But WHY US?
But some will always ask, "But why should God choose THIS generation for the manifestation of His wrath?"
"What have WE done? Why should God be angry with us?"
And even these questions were prophesied.
God said, "And it shall come to pass, when you shall show this people all these words [of these PROPHECIES], and they shall say unto you, 'Wherefore hath the Eternal pronounced all this great evil against us?' or 'What is our iniquity?' or 'What is our sin that we have committed against the Eternal our God?'
"Then shall you say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the Eternal, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law!" (Jer. 16:10-11)
Does this sound a little "vague" to you? Does it sound a little archaic, a little too much like some "Old Testament Fire and Brimstone?"
It's time you understand the real ENORMITY of our personal and national sins! God continued, "And you have done WORSE than your fathers; for, behold, you walk everyone after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me!" (Jer. 12:16)
But why would God say OUR peoples, our "CHRISTIAN" peoples are guilty of plain IDOLATRY? Surely YOU have not bowed down to an IDOL, have you? Have YOU really WORSHIPPED OTHER GODS? Could YOU have been guilty of IDOLATRY?
Most would answer, "Of course not!" "Why," they might say, "In this modern age of enlightenment, only ignorant SAVAGES practice idolatry — but we, in this CHRISTIAN world certainly don't."
You'll be shocked to find just how completely our peoples have been guilty of idolatry!
First, WHAT IS idolatry?
Your Creator commands, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me!" (Ex. 20:3) And most people assume THEIR concept of "god" must be the TRUE God — most people confuse the SECOND commandment with the first. God said, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven 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; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Eternal thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments." (Ex. 20:4-6)
And, since the vast majority of our peoples believe we have come out of the heathen age of outright worship of sticks, stones, totem poles, fetishes, witch doctors and the like — we carelessly assume we are NOT guilty of IDOLATRY!
Do You KNOW God?
But WHO IS your god? WHERE is He? Of HOW MANY PERSONS does YOUR God consist? What is He LIKE? What kind of CHARACTER does He have? Can He intervene on YOUR behalf? Does YOUR God give you any COMMANDS you MUST OBEY? What does He LOOK like? What are His LAWS? What is His PURPOSE in your life? What PLAN does He have in mind?
Take the so-called world of "Christianity" for example. Look what the professing "Christian" world does NOT know about Christ!
The many disagreeing denominations and sects do NOT know the TIME of Christ's birth. Millions assume it was December 25th. Bible scholars admit it was nowhere near this date — but probably in the autumn. Millions suppose it must have been at the beginning of the year 1 A.D. — not realizing it was nowhere near that date.
Millions disagree on the METHOD of His birth. Some say MARY had to be "immaculately" conceived, rather than accepting the pure truth concerning CHRIST'S birth.
Few know WHAT HE WAS. Was He GOD CHANGED INTO a human fetus?
Was Christ the God of the Old Testament? Was Christ just a "good man" or a "prophet?" Was Jesus only HUMAN, after all? Or was He GOD? Or was He BOTH? People are confused.
Most don't know WHY He came.
Millions assume He came to save the world THEN — and assume He has been frantically trying to get it saved ever since! Yet HE said HE DID NOT!
Millions don't know Christ came with a MESSAGE — NOT for the world, but for His own disciples. They don't know what that message was, to WHOM He brought it, and for what purpose.
Millions suppose they have pictures of Christ. Little do they realize Christ Himself inspired Paul to say long hair is a SHAME to a man! Little do they seem to realize Judas had to betray Christ with a KISS to make sure there was no mistaking His identity — because He looked so like the other Jews of His time. (He WAS a Jew! Heb. 7:14)
No one seems able to agree on WHY He died (He said NO ONE is saved by His death — but by His life! Rom. 5:10) nor on HOW He died. Most assume He died of a broken heart.
Millions aren't sure He DID die — but believe possibly only His BODY died, while HE went to preach to "spirits" in HELL! But how can this square with the promise millions assume He made to the thief on the cross about being IN PARADISE? The thief wasn't WITH Him when He appeared to His disciples over three days later.
No one seems able to agree on HOW LONG He (if it were He!) was in the tomb or even WHICH tomb! Most of professing Christianity REJECTS His own plain statements about the ONLY SIGN He would leave as to His true Messiahship — that of three full days and three full nights in the tomb — and suppose a Friday sunset to "Easter" (spelled Ishtar in ancient Babylon) Sunday morning — is what He meant. Try to fit three days and three nights into that period of time. (And write for our free article, "The Crucifixion Was NOT on Friday!")
Millions DENY He was resurrected — claim His body was stolen, or that He wasn't really dead, or that He only feigned death, and then died in the tomb, only to have His disciples secretly bury Him elsewhere.
WHETHER He was resurrected is always the subject of MUCH CONTROVERSY between professing "Christian" scholars!
WHERE HE WENT IF He was resurrected has puzzled many. And WHAT WAS He when He was resurrected? God or Man? And WHY was He resurrected — IF He was? And WHEN was He resurrected?
And WHAT HAS HE BEEN DOING SINCE?
Let's suppose you're talking to a person about a mutual friend. You're discussing what a "fine fellow" he is. You don't know what his name means, don't know the circumstances surrounding his birth, don't know anything about his life; don't know what he believed, or stood for; don't know what he looks like; don't know his nature, personality or character; don't know his family; don't know where he is; don't know where he's been; don't know where he's going.
That's quite a bit NOT to know about someone and still call him "friend," isn't it?
Does this professing "Christian" world REALLY KNOW CHRIST? The REAL Christ of the BIBLE?
No! It does NOT!
It's about time people began leaving Christ's name out of their personal religion!
And what about You? Are some of these points a little confusing to you? Do YOU know Christ? I don't mean in some sticky, syrupy, "sanctimonious" "religious" or "sentimental" way you merely recognize the phonetic sound of His name — but do you know ALL ABOUT Him?
Does this world accept or worship the Christ of the Bible?
No!
It has substituted a weak, sickly, effeminate, confused, FAILURE, for the dynamic, thoroughly masculine, POWERFUL Christ of the Bible!
Can you get the point?
Too many people assume our generation is a "CHRISTIAN" one. We assume we are wholly "innocent" before God — that our society is mostly PLEASING to Him! Assuming this incredible false-hood — we gasp in amazement at the rebuke of God. We stammer in wonderment when we hear God is beginning to allow terrible national punishments to come upon us!
We ask, "WHY?"
And the REASON for our impending calamities is being made plain to us! We have forgotten our very national identity (if you have not PROVED where our peoples are identified in Bible Prophecy, then write for our free booklet, The United States and the British Commonwealth in Prophecy immediately) — we have rejected the AUTHORITY of the Bible, we have pushed God and His laws completely out of our lives!
God says, ". . . The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah [two DIFFERENT "houses" or peoples] is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood [our peoples lead the world in crime!], and the city full of perverseness: [our cities have become asphalt jungles of crime, immorality, drug addiction and sensuous pleasure-seeking] for they say, The Lord bath forsaken the earth, and, the Lord seeth not!" (Ezek. 9:9)
And that is EXACTLY what millions say today.
One of the most recent, the most "popular" expressions among so-called "Christian" Atheists is, "God is DEAD!" Hundreds of professing "Christian" ministers are quick to explain to their congregations how LITTLE "God" has to do with our present world — how He has "gone 'way off" to some distant place — how "God" has gone into retirement!
People who believe in the great Creator-Being of the Bible; who believe HE LIVES, that He intervenes in our PERSONAL lives; that He is working out a PURPOSE here below, that He will soon SHAKE the nations of this earth, and set up HIS OWN GOVERNMENT here below — such people are regarded as "religious nuts" by many a professing "Christian."
Have millions of our peoples adopted the fanciful notion that "The Lord seeth not"? CERTAINLY!
And let's understand further! We are beginning to suffer the consequences of OUR OWN WAYS OF LIFE!
Get the picture in proper perspective! Too often, like disobedient little children, people put on a show of perfect "innocence" when told of the awesome prophecies of the Word of God concerning our peoples!
A young girl wrote, "I am ANGRY with God for having chosen THIS generation for the manifestation of His wrath!"
But THIS GENERATION has done the choosing! Not God.
God says, "I . . . will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense upon thee all THINE abominations! And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense THY WAYS upon thee" (Ezek. 7:3-4).
"O Israel, thou hast destroyed THYSELF; but in ME is thine help" God says (Hosea 13:9).
We are beginning to suffer the AUTOMATIC consequences of OUR OWN WAY OF LIFE! God is not YET performing MIRACLES in bringing plagues upon us. He is not DIRECTLY plaguing our peoples! Rather, He is ALLOWING the natural results of our own evil ways to come right back on our own heads! We abuse the earth He gave us, polluting it with pesticides and chemicals; killing the nutrients in the soil, striving by our own humanly devised MECHANICAL means to produce crops.
Any farmer who seriously TRUSTED HIS GOD for insect control; for good crops; for good weather; for his very success as a farmer, would be SCORNED and RIDICULED by all who knew of his practices!
Yet it IS GOD ALMIGHTY who says He WILL intervene in the weather! He says it is HE who gives good crops, and protects us from drought and famine! But our peoples have never recognized God's intervention in our behalf!
When farmers in South Africa hung sarcastic signs on fences, asking for collections to buy spectacles "for God" so He could "see the suffering of both man and beast" they proved the point. It is man's nature to BLAME GOD when things go WRONG, and give MAN the credit when conditions are right.
We're complacent. We like to delude ourselves into thinking these prophecies are not REAL! We seem to believe, somehow, that we shall keep eating regularly; that life will go on in monotonous day-to-day routine.
How incredibly SHOCKED millions of us will be!
Don't make the mistake of finding some "picky" or "twiggy" little "point" with which you disagree in this article, and then begin to let your own mind deceive you into believing drought will not come.
Don't "kid" yourself!
DROUGHT IS COMING! It's beginning to strike us RIGHT NOW. And it's going to get MUCH, MUCH WORSE in the years ahead.
You have been warned.
Whether you ever read one more article in future issues of this magazine; or hear The WORLD TOMORROW again — YOU have been warned! And in the years to come you shall SEE, and you will KNOW you heard the truth about the future — BEFORE it happened!
May God help you to have the spiritual courage to do something about it now.