March 21, 2018 @ 1:00 PM
I’m under no illusion when it comes to my importance. I’m well aware of the fact that most believers, not to mention all unbelievers, don’t care to hear anything I’ve got to say. Folks today desire the warm fuzzies and pie-in-the-sky preachers who assure them of future flower strewn pathways. The last thing they want is a prophetic voice that disturbs their positive thinking by warning them of dark days ahead.
In Matthew 16:1-3, Jesus scolded the religious leaders of His day for being blind to “the signs of the times.” I have no doubt that the religious leaders of our day are just as blind to the signs of the times as were the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’ day. Although the signs of the times are all around us—today’s headlines confirming Biblical timelines—the contemporary church appears impervious to them. It is neither sounding an alarm for others nor making preparations for itself, despite the Biblically predicted perilous times that are now unquestionably upon us (2 Timothy 3:1).
In this edition of The Wilderness Voice we will look at two signs of the times prominently on display in today’s headlines. First, controversy has arisen over a prominent liberal activist’s association with Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the black supremacist Nation of Islam. Tamika D. Mallory, co-president of the Women’s March and a leader of the anti-Trump resistance movement, was found in attendance at a speech by Farrakhan in Chicago last month where Mr. Farrakhan not only condemned “the Satanic Jew,” but boldly declared that “white folks are going down.” Why Mallory’s presence at a speech by Farrakhan comes as a surprise to anyone is a mystery to me, especially when you consider that former President Barack Obama once posed for a photo with Farrakhan at a caucus meeting and that the present deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee, Keith Ellison, is a former follower of Farrakhan, not to mention the only member of Congress to ever be sworn into office with his hand on a Koran rather than a Bible.
This past Monday a delegation of black groups made the rounds on Capital Hill demanding that Congress condemn President Trump and support Louis Farrakhan by opposing an anti-Farrakhan resolution recently introduced on the House floor by Representative Todd Rokita. These black groups included Black Lawyers for Justice, members of the 10,000 Black Men’s March, New Black Panther Party, Anacostia Citizens for Justice, Prince Georges County Peoples Coalition, Black Lives Matter, and the National Action Network, which was founded by Al Sharpton. The leader of the black coalition, Malik Zulu Shabazz, warned Democrats, especially members of the Congressional Black Caucus, that unless they stopped “bowing to white people” and started “bowing to “ them they would “triple and quadruple” their efforts to “drive” them all out of office.
One of the signs of the times enumerated by our Lord in His famous Olivet Discourse is that the end of time will be characterized by “nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (Matthew 24:7). Interestingly, the Greek word for “nation” in this verse is “ethnos,” which is the Greek word from which we get our English word “ethnic.” Christ is actually predicted that a sure sign preceding His Second Coming will be an unprecedented rise in hostilities between ethnicities; that is, between races.
Who in today’s America can deny that decades of liberal reverse discrimination legislation and policies have done nothing to lessen racial tensions in our country? Instead, they have heightened them to a boiling point that is beginning to boil over. Indeed, racial demagogues have become so emboldened in today’s America that they publicly declare their animosity toward whites and Jews, publicly demand government acquiescence to their racist dictates, and do both without any fear of accountability or repercussions.
After years of throwing fuel and fodder, which consists in no small part of stacks and stacks of played and worn out race cards, on the fires of racism, our present-day politicians, whose hands are tied by political expediency, can do nothing to snuff out the short and burning fuse of the racial powder keg we’re all now sitting on. Any day now it could explode into unprecedented racial war on the streets of our society.
A second sign of the times prominently displayed in today’s headlines is the disturbing and increasing number of school shootings. As I recently wrote following one of them, we incessantly respond to these unconscionable crimes by asking the wrong question. We always ask: “What can we do to prevent future school shootings?” What we should ask, however, is: “What have we done to cause them?”
Today’s public schools teach our children evolution—that the universe is a cosmic accident, that we’re all here by happenstance, that life is therefore meaningless, and that a human being is no more significant than a slug or cockroach. We’ve also become a cold-blooded culture that callously aborts the unborn by the millions. This unscrupulous societal scoffing at the sanctity of human life has led to the widespread belief among modern-day Americans that human beings are expendable for the sake of our expediency. We’ve expelled God from the public school classroom, prohibiting the mentioning of His Word—the Bible—and the practice of prayer, despite the fact that prayer is the first thing we call for every time another horrific shooting occurs in one these government declared “prayer free zones.” We’ve cowed to the politically correct and allowed them to brainwash our younger generation into believing that morality is intolerance, immorality is a perfectly acceptable alternative, and anyone refusing to embrace the amorality of relativism is a hate monger endangering world peace. We’ve paid no attention while our kids have buried themselves in the movie and gaming industries’ glorifying of violence. In fact, we’ve paid for our children’s digital devices, games, theater tickets, and DVDs. And finally, we’ve done everything in our power as a nation to destroy the traditional family, God’s one and only ordained bedrock for all orderly society and the proper upbringing of children.
As the above clearly proves, today’s school shootings are a consequence of our Christ-rejecting country’s antichrist philosophies and policies. Contrary to popular and growing public sentiment, there is no hope of us ever curbing school shootings with stricter gun control legislation. As it has been acutely argued, “When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.” Government laws can no more effectively keep guns out of our schools than they have drugs out of our schools. The problem is not gun ownership, but spiritual obstinance. It’s wickedness in people’s hearts, not weapons in people’s hands.
Another sign of the times our Lord predicted would precede His Second Coming is the reverting of our world back to the way it was “in the days of Noah” (Matthew 24:37). What was the world like in prediluvian times, and what incited God to judge and destroy the world by flood? According to Genesis 6:5, 11, man had become so wicked that his every thought was evil continually and the whole earth was corrupt and filled with violence. Well, what is going to incite God to once again judge and destroy the world, howbeit by fire rather than flood this time (2 Peter 3:1-13)? Is it not the same thing, man becoming so wicked that his every thought is evil continually, with the inevitable consequence of the whole earth being corrupted and filled with violence?
In light of these signs of the times, the church needs to prepare herself for the soon return of her Bridegroom, as well as to devote herself to urgently calling upon our Christ-rejecting world to repent of its wickedness and to turn to Christ before He returns and the judgment of God falls upon our corrupt and violent world.