Famine?
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord” (Amos 8:11)
The famine to be discussed in this article is the one foretold by God where He says that He will send a famine for hearing the Word of God. I am compelled to begin this lament by a quote from Shakespeare, "If you have tears, prepare to shed them now." Towards the end of November, I received my last copy of the Kingdom Digest, for which I have subscribed for about three and one half years. Many of my readers are quite familiar with this journal, but for those of you who are not familiar, I would offer a few notes. John Lovell founded the Digest and preached the kingdom message from his church in Fort Worth, Texas. When he died in 1974, his family, his wife and son, carried on the Digest and were able to do so for THIRTY -TWO YEARS! Many of the articles were reprints from other publications but defined some aspect of the covenant people’s message. Original articles were on offer as well. So, it is with sorrow, that we see another of Christ's 'lights" extinguished. God bless all who were involved in producing and distributing this, "message" journal, called the "Kingdom Digest."
I also subscribed to Destiny Publishers monthly letter for many years. The December issue indicated that tthat organization was in financial trouble and noted that some staff, serving for fifty years had to take pay cuts. Of course, this was the organization of Howard Rand, the Bible scholar that provided so many books on the subject of the Kingdom. Besides his own books, there were many by other authors, like C.B. Dickey, that did so much to clarify and extend the message. Well, we hope this institution can carry on but it does not look good for them. I know that they would appreciate our prayers as wall as our donations.
Another great contributor to the message was Frank Dowsett from Australia, who preached the message in his church and authored many booklets, audio tapes and video tapes to the faithful. He has now retired because of illness and his organization has been closed down by those who remained blinded to the message.
As I write this, it is the day after Mr. Gemayel, a Lebanese Christian political leader was gunned down in his car. Yet, one more Christian martyr!
Also, I read in the papers that the HIV/AIDS infection rates have increased by 30% in the past year. Is this the pestilence that is to occur in the last days?
So, what do we make of all this? All of these organizations relied on God for their financial support and He guided the elect to offer enough support to keep them humming. But now that support is fading. One interpretation of these events is that God feels that this aspect of our work is coming to an end, BECAUSE THE END OF THIS WORLD ORDER IS NEAR!! Jesus told us that the last days that this world order would be like the days of Noah, where everyone had only thoughts of evil. That is perhaps why he posed the question in Luke l8: 8, "Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" We are well acquainted with the sins that surround us and I will not list them here, but I think it is fair to say that every imagination of men's hearts is evil. So, we pray, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Ivan Panin, in his translation of the New Testament, says, "Deliver us from the Evil One." Yes, I also think it is fair to say that the devil is rampaging around like a roaring lion to see whom to might devour.
When we consider the work of the Devil, we must conclude he has accomplished a great deal. We have no religious training or prayers in the schools, he has taken Christ out of Christmas, he has removed prayers from our legislative bodies, the chaplins of the military are not allowed to use the name, Jesus Christ, and through TV and movies, he has eliminated any moral standards we had. He has persecuted millions of Christians and brought about destructive wars between Christians and Christians. He is working very hard to derail God's plan to establish world peace through the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and to destroy the elect who will be its citizens.
In his letter to the Ephesians 6: 12, Paul reminds us, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places," And so, he encourages us to put on the full armour of God, a spiritual armour, These fading organizations, proclaiming the message of the Kingdom, provided us maintenance of our spiritual armour, and as God silences their voices, it is more important for those of us that remain to shout the message as loudly as we can. I personally believe that God is closing down the 'hunting' activity, (identifying the elect) and moving us into the watchman activity, (looking for the coming saviour).
Our own editor, Brooks Alden, has drawn our attention to important prophetic time cycles which are concluding circa 2007. Could the great events of the end of the age be that close? Perhaps or perhaps not; but we must be vigilant and strive for pure hearts to meet our Saviour when He comes. Remember the parable of the ten virgins with their lamps awaiting the bridegroom. We must be ready to receive and serve the Lord our Righteousness who is coming to establish His kingdom through the whole world, earning the title, "The Prince of Peace."
Jesus has promised that the coming holocaust will be shortened for the sake of the elect. So, being saved, to what do we look forward? lst Corinthians chapter 2: 9 reports our future in these glowing terms, “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, neither hath entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. |
