Threshold - By Alice Childs -
"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
"Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was... Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived" (2 Timothy 3:1-9; 12-13). [All scripture KJV]
"For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body" (Romans 8:22-23).
Everyone senses it. Something is coming. All across this nation, indeed all over the earth, people sense that humanity crouches, poised on the threshold of some kind of "event horizon" that is imminent. The portents that herald this coming event are myriad and ominous. There have always been things such as wars, natural calamities, and violence; but if one looks back at history, focusing on the twentieth century and the first two decades of the twenty-first, one can see the sudden plunge into what the Bible calls "the end times."
With the advent of World Wars I & II, global and prophetic events took a huge downward plunge into ever increasing chaos, depravity, and violence. For the first time in history, with the advent of World War I, wars were fought that encompassed nearly all the nations of the world. Warfare entered a new and much more deadly theater.
Then came the beginnings of the dissolution of what had been thought of as "civilized" societies and countries. With the beginning of the decade of the 1960's, America's innocence was ravaged by the conflict in Vietnam - a senseless tragedy the government didn't want to admit was a war. As a result of the debacle that was Vietnam, and the absolutely tragic loss of life of nearly 59,000 of America's brightest and best young men and women, the seeds of anger and rebellion that were sown in a disillusioned generation found fecund ground in which to grow. The anger and sense of hopelessness of that young, disillusioned generation made that entire generation ripe for the infiltration of a Marxist/communist worldview in which to fester and grow.
During this era of national, civil, and racial unrest, the Church in America dropped the ball in regards to teaching and grounding her children and youth in sound doctrine. The Church in Europe had already completely lost the ball altogether. During the tumultuous decade of the 60's in America, the seeds of rebellion found fertile ground, and the first twisting winds of the whirlwind that we as a nation are reaping today nearly 60 years later, began to grow in bitter soil. In America and all across Europe as well, the festering poison of rebellion and disillusionment was germinating and beginning to quickly blossom. One could see this bitter fruit evidenced in the music, dress, mores, and attitudes - the changing worldviews of the "counterculture" in the harsh, angry casting away of morals and mores within every aspect of American and global culture.
In America, Leave It to Beaver was out and Woodstock was in. In public education, the Bible was out and the socialism of John Dewey was in. In our Churches, sound doctrine was out and higher criticism was in. The truth of scripture was touted as "too narrow-minded," and we saw the esoteric enticement of Eastern mysticism and Transcendentalism that flourished in the waters of Lethe - those "dark waters" that were the illicit drug culture went hand in hand with the mystic, the occult, and the esoteric.
In the liberated, turned-on culture of the 1960's, the sanctity of life was dealt a fatal blow with the Supreme Court ruling in favor of abortion in Roe v Wade. This ruling allowing state-sanctioned murder of the unborn set up the modern, stainless steel alters to MOLOCH that have now butchered 60 plus MILLION babies in America alone, and rapidly closing in on a BILLION worldwide. The very atrocity that is the result of nearly six decades of Roe v Wade has now brought legalized infant torture and murder to full term pre- and postnatal babies.
Since the decade of the 1960's, the "perilous times" spoken of in 2 Timothy have expanded exponentially. Like the gaseous putridity of a decomposing corpse, the stench and putrefaction has now exploded wide open, spewing a spiritual and moral corruption that has infected every continent on earth.
It isn't just humanity that has degraded to the omega point; nature itself is in the throes of destruction. Natural and man-made disasters have grown much more frequent and MUCH more destructive. Devastating wildfires, unrelenting floods and mudslides, unprecedented, devastating hurricanes, (typhoons, & cyclones), tsunamis, rising volcanic activity, the exponentially rising number of earthquakes of magnitudes 6 or greater, tornadoes, all are increasing in both frequency and severity.
In nature, the sheer number of fish and avian die-offs in our oceans and in our skies are unprecedented and vastly under reported, or rarely reported at all. There are also vast die-offs of reptiles, amphibians and mammals in the millions worldwide. ALL of these things have literally exploded in unprecedented numbers (unprecedented; there's that word again, but it is THEIR word, the word that scientists, ecologists, and climatologists are now using with greater frequency). All across the planet, animal life is dying in alarming numbers and at an alarming rate.
In addition to the increasing multitude of animal die-offs, the world was also rocked by the 2011 earthquake and resulting tsunami which resulted in the absolutely devastating meltdown of three of the four heavily damaged nuclear reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan. The havoc and desolation wrought by the 'China Syndrome'-like meltdowns is continuing to kill off the aquatic and marine life of the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific, which produces vast quantities of the world's marine food supply, is already highly contaminated with radioactive elements such as strontium 90 and cesium. The levels of these contaminants, among others, are rising because the damage done at Fukushima will NEVER be contained until Jesus returns and renovates this earth in the Millennial Kingdom.
Beside that disaster, biological threats both natural and manmade are making a sweeping comeback - viruses such as Ebola, mutated strains of influenza; previously eradicated diseases such as polio, measles, tuberculosis, cholera, typhus, plague, Dengue Fever, among others are all reappearing in alarming numbers. Each of these pestilences and more is only one outbreak away from igniting a global pandemic. Then there are the manmade horrors such as Anthrax, Sarin gas, and only God knows what else that are stockpiled, just ready for one of the earth's madmen to unleash them upon a totally unprepared world.
All of this and more is part and parcel of the imminent destruction that is waiting to happen.
Then, there is Israel, the flashpoint of the Middle East, that is set to detonate at any time. There is the moral degeneracy of the entire Sodomite agenda with all of its inherent deviancy, the escalating violence within our inner cities, and the complete corruption that has infiltrated and infected every government on earth. All of these things are an everyday part of our lives now.
Yes indeed, we are right smack dab in the middle of those "perilous times," those prophesied dangerous times that God, through the Apostle Paul, warned us would be the harbingers of the last of the last days just before Jesus would, of necessity, personally intervene in humanity's affairs.
So yes, all of these things are portents of an unprecedented SOMETHING that the whole world senses is coming. All of creation IS groaning under the tremendous weight of sin, degradation, and debauchery. We all sense that the world is on the threshold of SOMETHING. The question is, the threshold of WHAT? and WHEN?
Ahhhh, those are the questions, aren't they? As believers, we already know the answers. What's more, we know where to show others how to find them. Although we can't give an exact day or date for when the coming event will occur, we CAN, through the prophetic scriptures, give all who will listen the answer to the closeness of the earth's coming cataclysmic threshold.
Yes, the earth IS on the threshold of great change - calamitous change - a humanity-altering change. There is change coming for both the lost, unbelieving world and for the true, Remnant Church. Both people groups are on the threshold of a great change, but both groups are not on the SAME threshold.
For the lost, those following what Paul called "another gospel"; those who hate or reject the God of the Bible; those who reject as their Savior the God-Man Jesus Christ; those who hate God's Word; those who hate Israel (whom God loves and calls "the apple of His eye"); those who hate the blood-bought, born again Church; and those whom God has already "given over to their reprobate hearts" - all of you whom God identifies as "earth dwellers," YOU are on the threshold of the coming Tribulation, a seven- year period of horror that will be ruled by the Man of Sin - the Antichrist himself. The threshold upon which you are poised and being pushed ever closer to is none other than the last seven years of this fallen, sin-cursed world system under the usurper Satan and his "man of the hour" the Antichrist.
You are facing the holy vengeance and justified wrath of King Jesus, the crucified, resurrected, and glorified Lamb/Lion. You "earth dwellers" as God calls those who reject His salvation, are facing a time so horrible, so devastating, so unendurable that if Jesus were not to return to put a stop to the devastation, "no flesh would be saved."
I cannot quote here every passage that tells of these last seven years before Jesus sets His foot upon planet Earth again upon the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, Israel, at the end of these coming last seven years, but I will give you some passages of scripture that will warn you of what you will (very soon) have to endure if you do not repent. (To repent, according to scriptures, is to change your mind and admit you are a lost and Hell-bound sinner in need of a Savior, and then to believe that Jesus, the God-Man, IS that perfect, sinless Savior who alone died to pay the penalty for your sins; this is what it means to repent according to the scriptures (Romans 3:23; Romans 6:23; Romans 10:9-10; John 3:16-18; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
This coming Tribulation is the threshold over which you are about to be thrust. Read about the event that is coming: in Isaiah 13:6-8; Amos 5:18-20; Joel chapters 1 & 2; Daniel 9; Isaiah 17:1; Ezekiel 38-39; Matthew 24-25; Revelation chapters 6-18. Read all of these so that you can begin to grasp the utter devastation that is about to be unleashed on all who reject salvation in Christ alone according to the scriptures. Those of you who deliberately reject the great salvation offered freely to "whosoever will," will absolutely and certainly face everything recounted in these and many other scriptures. It's not a "maybe" or a "possibly," but a CERTAINTY. This is YOUR threshold.
However, we who have placed our trust and faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ have a completely different destiny. ALL who believe in Jesus as our Savior are justified; saved and eternally secured by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, for our salvation. All believers, both Jew and Gentile, are, upon our belief in Jesus Christ as our Savior, made into one new body "in Christ" - that body (also called the bride of Christ) being the true Remnant Church. For us, we are NOT on the threshold of the Tribulation. Oh no! By God's saving grace, WE, the Church, are on the very threshold of Glory!
This is what awaits ALL who are believers according to the scriptures - all who make up the "body" of whom Jesus Christ is the head - the "bride" of whom Jesus Christ is the bridegroom. Here is what awaits the blood-bought, redeemed Church of Jesus Christ:
"Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).
"In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:2-3).
"For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:9).
"After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter" (Revelation 4:1).
"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).
"And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth" (Revelation 5:9-10).
Oh, Church, I know we are tired - weary to the bone. Like righteous Lot, we too are vexed in our spirits. As we watch this world plunge ever deeper into the pit of evil, depravity, violence, hatred, murder, and godlessness, our hearts are being torn apart within us. We do our best to share the only gospel that can save men's souls. We weep. We pray, and we warn as watchmen and women upon the walls, and yet every hour that passes, we realize that this wicked, unrepentant, God-hating world edges closer and closer to the razors edge of destruction.
We already know what horrors lie just over the threshold for the lost, unbelieving world-a threshold over which they will be catapulted into the time of the coming Tribulation the very instant we, the Church, are called up into the skies to meet our Savior in the air when we cross OUR threshold in the rapture.
Two people groups: the lost, Christ-rejecting earth dwellers, and the saved, redeemed, and soon-to-be raptured Church. Two thresholds: one group dropped suddenly into the time of the wrath and vengeance of holy God upon this vile, God-hating, Christ-rejecting world, and the other group ushered "in a moment in the twinkling of an eye" into the very throne room of heaven into the presence of the holy One who sits in unmatched splendor upon an emerald-encircled throne!
Don't lose hope, believers. Hard as it may get, Church, don't quit. Keep looking up because, for us, while the earth dwellers are poised on the threshold of the gates of Hell come to earth, WE are poised upon the very threshold of Glory!
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