Turning Up the Heat

Dear Brethren,

The Feast of Pentecost is about three weeks away – mark your calendar.  God instructs us to count Pentecost.  Pentecost always falls on a Sunday – the day after a weekly Sabbath.   "Ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days."  (Leviticus 23:15-16)  Pentecost means count fifty.  This year Pentecost falls on Sunday, June 12.

Turning Up the Heat

Brethren, a lot of people make new year resolutions and predictions of the future.  The world is not going to end at 6 p.m., May 21, 2011, as is being widely reported.  "False Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect."  (Mark 13:22  Jesus Christ tells us simply to learn to discern the signs of the times.  "Learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near:   So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors."  (Mark 13:28-29)

The economy is bad and some are predicting that it could get worse.  The dollar is shrinking, fortunes are being lost, and retirement funds are being greatly diminished, if not entirely wiped out. Just how long have we been saying, “The economic bubble is going to pop?”  Just how bad are things going to get before Christ returns?  God is turning up the heat

For a while, the government will try to maintain its size and control with ever increasing taxes and spending – but those measures will only speed up the downward spiral.  The only light at the end of the tunnel will be the return of Jesus Christ.  It is Jesus who prophesied just how bad things would become before His return.  We should be praying, “Thy Kingdom come.”

“In the last days scoffers will be walking after their own lusts, saying...[This is what many in the Church of God are saying]: “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”  (2Peter 3:3-4)  Let's be wise and understand that all things definitely are not continuing as they have from the beginning of creation – but are about to reach a resounding crescendo that will soon usher in the return of Jesus Christ.  God is turning up the heat.

When God was delivering Israel from Egyptian bondage and slavery, He dealt with Pharaoh in a special way.  God turned up the heat more and more as Pharaoh declined to allow Israel to depart from.   The plagues were acts of God's judgment (Exodus 6:6).  God said, "I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply [ ‘ra-bah’ – increase exceedingly in magnitude as time goes on] my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt."  (Exodus 7:3)  God was turning up the heat.

In the same way that Pharaoh refused to listen – God hardened Pharaoh's heart – that is the way it is in the end-time.  Because America and all of Israel have rejected Him, God is going to turn up the heat.  Isaiah 10 shows that God will use a modern Assyrian king or emperor as a tool of His indignation on the USA and Israelitish nations (vs. 5).  But this modern Beast power will also deal with another situation as well.

It is described this way:  "At the time of the end [of this age today] shall the king of the south [possibly a radical Islamic jihadist movement] push at him [the final end-time "Beast" ruler of Europe – the one who gives his power to ten kings or sovereigns]: and the king of the north shall come against him [king of the south] like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he [king of the north] shall enter into the countries [Islamic], and shall overflow and pass over."  (Daniel 11:40, Revelation 17:12-17)

What kind of “push” is the world of radical Islam already bringing to bear on Europe, specifically, and on much of the rest of the world, as well?  The answer in short is their migrating multitudes, their shariah law, their religion and their culture, which in the long run has no use for others not of their faith.  We are witnessing immigration and culture shock of epic proportions descending uncontrollably on the lands formerly occupied by the Holy Roman Empire.  This Muslim demographic encroachment is a "push" – a population pressure bubble that is going to pop as assuredly as the housing bubble popped!

Historically, it has been demonstrated that the Germanic race of people consider themselves to be a notch above the rest of men, with an ingrained desire to spread out into the lebensraum ("living space") of other nations.  This developing conflict between Muslim immigration and German ingrained territorial aggression are like two colliding tectonic plates.  It will result in the clash of two titans, and the result will be Islam vanquished, and Jerusalem surrounded by those in control of Europe.

***

Sermon:  "Turning Up the Heat"    


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