I have heard a number of sagacious ‘non church’ voices (Bruce Tipton, Zach Bush, Alan Keyes to name a few) talk in terms of the current ‘existential threat’ to the human race. In other words,”We may be within a generation of man on earth being history!”
I have been thinking about 2 generations mentioned in scripture.
Psalm 24 speaks of “the generation of those who SEEK the LORD”
By way of contrast in Acts 2 we read of Peter addressing the crowd on the day of Pentecost, pleading with them to save themselves from “this CORRUPT generation.”
Although corruption has been present through all generations, Jesus warned that the ‘last days’ would be another corruption high point, as in “the days of Noah”
The above powerful After Skool video illustrates that this will not be obvious to all, as 20% will easily and 60% not so easily be persuaded that “all is well.”
I’m reminded of the line from my song, not “all is well” but “All Will Be Well”
Though wrong is called right and right is called wrong
Though the court is corrupt, true religion gone home
Though the famed and the fortuned dictate the song
Though our fallen desires just play us along……..
The good news is that we know authority has been transferred to ‘the saints of the most high‘ (Dan.7:22) and that the time for “Mystery Babylon” to be exposed and to fall has come (Rev. 18). However, the patholigarchy that has until now been at the apex of the global power pyramid are experts at manipulating those ‘fallen desires’. These desires are not what we would necessarily call ‘evil’.
The other day I met a young man who asserted that any desire that is not surrendered to God’s will is arising from our fallen nature and is in fact a form of idolatry. So if I want to eat at a restaurant, go to the theatre, travel to another country, see my grandkids or pursue a career and I put that desire before knowing and doing God’s will then it is idolatry because I (is)the Dol(l) – I am placing my desires before God’s and have failed to keep the first commandment, “You shall have no other god’s before me.”
He had served honorably as an officer in the US military and now with only a few years to go before being able to comfortably retire he was being pressured to take the ‘jab’ He had sought out the truth beyond the ‘official narrative’ and concluded that for the sake of his loyalty to that truth and his Lord, his wife and his children, he would be willing to forfeit his career by saying ‘No’ to ‘the shot’
The bar is set high to be part of the company who,
……..follow the lamb wherever he wants to go (Rev. 14) rather than,
……. follow the vaccine passport to wherever I want to go.
This highway of holiness is what Paul aspired to when he pressed ‘toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.’, for as he said elsewhere, ‘not everyone who competes wins the prize’.
I believe this is not a matter of salvation, rather it is the difference between making it across the finish line or mounting the podium to receive that “crown” Paul was desirous of!
This is what distinguishes the two generations. One seeks the Lord fearlessly, the other participates in the ‘corruption’ usually through ‘willful self deception’ as described in the previous blog rather than wicked intent.
I believe we are witnessing in America (and beyond) the true birthing of, ‘The land of the free and the home of the brave’ as represented by the young man I met. Might you call that, ‘the kingdom of heaven’?
Freedom is primarily the freedom to think critically and objectively not bowing to pride and fear, or blame and shame. This freedom to search out God’s truth and then to stand for the truth you discover is true Bravery.
As someone said, if we aren’t willing to stand for something we will fall for anything, and find ourselves with the majority, on what Jesus called the ‘broad road that leads to destruction’.
As you will know if you have followed my blogs for any length of time, I do not believe that means ‘destruction‘ of the soul God has created, rather it means a judgement whereby the ‘flesh’ will be sentenced to death and the soul ultimately saved…..so that in the very end of the day, indeed, “All Will Be Well” for as scripture says, God Himself will become “all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28)
C.S. Lewis wrote in ‘That Hideous Strength.’
If you dip into any college, or school, or parish, or family—anything you like—at a given point in its history, you always find that there was a time before that point when there was more elbow room and contrasts weren’t quite so sharp; and that there’s going to be a time after that point when there is even less room for indecision and choices are even more momentous. Good is always getting better and bad is always getting worse: the possibilities of even apparent neutrality are always diminishing. The whole thing is sorting itself out all the time, coming to a point, getting sharper and harder.
We live in A Defining Moment
.….time to pick which of these two generations we are a part of.
P.S. The purpose of this blog is not to condemn, but to lovingly challenge. I had a number of folk take me up on my offer of “Consider then the Kindness and the Severity of God.” If you want to reflect and pray more deeply on these things, it’s still available for any who would like to receive it as a source of grace and truth.