, then, and discussed Sodom’s fate while the Lord’s angel representatives headed down toward Sodom and Gomorrah.

“And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know. And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD. And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?” (Genesis 18:20-23).

We remember that there was then a profound back-and-forth discussion between the Lord God and a lowly human being—Abraham. God answered each of Abraham’s questions as the old man asked them. Abraham was appealing to God to have those in the wicked cities spared from destruction. He asked if God would relent if 50 were found to be righteous—then 40, then 30, then 20.

Finally, after Abraham asked if God would spare the cities if the Lord could find even 10 righteous, and 10 couldn’t be found, Sodom and Gomorrah’s fate was sealed.

God had said to Abraham before the countdown began—following Abraham’s initial question about the possibility of the cities being spared:

“That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25).

It was almost as if the Lord was mildly indignant to have it thought of Himself as so unjust as to condemn the righteous with the unrighteous.

Alas, there were not 10 righteous left in the city of Sodom. There were only Lot and his small family. God’s Word calls Lot “righteous,” even though Lot dwelt among perhaps the worst culture and society biblically recorded in such detail. The detail was so graphic as to make the fact of the level of unrighteousness unmistakable.

While it was business as usual during daylight hours, with the cities being apparently prosperous, buying, selling, building, planting, etc., when the sun went down, it became a habitation of every sort of evil—particularly of debauchery, with homosexual rapaciousness leading the wickedness. The lustful males came even against the angels who visited Lot.

The raging men of the city threatened Lot with the worst possible attack if he didn’t go along with them and send out his visitors. They were just on the verge of tearing down the door to get at their would-be victims. The only ones God considered righteous in the city at that moment were hated and threatened by the rest, who were the unrighteous in God’s holy view.

And this is the angle I would like us to consider for now.

Jesus foretold in Luke 17:28-30 that it will be for those alive at His next revealing or intervention like it was at that time for Lot when he was hated and threatened by the wickedness of that society and culture.

We have covered many times the God-rejecting, hate-filled actions and activities of our own troubled times. Is there any question of how the evil and wickedness have increased exponentially?

The following brief excerpt tells of one pastor’s story who has endured such assaults by the unrighteous against the righteous. He was imprisoned in Turkey for preaching of Jesus as the only way of salvation. He was finally released after the Trump administration and others pressured Turkey to release him after that government had sentenced him for the crime of preaching the gospel.

He tells that he sees in the United States the same sort of Sodom-like actions coming against believers.

Andrew Brunson’s message is straightforward, but it is far from simple: The Church needs to brace for a dark wave of persecution that is coming…

“Most of the institutions of society are supporting things that a faithful follower of Jesus cannot embrace… and that’s how they will justify persecuting us,” Brunson said.

Believers who stand for this truth will be marginalized in schools, jobs, banks and more, he added. Testing believers’ resolve, the pressure to conform will manifest socially and eventually financially.

“What has emerged as the main flashpoint is gender identity and LGBT. And wherever that is intersecting with religious freedom, LGBT is winning,” he said. “Now there is a requirement that people not only tolerate but that we embrace and celebrate this ideology. And if you don’t, you are seen as someone who is hateful.” (“American pastor delivers sobering message of coming ‘dark wave’ of persecution, All Israel News, October 19, 2022)

The days (and nights) of Lot are gathering around those who hold to biblical Christianity. At the center of the threats is the same spirit of Antichrist that infected the rapacious hordes of ancient Sodom.

Jesus promised He will catastrophically intervene and execute judgment and wrath against the unrighteous when these conditions become undeniably evident at the end of the Age of Grace (Church Age).

You want to escape with those God considers righteous. You want to be removed from the gathering wickedness and the judgment that must destroy it the same as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

Here, again, is how to escape the coming judgment and wrath—through the Rapture promised by our Blessed Hope, the Lord Jesus Christ.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

—Terry