SABBATH THOUGHT 2024-08-10—HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE END TIMES

May God bless you on His Sabbath day!

An upcoming highly emotional presidential election in the USA. A US president who has made the White House into the most expensive nursing home in the country. A radical woke US vice-president. A failed assassination attempt of President Trump. Rampant corruption in the US Department of Justice, FBI, CIA, NSA, FDA, CDC, etc. A never-ending war in Ukraine. The attempted genocide of Israel by Hamas. A war against Israel that threatens to engulf the Middle East. The USA declares the Palestinians and Hamas to be terrorists and yet funds and supplies them. Military shipments to its ally Israel who is at war terrorists are withheld by the USA. Continuing genocides in Africa. China and Russia aggressively push the national boundaries and militaries of the USA, Taiwan, and Japan. A global financial market crash. Muslims have taken over Europe. Islamic extremists (which are basically the majority of Muslim ‘believers’) control the UN, NATO, and EU. Unending inflation and high prices. Unprecedented fires in the western USA. Stolen presidential elections in the USA and Venezuela. A coup in Bangladesh. Men are declared winners in Olympic women’s sports. Law enforcement is handicapped and defunded to prevent criminals from being arrested or punished. The US national debt is $35 trillion (12 zeros). Public speech platforms censor non-liberals. Mainstream media broadcasts nothing but lies. News has been replaced by morally, mentally, and emotionally bankrupt commentators. Conservative and religious opinions are hate speech. The Bible and Christianity are banned in public. Public schools teach extreme perversion. Parents are denied authority over their children. The ultra-rich run governments through corruption and cover-ups. Insurance companies control hospitals and doctors. Medical and healthcare is inaccessible. Millions and millions of illegal aliens including vast numbers of violent criminals, gangs, and terrorists brought into the USA and receive free housing, food, clothes, voting rights, etc. Hundreds of thousands of Fentanyl deaths supplied by China and Mexico. The USA funds Iran with billions (9 zeros) of dollars to build nuclear weapons. Palestinian and Hezbollah terrorists are funded, logistically supported, and legally protected by the USA, UN, NATO, and EU. Artificial Intelligence, biased by liberal ideologies, is being integrated into everything digital. Digital currency is replacing hard currency. The USA, WHO, and most nations murdered millions with harmful vaccines. Economic classes are now limited to the lower and upper class poor or the rich and ultra rich. Higher education debt impoverishes all graduates for decades. China constantly successfully steals US military and commercial technologies. All whites are racist. Major US companies are run by utterly incompetent and woke CEOs who become wealthy by destroying them. Idiotic climate change advocates tax CO2 production, put tens of thousands of farmers out of business in favor of eating insects, and want to shade the earth from the sun. Gun owners are put in prison for defending against violent criminals. Gen-X, Gen-Y, Gen-Z, and Gen-Alpha (people born the last 40-50 years) are defined by their amorality, selfishness, greed, lust, hate, and inability to deal with minor emotional or physical hurts.

I could go on and on, but this should make my point—I truly believe these are the end times. The problems above have only been around the last ten years or so. Prior to that, at least in the USA, things were fairly calm and peaceful. Problems existed, but they were not as dominant, impactful, or irrational.

The world has also run out of extreme adjectives to describe everything in a catastrophic sense. Everything is excessive, extreme, fanatical, and life-threatening. Ever notice how weather events are described that have even the slightest POTENTIAL to cause minor damage? One news channel publishes endless articles on health where every one is “vital” for personal wellbeing including suntan lotion, vitamin D, and toothpaste. Really?!? Today no one gets noticed unless they are screaming and blowing the trumpet of war. Have you noticed how the volume increases during commercials? I am tired of the constant and inane stream of attention-getting fake bombshells that make every news item worthy of a nuclear event. The world needs to calm down …

Nowadays, there are more warnings of The End Times than ever; perhaps more than prior to 1975 in WCG. Drawing dots between world events, conspiracies and theories, and the open wickedness with biblical prophecies have become the focus of many preachers and conversations among brethren.

All of this got me wondering about what God says about how we are to prepare for The End Times. What I found might surprise you because I could only find ONE thing that the ekklesia must do in preparation for The End Times:

MATTHEW 6:19-20 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 “but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

1 TIMOTHY 6:18-19 … be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, 19 storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.

What was more interesting is the amount of preparation GOD is doing for The End Times. Here is a short list.

1)    God is preparing a KINGDOM:

MATTHEW 25:34 “Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

2)    God is preparing a CITY:

HEBREWS 11:16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

3)    God is preparing a PEOPLE for Jesus Christ:

LUKE 1: 17 “He [John] will also go before Him [Jesus Christ] in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

4)    Jesus Christ is preparing a PLACE in His Father’s house:

JOHN 14:1-4 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 “And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

5)    God is preparing a WEDDING for His Son Jesus Christ:

MATTHEW 22:2-4 “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, 3 “and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. 4 “Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.”

6)    God is preparing a FIRE for the wicked:

MATTHEW 25:41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels [and the incorrigibly wicked]:

Even the angels are preparing: “the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.” (Rev. 8:6). I have heard claims that the Fifth Seal is upon the world so the seven angels should be finishing up shortly. Some have even positively identified the Beast, have evidence that the Temple has been built, and found evidence that the red heifer is ready. Matthew 24 and Revelation is quoted over and over especially the wars and rumors of wars, mark of the Beast (digital angel, implants, etc.), and famines, pestilences, and earthquakes. One preacher even proclaimed the abomination of desolation has occurred. If these things are true or even imminent, I must have missed Elijah who was supposed to “restore all things” (Matt. 17:10) and, perhaps, the armies surrounding Jerusalem. I also do not know of anyone who has been “delivered up to be killed” (Matt. 24:9).

Personally, I think that much of the preaching and talk about The End Times fits into “many false prophets will rise up and deceive many” (Matt. 24:11). Every prediction of modern events fulfilling prophecy has FAILED to come to pass. In a strict sense, every failure must then be a FALSE prophecy. That does not concern me as much as the fact that they will absolutely “deceive many” even if they did not intend to do so.

I believe I am living in the end times. Not THE End Times but MY end times. It is of little concern if I witness the fulfillment of the biblical prophetic End Times. What IS important is that I know my life will end—in a day or a year or ten. Perhaps longer. But twenty years is a blink of time. Whether or not I see The End Times has NO BEARING on what any of those who will be part of the First Harvest of mankind must be doing because those things must be done regardless of the era in which we live. Jesus Christ never said to prepare for THE End Times. In fact, He said just the opposite—Do. Not. Worry. It was not a short, off-the-cuff comment; His warning message was covered in seventeen verses:

LUKE 12:22-38 Then He [Jesus Christ] said to His disciples, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. 23 “Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. 24 “Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? 25 “And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 26 “If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? 27 “Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 “If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith? 29 “And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. 30 “For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. 31 “But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. 32 “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 “Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. 34 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 35 “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; 36 “and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. 37 “Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching [and waiting for the return of Jesus Christ]. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them.

So, do not worry. God is very busy preparing things for The End Times. What exactly is He preparing?

1 CORINTHIANS 2:9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

God would not be preparing such unimaginable things for His people if He was unable to see them through to The End—not The End Times, but THE END, which is victory over death:

1 CORINTHIANS 15:24-26, 57 Then comes the end, when He [Jesus Christ] delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He [Jesus Christ] puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He [Jesus Christ] must reign till He has put all enemies under His [God the Father’s] feet. 26 The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. … 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

But The End is actually The Beginning:

ISAIAH 65:17-18 “For behold, I [the LORD God] create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. 18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, And her people a joy.

May God’s grace and peace be upon you!

Steven Greene

https://sabbathreflections.org

sabbathreflections@gmail.com