Chapter 2:1-4

“Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, ² not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. ³ Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, ⁴ who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.“

Happy New Year to you all. I pray that all had a wonderful time with family, friends and church family. My wife and I, as well as my in-laws, all ended up with COVID; we spent the entire time from Boxing Day on in isolation. By the grace of our Lord, we are all well. Still having a few side effects like fatigue and, especially with me, asthma. But we are all back to work and looking forward to our first church service with our church in person. We here in Ontario have been on a lockdown because of COVID, and we were isolated.

The growth of evil is happening right before our eyes. Those of us that have spent any time studying the Old Testament prophecies can see the formation of things prophesied to come right before our eyes. The pace at which they are happening is astounding. If you had told me that Australia would be the proving ground for a lot of the rules and procedures that the Man of Sin would bring in, I would have laughed. But daily, as we see the news and read the papers, we can see the edges of personal freedom being forced in further and further. If you had told me that American companies would be at the forefront of censorship, I would have laughed. I mean, free speech is the very foundation of the USA.

There is no area where evil is growing faster than in sexuality. Many of you may be aware that the Canadian government is in the process of making conversion therapy illegal in Canada. A story from CTV News here in Ontario points out that as of January 2022, it is illegal to subject anyone of any age to so-called conversion therapy. This law was passed by a unanimous vote here in our Parliament. This is a reminder to us here in Canada that we do not actually have a Conservative voice when it comes to right and wrong. We have progressively left-leaning parties but no real conservative voice on the federal level.

As we have watched over the last 10-15 years, the growth of sexual perversion is rampant. There are more and more underage sexual acts happening, and there is a push to make pedophilia legal. I fear that the Epstein case and the revelations from the Maxwell case will serve as a catalyst for making this type of sexual attraction legal faster, as it appears some of our leaders are deep into this kind of thing.

Just a year ago, our churches helped one of our missionaries to attend the Super Bowl in Tampa. We learned, sadly, that the Super Bowl is one of the largest sex trafficking events in the world each year. In just seven days on the ground, they visited as many brothels as they could, offering women a way out if they wanted out, and they helped to rescue 2 children from trafficking if I recall accurately.

There was a time when sexual evil was done behind closed doors. Homosexual men hid their sexuality and did their deeds behind closed doors or in faraway places. But today, one can scarcely watch a commercial that is not pushing homosexual families, men and women kissing intimately in Prime-Time TV shows and in just about every advert you can see. They have added homosexual characters to every show, even the kids shows, and there are openly gay, lesbian or any of the alphabet letters they use teaching in the public schools. We live in troubling times.

• Don’t Get Too Down, verses 1-2

In this particular case, the people in the church at Thessalonica saw the evil around them, and they thought they had missed the return of Jesus, in particular the Rapture. They were down and having a hard time, and Paul wrote to reassure them that they had not been forgotten. It must have been reassuring to hear from Paul. Obviously, if Paul was still here, then they have not missed out.

In our time, we face the opposite. Peter tells us that in the last days men will be scoffers, meaning they will deny and question the coming of the Lord Jesus (2 Peter 3: 3-4). They will look at the world around us and deny Jesus’ return. I saw an interview with a prominent scientist the other day, and he argued that we did not need God, as science explained all the things that we once needed God to explain. Sadly, this questioning has come into the Lord’s churches. Many churches do not teach about the end times anymore. This is not an important topic in their repertoire of sermons. Many of the Lord’s people avoid The Revelation like the plague, they have never read any of the Books of Daniel, and most have not read Isaiah or Jeremiah.

Paul tells us as he told the folks in Thessalonica that we should not get discouraged at all. Jesus will come when He is ready, and none of us will be forgotten. Notice that Paul makes a distinction between the coming of the Lord and our gathering to Him. These are two separate events. The first event (see 1 Thessalonians 4: 16-18) is ‘for His church.’ The second event is coming ‘with His church.’ Paul tells us and the folks in Thessalonica not to be ‘shaken in mind,’ not to be suddenly jolted.

One commentator refers to a ship being agitated in a storm at sea. They were shaken because they thought that Jesus had already come, and many today are shaken because they fear that Jesus is not coming. They feared that they were in the Day of Christ; how bad could things have been in the first century? Man, what would they think if they lived in our day? If they thought evil was prevalent then, they would be scared and digging doomsday bunkers if they lived in our day!

• Here’s What to Look For, verses 3-4

Paul gives the people in Thessalonica some evidence to look for, and we would be wise to listen as well. The Day of Christ will not come unless there is a falling away. This is the first thing we will see. The word used here in Greek can mean a rebellion or a departure. Paul, it would seem, had both in mind. We will see a great rebellion against God, against truth, and against His churches. We see that rebellion growing at a rapid pace today. There is open defiance of God among our political leaders, and it seems that they only vote to do things that God expressly hates. They promote people who defy God’s righteousness, and they engage in evil acts and call them good. In agreement with this rebellion, we can also plan for a departure. We do not know how long the time of rebellion on the earth will last, but this rebellion along with the departure are events that must happen before the Day of Christ comes into full effect.

This rebellion that we see in the world is sadly also creeping into the churches; we see a rebellion against the absolute truths of God’s word. I saw a video the other day with a priest explaining why Jesus was not the only way as we are told in John 14:6. There is a large church in Mississauga, not far from where I live now. About 4,000 people attend this church, and some have left our church to go there because of the programs. Yet the Pastor does not believe in the blood atonement. He cannot fathom that God would require this type of violence to redeem us. This man does not understand how repulsive sin is to God.

We have many churches that preach salvation without repentance, they do not mention sin and that we are evil to the core, they do not talk about the depravity of man, and there is very little exegetical preaching. Thus, the attendees are described by Paul as only getting the ‘milk of the Word.’ They are not able to handle the meat.

We can both be sad and rejoice at the same time in these last days. We can rejoice as we see the rebellion of the masses around us; we can see their rebellion as a sign that the Day of Christ is fast approaching, and we can see even the rebellion in and among the Christian communities that further reinforce that the Day of Christ is soon approaching. I fear that things are going to get worse as the rebellious people in our governments gain more and more power and enact more and more evil laws.

Conservative churches that take the Bible literally and believe that God’s Word is as important and relevant today as it was 2,000 years ago are going to be in the crosshairs of the evil regimes around us. We who trust the Truth of Jesus will be the enemies of those that live by and promote lies.

The sad part is that even in local, conservative churches we have people who still have an improper view of Jesus. They do not see Him as offensive or combative, they do not see Him as confrontational, and they mistake His meekness for weakness. Jesus was very, very confrontational. He took on the Pharisees and Scribes to their faces and called them snakes, graves and hypocrites. He took on the religious leaders and called out how they twisted the scriptures and promoted man’s rules over God’s laws. If we are going to be effective in these the last days, we will need to be just as combative and confrontational but all based on the truth of the scriptures.

Then after the rebellion and the departure, the Man of Sin will be revealed. This man will, in the course of the Tribulation, call the world to worship him as god. In fact, he will present himself in Jerusalem in the Temple as god, thus defiling the Temple. This tells us that another event in the Day of Christ will be the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem.

We are 2,000 years closer to the Day of Christ than the people in Thessalonica. We, like they, are living in expectation if we trust the Bible. We are living, expecting the trumpet to sound and that we will be caught up in the air. While we are waiting, we should be working and encouraging many to call on Jesus for salvation. Don’t lose hope, don’t lose sight; Jesus is coming. These evil people we see around us will not get away with their rebellion; Jesus is coming to hold them accountable. But recall, judgment begins at God’s house first. We will be asked to give an account of our lives once we got saved (Romans 14:12). Are you and I ready for that Day?

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch
Online: https://www.mississaugamissionarybaptistchurch.com/ (under construction)
Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

 

Chapter 1: 1-10

“Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: ² Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

³ We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other, ⁴ so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure, ⁵ which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer; ⁶ since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, ⁷ and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, ⁸ in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁹ These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, ¹⁰ when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.”

I pray that you are all well. As much as we can see that COVID is being used by the powers that be to control us, take away our God-given freedoms and re-shape our society, that does not change the fact that COVID is a real virus. I have lost dear friends, and I have a dear Brother who is very sick with COVID right now in Indiana. Take time to pray for the many that are suffering, not just with COVID, but with the fallout from COVID. The lost businesses, the delayed medical treatments, and the many who have died alone with no one to hold their hands or say ‘I love you” or say ‘goodbye.’ We just had a dear friend, a neighbor whose mom fell, broke her hip, and somehow ended up in a coma. But because of COVID restrictions, that woman could not be visited by her loved one and died alone.

I fear that these emotional scars, even among the saved, will not go away quickly. Wow, Pastor Sean, all the gloom! Man, it is Christmas; put a little joy into us for the season.

Over the past few weeks at our church, we have been doing a series called The Manger, The Mountain, and the Millennium. Sadly, many churches do not teach on the Millennium very much; it is tedious work, and there is a lot of Old Testament scriptures that need to be read and studied. But if you are a student of prophecy, you will know that the next big thing after the Rapture is the Millennium. There is no Millennium without the Manger where Jesus was born and no Millennium without the Mountain of Calvary where Jesus died. All too often, the Christmas story stops when the Wise men show up, in the minds of many people. But no one thinks that play out, that they came looking for the King of the Jews, not the Saviour of the World (read Matthew 2:2).

To carry this thought all the way through, Jesus was executed for being the King of the Jews (read Matthew 27:37); the plaque displayed the charge against Him. While we in the New Testament era are excited about the Manger and the birth of our Saviour, and we are just as thankful for the Mountain and the sacrificial death of our Saviour, and we celebrate the resurrection of our Saviour, the true Christmas story ends with Jesus ascending the throne of David, as the rightful, legal King of the Jews and the Ruler of the whole world. Paul spent a lot of time talking about this, and we should spend time on it as well. The birth of Jesus was not just about saving a few billion people; it was about transforming the whole creation that was surrendered when Adam sinned.

• Trouble before triumph, verse 5

One of the hardest things to come to grips with is that we who trust in Jesus as Saviour, we who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, are going to have to face some hardships before we see Jesus. Our faith and our beliefs will be tested. Some will be tested in small ways and others in big and maybe painful ways.

If you have been following the news, you will know that a statue was revealed outside the UN building in New York that resembles the end-time beasts described in both Daniel 7 and Revelation 13. If you have followed my writing over the years, I and many others have shown that the EU parliament buildings are deliberately designed to look like the unfinished Tower of Babel. Our enemies no longer hide in the shadows; they reveal their hands and run most of the world’s governments.

These people know who God is, they know the Bible, and yet they deny God to His face. One day they will turn with full malice on us, the Lord’s children; we can’t kill God; maybe we can hurt Him by killing His children. Satan cannot deny God. Without God, there is no Satan. But he will not bow to God except at the end. While we see a growth of atheism among the young people of our world, the true leaders are anything but atheists; their god is either themselves or Lucifer, but they have a god they worship. In John 8:44, Satan is called ‘the father of all lies.’ Those of us that have the truth in us via the Holy Spirit see the lies all around us. We can see the lies that are being told over and over again to the masses. It is sad to see how many saved people have fallen for the lies.

Our governments may be piling on higher interest rates. I just saw that the Bank of Canada is seriously considering raising interest rates. So, they have bankrupted a lot of companies, and our government has borrowed billions of dollars to pay people to stay home. And now, rather than get the economy going, they are about to raise interest rates to help put the final nails in the coffins for a lot of people. This COVID pandemic, a man-made pandemic, has been used to perpetuate the largest transfer of wealth in the history of man.

There will be no good to come from what is happening, no good whatsoever. Governments never relinquish the power that they have taken. As long as they can keep a state of emergency for whatever reason, they will; they simply will. It is the only way to circumvent the electorate. One day, these governments will turn full force on us, the redeemed. We are the last bastions of the truth, and their leader, Satan, knows it. We must be eradicated for the whole thing to fall into place. As such, we can see that the infrastructure for the Mark of the Beast is being set up.

I have heard some things about the 5G set-up from one of the Samsung engineers here in Ontario setting up the 5G system. It is about tracking and the vaccines; however, I still need to do some more research. But we know for sure that the governments of the world will be able to know who takes the Mark of the Beast and who does not, then they will track down the ones who don’t and kill them.

Long before we get to the Tribulation, the heat will be turned up on saved people. In a world of lies, the truth-tellers are the enemy. We should be the enemy of lies. Sadly, a lot of modern churches have bowed to the ‘woke’ ideas, and they are denying the basic fundamental truths of the Bible. These are not true churches, and if you are saved, you need to get out and run from these churches; their pastors are wolves in sheep’s clothing, and they are a part of the enemy. Read the book of Revelation; the Anti-Christ does not eliminate religion; he seeks to be the god of the world.

• Trouble will be repaid, verses 6 and 7

God is a protective parent, and there are times when we must go through stuff for His glory and His plan, but God will deal with those that hurt His children. Babylon, Egypt and Assyria all had their day in court, so to speak, for hurting God’s people. The people we see on TV each day will have their day before God as well. The people who have schemed and plotted, those who have done evil in secret, will have their secrets revealed, and the Lord will repay them for their evil. They will not get away with it – maybe here, but not forever.

It is at times disheartening to see the crooks get promoted and become richer and richer right before our eyes. Not all the rich are crooks, but it seems that they never have to pay for crimes like the rest of us. But God is a righteous Judge, and He cannot be bought off or swayed by money or promises of power. No, their day will come, and all of their sins will be revealed; they will bow before Jesus and suffer for eternity.

You see, part of the Christmas story is not just about the Baby in a Manger; it is about the King of Kings making things right. But like every human king, our King of Kings begins as a baby, in a manger, in Bethlehem, born to a virgin, named Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins. We can have some solace that right and righteousness will prevail.

Paul and John promise us that one day Jesus will be revealed. Our faith will become sight. Our King, our Saviour, will return, and all the doubters will one day be believers, sadly, too late to change their eternity. One day we will live on earth in a world where righteousness is the prevailing law, and evil, though there, will not be the prevalent mindset. We know that evil will still be here in the hearts of men because Satan will be able to raise an army to attack Jesus at the end of the Millennium. This will be the final battle between man and God, between good and evil, between the dying and the living.

This is the hope that Jesus came to give us; this is the stuff that keeps us going when it seems that evil is prospering and the saved are the hunted. This is what keeps us going when the lies are shouted and believed and the truth is thwarted and has to be whispered.

The true Christmas story is not just about salvation; it is about victory. Good will triumph over evil; light will trump darkness; love will conquer hatred, and those of us on God’s side win. We win, now and forever. We win. Hold on; Jesus the King, not the Baby, is coming. Stay strong, hold on to the faith, and cherish the truth; Jesus is coming again.

Merry Christmas to you all. May the Lord bless you and keep you, may you feel His grace shine on you, and may you be blessed and be a blessing.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch
Online: https://www.mississaugamissionarybaptistchurch.com/ (under construction)
Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca