Message:
This past 2 years we have been introduced in a new way to signs in the Heavens by several books about the 4 Blood Moons as well as the cycle of God’s festivals and the Shemitah year and Jubilee year.
We have yet to see these things run their course and so we wait and watch before we draw our conclusions.
I was fascinated to discover that these Heavenly signs were discerned using modern computer technology.
A simple computer program that is free called Stellarium shows with graphic detail the movement of the Heavens with mathematical precision. All you need do is punch in a date or the name of a constellation and Walla you have the movement of these Heavenly bodies displayed before you.
I thought I’d check it out for myself and so I now have this same program on my computer. I did say it was free.
This technology has given Christians a new past-time that links Bible prophecy with stargazing. This is not astrology but astronomy with a Christian or Biblical twist.
Such a Bible prophecy concerns
Revelation 12:1-2 with its descriptive language of a woman giving birth.
12 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: 2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
Using this computer program Christians have been able to identify this woman as the constellation Virgo and the 12 stars above her head as the constellation Leo the lion.
From there they calculate using the computer program the approximate time of these constellations forming such a conjunction.
The date is September 23 of 2017. No other dates work using these facts and these constellations and so Christians are now looking to 2017 as a time of great wrath which will fall upon all believers at that time as Satan runs wild on planet earth.
All of this is dependent on their calculations and identification of these constellations being the subject of what St. John was told to tell us in his Revelation.
I can tell you that already hundreds of web sites are promoting this possibility and dozens of books are being sold promoting this timeline.
It is hard to imagine that a time is coming that will be worse for Christians than it is now.
Dr. Billy Graham describes these things in this way….
“Hope for Each Day”
Dr. Graham says this as he talks about “Our Furious Foe” by quoting 2 Timothy 3:1-13
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days....evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
IS THE world getting worse?
Is the devil working more furiously today than ever before?
To many observers this certainly seems to be the case.
Take the record of the last century: two world wars and other conflicts that killed more people than all previous wars combined; six million Jews mercilessly killed in the Holocaust; millions more innocent civilians slaughtered by evil atheistic despots; more Christians martyred for their faith than at any other time in history."
In the verse above, Paul called the final days before Jesus return “terrible times”. Jesus Himself declared that we “will hear of wars and rumors of war… nation will rise against nation” Matthew 24:6-7.
Why will it be like this?
The reason, the Bible says, is because Satan will lash out in one final burst of fury, seeking with all his might to block Christs victory.
Revelation 12
Does this alarm you?
Don’t let it – because Christ, not Satan, will be victorious.
In the meantime, “be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer” Romans 12:12
These are encouraging words from Dr. Graham at a time when we are witness to an escalation of violence and death directed towards Christians. But how are we to accomplish such a fearless disposition?
To be able to love people even when they are determined to kill you requires a love that passes all understanding.
Recently we had the violent murder and martyrdom of 9 souls from Charleston South Carolina who were sitting at a Bible Study with someone in their midst who was given over to evil by hate. The manner in which those Saints died that day reminds me of Revelation 12:11
11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
They were willing to give their lives as a testimony for Jesus Christ. Men and women of various ages loved not their lives but rather gave them up right there and then for Jesus Christ.
I believe that Jesus gave these Saints to us at this time as examples of how we are to love this evil hatful world at this time in history.
There was no computer program pointing us to this specific event and so these Saints could not anticipate it.
Instead they had been made ready for such an event by the example of their Saviour Jesus Christ. Who when He was beaten, when He was tortured, and when He was nailed upon a cross did not cry out against His tormentors but instead prayed – 34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots. Luke 23:34
Saints I tell you not as a prophet but as a preacher that things will get worse before they get better.
I do not need a celestial software program to tell me that. Instead I have God’s word. That word tells me to be prepared to give my all for the One who gave His all for me.
I am to give it like these Saints in South Carolina did. I am to be prepared every day for a day like they experienced. Saints I need to ask you are you ready today to lay down your life for the testimony of Jesus Christ?
You need to be ready Saints for we are living in a time when that day could arrive for anyone of us. A seemingly regular day as we do our regular things.
Love not your life unto death but realize that your eternal life awaits you on the other side.
For that reason we can love those who hate us even when they are sitting in the same Bible Study or same church.
I was reminded last week during a wedding ceremony. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:8 – Amen.
