God’s Measured Judgment

While walking from my office, passing through to another part of our home, I hear my wife’s music CDs playing. On many occasions, I hear the same song, obviously among Margaret’s favorites.

Now I find myself humming that song, which has become much more meaningful and even deeply etched into my mind and spirit.

The song is “Teach Us to Number Our Days.” My wife’s favorite version—and now mine—is by Marty Goetz, a Jewish-American songwriter and singer.

The words, as I said, powerfully resonate within my spirit. Perhaps that’s because of my advancing age toward the hereafter. However, I believe it to be more and more a God-prompted reminder of just how near I am to facing the Lord Jesus Christ in that glorious, twinkling-of-an-eye instant of Rapture. It might just be a heads-up alerting us to how near all believers, dead and alive, are to looking into Christ’s omniscient eyes at any second and standing before Him to be judged for rewards and crowns at the bema –the Judgment Seat of Christ.

The lyrics of Goetz’s song, based on the words of the following Psalm, are doubly meaningful to those who look for Christ’s soon return. Scripture indicates we should realize the time is drawing near when we will stand before Him; thus, we should ask to be totally aware and living righteously every conscious second of our lives.

“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants” (Psalms 90:12-13).

The days each of us has been granted are indeed numbered in God’s heavenly accounting system. God’s Word puts it this way:

“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

The Creator of all things measures everything with unerring precision. We’re told that every star is named. Every hair on our heads is numbered. Each and every created order is accounted for. The heavens are stretched and measured. The Creator intimates that He is aware of each grain of sand. His omniscience is without error; there is no place that He isn’t there.

Thinking on asking this great God to teach us to number our days brings to mind, in considering His dealing with rebels down throughout the millennia, His judgment against disobedient humankind.

The thing that stands out to me is that His judgment is measured. We see this truth time after time. He always shows divine patience. He never changes His mind about not being willing for anyone to perish but wanting all to repent.

Consider the time of Sodom and Gomorrah and the Lord talking with Abraham about measuring the sins of the people of Sodom. The Lord had obviously been patient but now came down Himself to assess the wicked city’s sins. Finally, when not even ten righteous people could be found, His judgment fell—after He removed Lot and his daughters to safety.

Consider how He dealt with Pharaoh in the days of the great Exodus. His judgment was measured. Each succeeding plague became more punishing until the Israelites were free to go.

Think of Babylon and the wickedness there. God had finally had it after years of Belshazzar’s evil doings. God’s divine measurement system was on full display—and was visible for all to see as His own hand wrote on the wall.

“And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting” (Daniel 5:25-27).    

Almighty God measures and numbers everything. All is under His all-seeing eye and His omnipotence. We are made in His image. He wants us to number all things in our lives and measure our actions so we will be accounted worthy when we stand before Him in judgment.

We’re told to judge ourselves in this regard so we won’t have to be deemed unworthy by Him:

“For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged” (1 Corinthians 11:31).

The prophetic application is that God’s measured judgment system is weighing all that is going on at this very moment. We are witnessing warnings of coming judgment because this world of rebels is being “weighed in the balances, and… found wanting.”

Still, the heavenly assessment is measured slowly, deliberately. God is still not willing for anyone to perish, but He wants all to come to repentance.

But judgment and wrath are on the way, make no mistake. And when they come, it will be the most destructive justice ever delivered:

“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21).   

Even during that most horrific time of all human history, the judgment and wrath will be measured carefully and precisely.

There will be twenty-one specific judgments to call humanity to repentance while devastating those filled with anti-God rebelliousness. The seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls of God’s wrath will incrementally rain down God’s holy and righteous anger in measured degrees.

You don’t want to be on this fallen sphere when that judgment falls. God wants us to number our days and live them through Holy Spirit-indwelt righteousness. This means you must be reconciled—made righteous under God’s way of salvation. Here again is how to make sure you go to Christ when He Calls, whether through death or in the Rapture—which we believe can happen at any moment, considering all the signs that are manifesting.

“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

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Will September Be a Month to Remember?

A glance at the UN calendar for September clearly reveals their agenda. I took the following from https://www.un.org/events/81993:

September 7, 2023: International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies

September 16, 2023: International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone layer

September 18-19, 2023: SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) Summit

September 20, 2023: Climate Ambition Summit

The quote below is taken from the UN’s website regarding the upcoming SDG Summit, September 18-19, during which time the globalists at the UN will ask the leaders of the world to commit to a seven-year initiative to achieve all the SDG goals of Agenda 2030:

The SDG Summit in September 2023 must signal a genuine turning point. It must mobilize the political commitment and breakthroughs our world desperately needs. It must deliver a rescue plan for people and planet.

At the center of this rescue plan, Heads of State and Government must recommit to seven years of accelerated, sustained, and transformative action, both nationally and internationally, to deliver on the promise of the SDGs. Leaders can show their resolve by adopting an ambitious and forward-looking political declaration at the SDG Summit and presenting global and national commitments for SDG transformation.

I know the readers of the Nearing Midnight column recognize the agenda behind the UN’s call to action regarding the so-called climate emergency. It’s all about the formation of a one-world government on the wings of crisis, which the globalists claim requires their solution. But it’s all a ruse.

Is it not also revealing that they are thinking in terms of a “seven-year initiative”? Since it doesn’t involve Israel, it’s not the covenant that will start the Tribulation. But wow, they are thinking in terms of a seven-year agreement!

It’s nothing short of prophecy coming to life. The SDGs go far beyond their contrived climate emergency; they point to a world where a totalitarian government enslaves people under a communist regime. The Bible says this will happen during the Tribulation.

Here are just a few of the fallacies that lie behind the power-hungry oligarchs at the World Economic Forum (WEF), UN, and many other organizations telling us that a one-world government is the only answer to the current climate emergency.

They are the ones damaging the environment. The last phrase of Revelation 11:18 aligns well with the deception agenda of the climate alarmists that call for draconian measures to avoid certain doom.

“The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.” (Emphasis added)

The globalists are themselves damaging the environment with fires and train derailments spilling hazardous materials. The frequency of these things suggests that an evil motive lies behind most, if not all, of these catastrophes. They start the fires and then tell us that “climate change” is the culprit.

The sight of chemical trails in the sky is not the illusion of conspiracy theorists. One day this past summer, I looked up to see at least fifteen trails left by planes all bunched together in the western sky. They couldn’t be contrails because we never have so many planes flying that close to our home in such a short time, and the pattern in the sky was larger and lasted much longer than with contrails I had seen in the past.

In his book, Spirit of the Antichrist, Volume One, pastor and prophecy speaker J.B. Hixon devoted an entire chapter (pages 111-129) to evidence regarding the geoengineering of weather by the government. He listed fourteen articles from Popular Science magazine from 2005 to 2021, all dealing with the science of changing weather patterns through geoengineering.

Those warning us of the changing weather patterns are the very ones manipulating them so they can claim that they are evidence of the “climate emergency.”

Scientists don’t agree that a climate emergency exists. Just last month, a group of 1,609 scientists from all around the world, including 321 such U.S. professionals, signed a statement stating that there “is no climate emergency.” They said, “The coalition pointed out that Earth’s climate has varied as long as it has existed, with the planet experiencing several cold and warm phases.” (https://www.ntd.com/over-1600-scientists-sign-no-climate-emergency-declaration_938916.html)

The promoters of the climate emergency fraud know it’s a lie. The behavior of those shouting the loudest for drastic action betrays their words. Many of them own multiple mansions (some at sea level), possess multiple cars and yachts, and fly all over the world in private jets. Their multiple failed predictions of doom fail to wake up those deceived by the fallacy of their repeated warnings of doom.

The world leaders who will agree to the seven-year plan of the UN at their meeting later this month are also well aware that there’s no crisis; it’s all about a quest for power and riches. They believe their obedience to the agenda will be rewarded in the future.

This great deception of our day, and it’s certainly not the only one, reminds me of the first words Jesus spoke when asked about the last days. “Take heed that no man deceive you” (Matthew 24:4). Even the lies of globalists reveal that we live in the last days.

The sad reality for this world is that Satan’s deception will get a whole lot worse after Jesus takes us to Heaven, although it’s difficult for me to imagine a greater acceptance of outright lies than what we already see happening today. How close must we be to our homegoing if we are already witnessing such mass deception on such a vast scale?

Will September be a month to remember with the UN furthering its one-world government agenda on the road to unwittingly fulfilling more prophecy? That’s likely to happen.

Could this be the month of our homegoing? Only time will tell. But if our calendars should turn to October and we are still here, please know that Jesus is coming for us very, very soon. He will keep His promise to take us home before His wrath descends on the world.

Maranatha!

-Jonathan

Rapture and the Righteous

The end-times scent is in the very ambiance that surrounds us. Something profound is about to bring change in ways that we can’t fully anticipate. I believe what’s about to change things in this world forever is the great Rapture event.

The Rapture will be the sudden disappearance of people from the earth. Only those who are righteous will vanish. All who are left behind will, at that moment, be unrighteous in God’s holy eyes.

Again, I believe the key prophecy involving the timing of the Rapture is given in the words of Jesus:

“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).

So it is essential that we understand the righteous and the unrighteous. Who exactly are these? To get to the heart of what’s involved, I repeat here what I wrote in a previous article.

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

The Lord said He would tell Abraham about 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 action 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).

There was then a profound back-and-forth between the Lord God and a lowly human being—Abraham. God answered each of the old man’s questions. 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 be thought of as being so unjust that He would condemn the righteous with the unrighteous.

Alas, there were not 10 righteous left in the city of Sodom. There was 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 it made the level of unrighteousness unmistakable.

It was business as usual during daylight hours, with the cities being apparently prosperous—buying, selling, building, planting, etc. But when the sun went down, they 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 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.

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

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

Lot and his two daughters were the only people who escaped the total destruction that descended upon Sodom and its sister city, Gomorrah, following their removal from those doomed cities. Thus, they were the only people God considered righteous.

Now, this is a point of considerable questioning of God’s Judgment in thinking about Lot and those two daughters.

Lot… righteous?

How can a man who offers his daughters up for rape to a town full of sexual deviants be considered “righteous”?

As a matter of fact, how can those two daughters be considered “righteous” when they got their father drunk and then had sexual relations with him once they were safely away from Sodom?

Yet Lot and those daughters were considered “righteous.” They were, therefore, the only ones who escaped God’s devastating judgment.

Here is how Peter confirmed Lot’s righteousness:

“And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds)” (2 Peter 2:6-8).

So Lot and his daughters and their comportment are presented as proof that salvation—and the saving out of Sodom—was not because of their good works. They were obviously, in some ways, as corrupt in behavior as the culture in which they were immersed. What, then, made them “righteous”?

We go again to the story of Abraham to discover the answer. Here it is, the answer to what makes anyone righteous—thus able to escape God’s wrath against the unrighteous.

“Moses said of Abraham, under Divine Inspiration: And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). 

When a fear-filled jailer asked the Apostle Paul, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:31).

In other words, Paul was saying that the jailer, those of his household, or anyone else can be saved only through belief in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the way, truth and life (John 14:6). He is the only way to reconciliation with God the Father.

This was true looking forward to the cross during Abraham and Lot’s days. It is true today, looking back to the cross on which God’s Only Begotten Son died for the sins of humankind.

Belief in Christ is the only way to escape from this doomed planet when Jesus calls believers to Himself in the Rapture. Belief in Jesus as God’s designated route to salvation is the only way to be considered righteous.

The story of Lot and his daughters answers the question: Will only Christians walking perfectly with God and looking for the Rapture go to Christ when He calls?

Good works will not get anyone to Heaven. Only Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world–the only righteousness God recognizes—will put the believer in the presence of Christ when He says: “Come up here!” (Revelation 4:1).

Again, here is how to make sure you hear that call and are taken out of the Tribulation that will devastate the rebels of earth, just like God’s judgment and wrath destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

“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).

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Just a note here to say again how pleased we are that Jonathan Brentner has joined us in writing for Nearing Midnight. He’s not only a colleague but a Christian brother and friend I value very highly.

—Terry

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Heaven Changes Everything

There’s a contemporary tune by Big Daddy Weave that I love: Heaven Changes Everything. The focus of the song is that our hope of Heaven is something that brings abundant hope in the midst of all our trials, disappointments, and sorrows.

When I listen to it on the radio, my thoughts often race ahead to our expectation of Jesus’ appearing, which also enables us to endure living in a world where lawlessness, deception, violence, and wickedness are the likes of which we couldn’t have even imagined just ten years ago.

It’s because Heaven Changes Everything that I look forward to bringing you biblical perspectives on current events as well as the substance of our joyous hope.

As such, I’m extremely grateful to Terry James for inviting me to write for the Nearing Midnight column. He has become a friend and a mentor during the past couple of years. We have co-written a book, Hereafter – It’s Far Better Than You Can Imagine, which will be available next January. The book emphasizes the amazing over-the-top joy that’s headed our way after we meet Jesus in the air.

The passion of my ministry is that of defending the pre-Tribulation Rapture and Jesus’ thousand-year reign on the throne of David. However, I also love connecting the events of our time to what God’s Word says about the last days. There’s one particular event that highlights the evil that the Bible tells us would be prominent before Jesus’ return to the earth.

The stories that I hear from Lahaina, Hawaii, break my heart. It very much appears as though the fire was intentional because the globalists desired the land. Some suggest they desire to build one of their 15-minute cities on the area that burned, while others believe the elite want to steal the land in order to profit from selling it to developers. Either way, only the devil could inspire such evil.

Some residents of Lahaina say that there are still one thousand children missing, while others say that number is double that total.

It’s so very difficult to comprehend the level of evil that exists among the powerbrokers of our day. There’s a pervasive “bubble of normalcy,” especially in the U.S., which keeps a great many people, as well as believers, from accepting the murderous intent of those that govern us.

In John 8:44, Jesus described the devil as a “murderer,” a “liar,” and the “father of lies.” The Lord also said this about him, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10). Although these verses are not what we would normally refer to as prophecy, the depictions of our enemy help us greatly in understanding the forces that govern so many of our nations, including America, in these last days.

It should come as no surprise to us that the Luciferian globalists display the murderous and deceptive character of the one who controls their thoughts and actions. As difficult as it is to wrap our minds around the purposeful killing of people in Hawaii, it perfectly aligns with the satanic influence of those who perpetrated it.

Should it really surprise us that those who fervently support the killing of innocents in the womb are capable of this?

How can we deal with such a willful killing apart from what the Bible tells us about our future, about Heaven? I have no way to cope with such things apart from my hope in Jesus’ imminent appearing and His subsequent wrath that will fall on these agents of death and destruction.

Whenever I feel anger bubbling up inside of me because of the violence and deception of our day, I run to Psalms 37 and 94. They remind me that God is sovereign and in control. He will justly deal with perpetrators of wickedness and violence after He brings us to the safety of glory in His Father’s house (John 14:1-3; Colossians 3:4).

I believe these psalms are also prophetic of the coming Day of the Lord wrath, which will sweep over the world after the Rapture of the Church.

Yes, Heaven Changes Everything for both our personal trials and tragic circumstances we endure, as well as for the grief we feel from living in a world moments before the Rapture and the start of the Day of the Lord. Where could we go for relief apart from such a wondrous expectation of immortal bodies and the glory of being with our Savior?

As the world grows darker, our expectation of Jesus’ imminent appearing glows even brighter as we fix our eyes on it.

Maranatha!

– Jonathan C. Brentner