Are we ready? Prepared? A message of sobriety in an hour of danger and massive deception.

Depending upon one's theology the issue of being ready, being could have very different meanings/applications.

For example, for those who believe we are extremely close to Jesus' Return and who believe in a pre-Tribulation Rapture of the Church (namely that Christians will be 'airlifted' off the planet before a 7-year tribulation), they only believe they need to be ready for that event. One could argue that such a perspective requires 'minimal' preparation. 

Others believe that the Rapture of the Church takes place either in the middle (Mid-Trib), towards the end (Pre-Wrath), or at the very end (Post-Trib) of the Tribulation period. All of these eschatological positions by definition require far more readiness than the Pre-Trib position. In all of these scenarios, believers will be required to endure, to stand, to resist, etc. 

I have dealt with this issue in previous blog posts, but the universal position of the early church was that Christians will in fact be on the planet during the entire Tribulation period (in other words, a Post-Tribulation Rapture). And the belief was that as the King, Jesus returns to the planet at the 2nd coming, the believers who are living at that time will be "caught up in the air" to meet their King and all believers who had died and join them as Jesus returns to His Domain, to rule and reign for 1000 years in Jerusalem. 

I know that as church history marched on, other positions were developed; for example; Amillennialism, Post-Millennialism, and Preterism. A popular version of Preterism is known as Partial Preterism, popularized by Harold Eberle's book Victorious Eschatology in many of the circles that my blog readers would be familiar with. 

Many of these positions require that believers heed all the warnings in Scripture as Jesus said unequivocally that "in this world, you WILL HAVE TRIBULATION...". I'll have to admit that even though many of them differ in what they believe happened or will happen, for the most part, Christians have not taken a passive approach but have sought to obey Jesus when he commanded His followers to "occupy until I come" (Luke 19:13).

Beyond troubles, it has been said that Jesus and His apostles warned about deception as much as 6 times more than they wrote/warned about tribulation. I can't quantify this, but when I read my New Testament the admonitions to not be deceived and to beware of false teaching/prophets are extensive throughout all of the New Testament.

I don't know many Christians today that would not admit that we are living in extremely complicated days - and the question that we should all be asking ourselves RIGHT NOW is are we ready? Are we prepared? For whatever is coming. What is another global pandemic is released by the demonically-controlled globalists? What if it is far more lethal than Covid from which 99.83% of the people survived? What if the global economy crashes? What if anti-Christian governmental authorities increase their tyrannical mandates against Christians? What if we are told we can't teach/preach what the Bible teaches about gender, sexuality, and marriage? What if they force the Church to close its doors again? 

My observation over the past couple of years is that the Church was NOT READY when Covid hit. It was not prepared. There weren't plans in place. Our prophets didn't see it coming (with a few rare exceptions). We weren't prepared spiritually and we weren't prepared physically. Do you realize that most of the people who died from Covid would NOT HAVE DIED had they been healthy - namely not obese and not suffering from metabolic diseases that are in our control?

Even now, I've just had a close friend die who was unhealthy. He didn't have to die an untimely death. Yes, I believe he is with the Lord and for this I am grateful - we can agree with Paul that death has "lost its sting" (I Cor 15:55) for all who belong to Christ! But as I have been looking at people in the groups of Christians I have been in meetings with in recent weeks, I see many who are incredibly unhealthy. I see obesity seems to have only exploded during and in the wake of Covid. Some are even in the category of being 'morbidly obese' which means 100lbs overweight. 

Some will make the argument that I am too focused in what I've just written on the physical. Isn't the spiritual what matters? First of all, what we see in the physical, the natural is often a mirror of what is going on internally. And secondly, that is a very 'Gnostic' idea that Christianity from the beginning has always fought against. I am convinced that many modern manifestations of what is called the "Hyper-Grace" movement, peddle gnostic ideas. To tell Christians that HOW they live doesn't matter. To tell Christians that they never have to repent from anything because there is no sin to repent from. Just the messages to the CHURCHES (i.e. BELIEVERS) in the Book of Revelation alone destroy the notion (taught by such popular teachers as Joseph Prince) that Christians are never told they need to repent. 

I believe this false (or at least distorted) 'Grace Message' has arguably rendered Christians less prepared to endure than any other emphasis in the modern Church. And our ignorance of Church History fails to see that all of these distorted concepts/ideas originated with heretical gnostic groups in the early centuries of the church. 

Even now with a season of prayer and fasting having been called (both by the historic churches with Lent and with intercessors like Lou Engle and his Global Jesus Fast - https://thejesusfast.global/) how many are going to heed the call? How many believe we are in an urgent hour that requires a higher level of devotion than what has caused the Body of Christ to be in the mess it is largely, currently in?

So, I ask us again - HOW PREPARED ARE WE? Would this not truly be a Joel 2:15-16 moment? 

    "Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; 

    call a solemn assembly..."

I had no idea when we started this blog why we named it the "Joel 2 Generation" - I think that we have a much better idea today WHY the Lord gave us this name...

It was "for such a time AS THIS"

16  gather the people.