Things to Come

Things to Come

We live in a time when everything is disintegrating. No one can tell what the next month or the next year will bring. Everything is trembling as if it were on top of a volcano, and lawlessness creeps over the nations like a plague. If a person wants to become great and highly esteemed, he must figure out what the majority wants and proclaim that. The people are in control, and the more brutally someone breaks with the old, the more they appreciate him. Socialism has opened the doors, and the trade unionists and Bolsheviks venture further and further into the unknown. The beast in man demands his rights, and who can satisfy this insatiable monster, this body of sin that was supposed to die? Yet people speak about its rights! Is it any wonder that massacres, hunger, idleness and every kind of robbery prevail? The spirit of Antichrist has already begun to take power. People want to do away with Christianity because it stands in their way.

In 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4, it says, “Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”

Here it is clearly written that the falling away must come first, and the man of sin (the son of perdition) must be revealed before we are gathered to Christ. I am sure we have all heard preachers say that Christ could come at any moment to take His bride. Paul doesn’t say this, but he does ask us to take note of the falling away. This falling away has gathered momentum. Recent generations have gone far deeper into apostasy than their fathers did, which shows that the time of the Gentiles is nearly over. When the Jews rejected their Messiah, their punishment was hard and absolute, even though they were God’s chosen people—the children of Abraham according to the flesh. How much worse will the Gentiles’ punishment be when they reject their Savior? They will be given over to a debased mind, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 2 Thess. 2:10-11. Through his prophet, the Antichrist, Satan will use his power to take control and lead everyone who has such a debased mind into extreme corruption and evil.

Mankind is now in the process of creating a kingdom of peace, which they call the League of Nations. The world’s most highly regarded men rack their brains in an attempt to establish an enduring peace. Yet, despite all their knowledge, these gentlemen haven’t reckoned with the fact that Satan is on the loose. When all these attempts at peace have failed, Christ will come in His time and establish a lasting kingdom of peace on earth. We call this the Millennium. He is so wise and so strong that the first thing He will do is have Satan bound. Rev. 20:2. Satan is the one who gives the people power to protest and riot, but God gives His people the power to resist Satan. It is madness to expect peace while Satan is loose. These great lords and statesmen should know this.

The advance of lawlessness and the revelation of the Antichrist is a sign for us that Christ is coming. The Antichrist is a prophet through whom Satan will speak to the people. The Bible calls the people “the beast.” The Antichrist will perform signs for the beast and make the nations believe in him. Rev. 19:20. The Antichrist is a person who will come in his time. Just as the Spirit of Christ testified beforehand through the prophets of old of the sufferings and death of Christ and the glories that would follow, the spirit of Antichrist will testify beforehand about the Antichrist. John speaks about this spirit. It had already begun its work in his day. 1 John 4:3. Through many centuries this spirit of Antichrist has influenced people, preparing the ground for the coming of the Antichrist in the flesh. Had he come in the days of the apostles, he would not have been able to accomplish anything, because almost the entire world was in the sway of paganism and ignorance. But now that the world has heard and rejected the truth, the Antichrist can be revealed. Now he will be able to scorn and ridicule Christ and His gospel, because the people can relate so well to the Antichrist. Since they have been given over to a debased mind, the people will rejoice to hear such a great and mighty prophet, and when he starts to perform great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven, their jubilation will know no bounds. The Antichrist will become so inflated by all the adulation from the people that he will believe himself to be God. But as he basks in all his glory, his worthy opponent, Christ, will be revealed and will consume him with the breath of His mouth. 2 Thess. 2:8.

The Antichrist’s government will be a terrible regime; for he appears “according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” 2 Thess. 2:9-10.

We see that the Antichrist appears for those who perish. We who believe in the revelation of Christ will be allowed to see the Antichrist being revealed. When this happens, we can expect Christ to return to take His bride. Once we have been raptured and are receiving our reward, the Antichrist will govern the earth. But when Christ returns with His saints to take control of the kingdoms of the earth in the Millennium, He will consume the Antichrist with the breath of His mouth.

By the time this has occurred, the people will have finally learned that they cannot rule themselves. Then the words of Jesus, “Without Me you can do nothing [emphasis added],” will be fulfilled.

With the people as divided as they are now, a single individual will not be able to gain as much power as the Antichrist will need. Therefore, the people will have to form alliances to become one great commonwealth. As the head of this world kingdom, the Antichrist will at long last be able to dominate his multitudes, especially when this world alliance has become sufficiently influenced by the spirit of the labor unions. Then the Antichrist will be capable of gathering everyone around himself, and even the most doubting must yield when he resorts to signs and wonders.

It is a comfort for us to know that we will then be home with our dear Lord Jesus Christ, whom we have loved, even when we were persecuted and mocked. It is also comforting to know that we, with Christ, will conquer our archenemy the devil, whether he is revealed as a prophet or in spirit.

The Father says to the Son, “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” Matt. 22:44. Now the work of the Father is to gather the enemies of Christ into a single block so that they may be judged; and this will be fulfilled perfectly when they unite into a footstool for His feet.

The next thing we can expect in the near future is the return of the Jews to their own land. “For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.’” Rom. 11:25-27.

The time of the Gentiles is nearly fulfilled. In these days there is a lot of preaching, but few are saved. Among those who call themselves believers, the majority deny Jesus’ cross and His power. Things can’t get much worse. Preachers use Christianity to make money, so they can each have their own meeting hall and their own assembly. Their bread is more important than true godliness. In the last days people will heap up for themselves teachers, because they have itching ears; they do not seek truth and righteousness, but rather they seek the most agreeable person and the most gifted entertainer. The time has now come when we are cast out of the synagogues and hated by all men for Christ’s name’s sake. It looks like the times of the Gentiles will soon be fulfilled.

Let us open our eyes and by the light of the Spirit look into things to come, because the saints will receive revelations within the body, and about the things that will take place through the body. Granted, now and then we hear elaborate sermons about the end times, but I don’t believe for a minute that people who are devoid of even the most elementary truths about godly fear can receive revelations about the end times. As we approach the end, we see prophecies being fulfilled one by one, like a sailor who charts his way as he sails toward a foreign port. He finds the lighthouses that are marked on the chart; he finds buoys and sights various landmarks. In the same way, God has given us knowledge about various things pertaining to the future. As these things unfold, we can be fearless and put all our confidence in Him who has been able to tell us all these things hundreds of years in advance. God does not give us light to satisfy our curiosity and desire for knowledge. The revelations of the Spirit are given for the profit of all.

May we who have received the love of the truth be found awake in prayer, instruction and in the things to come.