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Subject 13 : The Gospel According to MATTHEW
[Chapter 24-6] Recognize the Coming of The Tribulation and Defend Your Faith (Matthew 24:29-31)
(Matthew 24:29-31)
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
In today’s Scripture passage we read these words, “after the tribulation of those days,” it tells us in this verse that there really will be great tribulation on the earth. There will be natural calamities such as: terrible pestilences, wars and earthquakes, as well as calamities caused by humans. These are things Scripture mentions as the tribulation. It clearly says the sun will be darkened immediately after the entire tribulation has passed. We should be giving this much consideration instead of simply thinking that; “These are things that will happen in the end time.” We just cannot afford to glance it over if we were to apply this passage to our own lives.
The sun will be darkened immediately after the tribulation. How frightening it will be if the sun is darkened! Have you ever imagined the sun becoming dark? How terrifying would it be if the sun was darkened and the world gets filled with darkness during the daytime when the sun should be shining brightly! But that’s exactly how it’s going to be after the tribulation. It is written, “The moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” It tells us at that time, the moon, the stars and the powers of the heaven will be shaken, then they will all fall from heaven and will no longer give there light, the sun will also be darkened. The world will then no doubt become a very dark place indeed. No matter how many electric generators humans may have, there will not be sufficient to light up the world. As the result the entire human civilization would have been ruined, and the entire world would have become pitch dark just like the sun, the moon, and the stars.
Honestly speaking, I get terrified and scared when I think about this world after the tribulation. Can you imagine the stars of heaven falling like celestial missiles? Have you seen the movie “Deep Impact”? There will be even greater catastrophe if the stars would fall from the sky. The world will be shaking, how scary is that? Will this really happen, or not? It will really happen. This is something that will really happen on the earth after the tribulation.
Then when will this tribulation begin? Scripture tells us that the beginning of the tribulation is when famines, earthquakes and wars become prevalent and when nations rise against nations. What will it be like when the tribulation begins? At the beginning of the tribulation Satan will be very active and will deceive many people. He will be at war against the true believers, therefore Scriptures record that God will send down from heaven the calamities of the seven trumpets and the seven bowls filled with the last seven plagues. It says that God will send down these calamities. One-third of the trees will be burned up. Something like a great mountain burning with fire will be thrown into the sea, and then a third of the sea will become blood, a third of the ships will be destroyed, and a third of all living creatures in the sea will die (Revelation 8:7-8). And great hail from heaven will fall upon people, each hailstone about the weight of a ‘talent’ (Revelation 16:21). These disasters are just a part of the seven calamities to come. It says that Satan will be against the people even as these things are happening.
The sun will immediately be darkened after the passing of all these calamities. It means that the sun will suddenly become pitch dark. It would be less frightening if the sun gradually became dark. But how frightening would it be to face such sudden darkness! How frightening is it when the electricity of your house is cut off without prior notice? When the lights go out at night we are unable to do anything and become rather frightened. How frightening would it be if these calamities really happen after the tribulation? That ‘the sun will be darkened’, ‘the stars will fall’, ‘and the powers of the heaven will be shaken’ means that the whole God-created universe will be shaken, and it will be in absolute chaos as the heavenly bodies break away from their established orbits, crashing into each other and falling away.
During this time the ‘sign of the Son of Man’ will appear in Heaven (Matthew 24:30). Would it not it be extremely frightening if the stars of the heaven should crash into each other with violent sounds never experienced before even with the electrical lights on? But unfortunately there will not be sufficient electrical power, how frightening would that be? The passage reads, “then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven,” this means that the Lord will appear at that time. It is written, “And then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” People of all the different tribes in this world will be so very frightened that they will be mourning when they see the Lord coming as the Lord of Judgment with great power and glory. The Scriptures says that they will cry out and mourn when they see the sign of the Lord’s coming.
Matthew 24:31 states that; when the Lord comes, He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. It says that the Lord will come on a cloud with great power and glory, and He will send out the angels with the sound of a trumpet to gather together His elect from every corner of this earth. This is what the word ‘rapture’ really means at the time of the Lord’s coming. It is the event of the Lord lifting up the believers from this earth.
That is why I regard the truly born-again believers as very precious people. I also think and believe that ‘the believers’ work of sharing the gospel for the salvation of souls is precious as well. We should be proud of the work we do in the Lord and treat one another as ‘very special individuals in Christ’ because these things will surely take place on this earth, and the Lord will surely come with great power and glory. Our Lord will definitely come in this manner, and we are the precious people of God who will be living with the Lord eternally after being caught away.
Therefore whilst living on this earth, we should really care for one other. And we should live out our faith by believing that we will live with the Lord in the Millennial Kingdom and the Eternal Kingdom of Heaven after the rapture. My earnest desire for all of us who have received the remission of sin is to really care for one another, to uphold one another in the Lord, and to live with the understanding that each one of us is a precious child of God.
At times I have these thoughts running through my head. The Lord will come at a time when this entire universe, the sky, the wonderful Milky Way, as well as this earth are completely destroyed and demolished. What then will the Lord actually do with this ‘destroyed’ world? Will the Lord start a new development project to rebuild the earth for us to live in for a thousand years? Certainly not, that is not the way it is going to happen. The Lord says the following words often in the Book of Revelation, “I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5). When He says these words, He does not mean that He will reconstruct the world by relying totally on human resources and technology by mobilizing human power.
We may think, “We will never be able to reconstruct this world should the universe be utterly destroyed,” but I believe the Lord who has created everything in this universe can again create another world. Also the Lord is very able and will recreate this universe anew if it does get destroyed. The Lord will again make both this universe and this world anew. I also think that the Lord can create another world on an undisturbed planet and have us live there. In any case, I believe it is the power of the Lord that He will allow us to rule over the world with the Lord as kings for a thousand years, and then live happily for all eternity in the Kingdom of Heaven.
When we look at ourselves, including the work we are doing, I am convinced we are doing this precious work. We will be ‘lifted up’ when the signs of the Lord’s coming appear after the tribulation. The Lord said that He would first resurrect the believers who are asleep in the grave, and then send the angels to gather the born-again believers from every corner of the entire world. All the born-again believers, ‘dead or alive’ will be transformed and lifted up to the sky at the time of the Lord’s coming in the sky, and that our bodies will be transformed into spiritual bodies which will neither deteriorate nor become old.
The Word in Revelation clearly says that God will choose 144,000 from the Israelites, 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes, and save them by putting a seal on their foreheads. The Book of Revelation then says that countless number of people clothed with white robes will stand before the Lord giving Him praise. John the Apostle, who recorded the Book of Revelation, asked the Lord who these people clothed with white robes were, the Lord replied saying that these were the ones that had come out from the great tribulation. This means in the end times the Lord will save many, many people.
During this time, those who have received the salvation by believing in the salvation of the Lord who had wiped away all of their sins, will resist and disobey the rule of the Antichrist and be martyred. It means that, during the time of tribulation, many people will believe in the Lord as their Savior and His salvation through the ‘water and the blood’ with their life on the line. Then the Lord will transform those who are still living who had received the salvation from the Lord. The Scriptures declare that the Lord will lift them up, protect them, transform their bodies into heavenly bodies that will never deteriorate, and make them glorious and happy forever. I believe it.
During this end time, many people will come to believe in this gospel of which we are now preaching. During the tribulation, those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit will defend their faith with their lives, and many will become martyrs for their faith. I believe that there will be a very large number of people receiving the ‘authentic’ salvation in the end time. That is why each one of us is so very precious. Each one of us who has now received the ‘authentic’ salvation and serving the Lord in this born-again Church is precious. That is why we care for one another, uphold one another, bring our strengths together to serve the Lord, and live together as a single family before God.
In fact all the people in this world who have received the remission of sins ‘in God’ are one family. It is a blessing to be living as one family and to be upholding and caring for one another with love until the day of the Lord’s coming. I believe that we have to really love one other before we meet the Lord. That is why we need to look within the Church to see if there are any souls that need caring, souls that need to receive the remission of sin, souls that are going through difficult trials because we have not cared for them properly. We need to visit and care for each other and to encourage and support one another’s faith.
The Word of God as recorded in this Bible will certainly come to pass. Tragically people do not believe this because they are so ignorant. The Word of God will really come true. I have witnessed it so many times, and I am experiencing it at this time too. In my heart, sometimes I curse those who challenge this precious gospel, by saying; “You are mounting up God’s curse over your heads. You will surely be cursed. Be cursed. Be crushed by God and come back to the Lord as lowly beggars with nothing.” There were many instances when this actually did happen the way I was thinking. I saw what happened to them and realized that God’s curse will be upon me too if I challenge God.
All people who have not been born-again will eventually face this reality. When people who ‘are not the born-again’ go against God’s Church, and should the born-again people ‘curse them in their hearts’, the curse will certainly fall upon these very people who have gone against God’s Church. God made Abraham the source of blessing. And He said, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). People should ‘recognize’ the truly born-again people and be kind to them if they desire to be blessed. People receive the greatest blessing of their lives, by receiving the remission of sins, when the born-again people share this gospel with them. If the righteous really wants to send them to hell, all that they have to do is to just leave them alone and not share the gospel with them.
There is nothing else that they have to do for it. It really happens like that. No matter how smart and powerful one might be, if someone who has not been born again, should be ‘cursed’ by the righteous, saying; “You shall be cursed!” What we need to remember is that the born-again cannot do such a thing like this groundlessly, but should someone become an enemy of the righteous people and hurt their heart very harshly, then the born-again could very well pass on such a curse. There is evidence of this happening where some have actually died as the result of having been cursed.
A few years ago one of our sisters was harassed and persecuted and was forbidden to attend God’s Church by her grandfather. So this sister prayed in her heart. “God, please take my grandfather away as he will not accept the true gospel and continues persecute me to the end,” and it actually came true. A long time ago, there was a brother who went to serve in the military, and there was one senior soldier who often harassed him. He had such a hard time, and he once asked me, “Pastor should I report this matter and they will send him to jail? He is constantly beating me up and harassing me, and I could send him to jail if I file a complaint.” I told him, “You don’t have to do that. If he’s really bothering you, then just pray to God. God will then use other means to send him to jail.” After a while, I received a phone call from him. He said, “Pastor, that guy actually went to jail.” I said to him, “Why are you so happy about him going to jail?” He replied, “Well, it’s nothing to be overjoyed about. But he went to jail anyway.” God is really on the side of the righteous. God will actually do such things if the wicked keeps harassing the righteous people of God and continue to hurt their feelings.
Really speaking, the righteous keep on giving away good things to everyone in this world. They give much to people around the world. What about the people who are not the born-again or those who are simply evil? These people borrow and take from the righteous, but never pay it back. Instead they fight and quarrel with the born-again. That is why I live boldly as I serve the Lord even though I am so insufficient. I can do this because I believe that the Lord is taking care of me despite all my insufficiencies. When someone goes against us and does terrible things to us, all we have to do is to pray to God and curse them, “You shall be cursed. You will go to hell anyway, and you shall lose everything in this world. When I observe the way you are living, that is exactly what will happen.” Then we will witness the Lord taking everything away from them, sometimes even their very life, and the truth is that I did not have to do anything but only pray. Because we are witnesses to such things, we can now live boldly relying on God. We can be courageous and boldly share the gospel by relying on God who hears our prayers.
We are the righteous and the precious people of God, and ‘the people’ who believe in this gospel and share it with others; we are indeed very blessed people. Firstly after having received the remission of sin the blessing might not seem much, but the fact is that this is truly an amazing blessing of God. How many people have heard this Word of the Truth, this gospel of salvation, which tells us that God has wiped away all of our sins? Among all the wonderful and joyful news that you have ever heard in your life, what could be better than this? There is no news more wonderful than this, the news that Jesus had come to this world and had taken upon Himself all our sins by being baptized and that He has saved us by taking those sins, being nailed to the Cross, shedding His precious blood, and receiving the full punishment for our sins which was meant for us. In this world I have not heard any news that is more beautiful than this.
We once were people destined to go to hell due to our many sins. But the Lord came to this world, saved you and me through the water and the blood, and made us the righteous people of God by blotting out all our sins. How precious are we? The Bible says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). So how great it is to those who sincerely believe in Jesus! He received baptism, shed His blood, wiped away our sins and has now become our Savior by receiving the judgment on our behalf. As the result of this we have been given the authority to be called the children of God. These are the ones who have accepted Jesus and His salvation.
What a great blessing it is to be a child of God! When those who ‘are not the children of God’ become abusive and challenge the true children of God, will have to be extremely careful, as they will inevitably face utter destruction. They will experience hell on this earth before they actually go to hell. When a righteous person has been done wrong by a non-believer who flaunts his wealth and power, causing misery to the righteous, and whose heart has been pained, should then curse that person, “You shall be cursed. You shall be penniless, and be a beggar all you life.” And that will be the end for that sinner who is cursed. A righteous person may say these things without much thought, but God the Father listens to the wishes of His child and fulfills them. Therefore, those who have been cursed by the righteous will face destruction.
That shows how blessed we are as children of God. What a great blessing it is to be a child of God! But just being a child of God is not everything. Becoming a child of God without having the authority as a child of God amounts to nothing, but we do have the authority as a child of God. Doesn’t a child enjoy the authority of their father in his place? Doesn’t the child inherit this authority? Like this example we are the same. Do not underestimate the salvation you have received. You must realize what great authority you have come to receive through salvation. That is why we never submit to this world. We seek and pray to God with wishes in our hearts, serving and following the gospel by faith. And the Lord will lead us on a virtuous path as we live by such faith.
The world is now becoming more and more unified. A representative of the IMF (International Monetary Fund) announced recently that they would increase the value of US dollar. The US stock market became uneasy and soon after the stock market crashed. One person’s announcement created havoc, and the stock market crashed. Of course this immediately led to an even greater price drop of Korean stocks, validating the saying, “When the United States coughs, Japan catches a serious case of flu, and South Korea catches pneumonia.” In these times the world has become interconnected as one. Korea would almost automatically be ruined if the US stock market should crash. Circumstantial changes in superpower nations will have repercussions throughout the entire world even though there may not be any serious changes within the less powerful nations. The world now is like a single organism that has a mutually connected relationship, moving as cogs in the wheels that are in synchronized gear with one another.
Many peculiar weather patterns and phenomena are occurring around the world these days. When there is a drastic change in the weather, we should not be careless and just say, “Well there was a change in the weather condition. That kind of change is nothing.” But you no doubt know very well that a disastrous weather phenomenon in one country could have great economical impact on your country and bringing along severe consequences as well. We are now living in very precarious times. This is the period just before the tribulation. We should know that the earth does not flow along peacefully all the time. It is now flowing along with a ‘hint of chaotic danger’. Natural calamities will not only happen on earth, but will also happen outside the earth’s atmosphere, resulting in satellites and other electronic equipment in space will become useless. This world ‘will suddenly’ be faced with the tribulation.
Wars will also erupt all over as if unintentionally. People will be against each other, and nations will rise up against each other. A missile of say mass destruction could be fired upon another country unintentionally, and that country hit by the missile will not just sit idly by. It will respond in the same way, and a war will erupt in that manner. The United States these days are developing space stations outside of the earth’s atmosphere equipped with laser beams which can shoot down missiles inside the flying zone of a country that fired the missile. Although the United States is actually doing this, the problem is that the whole world is not moving along according to the US plans. That is why the entire world these days have become very anxious about China. China has a huge population, and there is hardly any effective measure against the ‘human numbers strategy,’ which professes, ‘try and wipe us out if you are able to.’ China will become a country that will wield great power in the end time. Already we are experiencing China’s influence in the world community is beginning to increase substantially. No one knows what the world will be like in the future.
And the world today is integrated through a new technology field called the Internet. Through the Internet people are able to connect with an infinite storage of information, and are able to go anywhere in the world. The entire world could communicate with each other at anytime and pay a visit to the United States at any moment using the Internet. This is really amazing because you do not need much money to share this infinite amount of information and knowledge.
Korean people in the United States are able to communicate face to face with their families here in Korea by simply using the computer screen and a camera. Not only that a book hundreds of pages long could be sent within a few seconds using a compressed file format. The Chinese translator of our books in China sent a Chinese version of our first book through the e-mail in a compressed file format. How wonderful is it that we could just decompress the file, print it out, and look at it? How costly would it be and how long would it take if we were to do so using a postal service? But they just compress the file in China and click the “send” button, and we receive it after a few seconds right here in Korea, sitting in front of our computer. We live in that kind of age in which the world is changing at an amazing speed.
The world has truly changed so much. Even this will become old-fashioned soon. This is an age when 100,000 well-trained Internet hackers are more useful than one million soldiers. Hackers go into other people’s computer files and programs, destroy their system, and steal information. It is like a spy or a guerilla working in cyber space. There are not many things that we can’t be done with a computer these days. That is how some unscrupulous people use the computer to hack into bank computers, get secret passwords for other people’s accounts, and transfer money into their own accounts. They just sit in front of a computer and simply transfer other people’s funds into their own accounts.
As credit cards are being used more than cash these days, you should use credit cards very carefully. You must be ever so careful about using credit cards just anywhere and of course lending them out to others. Some time ago I went to a small business product exhibition in my town called Chuncheon City. I wanted to purchase a specific product, and the vendor insisted on me paying for it with my credit card. I wanted to purchase it with cash, but the vendor wanted me to use a credit card. He said that he would give me a discount if I were to use a credit card, and this is the way things are these days. But I do not trust these people. How do I know they will not make a copy of my credit card and use it illegally? I can’t help it even if you do think that I am being a little too cynical. I do have much doubt about many things. I think, “No, I had better not give you the credit card. Why won’t you take my cash? Normally it would better for the merchant to sell for cash. Cash is always better than a credit card. Why do you want my credit card? You are probably gaining something from the credit company, and there must be a reason why you would want credit card instead of cash.” This is the way things are going in our times.
I wish for you to understand that we are at the doorstep of the great tribulation. I want to share the gospel with the entire world and the people around us because we do not know precisely when the tribulation will actually begin. We will still be able to share the gospel even when natural disasters, wars and earthquakes start becoming prevalent, but we will not be able to share the gospel as actively as we do now. How could we share the gospel freely during the tribulation? How will we work vigorously through the Internet, gather together to have worship services or to listen to God’s Word, share fellowship, publish books, and share bread together? How will we be able to do all these things? We will not be able to do so at that time. That is why we are sharing the gospel now. We are sharing the gospel with all our hearts even though we lack much. Although I am unable to save the world from the tribulation with supernatural powers in a flick of a finger like Superman, but I can share the gospel to save many people from their sins, and that is much more precious.
We are working hard to share the gospel as rapidly as possible. That is why we are publishing books and distributing them through the Internet. We do not have much ability to do anything else, so we go on publishing many books and distributing them to people so that they may read them and believe in Jesus. To tell you the truth our books are like ‘spiritual nuclear bombs’. At first people do not take it very seriously, but as they continue reading our books, they will begin to see, “Jesus wiped away all my sin in this manner” and come to believe and receive the remission of sins. It could be that some readers of our books may not believe it right away, but when the tribulation falls upon this world, they may come to realize the Truth saying, “There is no hope except for the receiving of salvation from God,” and believe in God’s Word. At the time of the tribulation, many people’s hearts will be well prepared for the harvest. People who have no hope cannot help but wait for God’s salvation. In this hopeless age, there is no other hope except the faith in God’s salvation. This is the greatest hope, the ultimate hope, and the most definite hope. There is nothing that can be compared with this hope.
How many people do you think will receive the remission of sin? God said, “Gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other,” and these chosen people are, like us who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. He will lift up all these believers in the world and crush and trample on all those who are left in this world, those who do not believe in this true gospel. God will crush and trample these non-believers, kill them, and bring them back to life again only to cast them into the eternal fire. The final end for them is hell.
Those who challenge God the Creator will face the wrath of God exactly as God has said in the Scriptures. God will show His wrath on those who do not believe in Him. When one person goes against another person, the worst thing that can happen is one being put to death. But when one challenges the Lord God the Creator, that person will be thrown into the eternal fire. That is God’s fair judgment. It is all right to challenge one another and play games and all that between human beings, but a person will end up in the eternal fire if that person does not believe in Jesus Christ, who created this entire universe, rebelling against and challenging Him. God will show what a great sin it is to rebel against, and challenge Him. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 says “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.” People are not excluded from the judgment just because they do not believe in God owing to their ignorance. Do you think that will appease God?
Let’s read 2 Thessalonians 1:6-8 together in one voice: “since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 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.”
This Scripture passage says that there will be an eternal punishment of destruction for those who do not know God. Those who do not know God are somewhat like the beasts that perish (Psalm 49:20). You were very able to see that there is God and that He is the Omnipotent God, the Creator of the universe, just by looking at God’s great creation (Romans 1:20), and people will not be able to escape the judgment by saying that they did not believe because they did not know God. People will receive the judgment according to their disbelief. A student who does not know the answers to the test questions for having not studied the test material will receive a failing grade. In the same manner, God will completely dispose a person as a non-believer if that person does not know God who came by ‘the water and the blood’. It means that God will send the non-believers to hell, cast them into the fire and fan the flames (Mark 9:49). There will be many, many people like that in the end time.
The very work that Jesus accomplished here on earth is this gospel. The gospel means the good news. The gospel has the power to rid one of sin in one stroke. The word “power” is translated in Greek as “dunamis” and in English we get the word “dynamite” coming from this. Our Lord has taken upon Himself all of our sins through the baptism and saved us by receiving the judgment on the Cross-on our behalf. What blessed news this is, and how very powerful, like dynamite! Were not the sins that were in our hearts removed since we heard the gospel and believed in it? “Jesus has taken my sins away through His baptism and received the full judgment for those sins. All the worlds’ sins had been transferred onto Jesus. Therefore as a result of this righteous Act, we no longer have sin.
The power of the gospel for sure, is like the explosive power of dynamite. We had many sins in our hearts, but these were removed in one single stroke through this awesome gospel. The gospel has this kind of power. The gospel of the water and the Spirit has this power being the true orthodox gospel. By being born again His way, we go to heaven and become the precious children of God, gaining this authority as ‘the children of God’ by being obedient and believing in this gospel. And by having this Heavenly authority as the rightful children of God we will rule over this world.
Therefore being born again by believing in this very gospel of the water and the Spirit God gave us is truly a great blessing. Although it may not seem so according to the worldly standards, there is none who has received greater blessing than you and I as we consider God’s Word as the ultimate Truth. There is no one in this world who has received greater blessing than you and I even if we do suffer through many challenges and difficulties in life and are unable to do many things people of the world enjoy doing. We are nevertheless truly blessed. There is no one who has received greater blessing than us even if we were to die at this moment. We have received this amazing grace. That is why we are always full of contentment in our hearts. Although we may seem unfashionable and to be a small group, we nevertheless have received such a great authority and blessings from God. We are people exactly like this.
That is why the people who have received the remission of sin should not compare themselves with one another as the world does. They should not hate each other, but love one another and help one another whenever they can. We should help one another by faith, share fellowship together, and live as one body of Christ until the day of the Lord’s coming. Not even one among us should fall in our journey of faith. Even the Apostle Paul also said “Therefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:18). I also say to you to comfort one another. We should realize that we have been most blessed. We should care for one another and serve the gospel, realizing that we don’t have much time.
If we share the gospel until the time when we are unable to do so anymore, the tribulation will then become apparent. And when the tribulation period is about to end, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give off its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the sky will be shaken. Then the Lord will come. The signs of the Lord’s coming will appear in the sky. The Lord will suddenly appear in the midst of clouds with the trumpet sound of the archangel as He descends with His angels in the sky. No glorious scene on this earth will ever compare with the sight we will see on that day. A grand entrance of the Roman emperor will not compare with its magnificence, and the respect bestowed upon a visiting chief of state from another country by honor guards will not compare with such majesty. We will see the Holy, majestic, and powerful King of kings appear before His creation as God the Creator, but very different from the modest appearance of the Lord in His first coming.
We will witness this incredible sight at the time of the Lord’s second coming. The Lord will come soon and therefore we should now live in this world by faith, caring for one another, and in the end we will be lifted up to be with the Lord when He returns. Soon after this event of the ‘rapture of the saints’ this world will be destroyed.
The Book of Revelation states that the Lord will crush and trample those who reject the Lord’s love and all those who challenge this gospel because He will be filled with wrath, as it is written, “And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses’ bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs” (Revelation 14:20). This verse tells us that the Lord will crush and trample all the non-believers and it has a further meaning that being; the Lord’s wrath has reached its full measure.
The Creator is so very angry at His creatures that He is going to crush and trample on them. This is exactly what will take place during the tribulation. Not only will Satan harass the people, but also along with this, God will pour the tribulation upon them. During this tribulation period, God will pour down His wrath upon Satan and all those who do not believe in Him. However I do believe that God will shorten the days of the tribulation and will pour at this same time His blessings upon us because there will be many of us righteous people in the midst of that tribulation. We must also pray and trust God to pour upon us such grace. Then I also believe that God will pour His grace upon us even in the midst of such terrible circumstances.
Dear fellow believers live your lives quietly by faith, for you do not know how this world will change in the future, am I right? Because this world is changing rapidly, do not think it`s changing in every direction. This is definitely not the case at all. All things of the future will be fulfilled exactly in accordance with the Word of God.
In the very near future, the various peoples and tribes of this world will jointly establish a certain important organization. Do you know what type of organization this will be? This organization will possess great power to unify this world as one. The organization will insist that it is for the citizens of this world’s own welfare. Currently we are witnessing a worldwide campaign being waged, and this is called the human rights protection campaign.
The ‘human rights protection campaign’ proclaims as its main thrust that everything we do is ‘for the people’ and that we must protect human rights. And its most important priority is always placed upon the people and for the people. This sounds very appealing indeed. But in essence whoever only thinks about the people is in truth rising up against God. If this movement for humanity becomes organized and gains worldwide recognition and respect, there will eventually be another organization led by a ‘certain individual’ which will amalgamate with this organization, this individual will soon challenge God with his false power. And as the result of this newly amalgamated organization it will now grow to a huge behemoth, and any other institution or organization that does not follow its principles and wishes will be simply destroyed and pushed aside.
We are now seeing this ‘type of movement’ already taking shape around the world. Such movements have in the past manifested itself on religious unification movements around the world. The religions of the world namely, Buddhism, Catholicism, Judaism, and Christianity are making great efforts for unification at this time.
There is a Buddhist temple nearby Deacon Lee’s house, and during the last Christmas season, the temple had a “Happy Birthday Jesus” placard hanging in its front. We saw this placard whilst we were driving and were passing by this Buddhism temple; we were all taken aback and very surprised. Not only that, a certain church in the beginning of last April, actually had a placard hanging in front of its building that advertised “Celebrate the Coming of Buddha.” How could this be happening? Maybe it appears good to see different religions sharing good relationships with one another. But on the contrary we should realize this is a frightening cunning scheme of Satan. What do humans do when they get together? They go against their own Creator God.
In Psalm 2:4, we read “He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision.” God sits and laughs at people who join together like this and challenge God in the name of serving humanity. Serving humanity seems so altruistic, but it is actually a very frightening way of thinking. Who would oppose the idea of establishing an organization that will serve human needs? Everyone will be happy with it and naturally join the organization. Who will oppose it when they say ‘anything that does not benefit humankind is an enemy of the humankind?’ The organization is just fine if it really serves human needs and respects God. But if the world becomes unified and is led by ‘an organization’ that only serves the human purpose, such an organization will wield amazing authority and will eventually challenge God.
People will be convinced and say that it is solely for humankind, but they are actually rising up against God. Even though we must believe in God, if we were only to serve human needs, people will then say, “It does not matter if people believe in Buddhism, Muslim, or Confucianism. We should leave them alone. They should do as they please. Why do you people insist that all of us need to believe in a particular religion as a must? Why should we believe in one God? That is persecution of human rights, not protection of them. It is being against the protection of the human rights,” and as the result of this they will persecute and go against those who believe solely in God.
Human rights movement will prevail strongly throughout the world in the end times. These types of movements are very frightening. The thought of it makes my hair stand up in fear. As I witness a trend such as this, I think to myself “Wow, this is an amazingly huge movement that is only possible in this day and age.” If this were so, were there not any human rights campaigns back in the previous century? Oh Yes, there was human rights campaigns like this before as well. But fortunately they were established and contained within individual countries. But now this campaign is a worldwide one. Did you know that the environmental protection campaign has now unfolded and been accepted worldwide? Human rights protection movements are now all around the world. In some ways it may seem like a good thing, but actually it is a very harmful organization. If all the people of the world were to unite their power and make a world that serves only human purposes, then it will become a terribly powerful tool for Satan to be used against God. When that eventually happens, God will crush and trample this world, killing everyone with hail from the sky or wiping them all away with water and fire.
Because these signs are now becoming more apparent in our times, I am telling you this in advance that we are all heading towards the end time when humans will be waging a war against God. We will not be able stop this trend of the world anyway. Therefore we should not waste our efforts trying to stop the world from rising up against God. We just need to do what in expected from us. Do you think these things will come about? Maybe there are those who think these things will only happen depending on the amount of commotion we create?
We just need to be faithful to the Great Commission of the Lord to spread this awesome gospel throughout the world. We will be able to share this gospel with about half of the world by the end of this year if we are faithful to this task. According to my evaluation for the year, I have the full confidence that this can be achieved. Those who quietly do their best in doing their entrusted work do not create all kinds of commotion. Such people just get on with their work quietly, and it may not seem like much. But in the end we were able to see that an incredible amount of work has been achieved. It is all because they have worked at a reasonable and consistent pace resulting in substantial results.
We believe that everything will be accomplished on this earth exactly as it is recorded in God’s Word. And I believe whole-heartedly that the last of the days are not that far away. Therefore we must discipline ourselves even more and devote our remaining days to the preaching of the gospel, because the Scriptures declares: The Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
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