DECEMBER 18 2016
OUR DISASTROUS DATE WITH THE DEVIL.
“And there was war in heaven……The devil, Satan, who leads the whole world astray, was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
Revelation 12: 7, 9
After the mighty Michael and his army of fighting angels had defeated the Satan cohort, the Devil and those loyal to him, all rebels who had challenged God’s authority were kicked out of heaven.
Who says that heaven is a peaceful place?
That’s how we, right here, ended up with the world’s newest and most dangerous refugees, thrown out of God’s presence and landing, feet first, on Planet Earth. The unexpected does happen: the world, our world, got new rulers who, fueled by ferocious revenge, are now frantically intending to hit God where it hurts the most: destroying God’s most precious planet.
Yes, the location has changed. Heaven is cleared of the rebels, but the victory of Michael and his angels over the demonic army way up there has made matters worse exactly where you and I live. Now the struggle continues and is being fought directly on our doorsteps. So expect the totally unexpected, because Satan, the Father of Lies, has personally arranged for a true believer, his avowed ally, to be installed in the White House, the very seat of power in the world.
History is repeating itself. Just as the High Priest and his cabinet, the Sanhedrin, condemned God’s Son to death because he agitated against the seat of organized religion, so Trump and his mainly ‘Christian’ cabinet are condemning God’s creation to death, refusing to respond to her anguished cries: Romans 8: 22 “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”
The Good News: it will hasten Christ’s coming!
You say “of course that’s that gloomy blogger again.” Well, the signs are all there: unrestricted evil, disappearing species, political turmoil, out of control debt, wacky weather, lies, lies, lies, all indicating THE LAST OF DAYS.
The issue of the Last Days is a recurring theme in the Bible. The entire New Testament has been written in the expectation of Christ’s speedy return. In Acts 2, when the church had its modern beginning, we read that people sold all their possessions and shared what they had, anticipating Jesus’ Second Coming.
Of course all Bible readers know that the day and the hour are unknown. That restriction means very little. I compare it to the birth of a child. There we know the approximate date, but not the ‘day or the hour.’ We know that after a 9 months period more or less, new life will come, but even when labor pains start the actual time of birth cannot be accurately predicted.
Therefore we simply cannot say that on October 31 2017 at 8.22 p.m. we will see Christ’s glorious re-entry. The Bible is quite emphatic on this point: the Lord repeats it twice in Matthew 24 stating that not even the angels or the Son of Man know the exact date and time.
Yet the Lord tells us to keep watch, because there will be definite indications. Jesus points to the fig tree and how it, at a certain time, will change in appearance, signaling summer. That Christ’s return will be preceded by disasters is certain: Matthew 24 signals that and so does much of Revelation.
So then, are signs of the ‘fig tree’ apparent today? Most definitely.
Primary Productivity, for instance, indicates that almost half of the world’s basic energy, vested in plants, trees, animals, has been used for the benefit of the human race, but in such a way that once it is used, it cannot be restored. It now stands close to 50, witness depleted and acidifying oceans, soil degradation, tree loss, death of species, debased human nature and Climate Change, none of them can be re-created by human technology.
Revelation 11: 2 says that “they will trample on the holy city for 42 months.” The Holy City is God’s creation. Revelation 13: 5 repeats that: “The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise authority for 42 months.”
There is significance in the number of 42 months, which is 3.5 years, exactly half of that perfect number ‘7’. Matthew 24: 21-22 says that “For there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now – and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened.”
Allow me a brief detour by means of a riddle illustrating the nature of exponential growth. A lily pond contains a single leaf. Each day the number of leaves doubles – two leaves the second day, four the third, eight the four, and so on. “If the pond is full on the thirtieth day,” the question goes, “at what point is it half full?” Answer: “On the twenty-ninth day.”
It is my contention that we are quite close to both the 3.5 year mark and the number of Primary Productivity, which also stands close to the half: both fit into the Day 29 mark! I believe that the Lord will not return on Day 30, but on Day 29 for the sake of the elect, when, seemingly, the glass is still half full. Then the trumpet will sound and, all will be changed, in a flash, in the twinkling of the eye.
Of course I realize that this is purely my imagination at work…..yet…
The words of Peter come to mind: “Since everything here today might well be gone tomorrow, do you see how essential it is to live a holy life? Daily expect the Day of God, eager for its arrival. The galaxies will burn up and the elements melt down that day – but we’ll hardly notice. We’ll be looking the other way, ready for the promised new heavens and the promised new earth, all landscaped with righteousness.” (The Message, 2 Peter 3.)
So, what constitutes a Holy Life?
That this has to do with creation is beyond question, which makes me think of Matthew 5:48: “Be perfect.” The Greek word there is ‘teleioos,’ best translated as ‘holistic’ (Al Wolters) derived from ‘telos’, (as in ‘tele-phone, tele-pathy’) which suggests that we always have to keep the faraway goal – telos- in mind, which is our final destination, the New Earth.
But before this event, trouble, big trouble, which is contrary to what we would expect. We all figured that Christ’s great triumph – his death on the cross – would result in increasing peace and prosperity here on earth as well. That’s why we sing, a bit prematurely, I believe:
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
The strife is o’er, the battle done,
the victory of life is won;
the song of triumph has begun.
Alleluia!
The battle is done? Forget it. We now discover that the opposite is true: the world is becoming demonic in the fullest sense of the word. Verse 12 of Revelation 12 says: “But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! Filled with fury, because he knows that the time is short.”
That’s what the angels sing. This means that the demonic armies have thrown themselves onto our world with such unbridled ferocity and furious hate for God, that it can only have the most terrible results for creation and us.
With Satan being kicked out of heaven, a combination of evil powers emerges, a frightening mass of such a highly disturbing magnitude that it will seem that the bells have tolled for humanity, banning all peace and quietness forever.
Yes, I sincerely believe that the Demonic Era has arrived.
Satan descending to earth means that from now on world events will be grimmer, more frightening, accelerating with breathtaking speed, continuously assuming more ghastly proportions, dragging millions along in a maddening ‘danse macabre’, undermining all old established morals, speeding relentlessly to chaos and social upheaval.
This world, indeed, has now truly become possessed. All factors that somehow acted as brakes to stall this development are pushed aside; once this process is in motion it will speed up disastrously, and nothing can stop it. With Satan’s descent history has become madness. Woe to those who are sucked into this whirlpool of evil.
John, the author of REVELATION, sees it all happening in a prophetic dream. He also realizes that something is the matter here that is beyond human grasp, because in principle, Satan’s influential position should naturally come to an end as well, as, it seems, his defeat is final and can only mean his total destruction.
But God has a reason for this delay, has a reason why the demonic powers are allowed space to pursue their relentless opposition; there is a reason why God has allowed a certain period for this, a time-frame in which life on earth goes on as if not Satan but Michael and his angels have suffered defeat.
It is here where we are confronted with the history of the world. It is in this extremely remarkable phenomenon that matters are not yet what they are, that everything still looks different than it is in reality. The haze of untruthfulness hovers like a curse over the world and in that fog of uncertainty history marches on.
Look at the last 500 years. Since the 1500’s the entire world has seen a very traumatic transformation, rapidly accelerating in the last century. That period saw deeply penetrating social changes, urbanization, and bloody revolutions. It also witnessed the birth of a global mechanical, physical science- dominated world with all its consequences. All too evident also are the erosion of old moral principles. All too well-known are the World Wars, affecting and upsetting all that lives.
Never before in the history of the world has so much in such a short time been demolished and radically changed, as in the last five centuries. These immense changes were not confined to Europe and the USA, but now involve all people everywhere, imperiling the existence of all these countries and regions and increasingly cause unrest and confusion.
It almost seems as if God for centuries has blindfolded humanity to prevent them from seeing all the planetary powers and possibilities and then suddenly he ripped away the blindfold in our days so that the one perspective after the other opens up.
This wild, unrestrained progress of human thought and discovery comes not only with both a good dose of triumph but also with visions of frightening nightmares. Nerves are constantly at an edge, the pace of life is ever more hectic, undefined feelings of anxiety dominate the millions. We are confronted with situations, internally, spiritually, and morally which make it impossible to cope, which make us feel helpless, and which give us the unnerving notion that we are racing toward indescribable confusion and degeneration.
Is that what is meant when John laments in these harrowing words:
“Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short”. (verse 12).
Have we humans, more than ever before in these last centuries, embraced these demonic powers which sweep us along in its breathtaking course? Are these the demons whose terrible presence we more and more sense in our day and age?
All our dismay and bewilderment cannot erase the overriding fact that the demonic forces in reality have suffered defeat and that’s why their fury is merely a symptom of their defeat. They are fully aware that they have ‘little time’: they have already been banned from heaven and their influence on earth is approaching its inevitable finish.
The Demonic Age will end.
That “woe on earth and sea” may be accompanied with feelings of untold anguish, yet they fully rest on the unbelievable sounds of jubilation coming from on high: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ.” “He has come!” Above the screaming hurricanes, emerges the over-riding call to joy beyond measure. It resounds like a loud trumpet blast penetrating to the utmost parts of the universe. It also echoes in our hearts, filled with anxiety and fear.