"Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." 2 Timothy 3:12
As believers in Jesus Christ there is one single event we look so forward to, and that is the Lords return. "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:" 1 Thessalonians 4:16 What an event it will be, there will be a "shout", not just any shout but it will be a glorious shout. Then there will be a blowing of a trumpet, not just a trumpet sound but "the trump of God" I don't know exactly what this shout or trump of God is but I can promise they both will be special and the forerunner of the calling home all believers on the earth. However, of that time we simply do not know, except the Father. "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." Matthew 24:36 Since there is no way for us to know the will of God on this time, we simply must hope and pray that the appointed time for the "shout" and "trump of God" are soon. This time has been promised and hoped for since Jesus Christ ascended into the cloud in which He shall return. "Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Acts 1:11
Now with all this goodness being spoken about, let us also set out thoughts on reality. The real story here is we simply do not know when Jesus will return, today, tomorrow, a year, decade, or even a century, the truth is we do not know, but only hope and pray it is soon. With this being said, we as Christians must realize that this world is worsening almost by the hour. Jesus Christ was hated and hunted most all his life until he surrendered His life on the cross. Since the time of Jesus His followers have been persecuted even to the point of miserable and gross deaths. If you follow Christians thru history you will find they were persecuted and killed in very horrible ways. We saw Christians in the "dark ages" This is a time around 5th – 15th century. During this time the Roman Empire controlled by the Catholics seek to destroy any Christians who would not convert to their religion. Many millions of Baptist were slaughtered by these governments and Catholics. Christians were beheaded, hung by the neck, crucified in many ways, tied to wheels and rolled over rocks until every bone in their bodies were broken, and many were rolled in lard and thrown alive to the wild animals to be eaten alive. All of these persecutions were simply because they were followers of Jesus Christ, proclaimer's and obeyers of His word. Here in America we were blessed when our forefathers escaped the King's government and Catholic persecution and sailed to a new world where Christians could worship God without persecution. However, we know if we read the scriptures we will never escape the persecution of Satan and his followers. "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." 2 Timothy 3:12 As some of you who are young may not know, but there were times in this nation (while we were not a Christian Nation) where godliness was more tolerable toward God and the bible. However, in the last 50 years a great and fast descent has progressed to where we are at today's time. America has reached a point where godliness is a thing of the past and heathenism has captured our Nation. With the death of Justice Antonin Scalia it is possible that the Supreme Court will turn ultra liberal and liberalism hates God and Christians. I do not know if churches and Christians have woke-up to this fact of not, but if the Court is turned liberal the U.S. Constitution will become obsolete and the court will re-write it to fit liberalism. Our rights afforded to us by the First Amendment will be in jeopardy of being over written by the new liberal court. There could be a time in our life time when it could become to hard for true churches and Christians to exist in America. We could very well become the object of imprisonment and even death because of who we are, followers of Christ and His word. I know there are a lot of folks who are saying this will never happen in our life time, but I also heard this on gay marriage, and the legalization of some mind altering drugs like Marijuana. Beloved, what I say is very logical and very possible. Never doubt the power of Satan. All churches and Christians need to focus on the preaching of the gospel, but we also need to focuses on prayer and unity because the axe of liberalism and the most hate time for Christians has just fallen with the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. As I said we do not know when Jesus Christ will return, but for our sake I pray it is soon. Believe me the haters of Israel and Christians has this on the top of their mind and agenda. Let us all be in much prayer. "But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. 1 Peter 4:7 May God bless us all as we watch and pray together. And please let us all "Pray without ceasing." 1 Thessalonians 5:17
