Contending earnestly for the faith…..Making sense of this mixed up world. By Alan Franklin.

This Sunday, October 16, I am speaking in our home church, Tongham Christian Fellowship. I am going to be intolerant. Everything I say will be politically incorrect - but Biblically correct. I will explain just why society is falling apart, why children grow up confused and self-destructive, why nothing seems to make sense any more and we live in the age of unreason. For there IS a reason for all our troubles, a spiritual malaise at the heart of all ills. Here is some of what I will be preaching. 

 

Britain, America and many nations are falling apart because of spiritual deception. They now believe there are many paths to God. The Bible calls all other faiths idolatry. Britain was a center of Druidism when the first Christians arrived, over 500 years before Augustine arrived with his false theology. Druids sacrificed their children, just as we do today with around seven million babies killed in abortion butcheries since 1967. This is just one of the reasons God is judging us. 

 

The world is getting darker, closer to its destruction. Night is not yet here but it is late evening - a few minutes to midnight. We need to learn to trust the Lord completely and remember: God is still on the throne and prayer changes things. We have the Blessed Hope….. Psalm 71:5… “For You are my hope, O Lord God;You are my trust from my youth.” And remember, Proverbs 11:7 states: “When a wicked man dies, his hope perishes; all he expected from his power comes to nothing.” Beware, Richard Dawkins, arch-atheist and fool! 

 

Whereas: “Those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land,” from the 37th Psalm, verse 9. It’s a reference to the coming Millennium. The world seems to be out of control. But it is never out of God’s control. And payday is coming….. “Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same” (Job 4:8) Satan pays in counterfeit currency. “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7) 

 

Fear and uncertainty will grow as it becomes obvious the world is out of man’s control. Jesus spoke of His coming again in great power and glory but He said something else had to happen first (Luke 21:26)…. “Men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming on the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” 

 

As we hear of all that is coming we are not to be subject to the spirit of fear. Jesus said: “In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” Romans 8;37 says that in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. On the broad path almost anything is tolerated. Yoga is taught in church halls everywhere – the spirit of the serpent. It’s just exercise…or so deceivers claim. The aim, as in many false faiths, is to find the god within. 

 

 

 

 

This broad way leads to destruction as it is based on lies, like the New Age Movement, which is actually very old, the Emergent Church and so on. The Jesus way is the narrow way for He is the truth – the absolute truth. An unfashionable idea, one the world sees as intolerant. But the Bible makes it clear that there is but ONE way to Heaven, whether the nations believe it or not. We mostly don’t, here in Britain.

 

 

 Take a look at the Buddha statues in gardens on your way home and remember  the Second Commandment which starts: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God…” 

 

What will stop our society finally falling apart? Not more prisons, not more security cameras – but more of the word of God. In Paul’s first letter to Timothy he wrote (1 Timothy 4: 1-3) “But the Spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy seared in their own conscience with a branding iron, Men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.” 

 

Here we see, among others, the Catholic church, a major part of the coming Great Whore Church of the last days – forbidding marriage for its “priests,” banning meat on Fridays (until it ceased to be a mortal sin!) and so on. God calls their ideas “doctrines of demons” yet most of the church today will happily join with them in ecumenical events. Churches Together? Yes, false churches together! If you disagree you will probably be called a bigot. 

 

Four visitors to Britain came to find the church. They were still looking for it the last I heard. I told them we are a remnant church, a phrase they had not heard before. This should neither surprise nor dismay us. Luke 18 verse 8 quotes Jesus asking… “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” The phrasing of the question suggests the answer is “no.”

 

When many of those who love their success-driven, name it and claim it churches go broke, lose their jobs and homes, will they still have faith in that wonderful god of wealth creation?  It depends on what their faith is based on. Paul details End Times society in Second Timothy 3: 1-5: “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these.” 

 

Do you think Paul was talking about seeker-friendly Christianity – Christianity Lite- the feel-good Gospel? People who give the impression they are on the Lord’s side but do not act in accordance with His words, which is precisely how the antichrist spirit will be manifest. Antichrist will give many the impression he is Christ, by being a benefactor and bringing peace, before his true nature as a son of the devil emerges. 

 

In his first letter the Apostle John wrote these words to believers: (1 John 2:18) “Children, it is the last hour and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen; from this we know that it is the last hour.” When we think that John wrote those words over 1,900 years ago it is significant how accurately they capture the spirit of these last days.  

 

 

 

 

So are we wasting our time? Should we all go home and watch television, or wash the car? Or should we be anticipating the most exciting time in 2000 years, the second coming of Jesus Christ? Don’t allow the bad things happening rob you of the joy of this anticipation. The Bible says we are to yearn for the return of the Lord (2 Timothy 4; 7-8. Most of the church today is yawning, as our favorite American preacher Dr. David Reagan says…… 

 

Christians are not called to “win.” We are not to fight crusades – at least, not with armies.  In fact, in many ways we will lose the battle. The world is set to get a lot worse, very soon. Satan is the ruler of this world and will continue to be until our Lord returns, when Satan will be cast alive into the lake of fire. Satan has a master plan – but God has THE master plan. Satan is the ultimate loser, but he wins for a while. If he tries to remind us of our past we can always remind him of his future - no wonder he tries to stifle the study of prophecy! 

 

We cannot control Satan - as Christians our job is to stand for righteousness. Until our rapture or death, we have to spread the word, to speak out on behalf of God’s  principles.  Watchmen were set on high places, to warn of impending danger. The Lord has watchmen doing the same today – the SWRC (see our links) has as its motto the watchman on the wall. Ezekiel 33 tells of the watchman’s role: vs 2 onwards: “Son of man, speak to the sons of the people, and say to them: ‘If I bring a sword upon the land. And the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman,And he sees the sword coming upon the land, and he blows on the trumpet and warns the people,Then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his sword will be upon his own head.He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself.

 

"But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life.But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman’s hand.”  

 

We as a watchman church are here to please God, not to please people. To be a light in the gloom, to tell people they do not need to choose destruction. All round the world Christians are being martyred in ever increasing numbers as the world’s hatred turns against real Christianity. In ALL Islamic countries becoming a Christian is a life threatening experience. Yet many in these countries are secretly becoming believers, facing death the moment their secret is out. They are pleasing God, not men. They are saving their souls when all around them are losing theirs. 

 

Yet all over the western world, millions of cars are purpose driven into church car parks every Sunday. A quarter of a million pastors listen to Rick Warren’s purpose driven messages and adapt them for their own flocks. Warren’s books sell in tens of millions. Surely this is the church victorious? Turn on the God Channels and you sometimes see churches with tens of thousands of members.  If the millions in the mega-churches were hearing the true Gospel, our societies, in Britain and America, would not be fast gurgling down the plughole.  So why is it happening? 

Deception is the answer- the main spiritual problem of the end times. Many churches are Laodicean – lukewarm. There is a great falling away from Biblical truth. Jesus said: “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come IN MY NAME…” In His name! (Matthew 24:4-5). Beware!  Paul warns in 1 Timothy 4:1:  “In the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits…” 

The very word “fundamental” has acquired a bad reputation, when all it means when applied to Christians is that you believe the foundational truths in the Bible. Many ministers and bishops deny the basic, foundational truths of our faith – the virgin birth, the atoning  death and the resurrection of Christ.

As well as false doctrines there are false “Christs” deceiving many (Matthew 24:5).  The Greek word “Christ” means “anointed one.”  Jesus is the one and only anointed one, the true Christ, the only one who fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies of Israel’s Messiah.  He alone can baptize with the Holy Spirit.  Yet there are men today standing on platforms in churches shouting:  “I have the anointing!”  No they do not.  Only Jesus has the anointing.  The closer we get to the Lord’s return, the more false “Christs” will come, and many foolish people will follow them.

 

Do not listen to those who claim to perform miracle healings or to “take authority” over the weather. Such men are deceived.   When I believed in the Kingdom Now philosophy that is everywhere in the false churches, we were always “claiming” things for Christ. In my stupidity I once walked round a well known newspaper plant, “claiming” it. I didn’t get it. In fact they took over our company. "We're gonna take this town (nation, planet) for Jesus Christ." Rick Warren says he will mobilise a billion Christians to do just that.

 

Funny, that’s not what Jesus said.   This  “Kingdom Now” teaching  has deceived many people, who are wasting good prayer time “claiming” their towns for Christ and marching through areas to “break Satan’s strongholds.”  We are not going to “take” any territory for the Lord Jesus.  It’s all His anyway.  We are not going to “bind” Satan or any other evil spirits over our towns.  That is not in our power to do.  Paul didn’t do that in the pagan towns. Ever since marches for Jesus started the world has become worse and worse. We are not going to “bring the kingdom in.”   

 

The Lord Jesus will do that with no help from us, after he destroys His enemies gathered in Israel. Only He acts, His enemies are killed with the sword that came from His mouth – REVELATION 19 VERSE 21.  In the meantime, far from “taking” any towns, we will be hated and persecuted, just as He forewarned us in John 15.   And, as evil waxes worse and worse, the professing church will continue deeper and deeper into apostasy, just as is happening today.   We do not need fables and follies, we need Godly leadership.

 

We must concentrate on saving souls rather than healing minds, with so-called Christian “psychology.” We need the faith in God that sent missionaries round the world and built Britain into the greatest nation on earth, something astonishing for a nation of our size, just as it is astonishing for Israel to be so strong today. A nation without true faith - not faith in faith but faith in Jesus -cannot stand for long. God judges nations in many ways and we have now lost our sovereignty while most people are too lazy and ill informed to have noticed.

 

We must start making judgments, for the claim that tolerance must be our guideline for life is itself an intolerant statement. God honors nations that honor Him, rather than question all that He has set out in His book – the Maker’s handbook, the book that guides us through life to everlasting life. Nations need conviction so that storms do not shake them and our democracy is failing as we have turned to man from God and our freedoms are following the Bible out of the door. The more we break His rules the more rules the godless government imposes until soon, all freedom has gone.

 

We are almost at that point, just awaiting a word from Brussels to act against evangelical Christians.A Baptist mother in GERMANY WAS ARRESTED AT GUNPOINT FOR TEACHING HER CHILDREN AT HOME. The family have had to flee to Austria. The rule was brought in by Hitler, who wanted state control over pupils’ minds- just like today. 

 

Chapter ten of Revelation shows Jesus at His second coming, portrayed as a mighty angel who returns to earth with the scroll open in His hand. He comes to claim the earth for His saints- us- who will rule with Him. Using Old Testament imagery, the passage says He will cry out “with a loud voice, as when a lion roars.”Woe to the fallen world. It has ignored God’s ultimatum and faces His wrath. But one day soon,  every knee will bow.

 

Visible reality all around us ranges from bad to disappointing. But this world is not our home. We are in it but not of it. In the pages of the Bible we read of “evidence of things not seen.” In 2 Kings Elisha was in Dothan and the King of Syria surrounded the city with many horsemen and chariots. Elisha’s servant was scared but Elisha told him there were more on the Israelites’ side than against them. Elisha asked God to open the man’s spiritual eyes- and he saw a mountain full of the chariots of fire and horses of Israel. 

When Syria or any other country next attacks Israel they will discover this all over again. 

Our five senses will die with us- they are temporary. What counts is the invisible – this is what the Bible is all about. Spiritual realities are different to what we see in the world right now as in Heaven, our Lord is preparing for His triumphant return. He is also preparing a place for us. 

 

Maranatha – come, Lord Jesus.

 


12/10/2011

 
 
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