Understanding The Times

The days we are in are the “beginnings of sorrows” which precede the period of the Great Tribulation (Matt. 24:8).  They will bring many difficulties upon the earth. Even if you believe that Christians will be taken away before, or hidden during the Great Tribulation, you must understand that the Church must go through this time of tribulation.  It is a deception to think that the Church will be taken away before any of this.  These times of sorrows are necessary to move people to a point of decision.  They will help to bring about the great end-time revival on the one hand, and on the other, the turning of many towards a false saviour, or man of lawlessness.  As I write this, the world is just beginning to come out of the restrictions imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19.  I can understand people’s desire for things to return to normal, and many are casting off caution, but what should be the attitude of Christians?  If we take to heart the warning that this situation is, we will look beyond the temporal and seek to know the mind of the Lord from an eternal perspective.

We have entered the times for which Malachi declared: “Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me.  And the Lord, whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple…” (Mal. 3:1).  Before the Lord comes “for” His Church, He will come “to” His Church.  This will result in a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but also a time of refining for the Church (Mal. 3:2-5).  The refining must come to the Church before wrath comes to the world.  The refining will not necessarily be occurring at the same time as the revival, although there will be difficulties during the revival.  Many will come to the Lord, but not all will come with the right motives.  Only those who receive the Word in good soil will bear spiritual fruit.  There are some who will receive the word with gladness, but “have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time.  Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble.” (Mk. 4:17)  There are some also who will allow “the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things” to choke the word so they will also fall away.  I believe this is the great falling away that Paul said would occur before the revealing of the man of lawlessness (2Thess. 2:3).  There must be a great ingathering before there is a great falling away.  We do not want to be among those who fall away, but rather, we want to be among those who, “having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.” (Lu. 8:15)

This is the time to prepare for the Day of the Lord.  The preparation I speak of is more spiritual than it is natural.  There is wisdom in preparing a little in the natural, but it must not be in selfishness or unbelief.  We must not be like the rich man who built barns to store food for the days ahead, but neglected his soul (Lu. 12:18).  I think of Jesus feeding the multitudes.  When the crowds were gathered to Him in desert places, He had compassion on them and multiplied what food they had.  The same multiplication occurred when the widow was called upon to feed Elijah (1Ki. 17:8-16).  Whatever we have must first be given to the Lord, as a seed of faith, which the Lord will multiply to feed those around us.  If there is enough to share, then no multiplication is needed.  Take for example the sharing of goods that occurred in the early church.  Those who had goods sold them “and divided them among all, as anyone had need.” (Acts 2:45).  Many of those converted on the day of Pentecost had travelled to Jerusalem from various areas across the world.  Out of love, the local believers shared with them so they could stay longer in Jerusalem after the feast of Pentecost.  Part of the Lord’s provision for believers is that those who have more should share with those have less (2Cor. 8:13-15).  Even if we focus on natural preparations, who is to say that we will be able to use what we store?  It may be in those days that our goods will be confiscated because we belong to Jesus.  Or, it may be that we will have to flee to desert places, as Jesus told the disciples concerning the time of “the ‘abomination of desolation’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (Matt. 24:15).  In preparing for those days, let us not worry about what we shall eat and drink and wear, but let us have faith and seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. (Matt. 6:25-34)

I see another parallel in the feeding of the multitudes for the end times.  Not only is it an example of how the Lord will supernaturally care for the Church when we are not able to buy or sell, but it is also a symbol of how Christian communities will exist if we have to go into hiding.  You may believe that Christians will be taken away before the Great Tribulation, but let us suppose for now, that the tribulations of the Church may include a time of persecution in which we will not be able to worship in churches.  When we read of the feeding of four thousand in Mark Chapter 4, we find that Jesus instructed them to sit the people in groups of fifty and one hundred.  I believe this represents cell groups and house churches.  When we can have buildings to worship in, we should use them, but what if those are taken away?    To prepare for those days, we should include small group ministry within our Christian communities.  During the pandemic, congregations were not allowed to gather, so churches went online to minister to the people.  What if the internet is taken away? Small group ministry is the best structure for the underground church.

The greatest preparation we should make for the end times is our devotion to the Lord.  As we have been discussing in previous articles, we need to learn to overcome sin and the devil.  Isaiah tells us that the Day of the Lord will be a time for the shaking of the earth in order to bring down everything that is proud and lofty (Is. 2:12, 19).  We should humble ourselves and draw near to God (Jas. 4:8) with a noble and good heart (Lu. 8:15).  With meekness, we should open our hearts to the word of God (Jas. 1:21), “for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2Tim. 3:16).  This is not just reading our Bibles, this is listening to the Word that is spoken (rhema word), as we allow the Spirit to search our hearts and to feed us with what we need, according to His purpose.