AWAIT! AWAIT! THE COMING OF THE LORD

“Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.” I Chron.29:11

     Human comprehension cannot anticipate with any true sense the rapturous joy to be received when the LORD Jesus Christ invites the saints into their heavenly home, “New Jerusalem.” “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.” Isa.64:4. The spirit that rules this world will be seen for what it is—evil, and only evil. But the manner of the heavenly life will be “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance.” Gal.5:22,23. It is this social fabric that permeates throughout the heavens. But against this tranquility sin relentlessly wages war.

     When Jesus left the courts of heaven and came to this dark foreboding world He brought heaven’s atmosphere with Him. And at the heart of His character was displayed the self-sacrificing love of GOD. His ministry here on Earth was entirely enmeshed in the display of our Father’s love for His wayward children.

     But it is this love born of heaven that we do not naturally possess. It is a love that can only come from above. Those who yearn for this heavenly standard will follow that love to see where it leads, even to an ill fate in this present world. And many godly men, women, and children have received an ill fate at the hands of men: “Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!...Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!” Isa.5;21,23. Tens of millions have been martyred for their adherence to this love. This is because those who want nothing to do with this standard of virtue will fight tooth and nail to quench that heavenly fire that burns in the hearts of those who have been led of heaven. Temptations that lead to sin are carried out; and it is sin that sears the conscience against the heaven-born love. Many are “Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.” I Tim.4:2. So be it! GOD’S gift of freewill does not deny this chosen course of multitudes of fallen angels and men. This is why Satan has been allowed to wreak such stupendous havoc in this world for 6000 years. GOD must allow sin (“the transgression of the law”) to run its course: to the end that all will witness the Earth to be utterly destroyed as the end result of sin’s dominion:

“For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish [habitually drunk, clumsy & careless] children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger. For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end. For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.” Jer.4:22-28.

     This passage along with Isaiah 24 & Revelation 20 rebuke the ruling doctrine of the churches teaching that Christ comes to establish His kingdom in this present world. “Let these sayings sink down into your ears,” “My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight...but now is my kingdom not from hence.” Lu.9:44; Jn.18:36.

     Christians should prayerfully consider the church’s relationship with GOD’S Word and it’s Author. As GOD has had to prove men in their service to GOD’S salvation, so we are called to prove just what gospel we are being handed by today’s preachers and prophecy gurus. This wisdom was utilized when the Apostle Paul gave the message of “Christ and him crucified” to the Bereans: “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” Acts 17:11.

     Two examples are needed to show how the church stands diametrically opposed to the heaven-born love demonstrated by Christ and His implicit faith in the Word of GOD as His Standard against ignorance. The most popular Bible next to the King James Version is the New International Version (NIV). This modern Bible chose very different manuscripts from those used in the KJV. Let us examine just two verses out of hundreds of changes that expose these translators’ hatred of the truth “as the truth is in Jesus” (Eph.4:21).

1. King James Bible: Matthew 6:13 “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”

NIV: Nowhere to be found.

     The chosen manuscripts for the NIV removed the closing words of the LORD’S Prayer. These so-called scholars had the audacity to use a Greek text that removes many precious words of the Saviour. They even boast to have used only the “best manuscripts” for this so-called translation of the Bible (Preface to the NIV).

2. King James Bible: Daniel 9:26 “And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, BUT NOT FOR HIMSELF: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”

NIV: Daniel 9:26, After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off AND WILL HAVE NOTHING. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.

     “And will have nothing” assaults the love found in the sacrifice of Christ, and robs the Glory of GOD’S Love that He came to display. But in the KJV we readily see and embrace the character of Christ in His sacrifice: “…shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself” [but for the family of Adam].

     Today’s Christian is being played the fool by “false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.” II Cor.11:13. Long ago, Paul warned of the apostasy that was to come, masquerading under the banner of Christ: “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” II Thess.2:1-10.

     These words of Paul were drawn from his studies of Daniel’s prophecies. And at the core of it all is the age-old saying, ‘All roads lead to Rome.’ This was the foundation of the Reformation, but today, it has all been renounced and buried as trash in a landfill.

     Jesus addressed this apostasy and gave us wise counsel on how to deal with it:

“Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” Matt.13:24-30.

     To have a keen literacy of the Bible’s lessons on faith and salvation is the great calling for our generation who will soon be plunged into the world’s closing events ushering “the seven plagues” and “the coming of the Lord.” And while the majority will ‘go with the flow’ and blindly follow, without crying to GOD for the truth “as the truth is in Jesus” (Eph.4:21), there will be those who will not follow the multitude of apostate ministers who will always fight tooth and nail against the message of the Love Born of Heaven (Jesus Christ) and the Law He died to uphold, never acknowledging the beauty of the prophecy: “he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.” Isa.42:21. No, the faithful few will discern that the plain “Thus saith the LORD” is the standard by which all decisions must be weighed and obeyed.

     The Bible repeatedly warns against placing our trust in those who are proven hypocrites to the calling of Christ (through the clarity of His Word as given in the King James Version Bible):

“He that followeth vain persons is void of understanding.” Prov.12:11

“Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.” Ps.146:3

“It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.” Ps.118:8,9

This is why the saints pray: “Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.” Ps.60:11.

     In conclusion, This betrayal against the church of Christ by its very leadership is easily proven by one verse of Sacred Scripture, I Peter 4:18, “And if the righteous [referring to church members] scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” These words teach that extremely few from the tens of thousands of church congregations across America and around the world will stand with Jesus Christ in the end of time. We must understand why and how the people in the Christian church are being betrayed to believe what will never come to pass including the salvation of their souls, as Peter so clearly warned every man to take heed to this fact.

     In the days when the earth was destroyed by water, our father, “Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD” (Gen.6:8). Only his family, out of an entire civilization, found “grace” from a loving, longsuffering GOD. In the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, only Lot and his two girls were delivered from the entire population of those cities. In the Hebrew exodus from Egypt, of the great multitude that were miraculously delivered by GOD, only two of that generation, Joshua and Caleb entered the Promised Land. Even Moses was not allowed because of his one sin provoked by an amazingly and relentlessly disobedient people (Ex.16:2). [But GOD would not leave His beloved Moses in the grave (Jude 9)]. And then there is the zenith of man’s disgrace, the day man crucified his Creator. On that day there was only one who called Jesus “Lord”—the thief crucified at His side.

     But in the end, there will be a multitude of faithful Bible believing, Christ abiding, commandment keeping Christians. It is these along with the multitude of the resurrected righteous who will hear the Saviour’s Prayer to The Father (as His Glorious Appearing fills the sky): “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” Jn.17:24.