The King Has Come!

     I love Christmas, and even all the traditional aspects of it. But the older I get, the more I have been drawn to the deeper truth of Christmas. Let me challenge you to take some time this year to think about what really happened on that first Christmas, and what a truly incredible thing it was that the Messiah had finally come. In order to grasp its true nature, consider what was going on in the mind of God, and in the mind of the people who had been waiting thousands of years for the Savior’s birth.

     Ponder this thought, have you ever wondered why the birth of Jesus was announced to shepherds instead of the rulers of Israel? The answer to that question provides a glimpse into God’s character, as well as His plan for salvation. This was the Messiah, the incarnation of God! Why would God have chosen such a “lowly” group of people to announce the greatest miracle of all time … God becoming a Man to redeem sinful mankind to Himself?! See 1 Peter 3:18.

     This was how Luke described that glorious announcement of the Savior’s birth to those shepherds:

     Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

     And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

               “Glory to God in the highest,

          And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

Luke 2:8—14 (NKJV).

     I believe that God chose men of such a humble profession rather than the rulers of Israel to announce His arrival because, “God resists the proud, [b]ut gives grace to the humble.” 1 Peter 5:5b (NKJV) (quoting Proverbs 3:34). The rulers of Israel had become extraordinarily pompous, thinking that they served God, when in reality they only served their wicked hearts. Jesus scolded them precisely on this point saying, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” Matthew 23:27, 28 (NKJV).

     The Prophet Zechariah also predicted that the Messiah, the Good Shepherd, would reveal Himself to “the poor of the flock.” Zechariah 11:7b (NKJV). This is exactly what the Lord did, beginning with the announcement of His birth. This is also how the Lord deals with you and me even today, 2,000 years after His first arrival. He resists those of us who think so highly of ourselves and treat Christ as simply an infant figurine in a Nativity set. He is our God! But He will absolutely give His grace to us if we would humble our hearts in repentance, grieving over the ways we have failed Him, and fall to our knees in reverence before the Babe in the manger who came for the sole purpose of dying on the cross for our sins. He gave Himself on that first Christmas to be, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29b (NKJV).

     The Apostle Peter explained this purpose of Christmas saying, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.” 1 Peter 3:18 (NKJV) (underlined emphasis added). In the precious words of our Savior concerning His death on the cross, Jesus also said, “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.” John 12:27, 28a (NKJV) (underlined emphasis added). The cross is the purpose of Christmas! And because only the humble in spirit would receive the grace that God affords through the cross, God chose the poor of the flock to reveal His Messiah’s arrival.

     Now that was the mind of God at the first Christmas, but what about the people? This is actually one of the most amazing things to contemplate. Those of us who were raised in a Christian environment know the Christmas story so well that we too often miss the magnitude of what occurred. Christmas was the absolute biggest event in the history of the world, and men had been waiting for it ever since the Fall, thousands of years before Christ’s birth.

     The very first prophecy of Jesus came immediately following Adam and Eve’s rebellion in the Garden of Eden:

And I will put enmity

     Between you and the woman,

     And between your seed and her Seed;

     He shall bruise your head,

     And you shall bruise His heel.

Genesis 3:15 (NKJV).

     Because biologically a woman doesn’t have a seed, but rather a man does, her Seed then spoke of a virgin birth. The Prophet Isaiah picked up that theme when he prophesied, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:13b, 14 (NKJV).

     Now don’t be alarmed that the Messiah’s name was actually Jesus, and not Immanuel. The name Jesus, or Yeshua in the original Hebrew, means the Lord’s salvation. Whereas, Immanuel means God with us, which is what Jesus was, as explained by the Apostle Matthew:

     So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”

Matthew 1:22, 23 (NKJV) (quoting Isaiah 7:14).

     So from the dawn of history, mankind had been waiting for the arrival of this Savior who would reconnect us to God and would be marked by a miraculous birth. But as the wait continued, the wickedness of mankind grew, “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Genesis 6:5 (NKJV). For this reason, God decided to demonstrate His wrath that is stored up for our sin, and destroyed the earth as it had existed with a great flood. See Genesis 6, 7.

     The Apostle Paul wrote of this historic event, as well as the final demonstration that will come against the unsaved at the Great White Throne Judgment, when Paul wrote:

     For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them ... because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God.

Romans 1:18, 19, 21a (NKJV); see also Revelation 20:11—15 (describing the Great White Throne Judgment).

     But even though God hated the sin of man so much that He almost completely destroyed us, He also promised a very special blessing on Noah’s son Shem (whom the Semites are named for, which is the people group encompassing the Jews):

And [Noah] said:

     “Blessed be the LORD,

     The God of Shem,

     And may Canaan be his servant.”

Genesis 9:26 (NKJV).

     Nine generations after Shem, came a man named Abram, whose name was later changed by God to Abraham. See Genesis 11:10—27 (outlining the descendency from Shem to Abraham); see also Genesis 17:4, 5 (mentioning the name change from Abram to Abraham). Through Abraham, God further revealed His plan to bring forth the Messiah saying, “And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:3b (NKJV).

     Linking the promise to Shem, God declared to Abraham that he would be the father of the Jewish nation, among whom the Messiah would be born:

And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

Genesis 17:7, 8 (NKJV).

     God’s promise began taking shape with Abraham’s grandson Jacob, whose name God changed to Israel. See Genesis 25:19—26 (outlining the descendency from Abraham to Jacob); see also Genesis 32:28 (mentioning the name change from Jacob to Israel). Through Jacob’s children, God established a people group whom God would send scribes and prophets to record God’s detailed revelation of the coming Messiah and His plan for salvation.

     Jacob had twelve sons, hence the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Through his son Judah, the ancestor of the Man Jesus according to the flesh, God further defined His prophecy of the coming Messiah, referred to here as Shiloh:

Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise;

     Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;

     Your father’s children shall bow down before you.

Judah is a lion’s whelp;

     From the prey, my son, you have gone up.

     He bows down, he lies down as a lion;

     And as a lion, who shall rouse him?

The scepter shall not depart from Judah,

     Nor a lawgiver from between his feet,

     Until Shiloh comes;

     And to Him shall be the obedience of the people.

Genesis 49:8—10 (NKJV). This of course is why Jesus is called “the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” Revelation 5:5b (NKJV).

     Eventually God sent Israel a man named Moses who would lead them to salvation from captivity in Egypt, and give to them the Law, the Ten Commandments. Through Moses, God declared to the people of Israel one of the greatest blessings in all of Scripture saying, “I will raise up for them a Prophet like [Moses] from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.” Deuteronomy 18:18 (NKJV). Jesus Christ is that Prophet, who is the only One to have fulfilled every aspect of the Law, all the moral absolutes that we could not obey ourselves; and it is therefore only through His atoning sacrificial death that all who would repent from sin and put their faith in Him alone for salvation, would be freed from the captivity of our sin. See Matthew 5:17 (fulfilling the Law); Romans 5 (explaining that salvation is possible only though Christ’s atoning sacrifice); Luke 4:16—23 (quoting Isaiah 61:1, 2a, which states that Jesus would “proclaim liberty to the captives”).

     Approximately 400 years later, God sent Israel a picture of Jesus in King David, a descendant of Judah, whom God called, “a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.” Acts 13:22b (quoting 1 Samuel 13:14). God promised that because David was a man after His own heart, God would send the King of the Universe, the eternal King Jesus Christ, through David’s line of descent, “And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.” 2 Samuel 7:16 (NKJV); see also Luke 3:23—38 (providing the genealogy from David to Jesus biologically on Mary’s side, but still using Joseph’s name to follow legal descent rules); Matthew 1:1—17 (providing the genealogy from David to Jesus legally on Joseph’s side).

     It was through King David’s prophecies scattered throughout the Psalms that we get some of the most magnificent images of the coming King Jesus, whom even David called, “my Lord.” Psalm 110:1b (NKJV); see also Matthew 22:41—46 (explaining in Christ’s own words that David was declaring the Messiah to be the Son of God). David gave possibly the most stunning vision of the coming Messiah as King and as the Son of God, to be a ruler over the entire earth, and who requires repentance from sin and faith in Him alone for salvation from the wrath we rightly deserve:

“Yet I have set My King

     On My holy hill of Zion.”

“I will declare the decree:

     The LORD has said to Me,

     ‘You are My Son,

     Today I have begotten You.

Ask of Me, and I will give You

     The nations for Your inheritance,

     And the ends of the earth for Your possession.

You shall break them with a rod of iron;

     You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’”

Now therefore, be wise, O kings;

     Be instructed, you judges of the earth.

Serve the LORD with fear,

     And rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,

     And you perish in the way,

     When His wrath is kindled but a little.

     Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

Psalm 2:6—12 (NKJV).

     God swore to David, “I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn to My servant David: ‘Your seed I will establish forever.’” Psalm 89:3, 4a (NKJV). However, because of the repeated sin and rebellion against God, He also temporarily destroyed the autonomy of the Jewish nation, and sent them into captivity with the Gentile nations Assyria, Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. Before this happened though, God sent Israel the Prophet Isaiah to warn them of this pending captivity if they failed to repent and turn back to God.

     Despite the judgment that God would send upon Israel, Isaiah also reiterated God’s promises that were made to Shem, Abraham, Jacob, Moses and David, that for the sake of a remnant of true believers, the Messiah would still be born in Israel and would sit upon the throne of David:

     For unto us a Child is born,

Unto us a Son is given;

And the government will be upon His shoulder.

And His name will be called

Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

     Of the increase of His government and peace

There will be no end,

Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,

To order it and establish it with judgment and justice

From that time forward, even forever.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

Isaiah 9:6, 7 (NKJV).

     Tradition indicates that the Jewish King Manasseh rejected Isaiah’s warnings and had him cut in two with a saw. Either way, the Jewish people did not listen to Isaiah’s warnings to repent from their idolatry, and the Prophet Jeremiah was sent with the same message to repent. Yet Jeremiah also retained the wonderful promise of the Messiah:

     “Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD,

“That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness;

A King shall reign and prosper,

And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.

     In His days Judah will be saved,

And Israel will dwell safely;

Now this is His name by which He will be called:

THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Jeremiah 23:5, 6 (NKJV).

     Jeremiah was ignored as well, and eventually Israel was completely destroyed by the Babylonians. A remnant, however, was preserved by God, yet brought into captivity and kept in Babylonia and later Persia, before being allowed to return to the land of Israel. Even after they were allowed to return, they were constantly oppressed by their neighbors, who were not pleased with their return to the land.

     During that time, God sent prophets again to the people of Israel, both to warn against the idolatry of their fathers, as well as to give them hope that their Messiah would still one day save them. The greatest of these prophets was Zechariah, whose very name has connotations of bringing a message of comfort. Zechariah indeed comforted the oppressed and struggling Israelites with these words of a glorious future when the Messiah would arrive:

     “Hear, O Joshua, the high priest,

You and your companions who sit before you,

For they are a wondrous sign;

For behold, I am bringing forth My Servant the BRANCH.

     For behold, the stone

That I have laid before Joshua:

Upon the stone are seven eyes.

Behold, I will engrave its inscription,”

Says the LORD of hosts,

“And I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.

     In that day,” says the LORD of hosts,

“Everyone will invite his neighbor

Under his vine and under his fig tree.”

Zechariah 3:8—10 (NKJV).

     The vision was of the thousand year reign of Christ on the earth. A time of incredible prosperity when, “men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’” Zechariah 8:23b (NKJV). This was a hope that filled the hearts of many Jews with great anticipation for the Messiah. Zechariah described it as a day when the Jewish Nation, which was experiencing tremendous oppression during Zechariah’s time, would finally be the most blessed people on earth, because the Lord would reign over the entire earth from Jerusalem:

     The LORD their God will save them in that day,

As the flock of His people.

For they shall be like the jewels of a crown,

Lifted like a banner over His land—

     For how great is its goodness

And how great its beauty!

Zechariah 9:16, 17a (NKJV).

     However, even after Zechariah, Israel continued experiencing difficult times. The final prophet named Malachi, who preached approximately 400 years before Christ’s birth, told of the majesty and power of Israel’s Messiah saying:

“For I am a great King,”

Says the LORD of hosts,

“And My name is to be feared among the nations.”

Malachi 1:14b (NKJV).

     The Jewish People knew that their God was a great King, and that He was powerful enough to save them. However, they were a lot like us. They were too weak to consistently remain faithful to God. Like us, they continued to sin and fall away from God. So the last words Israel heard from their God were, “Return to Me, and I will return to you.” Malachi 3:7b (NKJV).

     Then there was a deafening and heart wrenching 400 hundred years of silence. God had stopped sending them prophets, and I’m sure many of the Jews believed that God had totally abandoned them. During this time, Israel experienced terrible and horrific oppression from the Greeks and Romans. There was even a precursor to the Antichrist named Antiochus Epiphanes, who defiled the temple of God by slaughtering a pig on God’s altar, and forcing pork down the throats of the Jewish priests. See Daniel 11 (prophesying the details of Antiochus Epiphanes’ attempt to slaughter the Jews, but which is also attributed to the Antichrist by Jesus in Matthew 24:15). For those who are unaware, a pig was considered to be a filthy unclean animal under the Mosaic Law. See Leviticus 11:7.

     Even after Israel had fought Antiochus Epiphanes through a revolt led by Judah Maccabee, which is where the celebration of Chanukah comes from, the Romans came along and oppressed the Jews worse than any of the prior nations. In the Prophet Daniel’s visions of the Gentile nations that would dominate the Jewish people, Daniel likened Rome to a ferocious beast describing it as, “dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet.” Daniel 7:7b (NKJV).

     The Romans at the time of Christ did in fact devour the Israelites, draining them of everything they had through massively oppressive taxation to fund the exploits of the Roman Empire, and any resistance from the Jews was utterly smashed by the Roman strength. The Jews were desperately seeking a messiah who would fulfill the prophets and overthrow the Romans, relieving them of their misery and restoring their golden age of King David. However, many did not want a Servant Messiah who came in humility, but rather a King Messiah who came in pure strength, and who would destroy Rome.

     Then, after the longest period of silence Israel had ever experienced without a prophet, and after the longest period of horror and suffering at the hands of other nations, Israel’s King was announced! At the perfect time in history, God reached down into our world and placed a miraculous baby into the womb of a poor, not yet married, virgin from Nazareth. But this was no ordinary baby, He was God Himself! See John 1:1—3. Jesus was the second member of the Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

     As you can imagine, such a thing would be very shocking to a young, poor, virgin girl, so God sent her the angel Gabriel to tell her the good news:

Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

Luke 1:30—33 (NKJV).

     This was the greatest news of all time! The consummation of all that the prophets had been promising. I love to envision the time period and all that was going on with the oppression the Jews were experiencing, and imagine that I was watching as Gabriel revealed the good news to Mary, or that I was one of those shepherds who were blessed with the glorious announcement, “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11 (NKJV). What an incredible night that was for them! And for us! For if Christ had never come, we would have no atonement for our sins, and would have to suffer ourselves the punishment God requires for each and every time we have transgressed His Laws. This was the greatest news ever given to our world!

     But sadly, most people would reject this Man Jesus as Messiah, and most people continue to reject Him even today. After all, He was not born into a palace, but a manger, where animals ate from. He was not born to a wealthy queen, but in poverty to a humble girl. He was not raised as a royal prince, but as a simple carpenter.

     What the people could not understand is that Jesus did not come the first time to overthrow human government and set up His own government on earth. He will do that one day. But Christ’s first visitation into our world was for the express purpose of serving as our substitute on the cross, as was said in the Savior’s own words, “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:28 (NKJV).

     They rejected the Servant Messiah foretold by the Prophet Isaiah. A Messiah who would not be honored as King, but be “despised and rejected by men,” and who came to be “wounded for our transgressions.” Isaiah 53:3b, 5b (NKJV). When the Israelites had the opportunity to worship Jesus as their God and their King, the overwhelming majority chose instead to yell, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” Luke 23:21b (NKJV). They refused to accept this Man as their Messiah.

     They had no excuse, however, for not recognizing Jesus as Messiah. More than 500 years before Christ’s birth, God sent the Prophet Daniel to them, who gave amazingly accurate prophecies of world history, leading all the way up to the Lord’s second coming, when He sets up His kingdom on earth.

     No one aware of Daniel’s prophecies could claim such an excuse, because Daniel gave them the exact date when Jesus would enter Jerusalem declaring that He was the Messiah. Therefore, they should have expected His birth as that date grew closer. That event occurred on what we call Palm Sunday, when Jesus entered the East Gate of Jerusalem as foretold by Ezekiel, while riding on a donkey as prophesied by Zechariah, while all the people declared Him to be the Messiah shouting:

Hosanna to the Son of David!

     ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’

     Hosanna in the highest!

Matthew 21:9b (NKJV) (quoting Psalm 118:26); see also Daniel 9:24—26; Ezekiel 44:1, 2; Zechariah 9:9, 10.

     It’s easy to miss the fact that Daniel gave the exact date of the Palm Sunday event, but a close look reveals that he did just that. Daniel wrote about a specific period of time that would be carved out of history to deal with Israel and to bring salvation through the Messiah, which Daniel referred to as seventy weeks of years. The seventy weeks requires a commentary all of its own, but that’s for another day. However, it’s important to understand that the seventy weeks translates to 490 years on the Jewish calendar.

     Within that period of 490 years, Daniel said that the Messiah would come and be declared as such seven weeks and sixty-two weeks (which again has a significance that will have to wait for another time), or 483 years on the Jewish calendar, after the command to restore and build Jerusalem:

     Know therefore and understand,

That from the going forth of the command

To restore and build Jerusalem

Until Messiah the Prince,

There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;

The street shall be built again, and the wall,

Even in troublesome times.

     And after the sixty-two weeks

Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;

And the people of the prince who is to come

Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.

The end of it shall be with a flood,

And till the end of the war desolations are determined.

Daniel 9:25—26 (NKJV).

     The command to rebuild Jerusalem occurred in the “month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes.” Nehemiah 2:1b (NKJV). Scholars have calculated 483 Jewish calendar years from that time to land precisely at Palm Sunday on the ninth day of Nisan in the year 30 A.D., when Jesus rode into Jerusalem’s East Gate. Then some years after Jesus was cut off for our sake, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, which to this day has still not yet been rebuilt.

     Because the rulers of Israel knew these Scriptures, they should have been looking for the Messiah’s miraculous birth foretold about in Genesis and by Isaiah as they approached Daniel’s predicted date. Even Gentile Magi, which some Bible translations describe as “wise men from the East,” knew to be looking for the Messiah. Matthew 2:1b (NKJV). You see, Daniel was in fact a Magi, which were a caste of wise counselors used by the Babylonian and Medo-Persian kings.

     Those Magi who showed up to worship the arrival of King Jesus, knew to expect Him because of Daniel’s prophecies. The Jews, who also had Daniel’s prophecies, should have expected Jesus too. In fact, when the Magi asked King Herod where they could find the newly “born King of the Jews,” the chief priests and scribes answered:

In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet:

          “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

     Are not the least among the rulers of Judah;

     For out of you shall come a Ruler

          Who will shepherd My people Israel.”

Matthew 2:2, 5b, 6 (NKJV) (quoting Micah 5:2).

     It just amazes me every time I read the story that those religious leaders failed to read the signs of Christ’s first coming. Because all the evidence was there, I can’t help but believe that they willfully rejected Jesus from the time of His birth. Even Jesus lamented about Israel’s stubbornness and pride saying, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” Matthew 23:37 (NKJV).

     They who rejected Christ when He came will have no excuse for doing so when they stand before God at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Revelation 20:11—15 (describing the Great White Throne Judgment). More importantly, you and I will have no excuse either. In fact, you and I have so much more knowledge of who Christ is, because we have God’s complete revelation in the New Testament. We will be held accountable for the knowledge that God has given us.

     Please don’t be like so many of the people at Christ’s first visitation and reject the most incredible Christmas gift you could ever receive. The Apostle Paul explained God’s gift to us like this:

     For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Romans 5:6—10 (NKJV).

     However, in order to receive this incredible gift, you need to respond to God’s invitation. You must repent from your rebellious sin, and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as the only hope for your salvation, specifically that His death on the cross was your substitute. Submit to Him as your Lord through repentance and faith, and you will be saved. As Paul also wrote:

if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

Romans 10:9—11 (NKJV) (quoting Isaiah 28:16).

     Jesus came the first time precisely as it was predicted by the prophets. Both Jesus Himself as well as the prophets all promised that He will come again. Don’t be like the people who failed to read the signs of the times when Christ came as Servant. See Matthew 16:1—4 (explaining the foolishness of the Jewish leaders in their failure to see the signs of who Jesus was).

     The signs that the return of Jesus Christ, this time with power as Messiah the King!, are coming into focus at a rapid pace. I believe with all of my heart that His return is very, very near. Nevertheless, even if I’m wrong, you and I will both stand before Christ and have to face the penalty of our sins. Will your sins be on Christ at the cross, which was the sole purpose of Christmas? Or will you have to bear them yourself throughout all of eternity? Please don’t miss out on the greatest Christmas gift you could ever receive. If you hear His voice, do as Jesus commanded, “Repent, and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:15b (NKJV).

The Grace of a Perfectly Loving and Perfectly Righteous God

     Have you ever wondered whether God is really good? When we look around the world, we see so much disaster, pain, suffering and death. Why would a good God allow such injustice to occur? In fact, I bet most people have at some point in their lives even questioned the very existence of God based on the injustice of the world. I definitely have. The mere fact that bad things happen to seemingly good people makes it appear that God either doesn’t exist, or that He doesn’t care about us very much.

     This is one of the most important concepts that I have ever written about, so I implore you to read this commentary on God’s grace. I promise you that if you believe God is either disinterested at best or evil at worst, the Scriptures I point out for you will change your perception of God’s character. Whether you choose to reject the truths in Scripture is up to you, but you will not be able to say that the God of the Bible is disinterested or evil.

     Consider this hypothetical scenario. Imagine you have everything you could possibly imagine that would make you happy. For some reason, however, you are oddly not satisfied. Then a complete stranger comes along and says that he knows just what you need to finally get the happiness you’re looking for. The only catch is that you need to first give the stranger everything that you currently possess, whether money, investments, or property. Then you must hope that he will not only return what you entrusted to him, but that he will also give you what he promised, the thing that will make you truly happy.

     Now consider in my hypothetical that you took a chance on this offer, and the stranger never returns with your stuff, leaving you not only completely insolvent, but in debt more than you could ever repay in a lifetime. Who is to blame for your current condition? Would it be right for you to maybe demand that someone else restores all that you lost? Could anyone other than yourself and the thief ever have any blame for this problem of yours? Of course not! You would be to blame 100% for your foolish decision, nothing more to say.

     But let’s say you have a father, who full of compassion offers to give you everything he owns, which would restore you not only to the place you were in before you threw everything away and would pay off all your debt, but he also promised to actually double the prosperity you had before. After that kind of an offer, could you ever raise a complaint over anything to that compassionate father of yours? Could you ever argue with your father that he didn’t do enough? That he should have loved you more, or given you more, or been there for you more in your time of need?

    

     I hope the answer is self-evident. What should happen is that you would be so amazingly grateful that you would do anything to receive your father’s offer. But let’s say that for some reason you just can’t see your father’s generosity, because you actually feel that you deserve more from him. On top of it, you spit in your father’s face when he shows up at the gutter you are currently calling home, and yell at him to get lost! What should your father do? Would he be right to disown you? I think he would be perfectly just to disown such an ungrateful child.

     To take this little hypothetical one step further, consider that your father was the king, and the law of the land demands that anyone who disobeys the king and/or spits in the king’s face shall be punished by death. Wouldn’t the local sheriff be completely in the right to bring you to the gallows?

     To add another bizarre twist to my already bizarre storyline, what if the king’s oldest son voluntarily went to the gallows, taking your punishment, in your place? That wouldn’t even make sense, but it would certainly be the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you. Ever!

     Regardless of this incredible love you have been shown, what if you still rejected these offers to not only bail you out of your trouble, but to give you more than you could ever imagine? I have to say that by this point you would certainly deserve no more chances. But wouldn’t it make the offer so much more incredible if, despite all your disrespect, your father still gave you time to come around to reason and grasp his kindness?

     You probably have already guessed where I’ve been going with all this. Although this is far from a perfect example, what I have basically shared with you is the Gospel, as well as how mankind always responds to it – without God’s intervention anyway.

     You may disagree with me, insisting that the above scenario is not your story, that you never spit in Gods face. But if you insist on sticking to your position, please understand that you would be going against every word of Scripture, God’s word. The Bible says that you and I have done much worse than spit in God’s face. So either God’s word is true, or yours is true – sorry, but I’m going with God.

     The Apostle Paul wrote extensively on the hopeless depravity of man, explaining that we are simply not the good people we think we are: 

As it is written:

     “There is none righteous, no, not one;

          There is none who understands;

     There is none who seeks after God.

          They have all turned aside;

     They have together become unprofitable;

     There is none who does good, no, not one.”

Romans 3:10—12 (NKJV) (quoting Psalms 14:1—3; 53:1—3; Ecclesiastes 7:20).

     Paul also explained that we are actually enemies of God because of our sins:

     And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Colossians 1:21—23 (NKJV) (underlined emphasis added).

     The Bible makes it clear that not only are we not good, despite what we tend to think of ourselves, but we are actually alienated and enemies of God unless we are reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. So the real question in trying to understand God’s grace is to first understand why we are God’s enemies, and why or more importantly how we become reconciled.

     The quick answer is that we are born into the rebellion that was begun by our oldest ancestors, Adam and Eve. However, we can’t just blame them for our situation because as the verses quoted above make clear, by our wicked works we are disqualified from being righteous in God’s eyes. No matter how good we think we are, and no matter how many good deeds we do, the only way we may be presented to God as blameless and acceptable is if we are reconciled to God through the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for us on the cross, which He offers to be our substitute.

     I want you to understand something that is critical about this. Many people say they are Christians, and say that they believe the statements above made by the Apostle Paul. Many people believe they are Christians because of the good deeds or rituals that they do. But I want you to be clear that the Bible teaches that many people on the day of judgment will be shocked that they were not true Christians. That despite saying they were followers of Jesus, they never actually surrendered to Him from their own rebellion. Merely believing that Jesus is real is not enough to reconcile yourself to God. James, the physical half-brother of Jesus warned, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!” James 2:19 (NKJV). You must also believe the message of Jesus, which was, “Repent, and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:15b (NKJV).

     Repenting is the act of surrendering from our rebellion of sin, which is a nature that we are initially born into, but a voluntary act that we eventually fully partake of ourselves. Believing the Gospel is the act of putting your faith in the truth of Jesus taking the penalty that you rightly deserve due to your sin. Furthermore, it requires you to trust that only Christ’s work on the cross could satisfy the debt you owe due to your sin, and not any good deeds or rituals. The Bible unmistakably declares, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Ephesians 2:8, 9 (NKJV).

     Anything less would take credit away from the work Jesus alone did on the cross, bearing the sins of all who would repent and put their faith in Him. Jesus will not share His glory with anyone, “that no flesh should glory in His presence.” 1 Corinthians 1:29 (NKJV). Besides, the Bible states that even the good things we do are insufficient because of our sin, “all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.” Isaiah 64:6b (NKJV).

     Many people nevertheless, feel that they must do something to earn God’s grace. Jesus spoke of those people when He plainly stated, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 7:21a (NKJV). Jesus explained that not only false converts to Christianity will be left outside of the Kingdom of Heaven, but in fact most people, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:13, 14 (NKJV). Sadly, this fate will be caused by personal rejection of God’s truth. Not one person on the day of judgment will be able to refute “that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they” rejected the truth of God. Romans 1:20b, 21a (NKJV).

     This is a concept that is so offensive to us because we don’t understand God, and we don’t believe the statement that we are not good. Without comprehending this fact, one can never understand God’s grace, and thus never understand why Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross can be the only way to salvation.

     The Apostle Paul taught that the Gospel message is not something we are naturally drawn towards understanding or accepting:

     For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:

     “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

     And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”

     Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

1 Corinthians 1:18—25 (NKJV) (quoting Isaiah 29:14).

     Paul also preached the offensiveness of the Gospel message:

As it is written:

“Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,

And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

Romans 9:33 (NKJV) (the Apostle Paul quoting Isaiah 8:14; 28:16).

     The stumbling stone and rock of offense, as well as the foolishness of the cross, is the fact that we simply cannot get to the point of seeing our own wickedness. Until we understand our own wickedness, we will never understand or even truly want God’s grace. The only way to understand it is to see ourselves as God sees us.

     I think that one of the biggest concepts that impacted me in how I understood sin, was first understanding what Original Sin was all about. Many Christians and non-Christians alike have heard of the Original Sin that we inherited through Adam and Eve. The problem is that most people don’t really believe Adam and Eve ever existed. The Bible says that they did though, so again, either you are right or the Bible is. You have to choose which one to believe.

     When Adam and Eve were created, the Bible teaches that not only did God place them in paradise, but they were also made absolutely sinless, albeit having the potential to sin. Remember that the passage from Romans quoted above states that no one is good. See Romans 3:10—12. After creating the heavens and the earth though, God repeatedly said, “it was good.” Genesis 1:4b, 10b, 12b, 18b, 21b, 25b (NKJV). Moreover, after creating the first man and woman, God said, “it was very good.” Genesis 1:31b (NKJV) (underlined emphasis added).

     According to the passage from Romans, no one has been able to follow the Ten Commandments, and therefore no one is good. But Adam and Eve didn’t have ten rules to keep, they only had one. God told them, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 2:16b, 17 (NKJV). You probably know how the story unfolds, Adam and Eve both ate the forbidden fruit. See Genesis 3:6.

     At the very moment that Adam and Eve ate it, God would have been totally just if He struck both of them dead and ended the human race. Most people think this is only some silly mythological tale because they can’t understand why an all powerful God would get so bent out of shape over a piece of fruit. Well, God didn’t care about the fruit. He cared about Adam and Eve’s loyalty. The ban against eating from a particular tree was a test of whether Adam and Eve would obey their Creator, or their own lustful desires.

     Eve’s reason for eating the fruit was to, “be like God.” Genesis 3:5b (NKJV). The act of eating the fruit was outright rebellion against God. Not only did Eve disregard God’s warning to stay away from the forbidden fruit, but she also believed Satan’s assault on God’s character, which was, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4b (NKJV).

     Satan had essentially told Eve that not only was God’s warning not true, and thus God was a liar, but also that God was keeping greatness from her. She heard the lie, believed it, and then followed the wicked desire of heart to transgress God’s command. See also James 1:14, 15 (explaining the process of falling into sin). Presumably Adam saw what happened, but regardless, we know that he voluntarily followed Eve into rebellion against God. We know this because Scripture teaches, “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.” 1 Timothy 2:14 (NKJV). Therefore, because Adam was not deceived, his transgression was voluntary.

     God could have killed them on the spot! I know you probably think that’s too harsh, I mean what’s the big deal, right? The big deal is that we’re talking about God’s rules, not yours. He made us, can He not decide what the rules are? Does He not have the right to? Does God have to listen to our “morality”? Please understand this, God is morality. What we have to say is meaningless.

     The Prophet Isaiah preached on this saying:

     Surely you have things turned around!

Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay;

For shall the thing made say of him who made it,

“He did not make me”?

Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it,

“He has no understanding”?

Isaiah 29:16 (NKJV).

      If you have never read the Book of Job, I highly recommend it. It deals with this whole issue on God’s character, His grace, why He allows suffering, and what He thinks about man trying to override His authority. For those who have never read it, Job is allowed to undergo extreme suffering as a test. Job loves God, but Satan accuses that Job only loves God because Job’s life has been blessed. See Job 1.

     There is this great moment when after Job’s friends have been so foolishly presuming that they understood God’s character, that God lets them all know clearly that it is God alone who makes the rules:

Who is this who darkens counsel

     By words without knowledge?

Now prepare yourself like a man;

     I will question you, and you shall answer Me.

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?

     Tell Me, if you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements?

     Surely you know!

     Or who stretched the line upon it?

Job 38:2—5 (NKJV).

     After being clearly set straight in his understanding, Job gives a wonderful response in full humility: 

Then Job answered the LORD and said:

“I know that You can do everything,

     And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.

You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’

     Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,

     Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

Listen, please, and let me speak;

     You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’

“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear,

     But now my eye sees You.

Therefore I abhor myself,

     And repent in dust and ashes.”

Job 42:1—6 (NKJV).

     The thing that Job understood was that it is God who makes the rules, and no one else. Furthermore, seeing God’s incredible kindness shown to Job by the blessings Job had not deserved due to his depraved nature, Job also understood God’s incredible kindness, His grace.

     Adam and Eve understood God’s grace too. Although God would have been perfectly right in killing Adam and Eve on the spot, God instead let them live for quite a long time, thereby allowing the human race to continue. See Genesis 5:5. Even when God approached Adam and Eve over their rebellion, it was with absolute kindness.

     Immediately after disobeying God, Adam and Eve were overcome with knowledge of their sin, and they “hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” Genesis 3:8b (NKJV). Instead of yelling and fist-shaking, as many of us do with our own disobedient children, God tenderly called out to Adam, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:9b (NKJV). God didn’t pound Adam back into dirt, He was gentle with Adam. God simply called Adam to come into His presence.

     Don’t think for a minute that God didn’t know where Adam was. God knew exactly where Adam and Eve both were and what they had done; and by the way, He knows what you have done too.

    

     Once Adam and Eve came out from hiding, God again with incredible gentleness invited Adam to admit his sin of rejecting God, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” Genesis 3:11b (NKJV). God was bringing to light the fact that Adam and Eve had rejected God’s authority over them in favor of being their own gods, doing what they wanted to do instead of being happy with living under God’s rules.

     Then when given the opportunity to own up to their mistake, to take personal responsibility and repent, Adam pushed blame onto Eve and ultimately onto God for giving Eve to him saying, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” Genesis 3:12b (NKJV). Eve similarly rejected the opportunity for repentance and blamed Satan saying, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” Genesis 3:13b (NKJV).

     Don’t miss this point. The real rebellion of Adam and Eve was not just disobeying God, but disobeying God because they rejected God’s authority over them. God made it clear that Adam and Eve could have everything they saw in the Garden, except the fruit from one single tree. They could not follow that simple rule. Instead, they followed their own way. They put their faith in Satan and in themselves instead of trusting God’s word.

     God had every right to make good on His warning and cause mankind to die. He could have started over with a whole new race of a different creature, one that would be more willing to obey God. But He didn’t do that. In fact, it seems to me that God wants a willing heart to love Him, not a robotically obedient heart.

     Even though they had rejected God, and the opportunity to repent for their sins, God gave mankind another chance. This time however, we would have to live in a fallen cursed world. A world filled with pain and suffering, and ultimately with death. The death that all of us will one day experience is part of that exact punishment God promised to Adam and Eve in the Garden. We too could have been born in that very same Garden of Eden had our multi-great-grandparents not sinned against God and caused the curse of death to follow each and every one of us.

     God owes us nothing, but in His incredible kindness, He offers us grace. Immediately following the questioning of Adam and Eve, God promised that one day He would send a Savior to destroy our enemy Satan and put an end to sin. See Genesis 3:15. Amazingly, this promise was made prior to Adam and Eve being forgiven for their sin. This is one of the most incredible pictures of how kind our God is, and I think it too often gets overlooked.

     You see, God promised that He would send a Savior with an offer of redemption for Adam, Eve and the rest of their offspring – you and me. God promised this before Adam and Eve did anything to deserve it. Remember the quote from Ephesians above, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Ephesians 2:8, 9 (NKJV). Adam and Eve did nothing to deserve God’s forgiveness, in fact they deserved punishment. But God had mercy on them by choosing not to kill them on the spot, and then promised a Savior who would restore them from the curse of death, and would provide a greatness that none of us could even imagine. That is what God’s grace is all about!

     The promised Savior was to be the “Seed” of the woman, one of her own offspring. Genesis 3:15b (NKJV). At the time the promise was given, however, Adam and Eve did not yet have children, and on top of that were facing expulsion from Eden as well as death. There is a very interesting verse that used to seem a little out of place to me, “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.” Genesis 3:20 (NKJV).

     That verse follows the promise of the Savior as well as the description of the cursed world we would live in. I could never understand why the author of Genesis would place the event of Eve being named there. Well, it’s actually the evidence of Adam and Eve’s salvation. They no longer doubted God, but had returned to trusting His word. Adam believed that despite being expelled from Eden and faced with eventual death, he and Eve would in fact have children, and one of their offspring would be the Savior. Despite what he could see, Adam now trusted God.

     We also know that God accepted Adam and Eve’s repentance and faith because God then killed an animal and covered Adam and Eve’s shame of nakedness with an animal’s skin. See Genesis 3:21. Up until that moment, no blood had ever been spilled because there was no death, and God had only given vegetation for food, “And God said, ‘See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.’” Genesis 1:29 (NKJV). Through Moses, God explained the purpose of a blood atoning sacrifice, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.” Leviticus 17:11 (NKJV).

     Because of God’s mercy and grace, He allows the blood of a substitute to satisfy the debt we owe for rebelling against our Creator. All of us have not only been born into the Original Sin of our earliest ancestors, but we have partaken of the rebellion ourselves, thus deserving our own individual punishment from God. All of us have lied, have blasphemed God’s holy name, taken things that didn’t belong to us, had lustful thoughts, unrighteous angry thoughts, and none of us have been content with the blessings God has already given us. The Apostle Paul wrote concerning Christ’s sacrifice saying, “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:13, 14 (NKJV).

     We don’t like to think of ourselves as deserving God’s punishment, deserving Hell. We will generally accept that we are all sinners, but we don’t like accepting that we deserve Hell. Our problem is that we don’t understand God’s grace, because we don’t understand our sinful condition. God sees even our petty sins as enough to keep us from God, “For the wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23a (NKJV). Despite the fact that we think so highly of ourselves, the Bible warns that we deceive ourselves, “There is a way that seems right to a man, [b]ut its end is the way of death.” Proverbs 14:12 (NKJV). Isaiah also preached:

     But your iniquities have separated you from your God;

And your sins have hidden His face from you,

So that He will not hear.

Isaiah 59:2 (NKJV).

     Nevertheless, in His incredible kindness, God has made a way, He sent a Savior to redeem us from the curse of eternal death:

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

     He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

John 3:14—19 (NKJV).

     All who would come out of hiding, and turn from their personal rebellion against God through repentance, and trust His word that Jesus was crucified in their place, will be saved! Whoever rejects this offer will be stuck with the curse of eternal death that their individual sins demand. God has the right and authority to crush us for our sins, but He is so patient, giving all of us ample time to come around to reason, and seek forgiveness, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9 (NKJV).

     The day is coming though when we will have no more opportunity to repent and trust in Him. Please don’t be like the fool in my silly hypothetical, constantly rejecting God’s free gift of mercy and grace. Despite the pain and suffering of this fallen world, which you likely have personally experienced, God is not indifferent to you and He is not evil. He is allowing us to live in this fallen world, corrupted by sinners like you and me, for the sole purpose of running away from this life into the arms of the Savior. God promises, “For ‘whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.’” Romans 10:13 (NKJV) (quoting Joel 2:32b). Call on Him today!

     This is the greatest opportunity anyone has ever presented to you. You have traded any possibility of righteousness for the sin you have already committed. You now owe an eternal debt to God over your sin, which you will never be able to repay. See Matthew 18:23—27. God’s grace is free, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23 (NKJV). All you have to do is turn from your way, and trust in God’s way. If you hear His voice, do as Jesus commanded, “Repent, and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:15b (NKJV).

Why Does It Seem Everyone Is Talking About Global Governance?

     When I first became interested in Biblical prophecy, I always took comfort that those cataclysmic things the Bible said would happen were so far off into the distant future because there would be no global government in my lifetime. If you don’t watch the news, and you don’t live in Europe, it would be hard to even imagine it as a reality today. In fact, I really don’t even feel comfortable writing about such things as a global government because it just seems way too sci-fi and conspiratorial to be taken seriously.

     However, all one has to do is pay a little attention to the news or even to the modern history of Europe, and you will get the distinct feeling that you are turning into a conspiracy theory “new world order” nut! Well, I hate to admit it, but I’ve become one of those loons myself. Several times a week, I see news stories from reputable agencies and organizations discussing the economic, security or environmental need for a global governmental system. We have also seen it in Europe. Over the past couple of decades, Europe has morphed from a continent of nations to an amalgamation of united nations, which now since November 2009 with the Lisbon Treaty has its own political president. See Europa: Treaty of Lisbon, The Treaty at a Glance, http://europa.eu/lisbon_treaty/glance/index_en.htm (giving an overview of the Treaty of Lisbon and its goals of creating a single European voice on the global stage).

     Now, even though many presumably reputable media and governmental agencies around the world are currently talking very serious about this issue, I do completely understand that it still sounds crazy. Furthermore, there is absolutely no way possible to truly know that we are at this moment in time heading into the global governmental system described in Scripture.  Even Jesus, God in the flesh, said concerning the end of our history, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.”  Matthew 24:36 (NKJV). 

     Let me show you what I know to be true future reality from Scripture. Then I want you to consider the fact that there is a spiritual war pushing for the time when Satan will be released to control the entire world in a physical way through Antichrist. I believe that the world has always been moving in that direction, but I also believe that it is rapidly moving closer and closer towards a global government today. I believe it will first take shape around trying to stabilize our economy. Then it will be expanded to save our world from climate change. Then it will be used to suppress “hateful” elements of society, such as Bible believing Christians who disagree with the socially liberal agendas much of the world adheres to.

     We in the United States of America don’t think it could ever happen because we are so used to the freedoms our great country has afforded us, but we have already lost so much of our freedoms at the hands of both Republicans and Democrats. I believe confidently because of the word of God that one day the freedoms we enjoy will absolutely not exist. And on that point, please let me warn you not to ever take my word for what I think is happening. Be confident only on what the word of God says, and not on what I say on this blog. Always compare things you see and hear with Scripture, which is the only word that can be trusted for absolute accuracy.

     I cannot say with certainty when these things will happen, but the Bible unequivocally states that there is coming a time when the entire world will be under one single global government. We first see a depiction of this human world power system through its different stages in the Book of Daniel, and his prophecy regarding the famous dream of the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar:

You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. This image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

Daniel 2:31—35 (NKJV).

     We later learn from both Scripture as well as history what these four sections of the statue represent. See Daniel 7—9. They are the four nations that would dominate the Jewish People from the time of Daniel forward. See Zechariah 1:18—21. The gold section is the Babylonian Empire, followed by Medo-Persia, followed by Alexander the Great’s Greek Empire, and ending with Rome. These man-made kingdoms are then completely destroyed by a God-made kingdom through the Lord Jesus Christ, the stone cut out without hands. See also Revelation 19 (providing a clear description of the stone, Jesus Christ, coming with power to destroy man and Satan’s final rebellion against Him).

     It’s important to notice that Rome is divided up into subsections. There are the two legs, which represent the way ancient Rome divided into Eastern and Western halves. Then there are the ten toes mixed with clay, which we learn from the Apostle John are ten future kings appointed to rule the world, “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast.” Revelation 17:12, 13 (NKJV). Those same ten toes spoken of by Daniel are described by John as ten horns on the great beast, which itself represents all of the global governments that have dominated the Jews throughout history.

     Because these iron and clay toes are part of the same section of King Nebuchadnezzar’s statue, they must be part of the same Roman Empire that replaced Greece over 2,000 years ago. However, they must also still be future because Rome was never ruled by a united ten king government. Very interestingly, we see the precise borders of ancient Rome forming together again through the Union for the Mediterranean, a mega conglomerate of nations largely created and controlled by the European Union (hereafter “EU”). See Centre for Research on Globalization, The Mediterranean Union: Dividing the Middle East and North Africa, http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6879 (explaining the history and goals of this mega Union). I firmly believe that this Union for the Mediterranean, with the EU at the lead, will in fact become the basis for what will someday be the revival of that final form of Rome described by Daniel and the Apostle John.

     Regarding these ten kings, however, we cannot now know who they are or where they are precisely from. Nevertheless, we do see the basis for their “thrones” slowly coming into focus. Many international and global organizations, like the EU and the Club of Rome (a very influential global governance think-tank), have in fact divided the globe up into ten regions of political, economic and environmental influence. See Europa: European Commission: EU in the World, Where, http://ec.europa.eu/world/where/index_en.htm; Club of Rome Report: Regionalized and Adaptive Model of the Global World System, http://oneheartbooks.com/resources/revealed/club_of_rome.pdf (purporting to be the actual Club of Rome report, though I have to admit that I cannot verify its authenticity on the Club of Rome website, regardless of its authenticity however, it does appear well established from other sources that the Club of Rome did in fact divide the globe into the ten regions discussed in the document).

     Also an interesting thing to look at is that the Western European Union (hereafter “WEU”), which is the defense organization within the EU, is led by only ten nations. See Western European Union, Delegations, http://www.weu.int/Delegations.htm (listing the ten full membership nations that make up the WEU). There are good arguments for the ten horns quoted above from Revelation 17 actually being ten military leaders, because the horn has traditionally been a symbol of military power. What really caught my attention about this theory is that the document establishing the WEU’s ten nation military alliance as the independent military wing of the entire EU was an agreement entitled Recommendation 666. See European Security and Defence Assembly:  Assembly of WEU, Recommendation 666, http://www.assembly-weu.org/en/documents/sessions_ordinaires/txt/2000/jun00_txts_adopted.php#P51_3072; see also Fulfilled Prophecy, The Ten Nations, http://www.fulfilledprophecy.com/page/the-10-nations/ (explaining their theory of the WEU serving the basis for the ten kings).

     However, I must point out that the WEU announced in early 2010 that it would turn over all authority to the entire EU governing body by June 2011. See Western European Union, Statement of the Presidency of WEU of 31.03.2010, http://www.weu.int/Declaration_E.pdf.  Regardless, the coincidence of the ten nation military alliance being created as the defense for the EU under a document entitled “666” calls for making it something to watch. In case you don’t know the significance to that number, the Bible says that the number “666” will be the clue to identifying Antichrist, the meaning of which will be truly knowable only to those alive when he comes, “Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.” Revelation 13:18 (NKJV). I know it sounds like I just made this up, but it is real. I gave you the site above to look it up and read it yourself.

     Whoever these ten kings are and wherever they come from, they are clearly ten real people who are appointed as some sort of governors having influence over the entire globe, and somehow representing different nation-states and their individual agendas. The angel speaking to Daniel described this when he explained the strange mixture of iron and clay:

And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.

Daniel 2:42—44 (NKJV).

     To add another layer of complexity to this revived Roman Empire, the Apostle John explained that it would eventually form into a separate global government controlled totally by Antichrist alone. John saw a vision in which all the powerful nations that have dominated the Jewish People were represented on a monstrous beast which rose up out of the sea:

     Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”

Revelation 13:1—4 (NKJV).

     The beast itself represents the satanic nature of all the nations that ruled over the Jewish People throughout all of history. The seven heads are the specific nations: Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece, Ancient Rome, and Revived Rome controlled by ten leaders (represented by the horns and crowns). We know that the last two are Rome because of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream as well as the explanation John received later in the book (the woman represents the false religion that will deceive the unrepentant world during the last days of our history – that’s a subject for another day):

     But the angel said to me, “Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

     “Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time. The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition.

     “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast.”

Revelation 17:7—13 (NKJV).

     The description of the beast that was, and is not, and yet is, could have two separate meanings, both of which could be true simultaneously. In the quote from Chapter 13 of Revelation above, we see that the beast received some sort of mortal wound. It very well could be that Antichrist suffers some sort of wound that appears to be fatal, and then appears to resurrect from that wound, all in an attempt by Satan to claim this man to the world as messiah. Satan has always wanted to be worshiped, and in fact to replace God. It would make perfect sense that he tries to imitate the true God, and the true Messiah.

     I believe though that this also refers to the resurrection of Rome, and how the world is in absolute awe of this empire that is coming to save us from economic, social, political, and environmental collapse. I think there is no question that these heads represent separate empires that have been controlled by Satan himself to dominate God’s people in an attempt to stop God’s plan for redemption from being fulfilled. The angel speaking to John explains that of the seven kings, five have fallen. Those five kingdoms, which no longer had power at the time John received his vision, were Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Medo-Persia and Greece. The angel continued to say that one is, and the other has not yet come, which meant that the sixth was in power at the moment, Ancient Rome, and the seventh was still to come, the Revived Roman Empire.

     Notice that no single power has ever ruled over the entire Jewish Nation since the Romans dispersed the Jews from Israel in 70 A.D., and thus there is no mention of countries like Nazi Germany. Jews have lived across the world without a nation ever since then and until 1948 with the reemergence of the nation Israel. However, Israel is today a member of the Union for the Mediterranean. See Europa: Euromed, The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, http://eeas.europa.eu/euromed/index_en.htm. If the Union for the Mediterranean does in fact form the basis of the Revived Roman Empire, the Jewish Nation would easily be dominated by that future governmental body.

     Very interesting and often overlooked, however, is that this new Rome does not appear to be the final world power. The angel interpreting things for John said that the beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven. I firmly believe that this reference is to Antichrist, who is part of the seven world empires because he is uniquely possessed by Satan himself, having been “fatally wounded” and then falsely “resurrected.” When the ten kings of the Revived Roman Empire give their power and authority to the beast, they will be allowing Antichrist, who has mesmerized the world by his charisma and having supposedly defeated death, to create the eighth world empire that will be a true global government, and will embody the full strength of Satan himself.

     None of these other empires actually controlled the entire world. When Antichrist comes, we are told that every person on the face of the earth whom God knows will never repent from sin and put their trust in Christ alone will be sadly devoted to him, “And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Revelation 13:7b, 8 (NKJV).

     This final world empire will in effect be a resurrection of the first world empire at the Land of Shinar surrounding the Tower of Babel, which was in or near the modern day Iraqi city of Babylon, for the purpose of God destroying man’s government-based rebellion where it began. See Genesis 11:1—9. When this empire is in its final stage of destruction by the stone cut out without hands, John tells us:

     After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird!”

Revelation 18:1, 2 (NKJV); see also Daniel 2:34, 35 (regarding the stone cut out without hands quoted above at the beginning).

     Some people believe that this only refers to the satanic universalist religion that will be embraced by the world at that time. Babylon does in fact refer to that wicked idolatrous religion. See Revelation 17; see also Zechariah 5:5—11. However, it also clearly refers to an actual city. After it is destroyed by God, we are told that the leaders of the world under Antichrist are lamenting over the destruction of their great city Babylon:

The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, “Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.”

Revelation 18:9, 10 (NKJV).

     I don’t know whether this city will be located where the ancient Tower of Babel was, and I don’t know whether we will wake up one day to see ten EU kings handing over control to a single European leader forming a new Babylonia. It certainly does seem though that we are indeed racing towards a global economic governing system. Notice that the European Economic Community began as a united market system, but the EU today is far more than that. It really is an easy leap to go from economic governance to governing everything in the name of economic security. The EU is about to start imposing its own tax on the European nations, it is seeking its own voting rights seat in the United Nations, it is increasingly becoming more active in the Middle East crisis regarding Israel, and there is a major push within the EU to build its own military.

     We are without a doubt seeing the emergence of a global market system that will one day allow Antichrist to control the economic activity of every person alive, “He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Revelation 13:16, 17 (NKJV). Just as happened in Europe, that global market will evolve into a single governing power over all things, not just finances. We know this will happen because Scripture says it will. Furthermore, we are seeing it begin to form.

     Back in April 2009, World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick said, “that those [nations] who had recognised the scale of today's crisis were calling for new global governance regimes.” The Financial Express, Growth to Slow Down Hitting Hard the Poor Countries (April 1, 2009), http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/search_index.php?page=detail_news&news_id=62661. Zoellick went on to say something truly startling, “If leaders are serious about creating new global responsibilities or governance, let them start by modernising multilateralism to empower the WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank Group to monitor national policies.” Id. If you didn’t catch it, he’s saying that if a nation wants to have a voice in the upcoming global governing body, that nation must allow the global banks to have a say in that nation’s policies. For us, this would mean that these banks could affect the decisions of the United States of America, concerning ourselves! See also Prison Planet, World Bank President Admits Agenda for Global Government (April 1, 2009), http://www.prisonplanet.com/world-bank-president-admits-agenda-for-global-government.html (commenting on Zoellick’s statements).

     Well, you might dismiss this because that’s a radical statement from only one person at only one major global financial institution. Hold on, there’s more. Speaking of global economic governance, “The Jewish President of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, told Forbes that global governance is extremely necessary if we want to prevent another financial crisis.” The European Union Times, European Central Bank Calls for One World Government to Prevent Another Crisis (May 3, 2010), http://www.eutimes.net/2010/05/european-central-bank-calls-for-one-world-government-to-prevent-another-crisis/. I have no idea why they needed to point out that he’s Jewish.

     There is also a current push to create a global democratic parliament within the United Nations. The organization is called the United Nations Parliamentary Assembly or “UNPA,” and seeks to solve the world’s problems through global government:

The great problems of our times – such as war, disease, poverty and climate change – cannot be solved by individual nations acting alone. Direct citizen representation could help the world develop a greater understanding of itself as a global community. At the highest levels of the United Nations, a UNPA could function as a world conscience and watchdog, and a catalyst for further reforms.

Campaign for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, About the UNPA Proposal, http://en.unpacampaign.org/about/unpa/index.php.

     In March 2009, they announced:

A global research programme facilitated and coordinated through a convening group of ten persons based in ten world regions was established last year with core funding from the Ford Foundation. … The BGD Programme brings together academic researchers, civil society activists, entrepreneurs, journalists and officials to “explore how ‘rule by and for the people’ can be understood and practiced in relation to global issues”. One of the programme's lead questions is how affected people can participate in and control the governance of global concerns.

Campaign for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, New Research Programme on Global Democracy Established (March 11, 2009), http://en.unpacampaign.org/news/354.php?PHPSESSID=ef201b4c234f45b52cca29d10646b119 (underlined emphasis added).

     The Club of Rome has indicated its goal when it described their history saying, “Building on the work of the eighties, the Club of Rome continued its work in the nineties by focusing on major issues such as the Digital Divide between North and South, global governance and cultural diversity.” The Club of Rome, The Story of the Club of Rome, http://www.clubofrome.org/eng/about/4/. If that’s not clear enough for you, during a Club of Rome meeting in April 2009, it was posited, “The world needs a better global governance system, rule-based: a global contract, aimed at a global eco social market economy, climate justice, the perspective of worldwide citizen rights and a worldwide democracy.” The Club of Rome, How to Deal with the Global Crisis (April 2009), Page 2, http://www.clubofrome.org/eng/meetings/vienna_2009/presentations/Franz.Josef.Radermacher.Vienna.Apr09.pdf. They are saying that we need a global government to police the world, according to their agenda.

     These are only a few random quotes. I could never keep up if I were to post every quote I hear through the week. All of these things are indeed coming. Listen to God’s last plea for repentance to a rebellious mankind, right before He comes to utterly destroy the final world government system:

     And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works; in the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her. In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’ Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her.”

Revelation 18:4—8 (NKJV) (underlined emphasis added).

     If you have never repented from your sin by humbling yourself before almighty God and grieving over your own rebellion against Him, and turned to God through faith in His Son Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, please do so before it’s too late. These things are coming. Nothing we could ever do can stop them from coming. This is God’s plan to finally put an end to all rebellion against Him. You may die long before it comes, but either way, you will face Him.

     The question is, will you face Him as a rebel, and receive an eternal punishment worse than that which is coming upon the final world government? Or will you be embraced by Him as a forgiven sinner? Don’t go to sleep tonight before answering that question. No matter what sins you have committed in your life, God will forgive you if you repent from rebellion and turn to the Savior in faith. Turn to Him today. If you hear His voice, do as Jesus commanded, “Repent, and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:15b (NKJV).