The End Game - Part 1

The end game (part 1)

We are in the end game

We are in the end times. The prophecy of Jesus in Matthew 24 looks practically like our daily newspaper headlines. Surf to any online news website and you will hear of famine (Venezuela), War (Isis, South China sea), nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom (or ethnicity against ethnicity – terrorism attacks against different faiths are counted here, so is Isis-led terror which hopes to establish a Muslim kingdom or caliph which is worldwide, their kingdom versus the democratic “kingdoms” or rule). 

Yet the prophecy that Jesus gave in Matt 24 and other scriptures about our time hold out both extremely hopeful exciting promises and extremely dark and threatening warnings. Times will get both better and worse. So buckle your seatbelt and bid farewell to certainty, there will quickly be no certainty except the certainty of Gods word and promises and the words and insights The Holy Spirit provides for our times.

What can we expect during this time? 

This article will compile all the negative features of the end times followed by the promises so we can end on a high note - if things look dark and dreary, hang on till the end of the article, the picture gets a whole lot brighter when we put all the pieces of the puzzle together.

Bad stuff sign #1 falling away from the faith, betrayal, division, hurt and hatred

Matt 24 

10 At that time many will [d]fall away and will [e]betray one another and hate one another.

The word fall away implies that these people were in the grace of God, they had faith in God but because of the what I believe is the anti-Christ spirit of the end times and the assault on people who genuinely love Jesus, many people will find that following Jesus is too hard, that it's just not worth it to follow him, also because of the tremendously trying circumstances to their faith and there will be many who leave the faith. I did not say leave the church, because you can leave the church but still keep your faith- God does not measure your faith by checking off a church attendance register.

v24 "(they will) betray one another" If you have not been hurt by your brothers and sisters in Christ you will be the minority because there will be hurtful experiences as there is a lack of loyalty and brotherhood and friendship in the body of Christ. Betrays will increase. v24 "Hate one another" Lastly, there will be increasing division in Churches and sad to say Churches will be at war with one another. 

I believe there will be a company of people who are betrayed and hurt by their brothers in Christ who will not hurt in return but forgive like Joseph and through exceptionally trying circumstances by the grace of God they will be purified but through much difficulty- more about that later.

Bad stuff sign #2 false teachings, false prophets and Teachers leading to love of many growing cold and tremendous moral corruption

Matthew 24:11-12 NASB

[11] Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. [12] Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold.

Jesus says the reason for love, or agape Gods love growing cold is because there is such a proliferation of false teachings in our day. I deal with this in another article here:

https://tatteredbluebible.blogspot.sg/2016/06/the-fine-balance-between-law-legalism.html?m=1

Again this prophecy of Jesus applies to the church and not the world becase only the church who has received the love of the Father, agape love which is unconditional love only she can forget this love, lose her first love and grow cold. And the second evidence is that she is a victim of false Teachers, teachings and prophets.

The conclusion is that it is very likely that you have been hurt badly and betrayed badly by your brothers and sisters in Christ.

If we look around, marriage is under assault, gay marriage in many countries is being championed and sexual Lust is everywhere because of the thriving of online pornography. Jesus did say that the erosion of bible truth would lead to lawlessness. We must return to our bibles in the last days, the solution to false teachings is to examine the scriptures for yourself, praying to receive the love of truth so that we may escape deception and so that we ourselves will not fall away from God. 2 thess 2:9-10 - stop right now and ask God to inflame your heart to love his word and truth so that we may be saved.

2 Thessalonians 2:10 NASB

[10] because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.