A Call for End Time Warriors

Among the things that Jesus taught his disciples is the prophecy of the signs of the times and the signs of the End of the Age. These are the events and the definitive things that would happen prior to the Great Tribulation. This prophecy would not happen in the life times of the apostles and disciples of that day but the signs are presenting themselves in our time.

"Now as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age? And Jesus answered and said to them: Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famine, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All of these are the beginning of sorrows. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end will be saved. And this Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come." - Matthew 24:3-13

The following verses describe the prophecy in the book of Daniel concerning the anti-christ and the great tribulation. We are not appointed to go through the great tribulation mentioned in this part of the prophecy. This was clarified by the apostel Paul in his writings to the church at Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians & 2 Thessalonians). God gave the church, through revelation to Paul, the message of comfort comcerning Christ's coming. He wrote: "But I do not want you to be ignorant concerning those who have fallen asleep (died physically) lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose from the dead again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you, by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord himself will decend from heaven, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words." 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. " For God did not appoint us to wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him." 1 Thessalonians 5:9. The "wrath" in this context is the description of the condemnation and punishment that will fall in "the day of wrath" (Romans 2:5) upon those who reject God's Word and His salvation made freely available through His son Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:6; Colossians 3:6; Revelation 6:16-17; and Revelation 11:18). It is a great comfort to know that we will not have to endure the hardship and suffering promised to them who fail to believe and receive God's salvation.

Even so, we are not guaranteed an easy time being a believer and follower of Jesus Christ. We are to expect the World's hatred and persecution. Jesus told the disciples: "If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, 'a servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for my name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent me." John 15:18-21. In spite of this truth, we do not have to be helpless victims to the treatment the world dishes out to us. The tribulation (stress & persecution) the world dishes out to us produces in us perseverance, character, and hope (Romans 5:1-5). We have received power from God through being born again, which is why the scriptures say "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." (Romans 8:31-39). If God is for us, who can be against us (Romans 8:31)? No one! Paul told the Corinthians, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled." 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. Our weapons, prayer and speaking God's word drive demonic oppositions, postioned against us through people in the world, away. Ephesians chapter 6 describes our armor and our weapon, the sword of the Spirit - the Word of God (along with prayer, the one offensive weapon in our arsenal). We have to put on our armor: girded waist with truth (the confidence that comes from certainty about the truth of God's Word); breastplate of righteousness (believers are protected by the righteousness of Christ imputed to them); feet shod with the Gospel (the peace that comes from the Gospel readies one for war against evil); the sheild of faith (protection against your adversaries attacks); helmet of salvation (the believers final ground of confidence is the faithfulness of God to complete the salvation He has begun). As Paul encouraged Timothy, "You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No on engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life (civilian affairs), that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier." 2 Timothy 2:3-4.

As a Christian soldier, an End Time Warrior, we must fight the spiritual battle, we have to hold forth the Word of God to rescue others from the power of the Devil, and in doing so we will manifest the signs Jesus said would follow those who believe: "And these signs will follow those who believe: In my name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues (speaking in tongues - 1 Corinthians 14:22); they will take up serpents (in the sense they inadverantly pick up a snake); and if they drink anything deadly (again, inadvertantly ingest poisonous substance), it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." Mark 16:17-18. Signs follow believers.

Signs are the visable result of our warefare. The call is given for you to join in the spiritual fight. The fight we face is getting God back in the position He once held in our country, founded "as one nation under God" (under the direction of God by way of His Word - the Bible) - but now in this time "one nation having kicked God out" (can't pray in school, can't teach that God created the heavens & earth, can't even display the 10 commandments on government property). Our country has seperated church and state so far that God and His Word are left out of the the governing process completely. The Old Testament is full of examples of what happens to a country that rejects the guidance of God's Word. While we were truely a Christian nation God's hand of protection was on us. Now as evident in recent events, that protection has failed to be complete. It's a wake up call for America as a nation. The psalmist said in Pslam 73:27, "For indeed, those who are far from You shall perish; You have destroyed all those who desert You for harlotry (are unfaithful to God)." And again in Psalm 107:33-34, "He turns rivers into a wilderness, And water springs into dry ground; A fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of those who dwell in it." It is time for our nation the Christian countries of the world to turn back to God and to our mission as soldiers of Jesus Christ is to fight the spiritual battle necessary to turn the people back to God. We must reclaim our religious freedom established in the Constitution and to become again a nation of the people, for the people, by the people, and "one nation under God."