An Amazing Conversation

I was speaking with a lady at work recently and I was absolutely stunned by her thoughts. A preface to this is she attends a large non-denominational "christian" church. We were dicussing the BP oil spill and I was mentioning how the oil looks like blood in the water, the increasing death of sea life etc when she said "oh, the book of Revelation cannot be read literally!" At which time I asked her, "ok, so even if you see a literal mountain all ablaze fall into the sea, if the sea literally turns into blood, when a third of the sea life literally dies, when a third of the ships in the sea are destroyed, when you have objective, empirical, measurable, verifiable EVIDENCE that matches one for one exactly with what the bible says, you still won't believe?" Her answer? "No."

This lady and her large "church" just finished going through the entire book of Revelation so "she knows" what the Lord means now.....The awesome part of this is that apparently for people like this lady, there is no evidence, nothing that would convince her now or at any point in the future that the events of Revelation are unfolding before her very eyes. When I asked her "what's the use of the Lord giving us any prophesy then if only God knows what and when things are happening in the world and the words mean nothing for us?" She replied "we don't need to know, it doesn't matter even if the book of Revelation is unfolding before us, we just need to do good things and be good people..." WOWWWWWWW. She went on to say that if we are living a good life, the entire book of Revelation is "meaningless" for us as Christians today. Meaningless? That's a quote word for word from her mouth and she was serious. I almost had to wet the tip of my finger and stick it in an electrical socket to snap out of that tailspin...

So now we have "church people" who propose to represent Christianity to the world who deny that literal fulfillment of anything that was written means anything. That's awesome. Let me tell you why I believe the Lord's Word coming to pass means something......the word is called vindication.

From Merriam-Webster: Main Entry: vin·di·ca·tion
Pronunciation: \ˌvin-də-ˈkā-shən\ Function: noun date: 1613
: an act of vindicating : the state of being vindicated; specifically : justification against denial or censure : defense

This thought has been simmering in my mind for weeks now. The Lord has fully vindicated his Word in my life. That means his Word has been proven true and faithful to the point where I consider it absolute fact. He has vindicated his Word to me, and I believe that the events unfolding all around us in the world today give us more vindication, or proof that the Word of the Lord is true. The fact that we see literal fulfillment of the Word of God does matter.

When the Word of God is being literally fulfilled before our eyes, should we not say something (as the Spirit leads us to) to the lost and dying in this world? Like "hey, gosh, all this stuff happening around us was written in this book, you might want to pick it up and read it sometime." We need not say these things in a harsh or sarcastic way, but in a way that may just inspire them to investigate the narrow path that leads to life (Matt 7:13-14).

It was mentioned here recently that the BP oil spill looks alot like the unfolding of Revelation 8:

8The second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea; and a third of the sea became blood, 9and a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life, died; and a third of the ships were destroyed.
10The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of waters. 11The name of the star is called Wormwood; and a third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the waters, because they were made bitter.

A great mountain burning with fire thrown into the sea: did you see the oil rig before it sank?

A third of the sea became blood: have you seen what that oil looks like floating around in the Gulf?

A third of the creatures in the sea died: have you seen what's been happening to the sea life as a result of this spill?

Granted, I haven't seen any ships destroyed and I am not saying that we are seeing the fulfillment of Revelation 8. What I am saying is, the wording matches closely with what we are seeing. I also believe this is a time to learn. We are seeing how the world reacts to events that mirror those that will occur during the time of Jacob's trouble. Notice that in all the coverage, all the press conferences, all the finger pointing, all the hardships, no mention of God or his word....anywhere. Very instructive.

Based on what we are seeing, a disaster on a global scale and the attendant response, the Lord and his Holy Word will not be mentioned when angels are flying through the earth proclaiming the gospel, when the two witnesses are standing in Jerusalem calling down plagues on the world, and when the anti-christ is literally fulfilling the bible word for word.

Back to literal interpretations...

We are told that those who will not accept the kingdom of heaven like little children will never enter it. Children know literal. If I tell my son that when it rains outside he gets a piece of candy, then after the first drop of rain falls he'll be tugging on my shirt with that look in his eyes "where's my candy daddy?" He doesn't look outside and think "the falling rain is really symbolic of the tears of all the sad and weary in the world and my hypothesis of the way the wind blows the rain, causing it to fall this way is blah blah blah blah blah therefore my dad is not going to give me a piece of candy because although I see with my own eyes that it is raining, he didn't really mean what he said when he said I'd get a piece of candy when it started to rain..." How blind people can be. If it looks like moutain all ablaze falling into the sea, and a third of the sea turns as blood, and a third of the sealife dies, and a third of the ships is destroyed, people might be wise to disregard their "symbolic" interpretations of the bible and get ready for Revelation 9, 10, 11 etc. Call me crazy...

Only the Lord knows how this oil spill is going to pan out for the world. Not one "expert" knows in the entire world, not one has stepped forward to tell us what the years ahead will look like with the Gulf tarred over. Even if what we are seeing is not Revelation, it is "revelation" to the world that without our Lord this place is in big trouble. That leads me to the last point that I believe the Spirit of God impressed on me recently. The Lord protects and guards those who love him. The Lord has protected nations and individuals in the past. It appears that what has been allowed to happen (oil spill) may not have been allowed to happen (the Lord's restraining power might have prevented it) had we the people of the United States been faithful. As things stand, the United States is a filthy cesspool of every unclean thing, the major exporter of war and porn and death and moral degradation (think Hollywood) in the world today. People's faith is in government and BP's response, the stock market, their 401k and who is going to win the Superbowl this year.

It takes faith the size of a mustard seed to move a mountain. Matthew 17:20 I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Faith the size of a mustard seed....when is the last time you saw a mountain moved in your own life? Is Jesus being literal or symbolic when he says we can move mountains? I can tell you from first hand experience, he meant what he said. I have seen mountains moved, the Lord's Word has been vindicated and will be vindicated in the days ahead.

I wonder how much time the world has left. Although I am 100% certain that we will see a pre-tribulation rapture/escape from all/harpazo of the true church, when that will happen is a mystery. As I read the writings of Christian men going back hundreds of years, I see the same thoughts on paper that we are thinking to ourselves now. The world has gone apostate and the end must be near. Well, for those thinking those thoughts in the 1800's, they were off by a couple hundred years....what's the lesson for us? Patience.

The stage appears to be set for the end times to play out, yet alot of what we are seeing in Satan rattling his cage wanting to get out to do his end times act. His problem is that the Lord determines the timing of things and Satan can only guess at the Lord's timing. I have been convinced for years that what we are seeing play out in the world can only go on for a short time then the end will have to come, but today is just like yesterday. The economy is tanking and it has been for years. The world is wicked and getting more wicked as it has for years. What should we conclude from these things?

Rev 3:10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

2 Thessalonians 1:4 Therefore, among God's churches we boast about ... ... So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and
faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: ...

2 Peter 1:6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control ... ... and in your knowledge self-control; and in your'self-control patience; and in your patience godliness; ...

Luke 21:19 By standing firm you will gain life. ... In your patience possess ye your souls. ... In your patience possess you your souls. ...

Revelation 2:2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your ... ... I know your works, and your labor, and your patience, and how you can not bear them which are evil: and you have tried them which say they are apostles, and

We need to be ready tonight for the Lord to come back for us. We also need to be ready to wait patiently for years....In our patience we posses our souls. We have no need to be alarmed by what the media is saying, what the government is doing, how corrupt the corporations of the world are, how UFO's are being spotted all over the world. These things have gone on for years and will go on for years unless the Lord steps in soon to start the clock on Jacob's time of trouble.

One day, it will be abundantly clear to those who doubted what the Lord meant when He said things in His Word. I'm sure some things written in the bible are symbolic, but there are many many many things that were written to us to take at face value. We ignore literal interpretations of the bible at our own peril. We interpret the Word of God with the assistance of the SPIRIT OF GOD, not through "christian" scholarship. We enter the kingdom of God like little children, not like Th. D, ABCD degree holding clergy members. When the world is heading a certain direction, we of the kingdom not of this world should 9 times out of 10 be headed in the exact opposite direction.

grace, peace and love