I have included a special message at the end of this article. I hope you will read it and take it to heart.

There may be some who disagree with what I have to say in this article. That is all right. Man’s belief or disbelief has never changed the promises of God or His fulfillment of them.

I’m not trying to win (or start) any kind of a theological argument but simply to point out what I see as the irrevocable Truths revealed in God’s Word.

He has expressed His Truths in His own gentle but firm way:

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best of the land. But if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword’” (Isaiah 1:18-20). Emphasis added.

This verse applies equally to all, Jews and Gentiles, as it relates to salvation.

His meaning is clear: We must choose. Obedience or rebellion. Belief or disbelief. Both have consequences, and there is no compromising.

There is a song titled “The Living Years” by Mike and the Mechanics.

It was written by Mike Rutherford and B.A. Robertson, both of whom lost their fathers within months of each other. The regret and heartache expressed in the lyrics are obvious, but even more obvious is what this song speaks to.

Here is a link to their YouTube video complete with lyrics if you have never heard it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cmKfb4xV1M&list=RD2cmKfb4xV1M&start_radio=1

It expresses a truth so important that it cannot be brushed aside as just another modern-day music video. For many of us, it may revive regrets and heartaches. But for every living person, it also evokes an undeniable reality.

It was very popular in 1988, and its message is still crystal clear. The words plainly point out the finality of death and that relationships cannot be altered once our time in this life ends. We all know our lives can end suddenly and without warning.

When I was a nine-year-old, immature and selfish boy, I refused to hug my older brother before he left to fly to visit some relatives in California because he wouldn’t take me with him. By the next morning, he was forever gone, and I have never forgotten what it was like when I realized the finality of what I had done. I would never hug him again.

Today, I receive and give hugs like they are more precious than gold. You can’t get them back once the finality of death intervenes.

Death eternally fixes certain earthly circumstances in stone. This is confirmed by God’s Word in Luke 16:26. They cannot be undone or changed. The same is true of our relationship with God. Our time in this life determines our eternal circumstances. This is why I frequently end my articles with the phrase below when I appeal to anyone who may read them to repent and receive Jesus as their One and Only Lord and Savior.

“If you choose to act, you must do so in your living years.”

We all had, or still have, living fathers. Perhaps, if you are willing to try, you can still restore that relationship. While we still draw breath, we are able to act on what matters. This is also true of restoring a relationship with our mothers. They both fail. So do we.

Death is the final frontier in earthly human existence, but God has the answer. Jesus, and Jesus alone, is God’s chosen source of Salvation and eternal life.

As well, God, by His own Authority, has determined that His Salvation and rescue from our sinful selves are determined in this life by His (Jesus’) sacrifice of His life for those who will receive Him and Him alone. At the instant our lives end, our eternity begins.

We, not God, determine our final state of being by our own free will. It is yet another Gift of God. We receive His Grace, or we reject it. He lets us decide – in our living years.

He has also provided us with an understanding of our final state depending on whether we have chosen to receive His Grace in Christ or to reject it.

Whether any person is willing to acknowledge it or not, God is our Father. For some, it can be a difficult thing to consider Him in that light, perhaps because our human father may evoke bad memories or heartache. But God is not a fallible human:

“God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind” (Numbers 23:19). Emphasis added.

Frequently, God, our heavenly Father, uses earthly mechanisms and means in order to convey heavenly Truths to us that we may not otherwise understand.

This song by Mike and the Mechanics is, I believe, an example of the perfect love that God employs when He has an important Truth to convey to us and awaken in us.

Just as He intended.

I’m not claiming this song is divinely inspired, but God can use whatever He will to accomplish His purposes, and His will is to save (2 Peter 3:9 / 1 Timothy 2:4).

He most often uses people to connect with people through His Spirit.

God reveals in His Word that anyone who repents and receives His Son as Lord and Savior is immediately adopted into His eternal family and becomes spiritually reborn into eternal life, and this, Jesus declared, is required (John 3:3).

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption to sonship, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Romans 8:14-16). Emphasis added.

Now to the crux of this article.

Sober reading and understanding of Bible prophecy and equally sober consideration of ongoing worldwide events indicate that God’s intervention in judgement of the world is very close at hand. Wars and rumors of them abound, and sin has reached new lows of debauchery and depravity.

America will not be exempt from the coming judgments.

They will occur despite any level of human denial or disbelief, just as His prophetic promises always have (2 Peter 3:3-4).

We have all been startled (scared) by an unexpected lightning strike and by its attendant thunderclap.

God’s promised intervention will be just as sudden and frightening to those who will have ignored His prolific warnings.

Those who have received Jesus will be startled but not frightened. It will be liberating and joyful. It will be another of God’s promises fulfilled in exact detail.

He has made it clear that He wants to rescue and adopt anyone who will listen and respond to His knock at the spiritual door of their heart.

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20). Emphasis added.

Once again, I pray that you will choose life: “If you choose to act, you must do so in your living years.”

The special message I promised you:

For anyone who may read this article and has not trusted in Jesus Christ, and therefore has no real hope or peace in life, this message is for you.

You can have hope. You can have the peace that Jesus has promised to all who have made Him their Lord and Savior. The peace that passes understanding.

It requires that you come before God on His terms and that you do so in your living years.

And what are His terms according to His Word?

• Genuine repentance (turning to God instead of continuing to reject or ignore Him).
• Confession of sins (that you are a sinner and acknowledge that to God).
• That you understand that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
• To acknowledge to God that you are unable to pay that debt.
• Belief that Jesus Christ paid your death sentence for you on the cross and rose from the grave three days later, conquering death, just as He promised.
• To believe that Jesus is the Way, the only Way, that God has established by which humans may be saved from the consequences of their sin and rebellion.

This is what leads one to the Spiritual Rebirth that Jesus requires (John 3:3).

God has made it absolutely clear that no one who comes before Him on His terms will be refused.

• No one: no race, no color, no country of origin, regardless of any previous belief system: no one.
• No matter what your past sins have been, God can and WILL forgive you because He says He will.
• Salvation is available to everyone without any exceptions.

If you put all your trust for salvation in Jesus, and Him only, you can follow that prayer up by simply saying, “Thank you, Father God, for hearing my prayer and saving me,” because we can trust Him to keep His Word. He always has. He always will.

“Truly, Truly, I say to you that he who hears My words and believes the One who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned. He has crossed from death to life” (John 5:24).

There are no answers and there is no hope in the world through governments, organizations, politics, or politicians. They are incapable of it. There are only lies and deception. But you can have the Truth and the peace you seek.

The answers are in the Word of God—The Bible. If you ask God, with all your heart, He will hear you.

“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

Pro Salvator Vigilans

To contact me: canoeman96@gmail.com

John 3:16 is undoubtedly the most quoted and loved verse in the Bible among believers. It seems to be plastered everywhere – in subways, on billboards, and on the faces of football players that millions of people see. So much so that even people who don’t believe the actual scripture itself could probably quote it. It encapsulates the Good News Gospel so beautifully:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:16-18).

We see the promise again in John 10:28:

“And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.”

In addition to John 3:18, Romans 8:1 also says plainly that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

John 5:24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”

This is His assurance to us that those who believe in Him will not come into judgment and will not face death – we’ve already passed from it!

John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

According to the above promises (in addition to others), believers are not appointed to wrath or judgment. 1 Thessalonians 1:10 says Jesus is our Deliverer from the coming wrath.

 “and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”

Galatians 1:4 says He died on the cross to deliver us from the (G1764) impending, at-hand evil age:

“who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.”

The tribulation is indeed judgment, wrath, and condemnation for those who are perishing because they haven’t believed: judgment seals, judgment bowls, and trumpet judgments. All of the judgments are the wrath of God (John 3:36): the wrath of the Lamb, who will avenge His blood (Rev. 6:16), and the wrath of the devil, who knows his time is short (Rev.12:12). The wrath begins with the sudden destruction, so we know this is part of His wrath, as He spoke about it beforehand in numerous places. Those abiding in Christ cannot be destroyed, so we can’t be there for the sudden “destruction.”

Through faith, we’re shielded by God’s power for the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Peter 1:3-5):

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Our Savior, Christ Jesus, has abolished death and lit up the way to life and immortality through the gospel (2 Timothy 1:8-10). This is a holy calling, the upward call of God through Jesus Christ.

“Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”

The antichrist is coming against those who are perishing because they do not have the love of truth; they’re condemned because they did not believe the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12). All of the scriptures reveal that our Almighty God is the Mighty Warrior who saves and delivers, so that darkness and sin cannot overtake us. All of the scriptures from beginning to end point to this truth: it is the very will of God that we be saved from our sins, our enemies, and wrath.

Part of the gospel message commonly referred to in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 repeats “according to the scriptures” twice. The repetition is in that passage for a good reason. Everything we speak forth (the seeds we’re sowing) must be according to the scriptures, lest we be found to be speaking lies and sowing the seeds of the enemy, who most definitely does not want us to be delivered. All scriptures are inspired by God, and none of them should be disregarded, especially when considering the Truth of the salvation and deliverance of the Messiah who shed His blood and died for us. Paul didn’t shrink back from “declaring the whole counsel of God,” and neither should we (Acts 20:27).

Here is another passage which plainly calls the mercy of His deliverance a Holy Covenant, one in which we may serve Him without fear for all of our lives, which is eternal life through Him. His will is that we serve Him, and not the antichrist.

Luke 1:70-75

“As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets,
Who have been since the world began,
That we should be saved from our enemies
And from the hand of all who hate us,
To perform the mercy promised to our fathers
And to remember His holy covenant,
The oath which He swore to our father Abraham:
To grant us that we,
Being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
Might serve Him without fear,
In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.”

So then, here is a question each of us has to ask ourselves: with God having made this plain, and all of history (such as our forefathers escaping Egypt, Lot escaping wrath, Noah and his family escaping the flood, etc.), why is this so hard for people to believe? Didn’t He say that we will not be destroyed, that if we’re clothed in His righteousness, we won’t be found naked and ashamed? These are all things He told us in His Word. What wonderful promises! Would we not want to cling to hope that we will be rescued and delivered when the fowler lays his snare to capture us? I’m going to leave this verse here as a reminder that His word is true, and we’re called to speak His words only.

John 12:48 “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him— the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.”

Some other promises which reveal a pre-tribulation rapture:

Jesus told us that the gates of hades shall not prevail over the Church, whose house is built on the Firm Foundation of the Rock (Matthew 16:18).

• So no one should say the antichrist can take us captive and destroy us in the sudden destruction (we aren’t destroyed, 2 Corinthians 4:9 and many others).
• No one should say that we’ll be shaken (we will not be shaken, Acts 2:25 and many others).
• No one should say that we’ll be moved (we won’t be moved, 1 Corinthians 15:58 and many others) when every mountain and island is moved from its place (Revelation 6:14, 16:20 and others).
• And no one should say that death will have its way with us.

Anyone who says this will have to take that up with Almighty God Himself.

All of God’s promises are yes and amen in Christ. The only way we’ll be destroyed is if we’re walking on the wrong path: the one that leads to sudden destruction and the rider whose name is Death.

Proverbs 12:28 “In the way of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death.”

The Living One holds the keys to death and Hades (Revelation 1:18). If the Living One holds the keys to death and Hades, and we are His body and filled with His Spirit, then we can’t be turned over to death because the Head of the Church, our Savior and Deliverer (Messiah), in whom we’re abiding, holds the keys! In His name, we hold the keys to the Kingdom of heaven (Matthew 16:19):

“And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

We also have to keep in mind (the mind of Christ we’ve been given, 1 Corinthians 2:16) that He is our Groom:

“For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the Church” (Ephesians 5:29).

Our hope is in Christ; He is our Blessed Hope. His mercies are new every day, and they never come to an end (Lamentations 3:22).

Paul’s farewell message in 2 Corinthians 13:11-14 has a wonderful message to all of us who hear it (my notes added):

“Finally, brethren, farewell (Chairo – “Rejoice! Be glad! Be well!”). Become complete (restored to wholeness and perfection). Be of good comfort (the Holy Spirit comforts), be of one mind (the mind of Christ, the Holy One), live in peace (Jesus is peace, live in Him); and the God of love (love keeps no record of sins) and peace (Jesus) will be with you (this is a promise!). Greet one another with a holy kiss (the kiss of holy matrimony between those of the bride and groom).

“All the saints greet you (greeting us from outside of time). The grace (unmerited favor) of the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah), and the love of God (love always protects), and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.”

Blessings,

Angela