Ozzone 6-25 > Have you been through the fires of sorrow? You will need to in order to be of real value to the Lord and His Kingdom.

 

Suffering is required to grow as a Christian. We are expected to identify with Jesus Who suffered horribly. Paul and Silas praised God for the privilege of suffering for Him.

But we have many otherwise good Christians who refuse to believe that many of us will go through the Great Tribulation before being raptured. It is the theory that God will rescue His people before the real suffering begins. This is unfortunate and Unbiblical. Jesus was rescued out of His sufferings, not from His sufferings. Why should we expect any better treatment? Is there an example in the Bible of God rescuing His people before suffering began? I can’t find one.

On the other hand, the Israelites were protected during the ten plagues of Egypt, but were not rescued until the plagues were complete, that’s when they fled Egypt. And, in fact, they weren’t completely rescued until they were within minutes of being slaughtered by Pharoah’s Army.

If you expect anything less terrifying than that, you are not ready for the End Times. - GWM

Anne Graham Lotz: Satan Behind Gay Marriage Decision, End Times Looming

SUBMITTED BY Brian Tashman, Right Wing Watch

Last month, Anne Graham Lotz appeared on “Understanding the Times with Jan Markell,” where she repeated her claim that the rapture is imminent.

Anne is the daughter of Billy Graham

She told Markell that God is sending “wake-up calls” to America to get people’s attention: “That’s why he allows the terrorists to strike or a tornado to rip through our city because, for whatever reason, we don’t seem to give him our attention until we’re desperate, and so if we don’t give him our attention, then he’s going to allow things to happen to make us more and more desperate until we do cry out.”

However, Lotz said that God is about to run out of patience with the U.S. and may soon remove “the restraints so that evil comes in like a flood.” One of the signs that God has allowed evil to flood into America, Lotz said, was the recent Supreme Court decision on marriage equality.

“The Enemy has come in like a flood and that’s one of his tactics,” she said of the court’s ruling, “to hit us at every level, every angle so that we feel overwhelmed.”

She added:
You cannot change God’s institution of marriage, so what they’re asking is to join an institution that by its very definition they can’t join. So if the Supreme Court changes that legally in America, they are very seriously defying God. 

I think there are three reasons we could pass that tipping point. One is that reason, the second is abandoning Israel and the third one is the abortion, aborting babies for convenience. Women can scream and holler about that and say they don’t do that, but the statistics show that they do, they use it for birth control. Those three reasons alone would demand that God judge America.”


Last year, CBN interviewed Lotz about her effort to save America from God's impending judgment, where she explained that terrorism, natural disasters, economic problems, and social unrest are all warning signs from God that the return of Jesus Christ will happen within her lifetime.

"The signs that Jesus gives, whether it is in the environmental world, or the national world, the wars and rumors of wars, or the persecution of Christians, the persecution of Jews," Lotz said, "when we see that ratcheting up, increasing in frequency and intensity in the same generation that sees the Gospel being preached to the whole world and Israel reborn are a nation, that's the generation that's the last."

"I believe, with deep conviction, that it's my generation," she continued. "I believe that in my lifetime, if I live out my lifetime, a natural lifetime, I believe I will live to see the return of Jesus in the Rapture when he comes back to take us to be with himself. Which means, preceding that, there are going to be some signs, there are going to be some warnings".

Do you agree with Anne? Generally speaking, except for the pre-trib rapture, I do! The sheer insanity that governs the world these days is certainly an indication that the end is near. The question is, how much worse can it get before God has had enough?

Consider child sex abuse: One in 5 girls and one in 12 boys are sexually abused before they turn 18. Many would say those numbers are very conservative. Certainly in some countries almost half of all girls are sexually abused. In India, more than half of all boys are sexually abused. Altogether, nearly 300,000,000 children have been sexually abused in the 21st century, most of them multiple times, many - thousands of times.

I hope and pray He does not wait much longer, for the incidence of child sex abuse is still getting worse despite many efforts to curb it.

Rev. Graham: “As I Read the News, I Can’t Help but Wonder If We’re in the Last Hours”?

From Joel C Rosenberg:

"Rev. Franklin Graham, head of the international Christian aid group Samaritan’s Purse and son of world-renowned preacher Billy Graham, said that given all the 'bad news' about the killing of Christians by Muslims in some countries, and attacks on Christians by the media and the government even in America, he cannot 'help but wonder if we are in the last hours before our Lord Jesus Christ returns,'" reports CNS News.

Rev. Franklin Graham
Samaritans Purse

“As I read the news, I can’t help but wonder if we are in the last hours before our Lord Jesus Christ returns to rescue His church and God pours out His wrath on the world for the rejection of His Son,” said Rev. Graham in a post on the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) website.

“I don’t know if we have hours, days, months, or years—but as Christians, God calls us to take the truth of the Gospel to the ends of the earth,” said Graham.  “Our job is to warn sinners of the consequences of sin and show them that God is loving and gracious, willing to forgive if we come to Him in repentance and faith.”

I wonder that myself.

Like Franklin, I have no idea if we have a very short time or if we have many more years before the Rapture. I strongly oppose setting dates or speculating on certain days or hours or any of the sensationalistic nonsense that people like Harold Camping and others have peddled over the years.

Rather, I embrace the teachings of Jesus who warned us to be ready because His coming for us could appear at any moment.

Joel C Rosenberg
Joshua Fund

"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone," the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 24:36-44. "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 

Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left. Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will."

Are you ready?

Here is the full article on Rev. Graham's thoughts. I encourage you to read it and share with others.

"The BGEA was founded in 1950 by Rev. Billy Graham, and Franklin Graham is vice chairman and CEO of the evangelical organization," noted CNS News. "In his remarks, Rev. Graham talked about the spread of Ebola in Africa, noting that just in 2014 'the virus has already claimed the lives of over 1,000, making it the deadliest outbreak in history.' One of the American doctors, Kent Brantly, infected with Ebola in Liberia and flown back to the United States for treatment last month was 

Samaritan's Purse Christmas Child

working with Samaritan’s Purse."
 "As for the religious 
persecution in the Middle East and elsewhere, Rev. Graham questioned whether 'the world is coming apart at the seams,' adding, 'There appears to be no end to the bad news. The killing of Christians by Muslims from Indonesia to Bangladesh to Pakistan. China tearing down church buildings. Christians tortured, beheaded, and crucified in Iraq, with villages burned and churches destroyed, and much the same in Syria.'

“American pastor Saeed Abedini is still imprisoned in Iran for his faith,” said Rev. Graham.  “Throughout Northern Africa, the Middle East, and many parts of the world, the church of Jesus Christ—and anyone or any group who bears His Name—is under attack.”

 “In our own country as well, there is great opposition to the church of Jesus Christ,” he said.  “We see this throughout the media, the entertainment industry, government, and politics.”

Rev. Graham continued, “Jesus warned His disciples in Matthew 24 when they asked Him about the signs of the end of the age. He said there would be wars and rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, and pestilence. He told them, ‘Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.’”

"Franklin Graham is married, has five children, and lives in Boone, N.C.," noted CNS News. "His father, Rev. Billy Graham, 95, is in poor health and not expected to live much longer. Over the years, Billy Graham preached to more than 215 million people in 185 different countries, and he wrote 31 books. For more than 50 years he has regularly been ranked among one of the most admired people in the world."

There is great opposition in North America to Christians but it is mostly because we have earned it. American Christians are fixated on politics rather than Christ and support Republican candidates who claim to be Christian but don't act anything like Christ.

Christians need to either abandon politics altogether (best solution), or demand much more Christ-like behaviour from their politicians. The problem is, the way politics in America works now runs counter to Christian values. 

Me - Gary Wm Myers
Northwoods Ministries

What the Republicans have defined as Christian values are so often completely off the mark. From the NRA, to big businesses insatiable greed, their ownership of most politicians, their treatment of the poor and immigrants, their need for a war somewhere to keep moving the inventory of death: guns, jets, missiles, napalm, Humvees, Blackhawks, etc, etc. so they can get rich regardless of the cost in young American lives.

These are not Christian values. Neither is the vitriolic criticism of the President of the US. God said it was He who put leaders in place and one only needs to remember Hurricane Sandy and Obama's response so impressed Governor Christie that he had to share that with the country. 

It was that event that took Obama from 2nd place in the polls to first just a couple days before the election. It was an act of God that put Obama back in the Whitehouse. Any Christian railing against God's anointed stands in opposition to Christ and ought to be very concerned about that.

I agree with Rev Graham that it seems likely that we are in the end times with limited time left. I disagree with a universal pre-tribulation rapture of the church. I believe Christians, or at least most Christians need to have their faith tested and proven before they are approved worthy of their calling. More on this tomorrow.

Pre-trib Rapture Assaulted Again

In John 17:15 Jesus was praying for His disciples. He prayed, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.”


My view on the rapture is not pre-trib, mid-trib, or post-trib. If there is a rapture, it will occur either when Jesus returns or there may be a very limited pre-wrath rapture. Pre-tribbers believe that the entire Great Tribulation is the day of God’s wrath and so pre-wrath must be pre-trib. 

One in the field will be taken and one left

But there is very good reason to believe that the testing that the letter to the church at Philadelphia refers to is, in fact, at the end of the Tribulation not the entirety of it. How so?


In Rev 6: 16,17 after the 6th seal has been opened, the great kings and leaders of the earth are found hiding in caves and calling on the mountains to fall on them to “hide us from the Presence of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand.”


So those who had been through the majority of the Tribulation did not see it as God’s wrath until nearly the end of the period. That calls into question the interpretation of the timing of Revelation and there are several differing viewpoints. 

It makes no sense, however, to read it as a linear time-series, that is, chronological. But rather, it makes the most sense to read it as a series of view-points. 

Pastor Daymor Moses equates it with watching replays of a football game. You have a camera on the quarterback, another on the running back, one on each of the wide receivers, one on the lines, etc., and each shows a different perspective of the same brief time-span. 

This is more or less how I have come to understand the timing as well, although it is not necessarily understandable at all.

With that in mind, the 6^th seal and the great day of the wrath of God and the Lamb comes very late in the Tribulation period. Let’s look at another perspective:
1 Cor 10:11 Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. These things refers to the Exodus story of the Israelites. “Upon whom the ends of the ages have come,” is us. 

Therefore, those of us in the last days are to study the Exodus story for wisdom and revelation. And what do we find there?


We find the wrath of God coming upon Egypt (a type of the world), as Moses seeks permission to lead his people out of bondage. We see ten plagues that God inflicts upon the land of Egypt, many of which are quite devastating. 

What happens to the Israelites (a type of us) during this time? They are protected through most of the plagues.


When Aaron turned the Nile into blood, Moses had advance notice and may have warned the Israelites to store up drinking water. They may have suffered through the frogs and the gnat infestation, but then God separated them from the Egyptians for the rest of the plagues - I will put a division between My people and your people. Ex 8:23. 

They did not suffer the swarms of insects, their livestock were not afflicted, they did not get the boils the Egyptians suffered, nor the hail storms.

It is not obvious that the Israelites escaped from the plague of locusts, but I think it likely. However, I think it unlikely that they missed the plague of darkness that covered the land for 3 days. 

And, of course, they were saved from the final plague, the death of the first-born, by the covering of the blood on their houses. This is a foreshadowing of the covering of the blood of Christ on Christians. And yet, they were still in the land!

It was only after this most terrible judgment that Moses (the type of Christ) led the Israelites out of Egypt. And then what happened? God’s final judgment on Egypt occurred at the Red Sea. 

The Israelites miraculously crossed the Red Sea just before the Egyptian army is destroyed in it. If that isn’t a clear picture of the Great Tribulation, I don’t know what is?

People, we need to prepare ourselves to go through the Great Tribulation. Putting our hope on the fairytale of a pre-trib rapture will not get you ready. 

I believe most Christians will escape a lot of the judgments that will come upon the earth during those horrific 7 years, but I also believe that most Christians alive during the Great Tribulation will be martyred. 

Are you ready to be martyred? Or are you hoping for a fairytale ending?

(see also: The Rapture – Hope or Hype)

The Rapture - Hope or Hype?

Are you a rapture enthusiast? I think most evangelicals believe in a rapture happening; the Bible has several references to such an event. However, they just don’t agree on when it will happen. The classic view is that it will happen at the end of the Great Tribulation period – seven years of horror that God will plague the earth with.

There is, however, a predominant view in the post-modern evangelical church that the rapture will occur just before the Great Tribulation allowing us Christians to escape the hardships of life during that awful period. The reason the predominant view differs from the classic view is thanks mainly to one man – Tim LeHaye. His “Left Behind” series of books and movies has made the idea of a pre-trib general rapture very popular; indeed, that was his stated intention for writing them. In a recent Facebook discussion with an atheist, he asked me how the books and the movie were not basically brain-washing young Christians. I couldn’t answer him.

Is LeHaye right? Where did the idea come from if it wasn’t part of classical Christian belief? Is there any harm to believing in a pre-trib rapture of the entire church? I’m going to address the last question first because many who preach the pre-trib rapture say that there is no harm in teaching it. They say that we should always live for Christ anyway, so what difference does it make whether we believe in a pre-trib rapture or a post-trib rapture, or even a mid-trib rapture? An old pastor of mine believed in a pan-trip rapture – it will all pan out in the end. In those days, the 1980’s, very few pastors would take a stand on when the rapture would occur. Today, thanks in part to LeHaye, many happily go along with the pre-trib rapture hype.

They are correct in as much as we Christians should always be living for Christ, but, far more importantly, we should all be prepared to die for Christ. Are you prepared to die for Christ right now? How many people have you witnessed to this past week? Most of us are not even prepared to risk embarrassment for Christ, let alone willingly suffer and die for Him. If we are not ready to witness for Christ, we are not ready to die for Christ; and we are not ready for the Great Tribulation.

The Great Tribulation will not only be a time of judgment upon the unbeliever, but it will be a time of trials and testing for the believer, according to Daniel 12:10 “many shall be purified, made white, and refined.” This is similar to the Lord’s letter to Sardis in Revelation 3:4,5 You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life…” and also, His letter to the Laodiceans, Revelations 3:18, I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich: and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed…”

In all seven of these letters, the Lord promises trials and tribulations. The only ones to escape are the faithful from the Philadelphia Church because they have already endured much testing and have overcome. And there is no doubt who is responsible for this testing as the Lord frequently used phrases like, “I am coming quickly” to indicate the pending trial that He expects us to overcome. I do not believe that there will be any easy entrance into Heaven, and the church should be prepared to suffer through much difficulty and even death.

The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Revelation 6:10,11, “And they (the souls of the martyrs)  cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on earth?” Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.” That was the 5^th seal that the Lord opened.

After the 6^th seal was opened, John saw, “a great multitude which no-one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes…” Not knowing who they were, one of the elders informed John, “These are the ones who came out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

“A great multitude which no-one could number…” Are we talking tens of thousands, millions, tens of millions? Revelation 5:11, “Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands…” Here, John is able to estimate more than 100 million angels, elders and other creatures (although no humans appear to be present!??), yet, in Revelation 7:9, he is unable to give even an estimate because the multitude is so vast. What does that mean? It means the number is at least in the hundreds of millions and quite possibly more than a billion.

Are Revelation 7: 9 & 14 the answer to ch 6: 11? Are these the martyrs whose numbers are now complete. If it is, it will mean the greatest massacre the world has ever seen – quite possibly a billion Christians murdered by the Antichrist and his supporters. Matthew 24:21, “For then there shall be great tribulation, such as has not been seen since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.”

Muslim rape and slaughter in Liberia

When we can’t buy food, or gas, or anything else without taking the mark of the beast, whatever that means, how quickly will we turn from a faith that fails to meet the promise of an abundant life and delivers persecution. Shouldn’t our teachers be preparing us for persecution? Have you ever heard a sermon on being prepared for persecution? Not unless you are planning on being a missionary in a hostile field.

At some point during the Great Tribulation, if we manage to hide for some period of time, there will come a day when we will be starving so badly, or suffering some other way to the point where we just walk in and surrender ourselves to possible torture and certain death. (You figured out by now that this is not a feel-good message.)

Notice, nearly all the passages of scripture above contain references to “white robes,” or “dressed in white.” It is not clear whether the “white robes” referred to frequently in this book, refer specifically to martyrs or to all believers who overcome the trials and tribulations. It could be that the Lord was referring to martyrdom in His letters to Sardis and Laodicea. See also, Daniel 11:34,35; 12:10. Elsewhere, the only reference to white clothing is on God, the transfigured Christ, angels, the 24 elders, and the armies which are in Heaven that accompany Christ on His return. These are almost certainly the martyrs whose numbers were completed.

Nowhere, other than perhaps the two letters mentioned above, does the Bible say that ordinary Christians will be clothed in white. So, if indeed they do refer to martyrdom, then nowhere in scripture are non-martyred believers clothed in white. In fact, nowhere in the Book of Revelation does it indicate that Christians who were not martyred are even in Heaven before Christ returns at the end of the Great Tribulation.

Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life (everlasting), and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:13,14. Never, until recently, in the history of the Christian church, has the concept been taught that all we need do is say the sinner’s prayer and then wait for Jesus to come and “beam us up” like Captain Kirk, when things start to get rough. But that is the gist of what is being taught now in many churches. Do you think such people as believe that are prepared to suffer and die for Jesus? It is more likely that they will be so completely disillusioned with the sudden, remarkable persecution in the Great Tribulation that they will decide that the whole thing is a joke, or just not worth the suffering?

Pre-tribbers aren’t concerned about that because they believe that it will involve people who become Christians during the Tribulation. These same people will tell you that the Holy Spirit (He who restrains evil) will be withdrawn from the earth during the Great Tribulation. How hundreds of millions of converts are going to occur without the Holy Spirit is a question I cannot guess at. They say the 144,000 who receive the mark of God on their forehead, and the two witnesses in Jerusalem, will be responsible for the conversions. Yet, there is no reference anywhere of them going into the world and converting souls. It is circular reasoning, for they think that because all the Christians have been taken out of the world, and millions of Christians are persecuted by the antichrist, that, therefore, millions must have come to the Lord (without the Holy Spirit) during the Great Tribulation. Except for a few thousand people in Jerusalem, there is no indication of anyone coming to the Lord during this time.

Is the Holy Spirit He Who restrains evil? There is certainly some support for that. But isn’t it just as likely that Michael, the Archangel, is the restrainer. It was Michael who fought Satan for the body of Moses, Jude 9. Daniel 12:1,2, “At that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time, and that at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the Book.” This, of course, is arguing against my own point here, but it seems to me that as long as there are Christians on the earth that the Holy Spirit will be there.

The consequences of taking the mark of the beast, of denying Christ, are infinitely worse than the momentary affliction that awaits those who persevere. We must be ready and willing to suffer unto death, even death on the cross. Are you ready? I repeat; if you are not ready to suffer possible embarrassment by witnessing of Christ, you are a long ways from being ready to be a martyr. Prepare yourself, for it appears your teachers will not.