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eBible Fellowship

Open Forum for 2011-04-03

  • | Chris McCann
  • Audio: Length: 49:59 Size: 8.6 MB
  • Question Summary with Starting Times in Audio File

    1. 03:07 From the EBF website: You people are crazy and give Christians a bad name.
    2. 04:22 From the EBF website: I am ashamed of my city for possessing your billboard. I believe that you are entitled to your opinion, but to put up a billboard is absurd. You guys only look like lunatics and idiots. I hope your religion and ideals one day will be shunned and that the world’s real morality will seek faith within themselves instead of your brainwashing.
    3. 05:41 From the EBF website: You are completely crazy. Do you really believe that the age of the world is so young? Earth’s planet has millions and millions of age, not 11,000. 5/21/2011 will not be the apocalypse. Last but not least, God does not exist. Have fun.
    4. 10:55 From the EBF website: You are crazy. The earth is 4.5 billion years old. Jesus is based on myths going back 5,000 years. Do yourself a favor and research Horace and the other mythic-savior figures. Your narrow view of the world insults the universal natural god that has no concept of judgment or salvation.
    5. 13:57 From the EBF website: You people are insane. I feel sorry for you but I also feel sorry for the rest of us, the normal people, because we have to listen to your nonsense.
    6. 34:10 Can you read the first part of Isaiah 40:22? The world discovered only about 500 years ago that it was round, and yet the Bible was completed about 2,000 years ago and tells us this before anyone even realized it. That is interesting.
    7. 36:13 Could you look at Revelation 17-18 where it speaks of “MYSTERY, BABYLON”? I understood this to be referring to the churches, but I heard that Harold Camping’s recently said that this is referring to Satan.

Chris: If I said that there were a bunch of crazy people, a bunch of nuts who are running around the city with bumper stickers on their cars, banners on their houses, T-shirts, hats, and even flags on their cars, who would you think that I was talking about?

This sounds like the Philadelphia Phillies baseball fans. Am I talking about them? They wear the hats and the shirts, they carry banners, they put signs on their cars, and they put bumper stickers everywhere. Actually, I could also add that these people gather once a week on Sundays and give a lot of their money away. Maybe I am referring to the Philadelphia Eagles baseball fans. They also have the bumper stickers, the shirts, the hats, and banners or flyers on their houses. We could even be referring to the New York Yankees baseball fans.

If I was referring to any of these baseball fans, no one would think that they were acting crazy. People do not think that it is crazy for someone to go to a sports stadium on what is referred to as “Football Sunday.” But is it “Football Sunday” or is it the Lord’s Day?

So on “Football Sunday,” they go to the game. Depending on how much of a football fan they are, they are screaming their heads off for maybe three or three and a half hours in the freezing cold. Some people even take their shirts off and paint themselves half green and half white. Is this crazy? Is it?

I want to talk about this, because I think that we need to face this. We need to directly face the accusation that God’s people are crazy because we put bumper stickers on our cars, because we put banners up, because we wear hats, because we wear shirts, and so on. We do this and we are considered completely insane, but others can do this and it is considered to be just fine.

It is not just Philadelphia or New York and their sports fans, what about the whole world’s attitude about soccer? What do they do in relation to this?

The word “fan” comes from the word “fanatic.” They are being fanatics, and yet all of this behavior is very acceptable. This is fine. It is only when we add the Bible and what the Bible says to this type of activity that we get these responses. I have with me just a small sampling of comments that we get every single day.

Question #1 came from the EBF website: You people are crazy and give Christians a bad name.

Chris: This was probably written by someone in the church. Many people in the church also think that we are crazy.

As far as giving Christians a bad name, I do not know if it is possible to do damage to the name of Christian any more than the churches and congregations of the world have already done. What more damage can be done when the church thinks that the Gospel is having someone fall over backwards or when they think that the Gospel is speaking in tongues or when they think that the Gospel is the church’s job to guarantee their people a place in Heaven?

We could go on and on and on and on about the errors and the black eye that the churches and congregations of the world have given to the name of Christ; and so we can forget about this idea. It is not possible to give the church of our modern day a worse name in the eyes of the world. Even the world recognizes that the modern church is a mockery.

Question #2 came from the EBF website: I am ashamed of my city for possessing your billboard. I believe that you are entitled to your opinion, but to put up a billboard is absurd. You guys only look like lunatics and idiots. I hope your religion and ideals one day will be shunned and that the world’s real morality will seek faith within themselves instead of your brainwashing.

Chris: This person refers to “the world’s real morality.” Wow! Talk about perception problems! The world’s morality? This world? This world with what you read in the daily newspaper and with what you see on the evening news every night? Do people really think that if they could get rid of Christ and if they could get rid of the Bible and if they could get rid of Christians, true Christians, that the world would get better?

Wow! It is really something that people can have this kind of idea towards the true Gospel.

Question #3 came from the EBF website: You are completely crazy. Do you really believe that the age of the world is so young? Earth’s planet has millions and millions of age, not 11,000. 5/21/2011 will not be the apocalypse. Last but not least, God does not exist. Have fun.

Chris: We are crazy because we believe: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

We should not think, by the way, that the world’s perspective of Christians as being crazy is just because of what we are doing in our day. This has been a longstanding idea.

Go to Acts 26. In Acts 26:22-24, it says:

Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come: That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people, and to the Gentiles.

On the subject of the resurrection, here is what was said:

And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad.

In essence, he was saying, “You are crazy. You are crazy, Paul! There is no resurrection of the dead as well as any of this other stuff that you just said.”

This happened during the first century A.D. This was only in the first century A.D. and here is an example of the natural mind of man even then. This was Festus and he was a Roman ruler in the land of Judaea. He hears this information about the resurrection of Christ and his response is, “How can you say such things? Obviously, Paul, you are beside yourself and you are mad.” In essence, he was telling Paul that he was crazy.

It is not only Paul; people also said this of Jesus. In John 10, this is Jesus speaking. This is the chapter where Christ says, “I am the door.” Speaking of Heaven, He says, “By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” Then we read in John 10:19-20:

There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings. And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?

According to some of these Jewish people and according to the religious authorities of that day, Jesus Himself was crazy, “Why listen to him? Why hear ye him?”

Look at what we read in verse 21, John 10:21:

Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?

According to some, Jesus was insane. According to Festus, Paul was insane. What is the perspective of this world in any day toward the truth of the Bible? The world thinks that the truth of the Bible just does not fit into this world, that it is abnormal. Why in the world would anyone pick up their Bible on a Sunday and read it? Why would anyone build their day around the Bible when they could instead go to a game?

The world thinks that this is what is normal: just go to the game! Spend an inordinate amount of money on three hot dogs and three sodas. The world thinks that it is fine for you to spend your money in this way, but to take your money and to give it to a ministry like Family Radio is crazy. This is what is crazy in the eyes of the world, but it is okay to waste your money a thousand different ways in the most ridiculous ways possible. As you walk out of the game, you get the greeting, “Hey man! We are glad that you enjoyed yourself.” This is sanity?

This is the problem that the world is having as it looks at this message of Judgment Day, May 21st. I have only given us a small sampling of what we are getting as people write in to us. They are definitely thinking, “These people are crazy.”

Question #4 came from the EBF website: You are crazy. The earth is 4.5 billion years old. Jesus is based on myths going back 5,000 years. Do yourself a favor and research Horace and other mythic-savior figures. Your narrow view of the world insults the universal natural god that has no concept of judgment or salvation.

Chris: I have heard millions, I have heard hundreds of millions, and now we are hearing billions. They can go to trillions if they want. But no matter how far back they push this, what exactly is it that is being pushed back? How did the world begin?

In the very beginning, these people think that there must have been some stuff. They do not know exactly what it was. It was just some kind of primordial ooze. Whatever it was, it had to be something that consisted of some sort of matter. It had to be something that consisted of some sort of substance, right? Something cannot be brought forth from nothing, and so there had to be something in the beginning that consisted of some sort of substance that must have exploded or developed in some way.

Whatever they want to say, it does not really matter. But then they believe that there was this slow process of evolution that began at some point billions of years ago. From this, the universe began, Earth began. Concerning the earth, they follow the same idea of evolution, which they say produced all of the flowers and plant life, the insects, all of the animals, the fish swimming in the sea, and man, all life everywhere.

If we want to talk about something that is crazy, if we want to talk about something that is utterly ridiculous, this is it. They do not even have an answer for where this stuff came from in the very beginning. Pushing it back hundreds of millions of years or billions of years does not change this very simple problem that they have. Where did that substance originate?

Is matter eternal? Is it? We say that God is eternal and that God spoke and created the world. We say this because the Bible tells us this. This is a very excellent explanation for where things began and how we all got here and how the world got here in its present form.

Where did this person get his facts? Where did he learn about this “natural god”? Who is the authority that says that 4.5 billion years is the age of the earth?

Question #5 came from the EBF website: You people are insane. I feel sorry for you but I also feel sorry for the rest of us, the normal people, because we have to listen to your nonsense.

Chris: Well, we were just talking nonsense when we were talking evolution. I guess what I want to say is that the world’s perspective of the true believer, you and me and whoever is a true child of God, is that we are crazy.

If someone in a psychiatric ward thought that you were crazy, would this bother you? This would not bother me. How about if everyone in a psychiatric ward thought that you were crazy? You would need to consider the source, right?

What am I saying about the people of the world? I am not saying this; God says this. Go to Ecclesiastes 9. This is what God says. This is from His perspective. He is the only One who can rightly hold this perspective. It says in Ecclesiastes 9:3:

This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

This is God’s perspective of every human being, of every unsaved person. This also referred to believers at some point. When we were part of this world, we were just as crazy as anyone else.

By the way, this word “crazy” can have a good connotation or it can have a very bad connotation. If someone were to say, “He is crazy; he just says whatever pops into his head,” this is fine. This is good because this means that you are cool. If someone were to say, “He is crazy because he will fight anyone,” this is still good. But when someone uses this in relation to the children of God being crazy, lunatic people, then this is bad. This word is then used in a negative way because it relates to people who are doing something that is out of the ordinary for the people of the world.

God is the One who knows the hearts of men. As He looks on the people of the world, He says that they are crazy, that they are mad, “Madness is in their heart.”

If the world was possibly able to stop warring with one another, if it was able to possibly start living civilly with one another in the cities and in the states and in the countries, if there was not the crime statistics that we have of murder and of stealing and of the many different kinds of abuse that we see, if there was not abortion, if there was not pornography, if there was not all of the lust and all of the hatred and all of the things that go on in this world in a normal fashion, and if the world could manage to have some type of morality and some type of real reasonableness, then maybe it would bother the child of God that this is the world’s opinion of us. But I think that it is the world itself that needs to get sane before it can do a diagnosis and before it can pronounce insanity for anyone.

Are we crazy? Who is crazy according to the Bible? Let us go to Luke 8. This is a chapter with the man who had the legion of demons. This man definitely had some problems. People would look at him today and say that he had a mental disorder. We read in Luke 8:27-35:

And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not. (For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught him: and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.) And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him. And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep. And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them. Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked. When they that fed them saw what was done, they fled, and went and told it in the city and in the country. Then they went out to see what was done; and came to Jesus, and found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.

The salvation of God is what brings sanity. This is what puts someone in a proper mind, a sound mind. Is this not what God says in many, many places?

For example, we read in 2 Timothy 1:7:

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

This is the same word translated “right mind” in Luke 8. God gives a “sound mind.” Madness is in our hearts while we live. If we are unsaved, we die and that is it; and yet when this demoniac in the country of the Gadarenes who had “legion” was saved, he was put in his “right mind.” He had the “sound mind” that only God can give someone.

There is another reference to this in Mark 5. This is a parallel account to what we just read. It says in Mark 5:15:

And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.

So this man was made normal, but not according to the world’s understanding of normal. He was made normal according to God’s understanding of normal.

It is normal for a creature to recognize that he is a creature. It is normal for a man to recognize that he is not the one to make his own determinations about his life, but that he should go to God, that he should be at the feet of Christ and reading His Word.

There is another passage I would like to go to concerning this. In Luke 15, we read of the prodigal son. It says in Luke 15:12-17:

And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

He came to his senses. He came to a correct conclusion regarding his father. He had been out there in the world. He had wasted all of his living, all of his inheritance. He was just feeding the swine. When he did not even have any food for himself, he recalled his father’s house with the servants and how well they ate; and so he came to a right state of mind.

This is what God does in salvation to the sinner. He removes that heart that is full of madness and He gives a sound mind.

I just want to go to one more passage. We read in 1 Peter 4:1-3:

Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:

Has anyone here been to those sports stadiums? Have you been part of the crowd, cheering and crying out for your team? How about drinking? Is it sane to work all week and then get drunk all weekend, every week? Is this a sane thing to do? What about drugs? Are drugs a good thing to do?

How about the person who is very stable, someone who seems very sound when you talk to him, but he goes to work and comes home and sits and watches television every night, and he does this every night for hours? At the end of the night, he grudgingly goes back to bed, gets up in the morning, goes back to work, and then comes home and sits and watches television. He is living his life through a television. He laughs at the comedy shows, he cries at the dramas, he gets excited with the action, and yet he is sitting in his own room. He has sat in his living room looking at a box for how many years?

Think about how much time people have spent watching television, watching movies, and now they have the Internet. Is this normal? Is it not insanity to spend your life this way, to live your life through others on a television screen? But, you see, the world is going a certain way. Anything that you can do to entertain yourself or to try to give yourself pleasure makes perfect sense to the world.

God is speaking to us and this is why He says that we were all involved in these things. I know that I have wasted many years of my life doing a lot of these things.

Then it says in 1 Peter 4:4:

Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:

They think that you are crazy now since you do not get involved in these things anymore. You have withdrawn from them; and so, of course, they think that you are strange.

We have to ask ourselves a question. Whose opinion is of more value? Is it God’s opinion or is it our friend’s opinion or the world’s opinion?

To tell you the truth, I read these things that come in every day and they do not bother me at all. When I am out there in the street and I am wearing the hat and the shirt and I am passing out these tracts, this does not bother me at all because God’s opinion is the most important thing. The Bible says, “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” How beautiful is it to see the people of God carrying this message boldly and in a direct way!

So let us bring this to the surface. This attitude of the world has always been there underneath: the little whisperings about the Christian about how we are not going with them in the same way. Bring this to the surface and let us look at this in the light of day. When we do, we realize that this world is in no position to cast a judgment of sanity. Let us go with what God says. Let us go with what He says.

May 21st is coming. People cannot avoid a date on the calendar. This is 47 days away. By next Sunday, we will literally be able to say like Jonah, “Yet forty days.” When this comes and the earthquake begins and Judgment Day is happening, for anyone here or for anyone who may listen to this who does not really believe these things and who might be thinking that we are crazy, when they are there and left behind on Judgment Day and they see these things, then will they say that the wrapped vehicles, the hats, the shirts, the tracts, all of this talking about it Sunday after Sunday or day after day, was crazy? Not at all. Once this happens, then the world will realize, “Oh, wow! Those people were not crazy at all.”

When we try to think sometimes of how to explain this to people who are just not saved and who do not have the ability to understand spiritual things, we can look at it this way. We can look at the example of the Titanic. This is not possible, but we can possibly look at this as if it were possible for someone from today to go back in time. This is a common theme in a lot of movies and television in our day. In our day, we have knowledge of the exact day that the Titanic would sink. Just imagine if you were to put yourself on that boat during its inaugural sail as it set to sea and was going out on its maiden voyage. What did they say about the Titanic? They said that it was a ship that was unsinkable. They thought that nothing bad could ever happen to that ship.

So if this were possible, which it is not, but if it were possible for you to go back and to go on board the Titanic in order to start warning everyone on the ship, “Look, an iceberg is going to be in our path at a certain time and date,” the people would just say, “This person is crazy!” Out of desperation, you could start wearing a shirt with the message written on it, “Titanic sinks! Here is the date!” They would reply to you as if you were a lunatic. They would not have listened at all. Their reply would have been, “This ship is unsinkable. There is no way that this ship is going down!”

This is actually what is going on in our day, because we know the date. We do not just think this, nor do we just hope in this. We know that May 21st is Judgment Day. This is not because of anything in us. This is because God knows the end from the beginning and He is telling us.

We are just trying to warn everyone; and yet from the perspective of the world and of natural man, he just does not see this. The world does not see what we know with complete certainty, like someone could know if they were able, which they are not, to go back in time to warn the world of the Titanic.

We know that God resists the proud and the arrogant. We even have to wonder why the Titanic sank. Why did it strike an iceberg on its initial voyage? Well, this was all the will of God. The purpose of God in this case was to humble many who dared to think that nothing bad could ever happen to that ship.

Question #6 is from the fellowship: Can you read the first part of Isaiah 40:22? The world discovered only about 500 years ago that it was round, and yet the Bible was completed about 2,000 years ago and tells us this before anyone even realized it. That is interesting.

Chris: It says in Isaiah 40:22:

It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth…

There are a lot of charges against Christians that the Bible has no scientific facts and this kind of thing, but God, of course, knew that the earth was a circle, as He speaks here of sitting upon “the circle of the earth.” Isaiah was written in around 700 B.C., so this was around 2,700 years ago, which was well before scientists figured out that the earth was round.

There is also a verse in Ecclesiastes [note: Chris referred to the book of Job, but this information is found in the book of Ecclesiastes] that speaks of: “All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.” [Note: It says in Job 36:27-30, “For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof: Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly. Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle? Behold, he spreadeth his light upon it, and covereth the bottom of the sea.”] This means that this whole process that modern science has figured out was known in the books of Ecclesiastes/Job. This is because God created everything and He knows how everything works.

Question #7 is from the fellowship: Could you look at Revelation 17-18 where it speaks of “MYSTERY, BABYLON”? I understood this to be referring to the churches, but I heard one of Harold Camping’s recent teachings and he was saying that this is referring to Satan.

Chris: Mr. Camping has been doing a very good study on a progressive judgment, on a progressive earthquake that will go “from nation to nation.” He has been teaching in Revelation 18.

We know that this whole chapter is speaking of “Babylon,” but he was identifying “Babylon” with the world, with Satan’s kingdom. He said that “the kings of the earth” would actually represent the rulers or the kings or the presidents of the world.

So it says in Revelation 18:9:

And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

Yet it goes on in Revelation 18:10 to say:

Standing afar off for the fear of her torment…

On one hand, the Bible says that they “see” this, and yet they are “afar off.” How is this possible?

Now we know that Judgment Day begins on the other side of the world. With the electronic medium that we have today, with satellite broadcasting, we will be able to see when this begins. Let us say that this will begin in New Zealand, in Japan, in the Philippines, and so on. As this is approaching, the unsaved people will be standing “afar off.”

At this point, a person would probably want to get off of this earth. If they could, if this were possible, they would want to get out of this world, because they will have heard that Judgment Day would be May 21st.

So even now, we are able to get into specific detail of where this is going to begin and then progress. Once this is seen in those nations that will arrive at evening time on May 21st before many nations do, then there is going to be a reaction of great fear.

Revelation 18:10 says again that they will be:

Standing afar off for the fear of her torment…

There will be five months of torment that will begin on May 21st. They will see this come and they will be afraid, because they will know that this is also coming for them.

By the way, if someone could get to outer space, they probably would; and yet even if someone could escape, like someone at NASA or someone who was rich enough to be able to afford to be sent into space while this world is convulsing and God is shaking terribly the earth, would he really have escaped? The Bible says that on October 21st, the whole universe “shall be rolled together as a scroll.” At that time, everything “shall melt with fervent heat.” If someone were still out in space at that time, like maybe a Russian or a Chinese astronaut, they would still die on October 21st, even though they had stayed alive up until then.

So it looks like this rolling judgment is what God has in view in Revelation 18:10:

…saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

Then what was said in verse 10 is repeated in verse 15, Revelation 18:15:

…stand[ing] afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,

Compare this with Luke 21, which is a parallel chapter to Matthew 24. This is the chapter where Christ is answering the disciples’ question, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” This is the context of what we find in Luke 21:25:

And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars…

This, of course, reminds us of Matthew 24:29:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall…

But we read in Luke 21 that these are “signs.” They are not going to literally happen. Spiritually, God is referring to Christ removing Himself.

This is just like what we read toward the end of Revelation 18. It says in Revelation 18:23:

…and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee…

This is because God left and He took His people with Him.

So here in Luke 21:25, we see signs that identify with May 21st. Look at what happens:

…and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;

Has anyone seen the videos of the Japanese tsunami that was the result of an earthquake? Did anyone see how high the water got? I have heard that the water went as far as three miles inland. It was estimated that the water was traveling at about 500 miles per hour as it hit the coast of Japan.

So here in Luke 21:25, God is telling us about the:

…signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars…

And then He tells us in the same verse that there is going to be:

…distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;

Then we read in verse 26, Luke 21:26:

Men’s hearts failing them for fear…

And in Revelation 18:10, it said that they are:

Standing afar off for the fear of her torment…

For someone who does not believe these things, they may not be afraid today. I am sure that they are not afraid at this time. They are not afraid at all. Actually, their hearts have been hardening.

In Exodus, where it speaks of Pharaoh hardening his heart, that word for “harden” is the same word for “strong” or “courageous” or “courage.” Pharaoh should have feared God. Instead, after he experienced plague after plague after plague, he hardened his heart and “he hearkened not.” This information is repeated to us again and again and again. Pharaoh’s attitude was, “I am Pharaoh. I am the greatest king in the world!” Pharaoh even said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice?”

So, today, people are also hardening their hearts. This is why it is from a position of strength that someone mocks. They are coming from a position of being courageous in the eyes of danger. They are basically saying, “Bring on Judgment Day! Bring on this God!” Yet when this comes, they will not be courageous. They will not be courageous or strong at all, because it will be the Day of Judgment. The Bible says, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,” and this will be happening for a period of five months.

So in Luke 21:26, it says:

Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth…

It is coming, and yet there is already “signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars.” There is already “distress of nations, with perplexity.” “The sea and the waves” are already “roaring.” But then it says “which are coming.”

How is this possible? It is possible because we will be able to see this happening in New Zealand. We will be able to see this happening in Japan, in the Philippines, in Australia. As it gets closer and closer and closer, everyone will be looking at what is coming directly for them. It will be coming right for us and we will be able to see this.

Luke 21:26-28 says that we will be:

…looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud…

They will not see Him literally, but they will know that this is God’s doing. It continues:

…with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

This is another verse that we never really understood. We are understanding verses now that we never really understood before. We wondered how this could be happening “when these things begin to come to pass” and when God is telling the believers to “look up.”

We now understand that this is happening while we are still here. Plus, men’s hearts are “failing them for fear,” and yet God is encouraging the true believers not to worry: “Look up… for your redemption draweth nigh.” The only answer to these verses is the rolling earthquake idea, that we will see this happening. It will start across the other side of the world and then it will approach us.

There is one more verse I would like us to go to. We read in Psalm 46:1-3:

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.

This sounds very much like an earthquake and a tsunami. When the water comes into the land for several miles and there are hills and mountains that the water is swirling around, the mountains are being carried into the water, which would fit this description.

Again, this says “the sea and the waves roaring,” because we have seen demonstrations of what happens with the ocean water when there is an earthquake; yet God is saying of His people, “Therefore will not we fear.”

We are in the East Coast and we will be able to see this coming and coming. For the true believer, the Bible says, “Then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.”

This is good news, because God is indicating that His people will not fear. His people will not be afraid of this. The instructions to the “locusts” are “that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing.”

We had also wondered about this verse and what it meant when it said that no “green thing” was to be hurt. We now understand that this is referring to the true believers and that God is giving instruction that this is not going to harm them. This is not going to hurt the true believers at all. As we see this coming, we are not to be afraid.

I think that God’s people will not be afraid, because God will make sure of this. We will know then that this is it, and yet we know this now.

This is kind of like John the Baptist. He knew that Christ was the Saviour. He knew that Christ was the Messiah, but he still sent a few of his disciples to ask Jesus, “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” It is not that he did not know this, but he was in prison, things were a little rough for him, and so he just wanted some words of reassurance. He wanted some additional words of confirmation, even though he knew this full well.

Likewise, this is how it will be with the people of God when we actually see this happening. We knew that this was going to happen, but then God will just absolutely confirm this, because it will be happening before our eyes.

Let us stop here.