June 2018 – Nonprofit Readers Blog

You think President Trump is resetting the world order? It’s small potatoes compared to the global upheaval that is coming, and is near. Truth be told, you’ve seen nothing yet . . .

The final sweep of the gospel to the ends of the earth will trigger a backlash of great tribulation targeting those who love Jesus Christ as their ONLY comfort in life and in death.

Yes, indeed, a thrilling plenitude of Gentiles and Jews is coming to the Savior right now (inspired even more by the recent recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel)! Still, taken altogether, the chosen ones left on earth will amount to but a tiny remnant among the reprobate, in the midst of an entire world that hates both Christians and Jews with the venom of the serpent.

So, the end times will involve not only natural disasters but also enormous political, indeed global, destruction: “wars and rumors of wars.” We are told that “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (Mark 13:7).

As Nero blamed the Christians for the great fire and the resulting economic distress in Rome, Christians will also be blamed for the instability and deconstruction of “the global village.”

This past year, persecution against Christians has risen to enormous proportions–currently 144 countries listed among the culprits. In Europe, antisemitism is again on the rise to alarming proportions–from the left as well as the right.

The abuse and brutality leveled against God’s people in every sphere of life will become more awful and intense than anyone could have ever thought or imagined. Christians will be dragged before officials who arrogantly ignore even the slightest decorum of due process.

Believers will be “betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends,” whether biological or ecclesiastical.

For, to be sure, not all who go by the name Christian will be so grossly mistreated. In fact, most “Christians” are fast becoming indistinguishable from the world, and willing partners to great evil.

But those who remain true to God’s Word will not give an inch. They march to the beat of our precious Master’s drum, and refuse to bend the knee before the idols of our times and the depraved values of our culture.

Does it then come as any surprise that many will be executed “because of me,” as Jesus says (Luke 21:16-17)?

All of this describes “the beginning of birth pains” (Mark 13:8; see Romans 8:22).

While some dimensions of Mark 13, Matthew 24, and Luke 21 were fulfilled in A.D. 70 at the destruction of Jerusalem, the major thrust points us to the great distress of the end times against the faithful pilgrims, attacked from all sides, nonetheless heading for the Heavenly Jerusalem.

In fact, a time is coming, and is near, when horrendous events and heinous persecution will be so horrible, says Jesus, that “if the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive” (Mark 13:20).

But Jesus also says that for you who cling to him, no matter how terrible the times, “not a hair of your head will perish.”

Endtimes Blog #14

H. David Schuringa, Ph.D.

Also see The Articles of the Antithesis