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APOCALYPSE FATIGUE

Watch and Pray… if you’re like me, you sometimes suffer from ‘apocalypse fatigue.’  I’ve sincerely expected the end of the age to start (resulting in the great tribulation, the Antichrist’s defeat, and the return of Jesus) many times since 1981, but obviously it hasn’t happened yet. Ugh! How much longer?

Signs of the Apocalypse

Here’s a short list of apocalyptic signs I have followed (or am still tracking) with interest:

  • 1981 – the planets of the solar system were supposed to align, triggering great earthquakes, etc. (Signs in the heavens and on earth)
  • 1988 – 40 years after Israel became a nation (The olive tree parable…this generation will not pass away until the end comes)
  • The Bush presidents, 9/11, and their promotion of the ‘new world order’
  • 2008-2016 – Is Obama the Antichrist?
  • 2013 – The last pope takes office according to the prophecy of St Malachy. Is Pope Francis the false prophet of Revelation 13?
  • 2015 – four consecutive ‘blood moons’ coinciding with Jewish Passover and Tabernacles festivals. Did the 7-year tribulation covenant period start on Yom Kippur, 9/22/15?
  • 2017 – Is Trump, Jared Kushner, Obama, or Prince Charles the Antichrist?
  • Possible Second Coming dates: Yom Kippur of 2022, 2024, or 2036?

I’ve made life-changing decisions based on some of these. Some of them resulted in life-long consequences and lost career opportunities.

Watch and Pray

After so many false leads over decades, it’s tempting to simply stop looking for end-time clues and just join the rest of the world—asleep in their blissful ignorance.

But, as I was meditating on my apocalypse fatigue, the scripture to “watch and pray” came to me. Regarding the end of this age, Jesus warned:

Watch yourselves, or your hearts will be weighed down by dissipation, drunkenness, and the worries of life—and that day will spring upon you suddenly like a snare. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. So, keep watch always, and pray that you may have the strength to escape all that is about to happen and to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:34-36)

WATCH and pray

What does it mean to keep watch? According to BibleHub.com, the original Greek word literally means “to be sleepless, intent upon a thing, Ephesians 6:18; or, to exercise constant vigilance over something (an image drawn from shepherds).”

art by Gods411.org

Examples of watching:

  1. Defensive:
    1. Shepherds keep watch over their sheep, making sure they’re safe from predators and other dangers.
    2. Soldiers are routinely assigned to guard duty. They keep watch over (guard) a specific place or thing during a specified period of time.
  2. Offensive: Hunters watch intently for their prey. They constantly search for clues and signs that will lead them to succeed in their hunt. They focus all their senses on the hunt; looking for animal tracks, listening for twigs snapping, and smelling their upwind quarry.

What should we ‘keep watch’ for?

Watch so that no one deceives you.

In all three synoptic gospels, this is the first warning Jesus gave His disciples regarding the end time.

  1. Matthew 24:4 See to it that no one deceives you.
  2. Mark 13:5 See to it that no one deceives you.
  3. Luke 21:8-9 See to it that you are not deceived. For many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them. When you hear of wars and rebellions, do not be alarmed. These things must happen first, but the end is not imminent.”

Watch to be able to withstand persecution.

  1. Mark 13:9-13 So be on your guard. You will be handed over to the councils and beaten in the synagogues. On My account, you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them… Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rise against their parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by everyone on account of My name, but the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.
  2. Matthew 24:9-12 Then they will hand you over to be persecuted and killed, and you will be hated by all nations on account of My name. At that time many will fall away and will betray and hate one another, and many false prophets will arise and mislead many. Because of the multiplication of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.
  3. Luke 21:12-19 But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. On account of My name, they will deliver you to the synagogues and prisons, and they will bring you before kings and governors. This will be your opportunity to serve as witnesses. So make up your mind not to worry beforehand how to defend yourselves. For I will give you speech and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you will be put to death. And you will be hated by everyone because of My name. Yet not even a hair of your head will perish. By your patient endurance, you will gain your souls.
Learn from Peter’s failure to watch

The night before Jesus’ crucifixion, Peter said: “I will die with you.” But Jesus warned Peter that he would deny Jesus three times before sunrise. Jesus encouraged Peter to watch and pray. Later, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter was sleepy and didn’t ‘watch’ with the Lord. As a result, when the trial came for Peter early the next morning, he wasn’t spiritually prepared, and so he denied the Lord to preserve himself from pain.

Like Peter, we will all have trials, during which our faith and commitment will be tested. If you haven’t strengthened yourself through watching and prayer, you’ll naturally choose the path of self-protection and, like Peter, you’ll deny the truth.

Watch to anticipate the Messiah’s return.

  1. Matthew 24:32-51, especially verse 42, Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day on which your Lord will come.
  2. Mark 13:32-33 But as for that day or hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on your guard and stay alert! For you do not know when the appointed time will come.
  3. Luke 21:34-36 But watch yourselves, or your hearts will be weighed down by dissipation, drunkenness, and the worries of life—and that day will spring upon you suddenly like a snare. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. So keep watch at all times, and pray that you may have the strength to escape all that is about to happen and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Why is it important for us to watch for the Lord’s return?

  1. Those who don’t watch will be ensnared when that day comes upon the world.
  2. Watching and prayer are required to build the strength required to overcome what will happen and to stand before the Son of Man.
  3. Rev 12:11, “They conquered him (the dragon) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives so as to shy away from death.”

watch and PRAY

Like Watching, prayer has both defensive and offensive components.

Defensive:

  1. Pray that you’ll have the strength to prevail against all that is about to happen on the earth, and to stand righteous and victorious before the Son of Man. “Lead us not into trials, but deliver us from evil.”
  2. Pray that when you stand before Him that He will be able to say to you, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

Offensive:

  1. In general, pray “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as in heaven.”
  2. Specifically, pray for the kingdom of God to be manifested in your family, community, and nation.
  3. The prayers of the saints fill the golden altar before God’s throne in heaven. (Rev 8:3, 8:5, 9:13, 16:7)
  4. Jesus said, “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations…” (Mark 11:17, Luke 19:46). Many believe that since God delegated authority to Adam to rule the earth, God can do nothing on the earth unless it’s in response to human prayer.

Watch and Pray

So, what does it mean to ‘watch and pray?’

  1. Before the Lord Jesus returns, scripture teaches there’ll be a great delusion upon everyone who doesn’t love and follow the truth. Watch and pray to follow God’s truth and not to be deceived and deluded with the masses.
  2. Persecution against Christians is already exploding around the world. Watch and pray that you’ll remain faithful, even at personal cost.
  3. Watch and pray that you’ll be strengthened to overcome the evil that’s coming to this world.

Bottom Line—like Peter, it’s understandable if we get tired. But let’s learn from his example and overcome apocalypse fatigue.  We have two choices; (1) watch and pray to become an overcomer, or (2) follow the world system into delusion and judgment.

The One-World Religion | 2 Thessalonians 2:3 | The Great Falling Away

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The prophesied one-world religion is now here. While its false prophets proclaim world peace and brotherly love with their words, in practice they promote violence and hatred against God’s true followers.

The Bible tells us the one-world religion’s strong delusion will deceive everyone who refuses the love of the truth–those who delight in wickedness. The result is the greatest ‘falling away’ in the history of the church, and this is happening now.

Here’s how the Book of Revelation portrays the one-world religion:

Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and those who dwell on the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her immorality.

And the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, where I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls. She held in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. 

And on her forehead a mysterious name was written:BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

I could see that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and witnesses for Jesus.

Revelation 17:1-6

Godly Unity is Good

Psalm 133:1 says, “How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!”

It is good and pleasant for born-again brethren to dwell in unity—a unity centered on their shared faith in God and obedience to His Word.

Satanic Unity in a One-World Religion is Bad

But, instead of this holy unity, Satan and the fallen celestial rulers of the present wicked age are building a seductive, counterfeit religious unity, a one-world religion based on their shared rebellion, their desire for power, and lawlessness toward God and his Word.

The current Roman Catholic pope, whom the prophecy of Malachy predicts will be the last pope before Rome is destroyed, is aggressively promoting such a unity between the world’s three major monotheistic religions—Jewish, Christian, and Muslim. Here are just a few news articles supporting this statement:

Roman Catholics with Jews the pope meets with Jewish leaders to discuss a United Nations of Religions.

Protestants ‘Churches’ merging with Roman Catholics Prominent Pastor Rick Warren promotes Protestant/Catholic unity.

Roman Catholics with Orthodox the pope builds bridges with Orthodox leadership.

Roman Catholics with Muslims the pope prays in a Mosque with Muslim leaders.

United Nations Interfaith Harmony Week is held every February. It’s a way to promote harmony between all people regardless of their faith.

The One-World Religion’s Apostasy is Happening Now

The Bible teaches that this effort will succeed, and it will result in “the apostasy” predicted in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4:

Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.

Notice that it’s not an apostasy, but the original Greek text explicitly uses the definite article “the,”  labeling it the apostasy. The one-world religion is the greatest apostasy in world history.

The One-World Religion: The Great Falling Away

People commonly refer to the apostasy of the coming one-world religion as ‘the Great Falling Away.’ This is based on the King James version’s translation of 2 Thessalonians 2:3…

Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first…

2 Thessalonians 2:3 NKJV

So, what is this apostasy, ‘the falling away?’

Christianity’s Golden Calves

For centuries, the majority of ‘Christian’ Catholic and Protestant believers have been in varying degrees of descent into complete apostasy. Since they’re ignorant of God’s Biblical commands and calendar, they follow the world’s traditions and calendar instead.

For example, they celebrate the non-Biblical Ash Wednesday and Lent festivals. Then they take their children on Easter egg hunts instead of celebrating the perpetual, Biblically-mandated feasts of Passover, First-fruits, and Unleavened Bread. 

Likewise, they ignore YHWH’s autumn feasts of Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles–all of which God is fulfulling in our future. Instead, they substitute Halloween harvest festivals, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

This apostasy will increase in the end time as the majority of churches reject obedience to God’s Word. In its place, they’ll follow this world’s religious leaders (i.e., Kenneth Copeland, the Pope, Dalai Lama, etc.) in accepting a mishmash of humanistic, man-made religious doctrines that Jews, Muslims, and ‘Christians’ can all agree on.

The One-World Religion’s False Prophets and Hirelings

The ‘Christian’ church today is already in ‘the great falling away.’ Its false prophets discard the Old Testament, along with any uncomfortable passages in the New Testament.

Multitudes of pew-warming believers traditionally gather for 1 hour a week, where these false prophets lead them through a weekly religious ‘worship experience.’ The typical worship experience goes like this:

  1. Have people assigned to greet everyone at the front door. Give them coffee and donuts in the foyer while catchy multimedia clips give them various kinds of church-related information.
  2. Start ‘the service’ with an upbeat ‘worship package.’ The last song should evoke strong emotion.
  3. Before the emotion fades, fleece the sheep (harvest their money).
  4. Feed them a feel-good, seeker-friendly message in less than 30 minutes.
  5. Encourage them to bring their friends next week, so that they can feel good too.
  6. Send them home with the false assurance that anything they do is OK because it’s all covered by God’s grace.

If this sounds like your church, you need to seriously question if you’re on on the broad road or the narrow way. Rather than always swimming with the current, we must swim upstream to enter the kingdom of God.

Metrics of Success: Numbers or Obedience?

I attended a protestant Bible College in 1974-1975, where I got to peek behind the curtain of ministerial life. I learned the pecking order for ministerial prestige is always governed, from week to week, by a minister’s number of attendees and offerings.

Whenever two of these hirelings met, they’d ask, “How many are you running?” Then they’d compare their attendance and offering numbers. These numbers automatically determined their rank in the pecking order. Whoever had more people and more offerings had more prestige.

In contrast, (in John chapter 6) when Jesus taught His followers that He is the Bread of Life, most of His followers left Him.  But numbers weren’t His priority.

Therefore, a godly minister’s only metric of success is whether the Living God’s will is being done–whether or not it’s popular.

Forbidden Topics

Today’s ‘Christian’ leaders generally avoid topics like: the feasts of Israel, the 4th Commandment, the blood of Jesus, repentance, discipleship, obedience to God’s Word, persecution, sacrificial suffering, martyrdom, prophecy, God’s judgment, the Antichrist, Armageddon, and God’s expectation of our practical holiness.

As a result of these false shepherds, 99.999% of the people who attend today’s Catholic and Protestant churches are ignorant of what the Bible actually teaches about these things.

Enter through the Narrow Gate

Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:13 NASB)

So, if you’re in the Christian mainstream, chances are you’re not going through the small gate on the narrow way that leads to life.

Judgment of the Hirelings

To the false prophets, who are ‘Pied Pipers’ on the broad way to destruction, the prophet Hosea’s words still apply:

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being my priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” (Hosea 4:6)

The result of this ‘lack of knowledge’ is pervasive lawlessness in the church.

Biblical Lawlessness of the One-World Religion

The Bible simply defines lawlessness as not following God’s commandments.  For example, in his war against the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15) King Saul did 99.9% of what God commanded him to do, but he didn’t completely obey God. As a result, God rejected him as king over Israel. In this well-known passage,

Samuel said, “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.

For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.

Too Late for Repentance

Then Saul said to Samuel,

I have sinned; I have indeed transgressed the command of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and listened to their voice. “Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me, that I may worship the Lord.”

But Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you; for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.”

As Samuel turned to go, Saul seized the edge of his robe, and it tore. So Samuel said to him,

The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to your neighbor, who is better than you.”

Depart from Me, You Who Practice Lawlessness

Likewise, because of their lawlessness and disregard for obeying God’s Word, many of today’s Christians will be surprised when they’re rejected from entering the kingdom of heaven…

Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. 

Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’  “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

Matthew 7:21-23, NASB

Persecution is Coming from the One-World Religion

Judgment Begins in the House of God

A great shaking and sifting is coming to the Church, and it will reveal God’s true disciples…

I will shake all the nations; and they will come with the wealth of all nations, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the LORD of hosts.

Haggai 2:7

They will fill God’s temple with the glory of their redemption–which God accomplished in them through Christ Jesus.

For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

1 Peter 4:17

God will first judge His Church, and then He will judge the nations. When He judges the Church, only faithful, obedient disciples will remain standing in His presence. When He judges the nations, nobody will be able to stand.

The one-world religion will soon persecute true Christians, who obey the Bible and seek God’s kingdom first. They’ll label Christians as: mentally ill, violent extremists, terrorists, bigots, etc. The groundwork for these accusations is already laid.

One-World Religion Lays the Groundwork for Christian Persecution

Indeed, the foundation for this persecution has already been laid.

Political Preparation for Persecution

“The Obama administration, including the military over which President Obama presides as commander-in-chief, is engaging in a pattern of behavior targeting traditional Christian believers and their groups as extremists and mocking their beliefs.” (from Frontpagemag.com)

Religious Preparation for Persecution

From the Catholic News Service on 6/25/14:
1. Pope Francis described as “dangerous” the temptation to believe that one can have “a personal, direct, immediate relationship with Jesus Christ without communion with and the mediation of the (Roman Catholic) church.”

  1. In the hyperlinked article below, Pope Francis and retired Israeli president Shimon Peres worked to create a “United Nations of Religions,” but ‘fundamentalist’ believers aren’t welcome.

“There is one type of Christian that Pope Francis does not have anything positive to say about. Pope Francis says that there is not any room for “fundamentalism” in Christianity… Following his first visit to the Middle East as pope last month, the pontiff criticized fundamentalism in Christianity, Islam and Judaism as a form of violence.

“A fundamentalist group, even if it kills no one, even it strikes no one, is violent. The mental structure of fundamentalism is violence in the name of God.”

Pope Francis And Shimon Peres Discuss The Establishment Of A ‘United Nations Of Religions’

Coming One-World Religion: What Should You Do?

To avoid falling into the great apostasy of the coming one-world religion:

  1. Sincerely ask God to forgive you of your sins. Turn away from your sinful nature. Ask Jesus to lead you into a life of obedience and holiness, according to God’s word.
  2. Study and obey the entire Word of God as the antidote to one-world religion delusion.
  3. Fellowship together with other sincere, obedient disciples of Jesus. If your church is following the ‘religious process’ formula above, immediately start searching for another congregation that teaches and expects you to follow the whole Word of God.
  4. Mentally and spiritually prepare for persecution.

It is a trustworthy statement: for if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us.

2 Timothy 2:11-12