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No doubt About It
The Great Tribulation Will Be a Test of Character
In our last report, we
focused on the importance of making a personal
commitment to be honest in every aspect of life
and the necessity of standing on the side of
righteousness and truth at any price. Within
this context, the identity of the Great
Prostitute in Revelation 17 was discussed because
she represents a great horde of people who will
prostitute themselves with the devil to survive
during the Great tribulation. The Battle of
Armageddon was also discussed in our last study
because it exposes the logical end to which every
carnal heart will go. Every carnal heart would
destroy God in order to save itself because the
carnal heart loves itself more than it loves God.
(This is why the wicked have to be annihilated at
the end of the 1,000 years Gods
universe cannot be free of sin until every carnal
heart is destroyed.) From birth, our carnal
nature stands in opposition to loving God with
all our heart, mind and soul. (Romans 8: 5-7)
This is why we have to be born again. (John 3:3)
Of course, God does not have any carnal
propensities in His heart. He has proven that He
loves us more than He loves His own life and He
requires the same of us. (Matthew 22:37,38; John
10:11-17)
Have you ever found
yourself in a sudden and unexpected situation
where you were challenged to be honest? I have.
My failures remind me of Pauls words in
Romans 7. Even after Paul had been a Christian
for 30 years, he wrote: I do not
understand what I do. For what I want to do I do
not do, but what I hate to do. And if I do what I
do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but
it is sin living in me. (Romans
7:15-17) Have you ever found yourself in an
ongoing situation where you tossed and turned
with the consequences for being honest? I am
speaking of situations where dishonesty appears
to resolve or make the best of a bad situation.
Should situations determine our commitment to
honesty? No. Being honest at all costs produces
peace and even though there may be serious
consequences for telling the truth, there is joy
in having done the right thing. Honesty may
produce an immediate problem, but honesty also
enables God to accomplish objectives that go far
beyond our knowledge. (Remember how Joseph went
to prison for refusing to have a sexual affair
with Potiphars wife, only to become the
second highest ruler in Egypt? Genesis 39)
Honesty
Caught by Surprise
For an example of how the
carnal heart works, let us examine Peters
boasting. Peter declared, Even if
all fall away, I will not. I tell you
the truth, Jesus answered, today
yes, tonight before the rooster
crows twice you yourself will disown me three
times. But Peter insisted emphatically,
Even if I have to die with you, I will
never disown you. And all the others said
the same. (Mark 14:29-31) Most
Christians are aware that Peter denied the Lord
within a few hours of his empty boast. I think
there is two reasons that Peter denied Jesus.
First, when Peter said he would never disown
Jesus, he was thinking about being brave
alongside Jesus as Jesus moved to establish a
kingdom on Earth, but the capture and humiliation
of Jesus separated Peter from Jesus. When Peter
saw Jesus in chains, Peter was defeated because
he thought Jesus had been defeated. In a matter
of hours, Peters world imploded. When the
young girl identified Peter in the courtyard,
fear had pushed his emotions totally out of
control, leaving him an emotional basket
case. Second, I am sure that Peter honestly
thought when he declared his loyalty to Jesus
that he would be loyal to Jesus no matter
what, but Peter was not aware of the
strength of his carnal nature. When the
circumstances forced Peter to consider the
painful ramifications of being associated with a
defeated Jesus, he lied to escape the
sufferings of Jesus.
Make no mistake about it.
Circumstances during the Great Tribulation will
produce a sharp test of character. He [the
beast, the crisis government, the pre-cursor to
the great prostitute] was given power to make
war against the saints and to conquer them. And
he was given authority over every tribe, people,
language and nation [including the United
States, Russia, China, etc.]. All inhabitants
of the earth will worship the beast all
whose names have not been written in the book of
life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from
the creation of the world. He who has a ear, let
him hear. (Revelation 13: 7-9,
insertions mine)
God will thoroughly test
the honesty of every human being. He will
separate the sheep from the goats by testing our
honesty and our love for Him, as well as our love
for our neighbor. I am discussing these important
and timely matters because I believe that this
generation will soon experience the Great
Tribulation and I want to encourage everyone who
is willing to listen. God will, at the right
time, give His children the necessary strength to
stand for truth and righteousness and be
victorious over the forces of evil. Notice what
Revelation says about the 144,000 who will die
and be resurrected during the Great Tribulation. And
I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with
fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had
been victorious over the beast and his image and
over the number of his name. They held harps
given them by God and sang the song of Moses the
servant of God and the song of the Lamb:
Great and marvelous arte your deeds, Lord
God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King
of the ages. Who will not fear you, O Lord, and
bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy.
All nations will come and worship before you, for
your righteous acts have been
revealed. (Revelation 15: 2-4)
Abandon
the Human Point of View!
When we study the cause
and effects of the Great Tribulation, we have a
tendency to examine this topic from a human point
of view instead of looking through the eye
of faith. God has a number of important
goals to accomplish during the Great Tribulation
and we are much better off when we focus on
Gods objectives and Gods power rather
than trying to save ourselves. Hopefully, the
following parallel will clarify what I mean.
Remember the incident in
Numbers 13 when God directed Moses to send twelve
leaders from Israel into Canaan to spy out the
Promised Land. At that time, God was ready to
move His people forward. He was ready to fulfill
one of His promises to Abraham to give the
land of Canaan to the descendants of Israel. Of
course, God knew the giants who lived in Canaan
by name and He knew about their walled cities
but what are these measly things to
Almighty God? God told Moses to send twelve
leaders from Israel to gather information about
the land of Canaan because He wanted His people
to hear from their own leaders about the
treasures and goodness that would soon be theirs!
God wanted to encourage and delight His people.
He also wanted to give them a heads
up on the obstacles that they would face so
that there would be no overwhelming surprises.
(Incidentally, this is also the reason why the
books of Daniel and Revelation were put into the
Bible. God wants us to understand His plans.)
However, when the twelve spies returned from
their investigation of Canaan, the Bible
indicates that ten spies were overwhelmed with
the magnitude of suffering that would be
necessary to conquer Canaan. Ten leaders
presented a human point of view and two leaders,
Caleb and Joshua, presented Gods point of
view.
At the end of
the forty days they returned from exploring the
land. They came back to Moses and Aaron and the
whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert
of Paran. There they reported to them and
to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit
of the land. They gave Moses this account:
We went into the land to which you sent us,
and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is the
fruit. But the people who live there are
powerful, and the cities are fortified and very
large. We even saw the descendants of Anak
there. The Amalekites live in the Negev;
the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the
hill country; and the Canaanites live near the
sea and along the Jordan. Then Caleb
silenced the people before Moses and said,
We should go up and take possession of the
land, for we can certainly do it. But the
men who had gone up with him said, We
cant attack those people; they are stronger
that we are. And they spread among the
Israelites a bad report about the land they had
explored. They said, The land we explored
devours those living in it. All the people we saw
are of great size. We saw the Nephilim
there (the descendants of Anak [the giant] come
from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers
in their own eyes, and we looked the same to
them. That night all the people of the
community raised their voices and wept aloud. All
the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron,
and the whole community said to them, If
only we had died in Egypt! Or in the desert! Why
is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let
us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will
be taken as plunder. Wouldnt it be better
for us to go back to Egypt? And they said
to each other, We should choose a leader
and go back to Egypt,
. The Lord said
to Moses, How long will these people
treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse
to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous
signs I have performed among them? I will strike
them down with a plague and destroy them, but I
will make you into a nation greater and stronger
than they. (Numbers
13:25-14:4,11,12 insertion mine)
The Lord became furious
with the nation of Israel when He heard His
people grumbling. He had performed hundreds of
miracles for them. He had delivered them from
slavery in Egypt and had taken them through the
Red Sea. He was providing water and food from
Heaven each day! His cloud over the tabernacle
was a shelter from the desert sun and a glowing
light at night. He was taking care of His people
on a day-to-day basis and they still did not
trust Him enough to go forward. That is the
nature of the carnal heart. It is so concerned
with its convenience and comfort and so afraid of
suffering that no amount of divine kindness is
ever enough. So, the Lord condemned that hopeless
generation to death. They all died in the
wilderness, except Caleb and Joshua.
Same
Song, Second Verse
We can be sure that when
the Great Tribulation begins, there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth. When Gods
judgments begin to fall, billions of people will
curse God and give up hope when they see their
security and cherished possessions destroyed.
Yet, this will not be the worst thing to happen.
Prior to the seven bowls, the greatest suffering
during the Great Tribulation will not be caused
by Gods judgments, but rather, the
suffering that men will inflict on each other!
The Bible tells us how
this will happen. Revelation predicts that the
religious and political leaders of the world will
interpret the horrible manifestations of
Gods wrath as a wake-up call having
biblical proportions. The leaders of the world
will conclude that God is demanding repentance
and worship. As a result, the countries of the
world will rapidly transition from nations
consumed with endless wars and internal bickering
into a coalition of nations trying to appease God
with their manmade solutions. Fear
of the Almighty will shatter diverse religious
barriers that currently exist. This is precisely
what God wants. He intends to set up global
circumstances so that the things that He values
most will conflict with the things the carnal
nature values most. In other words, when
Gods wrath is released and life is reduced
to a day-to-day survival mode, we will soon
discover what matters most to each of us. In this
context, honesty, faith, and love will be tested.
God will do this by sending a clarion message of
truth into the world through His 144,000
servants. Gods truth filled demands, if
obeyed, will put the honest in heart in direct
conflict with the authorities of this world. We
will not be able to obey God and man. This
conflict will produce pain. This is how our
love for honesty and truth will be tested.
I
hope you understand that God has deliberately and
carefully designed the events of the Great
Tribulation to test mankind. God is about to sort
the living into two camps and a harvest of people
who are pure in heart will be found! Blessed
are the pure in heart, for they will see
God. (Matthew 5:8) By Gods grace
and with His help, I plan to be in that number
and I know you do, too! Heaven will be cheap
enough.
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