What We Are to Prepare For

WHAT WE ARE TO PREPARE FOR

I have written quite a bit about preparing for the coming catastrophic events in the United States. The only manner in which we can prepare spiritually for the days of moral and physical chaos is by learning to live by the Life of the Lord Jesus, looking to Him continually for every decision we make, for all aspects of our life, day and night. If we do this, we will save ourselves and our loved ones no matter what comes to pass in America.

There is something else we are to prepare for. That is the Day of the Lord. Our Christian traditions tell us that when Jesus comes, we will be caught up to Heaven. There we will recline in peace and joy in our mansion. No preparation is needed for this catching up, we have been told. This is not what the Bible teaches about the Day of the Lord.

The truth is, the war between good and evil has not been won as yet. The basis for victory in this war was accomplished on the cross of Calvary. The atonement made on the cross destroyed the authority of Satan to keep the world in his power. However, the removal of Satan and all of his influence in the creation has not as yet been accomplished, as we see what is taking place in the world, and in our own life as well.

Not only the people of the world, but the people of the Christian churches also are bound with the love of the world, the lusts of the flesh, and the determination to live their own lives without reference to the will of Christ. In actuality, the only lawful will in the universe is the will of God. But people from the beginning have sought to pursue their own lives according to their own plans and desires.

Seventy “sevens” are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. (Daniel 9:24)

Let’s consider for a moment the verse above, because numerous Christian people belive that we will never be rid of sin. “To finish transgression.” “To put an end to sin.” “To atone for wickedness.” “To bring in everlasting righteousness.” If you stop to think about it, of course this will come to pass. Is God, who made the universe, unable to bring in everlasting righteousness? I think it is Satan who has given us the impression that sin is inevitable and always will be true of us.

But claiming that God will never be able to remove sin from people is not reasonable. God is able to remove the compulsion of sin from anyone at any time He chooses. Does God not have power over the demons? Can He not change the nature of any person and make him or her a new moral creation? Can the Potter make one vessel unto honor and another vessel unto dishonor? If this is not true, it indeed would be good we never had been born. Why, then, does He not do this? He made an atonement for the sins of the whole world on the cross of Calvary!

He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. (I John 2:2)

Why can’t God do the same for the power of the sin that controls us? He can. But God does not want a repetition of the disaster in the Garden of Eden. Remember, Adam and Eve were not created with a sinful nature.

What was needed in Eden to prevent the rebellious act? Two things:

People trained in righteousness.
A government that would prevent sin from occurring.

So what is God doing now? He is ready to train people in righteousness, and to create a government, the Kingdom of God, that will permit only God’s will to be done on the earth.

Now you can see why God does not reach down and remove the works of Satan from the earth with a single stroke. He is in the process of permanently removing the works of Satan from the earth by training people in righteous behavior and by creating the Kingdom of God.

Let’s think now about how God is training people in righteous behavior, and by creating the Kingdom of God. Then we will understand how God can bring in everlasting righteousness. At the present time, God’s Spirit is moving among us who have ears to hear the Spirit. The Spirit is revealing to us our worldliness, the lusts and passions of our flesh and spirit, and our self-will. As He does:

We are to confess the attitude or practice that has been pointed out. We are to confess to Christ the specific behavior clearly.
Then we are to name that area of our personality as sin, unworthy of the Kingdom of God.
Then we are to renounce that practice or attitude, declaring emphatically that we never, never again, by the help of the Lord, shall yield to that spiritual evil—not for eternity. This is an eternal judgment on Satan.

Our personality is not delivered from evil in a moment. The practice of confessing, denouncing, renouncing, and resisting sin must continue until it all has been removed. It is line upon line, command upon command, here a little and there a little. Piece by piece, the graveclothes are removed from us. There is no hurry. We are undoing the damage wrought over thousands of years in the children of Adam and Eve.

Will this work of deliverance continue in the next world and be true of people in the spirit world? I feel certain that it shall. How else could the entire Bride of the Lamb come to unblemished perfection?

For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit. (I Peter 4:6)

It is certain that Abraham and the other patriarchs and prophets are now born again. Since no person could be born again until Christ rose from the dead, the patriarchs must have received this experience while they were living in the spirit world.

We need to keep in mind that the Bride of the Lamb, the Body of Christ, is one organism, with most members in the spirit world at any given time. All are having the same redemptive experiences and pressing forward in Christ whether on earth or in the spirit world. How could it be otherwise? They without us cannot be made perfect! According to my understanding, it will require from now until the final resurrection for every person, the members of the Church and everyone else, to have an opportunity to renounce sin.

When the Spirit of God has finished this work of destroying sin and self-will, everlasting righteousness will be here.

Now for the second part—the presence of a government that will not tolerate sin and self will. This is the Kingdom of God, of which Jesus spoke. We enter the Kingdom of God when we are born again, because Jesus Himself is the Kingdom of God. If we protect and nourish what has been born in us, the day will come when the Father and the Son through the Spirit enter what has been created in our personality. Then we will not sin or exhibit self-will because our nature has been changed. We will be a new creation. It then will be a delight to us to do God’s will because His law is now in our mind and heart. We, the flesh, have become the Word of God. This is the new covenant.

So the two elements that would have prevented Adam and Eve from destroying Paradise are accomplished in us. We have been trained in righteousness by confessing and turning away from our sins. In addition, the Kingdom of God has been formed in us: first by the new birth, then by the maturing of Christ in us, finally by the coming of the Father and the Son to dwell in us forever.

The above is the essential part of our preparing for the future. It’s essential that we learn to live by the Life of Jesus, as the Apostle Paul did. It is only as we live by His Life that we will save ourselves and our loved ones during the chaos that is ahead. The Scriptures speak clearly of the conflicts that are ahead of us as the climactic battles between good and evil occur.

First, there will be the testimony of the two witnesses. The two witnesses are Christ, and His victorious saints. Before the end of the Church Age is here, Christ in His saints will bear witness of the soon coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth. This witness will be given to all nations.

Another important event is casting down Satan and his angels to the earth. Michael and his angels are responsible for the removal of Satan from the heavens, but they can do this only as there are saints in the earth who overcome the Accuser by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony, and by loving not their lives to the death. I believe there is a relationship between our willingness to pursue the life of victory in Christ, and the strengthening of the hands of the angels of God.

A third important event is the birth of the sons of God, as described in Revelation chapter 12. It is time now for the Christian Church to enter the travail necessary to bring forth Christ in the saints. The sons who are brought forth will, with the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, govern the nations of the earth.

Those who overcome the Accuser and who govern the nations with Christ are a Firstfruits of the Christian Church. They have through Christ gained victory over all evil that came against them. These are a beginning of those whom Christ has trained in righteousness.

Now we are ready for the Battle of Armageddon. Christ and His Firstfruits, those who have been trained in Heaven and those who are still alive on the earth, will be raised from the dead, when He next appears, and clothed in immortal bodies. Then they will be caught up to where Christ and the white war stallions are waiting in the air above the earth. The angels will blow the trumpets of God and the two armies, the saints and the warrior angels, will hurtle down from their staging area to the dried up bed of the Euphrates. These are the kings from the east.

The armies of Antichrist will be destroyed and the birds will eat their flesh. Antichrist and the False Prophet will be cast into the Lake of Fire. One angel will bind Satan and hurl him into the Bottomless Pit. The evil powers who have ruled the earth have now been rendered powerless. But there remains on the earth the Antichrist institutions of world “civilization” as well as people with sinful natures.

Now it is time for Joel’s army to invade every city that has been influenced by Antichrist. On and on they come. The land is as Eden before them and behind them a burning wilderness. They do not break ranks. The Lord is at the head of His army.

After the whole earth has been subdued, the Firstfruits will return to Jerusalem to await their orders from Christ. Christ will send out His kings to every part of the earth. The larger nations will be split up into smaller kingdoms, each of which will have its own king. Righteous behavior will be enforced with the scepter of iron righteousness, a scepter that has been formed in the victorious saints as they have overcome through Christ the evil that came against them during their lifetimes on the earth. Then there will be a thousand years of a peace enforced by the saints and their angelic helpers. The knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. The world will be safe for little children and the fiercest of wild animals will be their tame pets.

But the conflict between good and evil has not as yet been finished. At the end of the thousand-year Kingdom Age, Satan will be released. He will lead the nations who have been patiently trained in righteousness during the Kingdom Age, against the camp of the saints. There will be no battle. God will wipe out the wicked forces, just as He always has been able to do. Satan, the source of the tragedies on the earth, will be thrown into the Lake of Fire.

Those who teach that the wicked eventually will be saved should remember that when Satan was released after a thousand years of confinement, he immediately set about to destroy the work of Christ. That would also occur if God relented and permitted even one truly wicked person to enter the new world of righteousness.

Now that the rebellious have been burned up, and Satan has found his eternal home in the Lake of Fire, everyone, except the Firstfruits who were raised in the first resurrection, will stand before the Throne of Jesus Christ. Every individual will be judged fairly according to his or her works.

Those whose names are found in the Book of Life will be brought over to citizenship on the new earth. Those whose names are not found in the Book of Life will be thrown into the Lake of Fire to make their home with Satan.

That is the end of the war between good and evil.

Since people and angels have wills of their own, they always will be able to disobey Christ. There will be kings and judges in the new world of righteousness who will be alerted immediately if some person or angel is entertaining a thought of resistance to the will of the Lord Jesus Christ. That individual will be approached by a saint, accompanied by warrior angels. The individual may be taken on a “field trip” to see the bodies of those who have rebelled against Christ.

“As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,” declares the LORD, “so will your name and descendants endure. From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,” says the LORD. “And they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.” (Isaiah 66:22-24)

If he or she is willing to repent sincerely, the person may be given another chance. But if pride and rebellion enter in, then the individual will be placed with Satan and all other rebels.

This concludes the war between good and evil. Thus the word shall come to pass:

Seventy “sevens” are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. (Daniel 9:24)

What We Are to Prepare For

Moral and physical chaos in the United States and the world—Psalm 9:17
The birth of the sons of God—Revelation 12:5
Confessing and turning from our sins and self-will—I John 1:9
The hurling of satan and his angels to the earth—Revelation 12:9
The judging of those who are to bear witness—Revelation 11:1
The power to bear witness of the soon coming of the kingdom of God to the earth—Revelation 11:3
The withdrawing of the anointing and the overcoming of the testimony—Revelation 11:7
Sodom; Egypt; Jerusalem—Revelation 11:8
The revelation of antichrist and the great tribulation—Daniel 9:27
Satan makes war against the church—Revelation 12:17
Christ appears and gathers His elect; the first resurrection—Matthew 24:30; Revelation 20:4
The battle of armageddon—Revelation 19:11
Joel’s army cleanses the earth—Joel 2:3
The thousand-year kingdom age—Isaiah 11:9
Satan is released from the bottomless pit—Revelation 20:7
The final judgment—Revelation 20:11
The new heaven and earth—Revelation 21:1

(“What We Are to Prepare For”, 3709-1, proofed 20210925)